Happy Boy and a Tea Party...

The other day, we were having dinner at Tony's parents house and Bradlee was in rare form, I had to get some pictures! They have had this little toy saxophone since Emma was born. It's really tiny and has Cookie Monster on it. When you push the buttons, it plays little songs and Cookie Monster also says, "A-Cha-Cha"!! It's kind cute...and it can be turned off, which is probably why it's lasted so long! LOL Emma loved this toy because, in my opinion, she could pretend she was really playing it and we would clap and cheer for her! So, naturally, we do the same for Bradlee!



As I was saying, the other day, we were at my in-laws, and Bradlee pulled the said saxophone out of the toy box and started "performing"... I usually take a lot of the pictures I post on here with my cell phone because it's always with me and it takes pretty good pictures... unfortunately, the only problem is that from the time I push the button to the time it actually takes the picture is about 4 seconds...which, as I'm sure you can imagine, is a long time for a 2-year old to hold a pose, let alone a 5-year old! So when I was able to capture these pictures, I was ecstatic! The top one is just priceless, and the bottom one here is how I was teaching Bradlee to play the toy: both hands on the "instrument" and with his eyes closed! Whenever he's pretending to close his eyes, he always is peeking out of them! Makes it even more cute! :)

This morning, when Emma woke up, she was playing in her room and found her tea set that Aunt Karyn got for her for her 3rd birthday. We keep it under her bed so it won't get ruined. When Aunt Karyn gave it to her, it was in a very nice Rubbermaid container and had an envelope taped to the inside with little "invitations" for Emma to give Aunt Karyn whenever she wanted to have a tea party! This morning, Emma decided she needed to call Aunt Karyn and invite her to a tea party...and Bradlee was invited too, of course! When Emma tried calling Aunt Karyn, she was at work...so she left a message: "Hi Aunt Karyn. Please call me when you are done with work. I want to invite you to a tea party and I have your invitation. Bye! *pause* Oh, this is Emma." LOL



So Aunt Karyn came over right after work and she, Bradlee and Emma all had a grand tea party in Emma's room. The top picture here is them saying "cheers!"! The "clink" tea cups before every "sip". This time, since they were in Emma's room, and Bradlee was there, we decided to just pretend that there was something in the tea cups! Then I hear Aunt Karyn ask Bradlee if he wants a little plate. Emma corrects Aunt Karyn and says, "Aunt Karyn, that's not a plate. It's a SAUCER." Wow. :) This bottom picture is so cute 'cause Aunt Karyn is trying to teach Bradlee that he has to put his pinkie finger up when he's drinking his tea, and he's TOTALLY not buying it! :) LOL

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bradlee!

It's absolutely unbelievable to me that my little boy has turned 2! Bradlee's birthday was on Thursday, July 29th and we had a great party for him last Sunday! We served ice cream and cake and a few snacks, and a lot of our friends and family were able to come celebrate with us! My parents, Tony's parents, Lynne, Paul, my grandparents (Snookie and Papa), Kathi and Garrett, Matt, Desiree, Dorian and Griffin, Susan, Bill, Evelyn and Isla, and of course the 4 of us! We had a full house, but thankfully, it was a GORGEOUS day, so we were able to use the backyard! I wish I had had the time to take a picture, it was awesome! We had the little pool blown and filled up, the bounce house, the slide, little table and chairs, plus the big table and chairs and tour swing on the deck! It was wonderful to have people over to utilize all our outdoor toys!!

The party concluded with a gigantic water balloon fight and swim in the pool! A great time was had by all!! Here are a few pictures:

Emma got Bradlee a "Woody" coloring book!

Evelyn, Emma, Bradlee, Dorian and Griffin - enjoying cake!

Bradlee woke up wanting cake!!

Waiting patiently to blow out his candle...so he can have CAKE!

Aunt Kat and Uncle Garrett came with a battle plan for the water fight! Looks like they're winning and Emma's not!

Emma and Isla helping Bradlee open presents!

