4 years

It's been 4 years since you left...and I still miss you like I did on the very first day. I remember that day like it was yesterday, I can tell you where I was, what I was wearing and exactly how the day went. You were my BEST friend, you taught me to sew, cook (Not real good with this one yet!!) bake, and teach.  I am better because of you...I am who I am because of you. This one's for you Mom... For Good And although I know I will see you again one day I still miss you and wish you were here. Thanks for being the BEST Mom EVER!!

New Traditions

Every year is full of change...and change is good. Well sometimes....   This year I am having a really hard time with change. Usually on Christmas Eve we celebrate Christmas with the whole Bloemers side...this year it will be different. Which really is a good thing, since it will be easier for more people to make being the Saturday before. I was hoping we would do our small Bloemers family gathering that night instead, but not he case, which I too understand.   This leads me to my issue...we now have NOTHING on Christmas Eve, or really Christmas Day. Usually both night and day are filled with family and they will, but just the 4 of us.   This I am dreading...   Toby says we will come up with something special to call our own, but it really just makes me miss my mom all that much more...   We have some ideas...but I am slowly working myself up. I wish I could just push it back and think of all the special memories we will be making with our kids, but sometime less isn't more and in this case less people, especially one that will be missing is being missed an extra lot this year.

Family*Fireworks*Fun

As usual we spent the 4th spending time with family and friends celebrating the freedoms our country offers!

To start our day we headed to the Second Annual Patriotic Parade hosted by my friend Katie from A List Makers Life. We gather at a local boardwalk, decorate our bikes with festive holiday decorations, and pass out candy to anyone on the boardwalk and share some festive spirit. {This year we added some water...its been EXTREMELY warm in these parts!}

A good time was had by all!! It definitely was warm, but worth the heat to enjoy some fellowship with friends!

We headed to the pool after our parade to cool down...3 hours later, we were significantly cooled and ready for the rest of our day. We hung out, played and watched a movie.

To end our evening we headed to the fireworks.

 

Hope you and your family had a fantastic 4th!!

Cub Scout Cutie

Since Jake decided to join Cub Scouts we have all had some fun trying new things and some added adventures! Well this weekend was a MAJOR event in the world of Cub Scouts the Blue & Gold Banquet. This banquet is to celebrate Weeblos moving on into Boy Scouts (don't ask me too much about this as I really have NO clue!!)Each Den was asked to make some centerpieces, with Luau as the theme and recycling the idea...this is what we came up with:

They turned out so cute, the boys had fun making them so I would say this is a success!!

 And here is my Cub Scout cutie!!

*Pop Pop*

This time of year is always a little patchy for me...it brings some days that remind me of sad things and I tend to get cranky. Most would say it's okay to be a little down, to be cranky sometimes, but I hate to take it out on the ones I LOVE. Especially, when its the kids and they don't really understand why.  Well during this time of year, comes my birthday and what would have been my mom's 68th birthday. Every year since she has passed I have looked to do something worth while to make it special, remember good times and make memories to do this we bring in my best friend!We have her family over for our annual Bubble Wrap Dinner. This includes bubble wrap placemats, balloons and birthday cards. On Saturday we had my friends and their kids over to enjoy each others company and POP some bubble wrap!! Now to fully understand the bubble wrap dinner you must understand that when my mom had her open heart surgery they gave her a bubble wrap envelope for her glasses. Since she had been given something to calm her a little she thought the bubble wrap was sooo fun and just kept popping all the bubbles. So everytime she was in the hospital after, we brought her bubble wrap. It's a funny memory! We didn't get the balloons off so the kids and I will do it on Tuesday.

Memories Made

Pretty much since th day my daughter was born I have been dreaming of taking her to American Girl Place. My mom and I talked for years about what would be the perfect age, what one to get her and when to take the trip....Well this past Sunday Emmah, Tob and I took that trip. To start the day Emmah woke up to this: 

After some smiling and jumping up and down we ate some breakfast and got ready to hit the road. We didn't tell her where we were going, and surprisingly she didn't catch on either.

One funny part was one we got to downtown Chicago, she kept saying, "There's an American Girl Store down here..."

Once we arrived she was more than excited!!

As we walked through the store her eyes were aglow and her smile from ear to ear as she grabbed item after item to purchase...

We did talk her down a bit, but every penny spent was worth it in the memories.

Here is Emmah and her new doll, Rebecca:

As an extra special treat we also enjoyed a late lunch in the cafe...they even serve the dolls

Emmah was impressed with all the different courses they serve, and its so fancy! They even give you conversation questions, which were fun for us to enjoy with each other!

Emmah and her delicious desserts!!

The memories we made will surely last a lifetime...and a day I will never forget and I hope she won't either!

I love you always and forever!

Pen Pals

Pinterest addiction has gotten me again!! I just keep finding these great ideas!! So when I found this one I just knew that I had to start it!! I want to encourage the kids to write, share their happiness and sadness, and just become closer to them. Well, I found the perfect way, now I just hope it works!! To start I gathered a couple of things:2 notebooks & 2 pensHere is what I made: 

Mom & Me Journals 

I got the idea from Mama Jenn, who actually got it from another blogger! Gotta love sharing the blog love! So...I'm guessing you'd like to know what exactly a Mom & Me Journal is...well basically it is like being pen pals, only no stamps, no mail, and fun journals!!

To start I used the same model that Jenn did:

                 Dear Emmah,

                        

          Would you like to be Pen Pals? I thought it would

       be fun! Instead of mailing letters, we'll write them

       in this special notebook!

       I'll write to you and leave the notebook on your bed.   

