Dominic's birthday

I can't believe he is 3 today.  Time seems to be going way too fast.  His breakfast (his choice) popcorn.  It was so sweet to share a piece of pizza with him for lunch at Sam's.  I love that little boy!

date night

Anthony and I got to go to dinner by ourselves tonight.  First time for a date night in about 10 months.  What a treat!  Fantastic food and no kids eating off my plate.  Don't know what was better, the food or not having to get up to get anything for anyone.  Our feast:  Crab Croquettes, Trout Mardi Gras, Filet Mignon, Strawberry Angelique and a mojito to drink. 

birthday weekend

it has been a great birthday. went to the aquarium (with Anthony chasing Dominic the whole time) lunch with one of my oldest friends Tamara (she is the oldest friend I have because we were born the same day in the same hospital) and her sweet husband and little girl, got to do a little shopping by myself and came home to dinner and dessert made for me by my wonderful family.  Simone had the best time helping daddy make the dessert and trying to hide it from me when I got home.

On Sunday we went to the zoo.  It was hot but the occasional cloud overhead made it bearable.  The kids had a great time and I loved showing them my favorite parts of the zoo that I remember from when I was a kid.  I couldn't believe how much they all walked.   Dominic fell asleep with his sandwich in his hands on the ride home.  

Such a fun weekend.  What a blessing to be all together for 2 days in a row!

special treatment

I hate when you have to discipline one kid what seems like all the time and rarely the other kid.  It feels as though one is getting special treatment, but she is not.  It is just that one tests and pushes the limits and is often in trouble.  Still, I feel terrible and wish she would just make better choices and try to keep her anger from exploding out of control.  I want nothing more than to be fair and treat all my kids the same.

kids playing

Watched the kids play at the park today.  Dominic putting sand in a dump truck, Corinne swinging, Simone sifting the sand.  So great, I took a mental snapshot.  That is what I am thankful for.

being thankful

Funny how I just read to catalog God's goodnesses.  Then I read someone's post on facebook:  What if you woke up today with only the blessings that you thanked God for yesterday?  That is certainly something to think about.  Another reason to keep blogging.

Corinne turns 7

Hard to believe that she is turning 7.  She has never been the child to have big parties, that is more Simone's thing, just because when you have a summer birthday, you are not around all the kids in your class to invite.  And sadly because her birthday falls the day after Independence Day, everyone is usually out of town.  So C usually ends up having just a family gathering.  It is not fair and I don't like it.  But she doesn't have close friends that she always sees or talks about.  So we decided this year to give her the chance to decide what we would do all day.  She chose every meal and all the activities.  Some of the highlights were Coke with her breakfast, getting all 7 presents to open at once (we wanted to spread them out over the whole day), swimming, sushi for lunch, and seafood (shrimp, frog legs, and alligator sausage) for dinner.  Things we ran out of time for were the movie, ice cream, and the park.  I think she liked it though, and that is what counts.