birthday blast

sunday was our funday. it started out with a surprise for samantha—a huge birthday banner and a [semi] clean house (which she requested!). we went to church and samantha was very excited, to say the least, that her sunday school class sang happy birthday to her—complete with the cha cha chas! after church, we went to lunch and then it was time to come home and open presents! samantha was elated with her new barbies, littlest pet shop stuff, jewelry making kit, and american girl books.

then it was off to the zoo with my favorite gorilla, monkey, kangaroo! we had fun riding the camel, train, and tram...

seeing some of the animals...

and samantha was excited to go on her very first paddle boat ride! she even paddled all by herself to let daddy have a rest! ryan, on the other hand, was eager at first, but then decided he didn't want to "go swimming," hence his crabby attitude. thankfully he stayed in the paddle boat and didn't really go swimming!

then we ate our picnic dinner that we brought along. hoping to surprise samantha, i also brought birthday cupcakes. however, paired with the 90 degree heat, our dessert bit the dust.

we made the best of it though!

our day was not complete until we visited the lions and got proof that samantha's mouth was indeed smaller than a lion's (if you've ever had a conversation with her, you would question that fact!) ryan had a lovely meltdown, samantha ran through the misters in the trees, and then we ate some free ice cream!

we went home tired, worn, and warm, but also having had a successful day. it was so much fun giving samantha "the best birthday EVER!!"

not me! monday

last monday i did NOT spend the whole day cleaning for family that was going to come for a visit, only to take a break to go to the grocery store. i did NOT end up coming home with 23 bags of groceries!! and in the 3.5 days that my family visited, we only ate here twice. uh huh... i do NOT have a lot of food in my house!

this past week i did NOT have a blast with my parents and my three nieces (9, 7, & 4 years old) who came for a visit. we had only a couple mishaps while they were here... it was very warm the second night they were here, so i did NOT decide to prop the front door open to cool off the house. we got the girls to bed, dealt with some homesickness, and then got the girls settled in bed again. we were sitting around chatting when i did NOT hear screaming from their room. i bolted upstairs and as i was running down the hall a black cat did NOT come running out of their room and out the front door!!! nope, a stray cat did NOT come in our open front door, go up to the kid's room, and scare the panties off 3 almost asleep overly tired little girls. needless to say, the door stayed closed from then on...

while my family was here ryan slept in our room with us. so he would NOT wake up when ben got up for work. since then his sleep habits have been way off. instead of getting up at 9-9:30, this morning he did NOT wake up before 8am. i am NOT dreading the time change this saturday and having him wake up before 7AM!!! (here is your friendly reminder... daylight savings time ends on sunday, november 1st. don't forget to set your clocks back one our this coming saturday night!)

i have NOT forgotten to give ryan his medicine about 4 nights this week. ugh. i will NOT have to start writing notes as a reminder. and speaking of ry, his neurologist did NOT fail to call me this past week, or the week before with the results from his EEG. and because i don't enjoy calling them and leaving a message for them to call me back, i did NOT decide that i'm just going to wait until his appointment this week to find out the results. besides, dr. h has an accent and i'm NOT afraid that i won't understand her over the phone! so for those of you who have been waiting for results, i will NOT get them at his neuro appointment on friday!

on saturday night we (yes. the whole family. ben included.) did NOT go to joann fabrics to get a couple things. (we were NOT there until closing time!) after we finally left the store, walked to our car, and unloaded our purchases i did NOT decide that i would give the cart a shove toward the store and let it roll there so i didn't have to push it back. well maybe it was the slight breeze, or maybe it was the downward slope of the parking lot, but the cart started going straight towards the store and then did NOT veer way to the left (right in the picture) and was headed right for one of the 5 cars in the parking lot. ben did NOT see what was happening and did NOT sprint over to the cart just to grab it right before it plowed into the side of the lady's car. the lady that was NOT just walking out of the store... i was NOT laughing my head off at what happened, and i'm sure the people that were sitting in their idling car did NOT get a good laugh either! and no, i did NOT draw a picture again just to better explain it...!

happy monday y'all. go visit mckmama for some more not me! monday fun!

we wanna follow the deer!

saturday was daddy daughter date day, so ben took samantha to the zoo for their monthly kid's fun fest and conservation club. each month they have different activities and games, like making fingerprint animals and balancing like a flamingo. samantha also had fun catching felt frogs with her velcroed noise-maker tongue! (why they were frogs and not flies i don't know.)