       Then, when you want to, write back to me on the next

       page and leave it on my bed. Write ANYTHING you like. It  

       can be funny, serious, or sad, whatever. Sound like fun?

                               Love,

                                 Mom

                 P.S. Write Back Soon

I can't wait to leave it on their beds!! I have so many hopes and dreams with this. I hope it becomes a book we all can treasure!!

I'll keep you posted on how things are going!!

{Fall Fun}

Well today we finally went out and did one of my most favorite fall activities...Apple Picking!!I just love to go and even though this year our fall has been busier than ever I knew we had to make time to go. So today we headed to a local orchard, Cranes and had some fun. We sampled some apples to make sure we got just the right ones. And to my delight my favorite kind....HONEYCRISP were still available!! 

 We had so much fun and just love this fun fall tradition!! We are even going to give making an apple pie a try this year!! I can hardly wait to enjoy all our yummy apples!!

Funk

The last few weeks have brought on a new funk for me...it really all started with the smallest thing. We recently got our car detailed. They did a really great job and the car looked and smelled great!! The only real problem came when they cleaned a spot off the passenger seat... Silly right, who cares about a spot? Well that spot got there in the most humorous way! Not long after my mom had purchased her car and started having her health issues we were out one day with the kids and they really wanted ice cream. She was NOT going to have that in her car, so we agreed on shakes from McDonald's, she however got a chocolate dipped ice cream cone. Well you can put it all together, hot weather, melting chocolate...equals MESS!! Needless to say we ended up with chocolate on the seat. She was MAD, and it was FUNNY!! It's been there ever since, never really came clean, and now it is gone. One of those quirky things that reminds you of this funny situation, and miss that person all the more. It started my funk, and now I find myself sad and really just missing her. I cry at things that shouldn't make me cry, I'm a little more bitter than usual, and just all out bummed. I try to keep it inside, but not sure it is always there. It all comes down to 4 simple words:I miss my mom.

A new loss

We have hit a MAJOR milestone here at our house! Jake lost his very first tooth this weekend! When there was the first wiggle he was so excited and could hardly wait for it to fall out. But as it got looser he got nervous that it would hurt when it came out. Well finally on Saturday, it came out with a little extra wiggle from Dad!

His new smile!!

Look what the tooth fairy brought me!!

Speak Now

Anyone who knows my husband well knows that he is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan, event though he doesn't like country music. So he was SUPER excited when for his birthday this year he got Taylor Swift tickets from his parents! The game was now on for who was going with him!! I LOVE me some Taylor Swift, but then so does my 8 year old...Hmmm what to do???Well he decided that the best thing to do was to take Emmah!! We planned it as a surprise so that made it all that much better! 

 

She has not stopped talking about the concert since getting home last night! And to quote Emmah "Best night ever, I will never forget this moment!"

I'm pretty sure she had a good time!! (So did Dad!!)

Six

Today was a very important day at our house...Jake turned 6!! I can hardly belive that my baby is now 6 and is going into First grade. Where does the time go?? We had a lot of fun today celebrating and plan to make it a full birthday weekend!!  

We celebrated with friends from daycare at Chuck E. Cheese! It was a TON of fun and I think everyone had a great time!! We have the BEST daycare lady and are blessed because she LOVES all the kids she cares for, and is great at doing it!! She remembered everything, from goodie bags to fun cupcakes to share...she's the BEST!

Tomorrow we celebrate my dad's at his favorite place in Jackson The Parlour, then Jake has his party on Sunday! All in all it will be full of fun and full of memories!

Family Fun

This week we had the best visit with our family from Florida!! My sister Mary and her kids Shelby and Ethan came to visit us at our house!! It was great! The kids were so excited and could hardly wait for them to arrive and LOVED every minute they were here! We played some cards, chatted, took bike rides, did a little shopping, got ice cream at the famous Captain Sundae, ate dinner at a family favorite Crazy Horse, watch the street performers, and just plain enjoyed each others company!!

It is so nice to have family come to see me, I hope they know just how much it meant to us!!
It was sad to see them leave, and I had a moment or two today. I have just really come to realize just how important family is and LOVE all the fun times we are able to spend together! I think my kids have already started the countdown til we go to visit them in December!!

"A family is a gift that lasts forever"

-Author Unknown

The Fourth

This is the first year we really haven't had too much going on for the Fourth. Usually we head up north or have a get together with friends, but this year people were gone and it just didn't pan out.Well a super friend Katie from A List Maker's Life invited us to join in on some holiday fun, a Patriotic Parade on Wheels!! It was warm, but a lot of fun!The kids each chose their wheels and we headed down to Heinz boardwalk to spread some cheer!

Here's Emmah and Jake getting ready to decorate their wheels and to pass out some candy to any friends we meet along the way! (Each kid got to decorate their own bike, then get a back full of candy, keeping 3 for themselves, to hand out along the route!)

Here is our whole group of new and old friends!! This was a fun time and we can't wait to do it again next year! (We even grabs some deals today for decorations for next year!!)

Thanks again Katie!

Milestone

 Well we've hit another MAJOR milestone at our house....Jake can now tie his own shoes!! We are very proud of him and he is extremely proud of himself!! He is too cute about it too, he'll show anyone his newly learned talent!

Up North

Memorial Day is always a great weekend, not only is it our anniversary weekend, but it means great family get togethers! We usually head up north to hang with the Brown side of the family. Its a fun day full of outdoor activities including my kids favorite part four wheeler rides!!                    

 We also have a new tradition we added last year a duck race down the small river that runs through our Aunt & Uncles property!

It always means a good time, great photos, and awesome memories!! I love it when my kids look forward to things and this is one thing they look forward too!