Going to the zoo zoo zoo

This morning was a lazy morning here at the Swyt household. However, at 11:45 I got a call from a friend who was visiting NC (about 2 hours from my house) from Cleveland. She informed me that she was on her way to the zoo. The zoo? What zoo? Sure enough it was our NC zoo which isn't all that far from my place. So our lazy morning quickly became a busy morning as I packed up the kids and rushed out the door to meet her. OMG, have you ever been to the zoo over Memorial Day weekend? It was so crowded! The parking attendant (I have never seen one of them before at our zoo) informed me that there were absolutely no spots left. I told him that I would find a place to park - and I did...illegally.

I have only a few pictures as it was entirely too hard to keep track of both kids among all the other people. Not to mention with so many people I couldn't get a good shot of any of the animals. The highlight was seeing the elephants. Our elephant exhibit has been closed for a while and was finally open. We saw the new baby elephant and it was being very silly - playing in the water and splashing around with his trunk. The kids, and adults, were all in stitches laughing. It was so much fun to watch such a big baby animal acting like a kid.

It was so great to see my friend Kristen and her daughter Addy, along with good friend Maria. Maria lives in the great state of NC, but I never get to see her. To bad too. The three of us, pre kids used to hang out as soccer groupies all weekend. How we loved those soccer boys.

The Gang: Kristen, Addy, and us


Addy and Izzy playing tag around a tree


Izzy on a chimp


Here is how Drew spent part of his zoo experience

Meet the Preschool Graduate

Here she is...


Just 9 short months ago I dropped Izzy off at school for her first day. She has always been quite attached to me and I was probably more scared to leave her then she was to leave me! I sat in the school parking lot for 30 min. thinking the teachers would call me to come back and get her. They never called. Not that first day or any day thereafter. Izzy was a preschool CHAMP! It took until almost December before me leaving was "easy" but I was so confident in the ability of the school staff that I was never worried.

Here are Izzy's teachers:

Mrs. Quinn


and Mrs. Weaver


Izzy's school days were filled with crafts, music class, chapel, reading, outdoor play and indoor play. ...and snack! Izzy's most favorite activities seemed to be music, chapel (she loves to sing) and riding bikes in the gym. Her teachers told me she would ride the same bike everyday. She didn't play ball, or run races, but rode bikes nonstop. She liked to pretend to go "grocery shopping" for Mrs. Weaver. Izzy's very best friend in her class is Sarah - although she has never played with Sarah outside of the school setting.

This past week in addition to graduation, Izzy had "beach day". Here is a picture of the beach babe!



Here are some more graduation pictures...get ready for picture overload.

My favorite:




This is what Drew did to entertain himself. First he found a truck to play with...


Then he decided he should do the video taping...


How cute are my two kiddos after Izzy's ceremony...


Afterwards we headed to Brusters with some friends for ice-cream...
Miss Iz

Mr. Drew

Drew and Zach (Alexandra's little brother who is one month older than Drew)

Alexandra, Ian and Izzy


Next we headed to Delaney's for some bike riding and tag playing!




We finished our night off at Elizabeth's pizza with Daddy. We had such a wonderful day and couldn't be more proud of our big girl!

Girl Fight

Okay, so it wasn't a "girl fight" per say, but rather an argument between two three year old girls. Izzy and Delaney had what was their first real disagreement today where both insisted that they were correct. Here's how it went down...

I was downstairs cleaning up lunch dishes when both girls were yelling to me from the top of the stairs. Izzy being the sensitive one was in near tears, so I raced up the stairs to see what was wrong. I didn't race because I was worried, but rather I didn't want the escalating noise to wake sleeping Drew.

I "shhhh'ed" the girls back into Izzy's room and asked what was wrong. Both started speaking immediately and tried to talk over one another's voice. I got to the bottom of the fight and here's how it went down.

-Izzy calls it a somersault
-Delaney calls it a forward roll

..both girls insisted that they were right because that is what each girls mommy told them. I had to explain that both terms are in fact correct. You've got to love that 3 year old girls take their mommy's word to be gospel. It reminds me of the time that Delaney walked into the bathroom upstairs that I give the kids a bath in and all the bath toys were in the tub from the night before...Delaney said to Izzy "this place is a mess" to which Izzy responded "No it isn't, my mommy just cleaned the toilet". You go Izzy! She was right, I had cleaned the toilet that morning. Delaney was right too as the tub was a mess :)

After we all agreed that some things are known by more than one name we continued on with lots of fun girlie play. We had a tea party, played dance competition, and party games. Then we came downstairs and watch Izzy's new Strawberry Shortcake video while we did play-doh. Here are some pics...



I am having a tough time uploading pics so I will have to try again tomorrow.

