Benny's 3rd Birthday Celebration(s)The actual night of Benny's birthday, we took him to Texas Roadhouse for dinner He was quite thrilled about the brownie sundae. I can't lie, I was pretty thrilled about it as well, but there was not a camera pointed at me to capture the look on my face ;)I love my family!!! I am so blessed! My cousin Dan, who lives in Dayton, came with the majority of his girls and my nonna, aunt Anita and aunt Rosie drove all the way from Steubenville to celebrate the little guy's day!
Mikey's cousin Brian, a.k.a. Stoney and his fiance

Ben's best buddies, Cameron and Austyn
Dan with his fourth (and final?) girl

I did not have anything to do with the water guns showing up at the party...I have Mike to thank for that!Apparently, even a pile of wood chips can be fun!The last minute cake with far too much frosting...but beggars can't be choosers, I suppose!It was too windy to keep the candle lit long enough for him to blow it out but he made a wish anyways...out loud for cars, as usual!!Wow!!I wanted to do an eco-friendly gift bag for each kid, so I used these reusable lunch bags I found at Target and filled them with Fig Newtons, bubbles, sparkle pens and sugar free candy.As usual, Benny made out like a little bandit! This year, we asked for alternatives to toys as much as possible since we are filled to the brim with them as it is!! Ben's grandma Cathy & Grandpa TomBen's grandpa wanted to see him ride his four-wheeler, so the party (unexpectedly) caravaned on back to our house! Ben rode for all of five minutes before he wanted to go play in the sandbox with Ani, though. Later, he admitted that he was (just a little) scared he would get hurt! We had a great night celebrating with family and friends and Benny is already talking about how he's going to be four...
I just want to shake him and say,

"hang on to three while you have it, son!"

Welcome to Willie Nelsonville

The kids had so much fun together......and so did their mommies!!!We all went to the 5th annual Nelsonville Music Festival where Willie Nelson headlined and we spent the weekend in the foothills of Appalachia.She takes after her aunt with the hair twirling! Geeeeze...would it kill you guys to smile?? Willie rocked!!! If you'd like to read more about the show, check out my review here.

Weekly Random Photo(s) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

My mom and I had a great time celebrating motherhood together!! The food and champagne were awesome and we had fun on our rather vigorous, "accidental" hike, searching for the city skyline! Afterwards, we went and picked out lots of flowers...can't wait to get planting tomorrow!!!

p.s. This is what the park, Chestnut Ridge, boasted to be a stunning view of the Columbus skyline! If you squint your eyes just right, you can almost see it!!! ;) To say the least, we were sweaty and a bit disappointed!

REMINISCING ABOUT OLD TIMES...

...the ending of an era

THE SHANTEE played their final show at The Newport on 12/17/2004

Pre-party with the girls!

Their happy, feel-good tunes always kept you on your feet dancing and smiling! We found amazing seats, our own private little balcony, and proceeded to have one of the best nights ever! Although it was bittersweet, the evening brought us all together and I will remember and cherish it always!

...every single time you're gonna spill your wine ;)
Hope you enjoyed this little step back in time...

It's Here ...

This past weekend was absolutely perfect and kicked off the beginning of (our) boating season. We went out with Jay and Bones, a couple of our friends, and had a great time! It was really weird to be out before all of the trees were green and covered with leaves.It was well into the 80's, but the water was no where near warm enough to jump in!

We cruised around and also ventured into a little cove where Bones did some fishing and Benny explored the shore.It was such a perfect day that I couldn't help but cheese :) I can only assume it will snow next week!!

SANTA IS REALLY HOOKING UP

THE BEAN THIS CHRISTMAS

I have to confess, I am an Ebay junkie. I am not nearly as bad as my counterpart, but I have found some really great stuff. For Christmas this year, we decided to buy some of our gifts online. Ben has told us countless times that he wants cars from Santa so Mike set out to find some Hot Wheels accessories on ebay. Some of the gently used toys are a fraction of the cost compared to when purchased new and I guarantee that our two-year-old is not going to care that it didn't come pre-packaged with a bunch of those stupid twist-tie thingies connecting it to the box. In fact, I'm pretty sure when he wakes up to this entire Hot Wheels "metropolis" which is comprised of nine different parts of the city, he won't want to open a single other present before he plays with it!! The entire thing cost $50 and each city brand new is at least $20-30! His dad can't wait to set the whole thing up for him. It will be great to see his face light up when he sees this thing set up under the tree Christmas morning. I'm not sure who is going to have more fun playing with it, Ben or daddy! ;)

"That Really Piss Me Off, Mom"

OMG!! I totally need to watch my mouth! I was just messing with the power connection (for the hundredth time) on the computer because it won't stay plugged in and I blurted out, "This thing really pisses me off!"

Ben has repeated it at least ten times and he is crashing his trucks together saying, "That really piss me off...mom, that really piss me off!"

OOOPPPSSS...I don't want to make a big deal about it or else it might seem even more appealing to say! Hopefully, by lunchtime he will have moved on to something else and forgotten it completely. I had better learn to sensor my "potty mouth" or else my two-year-old is going to have quite a colorful vocabulary!!!