First Day Outside A Splashing !!!

The weather was great today, not too hot and warm enough to see how Amber was going to do with cold water ... so we inflated a new little pool which I got and put some water in there early in the day so it could warm up some and then Dave put together a water play table that Nana, Oupa, Gavin and Gigi gave Amber for her birthday and then we were ready for some fun. When Amber woke up it was time to play.

I think I got maybe five or so pics of her with this hat on, she wanted nothing to do with the hat, I don't know what I am going to do in Summer coz she needs to keep her head covered at the pool. She looked cute in this little bathing suit, no diaper of course so Jade was all about so when is Amber going to pee ... really I am telling you that was the excitement of her day and she never did (hehehe) !!! Or not that we knew anyway.



I think Jade enjoyed the table more today but in time I think they will both fight over it.



Look at those legs, actually not as big as what Jade was but still I am sure my dad will say, legs to kick start a bowing !!!



Her poor knees were taking a hounding, thankfully she is wise enough to walk on hands and feet when that happens.



I am still amazed that even though there is an almost 7 years age difference between these two that they still play so well together, ok sometimes :-)



Ok mommy I am worn out and done for the day and that water is cold and there's a storm coming ... which never came even though we had the thunder ... it was time to go inside but we had a fun time and now that I am home more, she and I are going to do this in the mornings to pass the time.



Ok that's me for now.

Saturday 15th May 2010

I got the girls all dressed up similar but you can't really see it in these pics unfortunately since they looked really cute together. Dave was taking the pics and I was trying to get them to look at the camera which I thought I had managed to get right but where I was making them look and where Dave was taking the pictures didn't work out :-( they would have been even better so sorry !!! These were taken on our catwalk upstairs in our house.







Cannot believe I got her to look up from the DS for one second to take this picture and she was actually happy enough about it to smile :-)





We went to the Waxhaw Festival the morning, nothing too much to write about, it was cute, there was actually a war inactment which was pretty good, I took some video, when I get a chance I will try and load it. Anyway Jade was busy hula hooping and Amber was watching form up high with daddy ...



Ok I think this is one of my favorite pics of Amber :-) Love it !!!



Making her Nana proud.



With Harry :-)



We had a nice morning and then home to relax the rest of the day ... oh I have to work :-( not so bad though !!!

Gynastics Observation Day / Trophy Day

This past Thursday was gymnastics observation day and trophy day, this is the day when parents are allowed up close and personal in the gym to see what their kids have learnt over the last season.

Thank Heavens Dave could come too coz Amber is at the age where she wants out of her stroller very quickly so going out is becoming more of a challenge, at least having Dave there he could take care of her while I was taking pics. As you can see she was having lots of fun too, was very chuffed with herself up high here :-)



Jade doing a back handspring, which she has been landing for a while now but sometimes it's perfectly done, other times golly I worry how she is going to land ... she is so bloody independent that it worries me that she wants to do it unassisted all the time. This was the first time I saw her attempt a roundoff back handspring and not long till she will have that perfect too, that was a proud moment for me :-) Still not sure if we are going to continue at this gym though ... we will see during Summer how things go.



Jade getting her end of year trophy, she brags that she has four trophies now and I think 4 medals :-) My rising star (hehehe).



This is the only class pic I got because all the others Jade has the trophy in front of her face, typical !!! Anyway they have two more weeks and then the season is officially over till school starts the end of August again, so Thursdays will now be slow, thank God !!!



I took some video, they took forever to upload so I really hope you can see them.

NOTE : DOUBLE CLICK ON THESE VIDEOS COZ THEY DIDN'T LOAD RIGHT AND YOU CANNOT SEE THE ENTIRE FRAME SO WHEN YOU DOUBLE CLICK THEY WILL OPEN IN YOUTUBE AND YOU SHOULD SEE THEM BETTER, ALSO CLEARER I THINK.











Hope you enjoyed those :-)

Few Pics Of Ambers Birthday Party

Again don't have time to do an update but thought if I don't add pictures every now and again then I am going to get very behind. So here you go, these are just a few pictures of the party, very small party, sorry Amber just three families and their kids but I think we all had a good time :-)

Here are two pics of Ambers birthday cake, with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Theme.



Another angle.



Then just a picture of some of the brunch stuff I layed out in our dining room.



This was Ambers individual first birthday cake, very much a tradition here, you get these cakes free and some stores for your babies first birthday celebration and they get to do with them as they like, thankfully as you will see later, Amber is really for sure my kid more than Daves, coz look how tidy an eater she was and there was no mess !!!



Obviously as soon as we lit the candle she wanted to grab for it and then I think was a little freaked out after we all quickly grabbed and held her hands ...



Getting a taste of frosting ...



Jade wondering if she is ever going to share that cake with her ...



