Well, he turned 5 three days ago, but since I am perpetually behind on a wide range of items, I am just now getting a picture posted. We have a little shin-dig planned for him this weekend to celebrate with family and close friends. I can’t wait for the cake!

This picture oozes of a cheesy personality, but I have to say, my kid is pretty darn loveable!

Thought I’d share a few of my little girl as she explored Grandma & Grandpa’s yard. I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the grass! The sandbox was BY FAR her favorite place to spend time. She got a nice start on her “must eat 1lb of dirt by the time I am 5 years old” goal and what she didn’t eat, she put down her diaper or in her hair.

I received a report from my friend Christi who informed me that today’s weather in AZ was a bit off for May… I checked the Phoenix temp and here is what I see:

WhooHoo! I’ve sent in my order to Amazon.com for the Wii Fit system from Nintendo. Super excited about this! Just thought I’d share that you can pre-order it for the May 21st release date! Whoohoo!

This is a shameless mom-post. Isn’t my Sarah cute? (Just nod your head and agree!) She’s nearly 21 months - and seems to be on the cusp of her terrible twos. She’s learning to pitch fits when she doesn’t get her way and when she’s doing something she shouldn’t be and you give her that initial “Sarah, that’s a no-no” verbal warning, she will turn her head and look at you with this gleam in her eye. It’s as if she is gaging the distance from you to her to guesstimate how long it will take you to physically get to her to stop her nefarious plans.

Growing up in Iowa, I joined 4-H when I was in elementary school after a not-so-enthusiastic endeavor into Brownies & Girl Scouts. 4-H was more my speed as it allowed me to pursue my individual interests (such as baking, photography and raising rabbits). The program helped give me a good foundation on how to set goals for myself and create plans to achieve them as well as learning how to give presentations to a group. Now what does this have to do with cupcakes & ice cream, you ask? Well…

I heard a radio ad the other day for Blue Bell’s Centennial Cupcake Ice Cream that featured 4-H on the carton as well as little green candy clovers in the ice cream itself. I have to admit, my ears would have perked up at the notion of Cupcake Ice Cream, but toss in the 4-H aspect and now you’ve got my head justifying the purchase as a nostalgic endeavor. Thankfully Blue Bell Ice Cream is sold in Arizona - now I just need to go hunt down a carton!

Summer decided to pop in over the weekend and wave “hello” and remind us that it hasn’t forgotten about us Phoenicians - I think it was 95 or so on Sunday. Ugh. Thankfully the 10-day forecast for Phoenix doesn’t look too bad.

Each spring we purchase a little plastic play pool for the kids. We have a regular swimming pool, but the plastic pool is easy for us to manage with the kids - The regular pool water is too cold right now for my tastes and so I prefer to just sit in a lawn chair and closely supervise as compared to actually getting in the water.

Sunday was the first day to fill up the plastic pool - Kev splashed in it some, but since my husband had some work to do on the larger pool, kev elected to go play in it while Scott supervised. When Sarah woke up from her nap, I took her out to the play pool and grabbed my camera along the way. There was no way I would miss photographing this.

::ALWAYS WATCH YOUR KIDS AROUND WATER!::

She is yelling at her daddy to watch her play! “DAAAAAD!!!”

Wild child!

If you’ve ever met me in person, you’ve probably caught me wearing my favorite jewelry pieces from Sentimental Silver™. My good friend Christi J is the owner/designer of this hip line of personalized sterling silver jewelry and I wanted to share her website and a few pictures since Mother’s Day is less than a month away. (Note: since these necklaces are handmade, the ordering deadline for Mom’s day is Sunday, April 20th.)

My suggestion is to forward this link to your hubby with a “hint hint” type of email (and I assure you, Christi is used to working with ALL sorts of clueless guys who are buying presents for their special gals) or maybe just treat yourself to something special this spring.  I can say that Grandmas also LOVE the necklaces!

BONUS: Use the coupon code “MOM” to receive 20% off your order (excludes gift certificate purchases.)

These are images she sent me from her latest BLOG entry introducing her newest pendants that are shaped like stars. She also has circles, squares, ovals and other shapes available.

Since both my husband’s and my family lives in the Midwest, we fly, on average, 2-3 times a year, if not more (Sarah took 6 round trip flights in her first year!)  Scott and I have the “get to the gate” routine down to a science and both kids are pretty well behaved on the flights. BUT this is all dependent on there being TWO of us to man all the bags, stroller and car seats… I am doing the unthinkable (at least to me!) next month: Flying solo with 2 kids.

I came across this product Tuesday, in an old issue of Good Housekeeping that was at the YMCA (I was stuck with GH because all the old issues of People, Star, US Weekly and OK! were taken!)

CARES Kids Fly Safe - FAA approved Child Restraint Harness.  If you look at their website, it looks like a really cool product (and it received the GH “Good Buy 2008″ award). It offers the safety of the shoulder harness for the toddlers without the bulk and hassle of hauling the carseat on board the plane! I bought one today for Sarah - I will have a full usage review in May!

My 4 year old, Kevin, started t-ball last month. His first game was actually last weekend but I had to miss it because my 20 month old developed *another* ear infection and I was with her at the doctor’s office last weekend. So - today was the first game I was able to watch and photograph.

If you’ve never had the chance to watch 3 & 4 year olds play t-ball - it’s pretty amusing. When a ball is hit, they ALL run for it - I mean - 7-8 kids chasing ONE ball down - most of the time 2-3 kids land on the ball as if they were trying to recover a fumble in football.

Kevin did great! They each bat three times (they only play 3 innings) and each time he had a nice solid hit. He is learning more and more how to field the ball and developing the proper throwing techniques. He’s a long way from signing with the D-backs, but he’s having fun!

In the “ready” position…

That batting swing looks good to me!