but the highlight of last saturday was that our local pbs station was there and helped the kids make a movie! they divided the kids into groups by their age, then went and made a movie about an animal. samantha got to pick the animal for her group and she chose the deer. yes, out of all the zoo animals she had to pick from, the deer ranked #1 on her list! but that was okay, because they wanted to keep the kids close by.

they all got a turn at using the video camera, which was a tiny flip camcorder, and the pbs lady helped them with what to say. after they were done she edited the clips and made a dvd for each of them to take home. the lady wasn't able to edit out her voice, so you can hear her in the background. but the kids are cute! samantha is the one saying "we love the zoo" at the beginning. (and in case you're wondering what happened to her nose, she nose-dived (nose-dove?) off of a bounce house slide and got a rug burn sort of thing.)

so if you have 33 seconds to spare, watch the movie. you just might learn something about the fallow deer! and i guarantee you'll love the little boy at the end!

for more info about events and attractions at the kansas city zoo, click here!

not me! monday

it's not me! monday again! after taking a not me! vacation last monday, i'm ready to go this week! (although it is NOT almost tuesday as i'm writing this!)


here's what has NOT been happening the past two weeks around here:

one afternoon while sitting in the chair being disciplined, samantha certainly did NOT blow her nose on her knit capri pants. and they were NOT her white capri pants. and her nose did NOT start bleeding when she blew it on her white pants... she did NOT get into more trouble for doing that.

* * * * *

in an attempt to keep ryan happy and occupied one day, i did NOT let him play with the pop cans he discovered. he was NOT busy happily stacking the cans and sorting them while i was doing the dishes. after finishing the dishes it was NOT i who forgot all about him playing with the soda cans. and as i was checking my email i did NOT hear KA-POW! HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS followed by frightened sobs. i did NOT find ryan (and everything within 8 feet) covered in pop. and it was NOT red cream soda.

i did NOT whisk him up to the bathtub (then run to get my camera) and quickly bathe him and samantha, all the while thinking about the mess that awaited me in the kitchen. after we were done with the bath i did NOT go downstairs to the kitchen and discover that ben was almost finished cleaning it up. thank you so much hun!

* * * * *

for the most part i care about my children's appearance and hygiene and make sure they wear clean clothes every day. so please, someone, tell me who let ryan sleep in the clothes that he wore during the day, and then let him wear those same clothes the next day. because it surely was NOT me!

* * * * *

i did NOT have a fun time taking engagement pictures yesterday, and i definitely did NOT lose track of time stay up until 2:30 am last night uploading and editing them.

* * * * *

last night ben did NOT come up with a perk of being married when he exclaimed, "you know what's so great about being married? i get to see boobies every day!" i did NOT tell him that was sooooo going on my blog. lol!

* * * * *

we have NOT had a turtle for a house guest over the weekend. she is NOT going back to her habitat in the wild tomorrow, so tonight we said goodbye to 'rosie-belle.' i thought that samantha would have a hard time telling her goodbye and that she might cry, but i was wrong. i was NOT the one who had tears in my eyes when samantha told her goodbye. samantha had NOT made this adorable card for her and she did NOT put it in rosie's "apartment" so that daddy could take it with rosie in the morning.

i am NOT hoping that we never find a stray puppy that has to stay with us for a weekend. i think i would fall apart! :-)

* * * * *

what have you NOT done this week?! stop by mckmama's blog to see what she and everyone else has NOT been doing!

thankful thursday

today ben brought a box turtle home from work. he found it at the job site and thought samantha would like to see it. he even thought we could make a little home for it in our backyard. but as it turns out, my research shows that a turtle won't survive in our backyard!

well, tonight i'm thankful that we won't have another addition to our family--the fish are neglected enough! but at the same time i'm kinda sad. we played with the turtle this afternoon and she was lots of fun.

so in addition to being thankful that rosie the turtle (yes, i let samantha name her...) will be going back to her home, i'm also thankful that ben said we didn't have to bring her back until monday. so we get the whole weekend to play with rosie. (and a whole weekend to try to keep her alive!) more pictures to come!

oh, and i totally welcome any advice on how to keep a turtle alive! :-)