For those two people aware I "blog"...don't worry I haven't forgotten about my Chicago recap - there are just lots of pictures to sort through. Stay tuned~

We're back...

from our extended weekend getaway to Chicago. It was a surprise birthday trip for Pete. Details to follow tomorrow~

Mother's Day Weekend

That's right, I said "weekend". When you do things Swyt style you do them up right! In reality the "weekend" part is just my way of trying to draw out this much needed, it should be once a month, holiday. Here are some of the highs, and lows, of the weekend.

Friday night we took our first full family outing to Bruster's. Bruster's is an ice-cream shop that we frequent 2-3 times a week in the warmer months. The kids and I had gone earlier in the week, while Pete was out of town, but now we went back as the complete "cone licking family" that we are! Here are the kids and their good 'ole standby's.

Drew and a vanilla baby cone with sprinkles...



Izzy starts by making sure she qualifies for the free baby scoop (with the purchase of an adult cone)


Although she is still short enough for the free cone, now that she is the whopping 'ole age of 3, she has decided a baby cone simply would not do. So, I ordered her a single scoop and asked them to keep it on the small side.



Saturday we decided to do some shopping in the Boro's finer shopping venue. We started out going to REI to search for a birthday present, or two, or possibly three, for Pete. Then we were going to head to PF Chang's for dinner. Pete found some fun stuff at REI for his birthday. Easy. Done. Now I just have to worry about the cake and some cute gifts from the kiddos. While at REI we got Drew a pair of Crocs. I wish I would have had a video camera for this shoe "discussion" with Drew. Here's how it went(not nearly as good b/c you can't hear his sweet voice):

Me: "Drew, come here and let me take off your shoes. (I take off his shoes and put the Crocs on) Do you like them?"
Drew: (as he is doing his "happy two step shuffle" and spinning around) looks down and says "ohhh kay"

He smiled nonstop as he walked around and climbed the imitation mountain they had in the store. Poor Izzy desperately wanted a pair as well (she does NOT need anymore shoes) but they didn't have a pair in her size - well, not in pink.

We then had to kill one hour until our table was ready at PF Chang's. The kids were melting down quickly and although I really wanted a picture of me with them, this is as good as it got.

make sure to notice Drew's new shoes. At two points during the evening a shoe would slip off and he would scream "my shoooo, my shoooo". When we got home that night he walked around in a diaper and his crocs. He LOVES them!

I will spare you the details of the evening, but at one point I do recall Pete saying "We're done. That's it. Monday morning I am calling a urologist. There is no way we can have a third." Good times, good times. OH, and when we got into the car after dinner the battery was DEAD! It was so awful. We had pushed the kids to the limit as both were due to be in bed already. I don't have AAA (well now I do) and we weren't sure what we were going to do. Thankfully a nice man heard my battery "clicking" as we tried to start the car and was able to jump us. Pete and I figure we were blessed because we returned a pair of lost keys that day as well as stopped to tell a lady her car had a flat tire.

Now onto Sunday morning! MOTHER'S DAY 2008!

A "typical" Sunday morning at the Swyt house has either Pete or myself going to Starbucks for coffee and the Sunday paper. Today Pete went and got me a venti mocha (normally I am a grande gal). When he got home he immediately set to work with the kids to make me some cards.




After that it was onto some presents. First I went on a scavenger hunt for the cards the kids just made. Then I opened the store bought cards and my gifts. From the kids I got a fun picture frame for my desk as well as some square vases that I wanted for my "toy room" remodel that I am working on. They are going to go on the mantel in front of the 18 month pics of both kids I just framed and have hanging over the fireplace - a post for another day. You can see the frame and the vases in the pictures. Also notice how Drew and Izzy did the present opening for me. Christmas this year will be so much fun!





My most wonderful husband gave me the gift of rest and relaxation - an incredibly generous gift certificate for a spa day! It will be an entire afternoon away from my amazing family. An afternoon that I will truly enjoy and one in which I will reflect on how I am the lucky one. It is because of my incredible family that I am even fortunate enough to celebrate Mother's Day.

Oh, so for "my day" I wanted to go for a run and then either get a mani/pedi (with a gift card from Christmas) or go see a movie. Well, while I was running a torrential downpour started. I was at the halfway point of my run so I had no choice but to continue on. When I got home I then found out we were under a tornado warning and then a watch so any plans I had to leave again were no longer going to happen.

We ordered in some dinner; the kids went to bed early and I was able to enjoy an evening with my husband. It was a perfect day...all except for not getting the perfect picture.

We have a very fun filled family outing coming up so I am hoping to get LOTS of great pictures! ...stay tuned to wait and see.

Do you know what a Turandot is?

If it makes you feel better, I didn't either...