Jade getting closer, watch out Amber before you know it the cake will be gone !!!



Daddy making sure that Amber is enjoying that :-) Can you tell she is ???



Look how tidy she ate, yeah it was all over her face but she was just showing how much she enjoyed it, but look how neat the cake is and we left her with it for a very long time, and yeah that big chunk, she pretty much ate most of that :-)



Another birthday down, wow ... ok till later.

Happy First Birthday Amber

Amber knows better than to have a birthday on a Thursday, I don't have time for birthdays on a Thursday so quickly ... I am running out the door to have lunch with Jade at school but wanted to quickly upload these six pics for you guys to see some pics of her on her birthday. We will take more at her little party on Saturday !!!

Gosh cannot believe she is one day ... Happy Birthday my babygirl Amber !!! My miracle baby, I love you !!!

It's coolish in the house so I put the long pants under the dress for now, it has matching little pantie thingies :-) My computer says 24 degrees outside so it's going to be a hot one since it is still early morning.



Not walking yet but cruising the furniture for sure, don't think she is near walking ... we have her one year check at the doctor on Monday, bet she is going to be like her sister ... tall for her age.



Didn't get any really cute ones, really just didn't have the time really I will try and take more later ... just knew you guys would ask for pics today and this is the only time I had, sorry I rushed so.









And how her hair is coming in ... all over the bloody show in whatever direction it wants to go, like have a bad hair day every day with her, but I just did this and blow dried it so it looks a little respectable for about the next ten mins or so. It looks really dark and I always say poor Amber having a blonde hair blue eyed sister but if the two of them put heads together, Jades dark root during Winter are the same as Ambers so ... we will see maybe Jade won't stay blonde forever :-) And green eyes for now but they will probably go brown.

Ok that's me for now, have to run. Have a good day.

Some Random Easter Weekend Pictures.

We had a very low key Easter weekend but it was nice and our weather is insanely hot for this time of the year, temperatures in the high 20's even 30 yesterday and 32 today and we just went into Spring so I hope this is not an indication of how hot our Summer is going to be. The kids played in the sprinkler and on the slip and slide already on the 2nd of April which I think is the earliest I have ever seen them play considering the water is still so gosh darn cold. Jade keeps asking when the pool is opening and well at least if this weather holds then the pool water will be warm, that's a plus.

I am surprised Dave didn't freak out when I asked to put the air on so early but the house was so hot and you will see later, I will post a picture of the pollen here right now, so I really cannot open my windows, I am already suffering big time and even Dave said this morning, even he was feeling it so you must know.

Anyway our big hunt we usually go to was cancelled this year so sadly that was a big loss for us but Jade had a hunt at school and we had one at the clubhouse here in our neighborhood and then one of our neighbors did one across two back yards and of course Jade had her personal one at home so I think she got her fill ... or I hope so. Here are so random Easter pics, didn't get nice ones, I had planned to but it just didn't happen.

These are the ones she found in the house, the ones the Easter Bunny brought her, Amber were put in her little enclosure and actually she did very well finding them on her own but Jade felt she had to help so as Amber found them, she rehid them kind of like those birthday candles that you blow out and they keep lighting up again well ... it was funny :-)



Ambers very first taste of chocolate ...



She ate some of it and seemed to like it but then at a point enough was enough so Dave said ... what are the chances he has one girl in his house that does not like chocolate ... yeah think again Dave ... she just needs training LOL but for now I am happy for her not to like it :-)



We have had this dress a long time but it really didn't fit till now and even now it is a little lose at the back still but she loves it so well maybe you will see it next year again :-) And the shoes she loves but gosh hopefully she doesn't kill herself on them. The sun was in her eyes back there she was not happy taking these pictures and with all the pollen the bees are everywhere so ... yeah we weren't out there long.



This was the only one I got of them both with the bunny ears on, Amber wanted nothing to do with them and yanked them off all the time :-) Thought I would get some cute ones but she had other plans.



I think daddy enjoyed the bunny ears more as you can tell :-)



Then just before our neighborhood hunt Jade asked me to paint a bunny face on hers, I told her that kids would laugh at her since she is 7 now and not a baby anymore but she seemed ok with that, so oh well ... and no one laughed so she was really happy. What I didn't get pics of unfortunately one of our neighbors set up a table and helped the kids dye eggs, Jade was thrilled to bits, what fun they all had, thank you Justine :-)



Last but not least, and this picture really doesn't show it well but this is the pollen on our car outside, it's disgusting !!! Anyone that suffers with allergies, don't put your foot in Charlotte at this time of the year, it's like Allergy Capital !!!



Ok that's me for now, we are on Spring Break so I am trying to keep the kids occupied, spent the morning at Concord Mills which I love but it was crazy there. Jade has a birthday party later this afternoon so she is up taking it easy now watching a movie and Amber is napping so some quiet time for mommy ... thank God !!!