Let me start out by saying the house we currently live in has some beautiful landscaping. Looking back, I am not really sure what Pete and I were thinking when we bought it? We moved from Denver where we had no lawn to a beautiful acre lot filled with big trees, a creek, and lots of plants/flowers. Neither Pete nor I have a green thumb between us. We don't even mow our own lawn! ...it is not because we don't want to or because we are so insanely rich we have money to just throw away :) Pete works very hard and extremely long hours so for him to take time away from his family on the weekends for lawncare seemed silly. I would gladly cut the lawn if I had time, but with Drew and Izzy keeping me busy it would never get done.

So, back to a Turandot. This is a beautiful plant that is also known as a Camellia japonicca - spring blossom. All I know is that last year I hastefully decided to pull out three rose bushes because they aren't conducive to having small children. This left me with a patch of dirt at the top of our driveway that needed to be filled. So, one day I saw a beautiful full blossomed plant at the playground and figured that could work for my bare spot. ...now I just needed to figure out what the heck it was called? Thankfully my neighbor owns a nursery so when I said to him, "I saw this plant about yee high, with big beautiful blossoms" he was ble to figure out what I was talking about. So Jeff brought me three turandots home and today Izzy and I planted them!

Here is Izzy helping me put some soil in one of the holes, and then watering the finished product.




So we have planted a total of three and Jeff has assured me that I can't kill them. I will show him - I can't keep anything alive!

You ask what was Drew doing during this horticultural extravaganza? He was sitting in my car watching Backyardigans. I put the tv's in the car a couple weeks ago when we were on a long drive and have yet to take them out so he is obsessed with watching tv in my car. So, he was in the car which was parked next to where Izzy and I were planting.


Now we will just have to wait and see how long before the turandots either bloom or die. Anyone want to take bets?

Muffins for Moms

Today was a very special day for Miss Izzy and me. It was "Muffins for Moms" at her school. Izzy and I were fortunate in that Daddy was able to arrange to stay home with Drew this morning so we could go - just us girls.

Off we go...check out Izzy's super cute outfit.

Here we are in her classroom

Each Mom was given a cute placemat that had our handprint and our child's handprint on it as well as a picture frame. Oh, and Izzy made me a necklace too.

Drew woke up in a foul mood this morning. So foul that I almost put him back to bed shortly after he got up. While at Muffins for Moms, I got a text from Pete that said "Done yet? ARRGGGHHHH". I knew Drew was being a pill. The hard part was coming back home knowing I now needed to keep him up until we got Izzy from school. I took him outside where we blew some bubbles. Look at this poor face - so miserable from allergies.



Once Drew wakes from his nap and Izzy's quiet time is over then the kiddos and I are heading off to Toys R Us to pick up a birthday present for Jack. It is an ugly day here so I figure what could be more fun then playing with toys at the toy store? Hopefully we can kill enough time until Daddy gets home.

Another try

Can it really be all that hard to place a picture where I want it to be placed within a blog post? The answer for me is YES!



Okay, so now I need to go see if that worked?

Wow! I might have figured this out...well for the time being anyway.

Alrighty then. Typical day here at the Swyt household. Izzy doesn't have school on Wednesdays so we usually meet up with her friend Delaney. Delaney and Izzy were born a day apart and are the best of friends. For two girls with such strong opinions they certainly play well together. Jen, Delaney's mom, and I can carry on a conversation without numerous interruptions! ...that is until either Drew or Mia needs our attention.

So, the kids and I headed to the playground to meet up with our friends. We were there first so we did some swinging and sand castle building until they arrived. Drew has been hit with awful allergies and decided at one point to take a quick snooze in the swing.



Izzy had to pause from swinging to take a call...from Omi.

At one point while the kids were on the swings, I turned away to pull my hair up in a ponytail. My back was towards Izzy and she said "Mommy, people are gonna wonder why is that lady pulling up her hair and not pushing her kids?" I said "You think so? I bet they are thinking that is sure a great mom for bringing those kids to the playground!" Crazy girl!

When Delaney showed up we had a picnic lunch. Look at how happy those silly girls are.



After our first park visit we came home and both kids took 3 hour naps before I woke them at 5! We needed to head back out to another park to meet up with our friends again. This time Jack was able to join us in some playground fun.


Look at the way cool truck that Drew found to play on!


After our playground fun the kids and I headed over to Bruster's for some ice-cream. Chocolate ice-cream for Izzy and vanilla for Drew. ...both complete with sprinkles of course. It was our first outdoor ice-cream trip of the season. ...with many many more to follow.

Tough Stuff

I am still trying to figure out this blogging thing. Since I have to fumble around some more to get the pictures uploaded into the right spots I am going to try my luck with a video clip. I have some old clips of the kids and we will see what happens when I try to upload them here...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Okay, I think it worked? So let's try one more, shall we?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Hooray for me! It looks like I figured out how to upload smilebox stuff. Now I just need to figure out how to do actual pictures. THEN I can go back and share all sorts of fun memories from the last couple of weeks.