Vegas Baby !!!

Ok wow, how to keep this short and let it all just be about the pictures !!! What started off being a joke in January about just getting away for some fun on my 40th with maybe just one or two of my closest friends just got bigger and bigger and come March 20th, 10 of us got on a plane for Vegas ... actually not 10 of us, let me see ... there was Colleen my neighbor which turned 40 the middle of last year, she left a day before us. There were my two closest best friends, Tina that turned 35 the day before me and Pam that turned 40 the month before me, we flew together, got an early start at 5h15 wow ... and I am not a morning person. Then Denver, an old friend from the Moms Club and her closest friend Jen they flew in a little later that same day. Then two of Tina's cousins, one from New York Lisa and Monica from Arizona they were there a day or two earlier than us and last but not least, Tina's step sister from California that she had not seen in 15 odd years, Allison and her best friend Heather, they drove in together, so girls from all over the country getting together in Vegas to celebrate some birthdays together, what fun :-)

Ok this next pic is of Tina, that afternoon she and her two cousins went to the Price Is Right taping in Vegas, they had lots of fun but unfortunately no one won anything.



Then early evening we all got together for the first time at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris Hotel, what a nice evening, sitting outside right on the strip. I think this is the only picture we got of us all together.



Not sure where I was for this one ... finally got out of a picture, wow !!! Oh yeah this was before we arrived, Pam and I that is.



Pam and I at Mon Ami Gabi.



Then a funny thing happened, someone walked by on the strip and said to a guy sitting at the table next to us, directly behind me, 'I have been in Vegas 20 years and you are only the second celebrity that I have met' and shook the guys hand. So I asked the ladies on the table who he was coz I had no idea, anyway he is Kid from the band Kid 'n Play and he was also in a couple of movies I think, House Party was one of them I think ... anyway so later when he got up to leave, I guess since I didn't know the guy I wasn't shy and asked him if he wouldn't mind coming over for pics and well I quicky turned shy when he asked who's birthday it was and they all pointed to me ... and I got to get ripped off but have my picture taken with him, he had the girls crying with laughter and well now it's funny but then I was just so embarrased but wow, what a friendly guy and I guess that was nice of him, so here are a couple of pics of him and I.



Ok and this one of course made it to everyones Facebook page ... I know ... great right ? (hehehe).



Here's Colleen, I was to her left in the picture and he sat between us as you can see.



Other people we saw in Vegas, none of which I knew, some guy from the Sopranos (which I probably spelt wrong since I have never watched the program), Flavor Flav ... sorry on that spelling too coz I just think he is gross and some sports guys, Pete Rose and Don Shula, I give up. There was a guy that looked just like the New Moon guy I wish I had the guts to stop him for a picture for Karen and her kids but he was so hot ... I passed, sorry Karen.

Here's Tina and her two cousins, Monica and Lisa.



Then on the Sunday night before Tina, Denver, Pam and I went to watch the Cirque Show 'O' most of us that were still around went to an Irish Pub in the New York New York Hotel (Gavin hope you are proud :-)) here are some pics from there.



Some of us that were around for this picture.



Pam and I.



Heather and Allison.





Ok the Cirque Show ... wow I could write an entire blog posting just on that but it's just so hard to explain, I need to try and find a video skit and put it on here. It was amazing, we didn't have great seats unfortunately but that didn't matter at the end of the day, gosh, mind blowing !!!



Some random pics ...

Where we stayed, Planet Hollywood.



Denver, Jen and Tina tried out a nightclub one evening but stayed about an hour after feeling like the oldest gals in the club (hehehe) all dressed up for nothing.



Pam and I cruising the strip one afternoon.



Some of us ladies in front of those pretty fountains.



Then the last night we had hotdogs that my mom would die for, real American / New York Hotdogs apparently the best in the States ... not so sure about that but they are renown for their hotdogs, Pinks the place is called.



This ones for you mom ...



Oh and mom look at these other desserts we found on the strip for you :-) Oh and this was just one of their display cases ... too die for stuff at too die for prices (hehehe)



On board the plane on the way home. Me and my two closest friends, Pam and Tina.



Wow all that planning and it's all over with. I know they are already trying to plan the next trip together (hehehe) and Dave is already saying ... yeah in another 40 years, now how's that fair right ? We will see only time will tell. Thank you to everyone that did anything to make this trip happen, it was a wonderful break in a place that I totally love, I am sure a good time was had by all.

A very special thank you to my husband for allowing me to go, not that I asked permission or anything (hehehe) he pretty much had no choice but thank you for not protesting the trip and putting up with two sick kids when he himself wasn't well. Gosh he got a good dose of what motherhood is all about right, you think he appreciates me a little more now (hehehe) yeah right ... Love you babes !!!