One of my family traditions for birthdays is to be awakened in the morning with singing and a candle in a donut! Tony and I have continued this tradition with Emma and Bradlee! So, before I left for work on Thursday morning, I got a donut and candle, woke Emma and Tony up, and we sang to Bradlee for his birthday! I would have said we "woke Bradlee up by singing to him", but he was already awake and singing to himself! He enjoyed his donut, although I think he enjoyed blowing out the candle more! Emma also had a donut to enjoy, so it was a good morning!

Here's Bradlee in his crib and enjoying his birthday donut!!

For Bradlee's birthday dinner, my mom and dad and Karyn came over and we had pizza and salad (at Bradlee's request!) and finished up the cake and enjoyed some ice cream for dessert. It was such a wonderful night that we ate outside and the kids played for a while before heading inside for a "birthday bath", movie and bed! I can't believe my baby is 2 years old! He's so different, yet so similar to Emma. He's rough and tough and is a complete daredevil. He jumps off of steps...usually into my arms, but sometimes not...he tries to do EVERYTHING Emma does, including somersaults and handstands, and he LOVES LOVES LOVES to run! On the other hand, he's so gentle and loves his stuffed animals and blankets. You ask him for a kiss and he comes running (usually!) with his lips puckered. He says hi to everyone he sees while walking around the store and he cuddles like you wouldn't believe. He's one special and incredible little boy. Being a mother to both him and Emma is so wonderful!!!

Warm Summer Days...

It's been unbelievably hot the last week, so we've spent a lot of time inside, just hanging out. Mostly because my children have a habit of getting heat exhaustion. Emma got it when we were in Florida in 2007 and Bradlee just seems to not be able to tolerate it for a long period of time...

Bradlee has been interested in the potty for a while now. This is more because he sees his big sister using it, as well as his mommy and daddy and every other adult in his life! So, we pulled out the little potty from the shed (we were cleaning out the shed anyway!) and have it in his room. He sits and sits and sits, and nothing happens! :) We're not so sure he quite knows what he's supposed to do on it, but he's still pretty cute just sitting there...

Emma's been very interested in watching "new" movies lately. We started lightly with "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum 2" - and she LOVED them! She calls them "Night at the Nuseum"! LOL So then I moved to Harry Potter...we watched the first one, and she liked it. Apparently she had seen some of it when it was on TV, so she said, "Mama! This is the one where they go to the forest and find the unicorn!" So the fact that she kind of knew about it helped. The following weekend, we watched the 2nd movie...she did well with that one, too! I warned her, this past weekend, when we went to watch #3, that it's a little bit scarier, but she still wanted to watch it...so here she is watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

As you can see, she was a little nervous...and she's trying really hard not to smile because she kept sliding off the edge of the couch! LOL We haven't finished the movie yet, but she's liking it a lot. At one point, she came running into the laundry room and said, "MAMA!! Sirius Black is IN THE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!" HA! :)

This past Saturday, while Tony was working a wedding, I took the kids to Sam's to pick up some milk, cream cheese and Bradlee's birthday cake. Three simple items, should have taken a half hour, tops, right? WRONG. I got the milk, the cream cheese, some samples for the kids they had out, and went to get the cake...it was a mess. You could see the cake through the frosting, the border was choppy, the writing was horrible and it looked like they accidentally spent Bradlee's name "Brd..." then tried correcting it and it just looked bad. So I told them to redo it (nicely, of course!)...they said they would do it right then, so we just waited. We ended up taking the milk and cream cheese back so they wouldn't go bad, then going to the book section and I read them books while they sat in the cart. Worked out pretty well, but an HOUR later, we were finally walking out of Sam's with milk, cream cheese AND a great looking cake!

Since the kids were so good while we were in there, and it was already 6:30pm, I decided to treat them to Burger King! Here they are enjoying their meals:

After they ate, I took them to a small playground behind a church near our house. It's a really cute little playground and has some unique little play things. They also have a set of bars to hang from (which I had a picture of Bradlee hanging from in an earlier post)...Emma loves to show off her gymnastics skills...and then she asked, "Mama, when can I start ganaxis again?" Made me smile, 'cause that's exactly why we don't have her take the classes during the summer...that way we can make sure SHE wants to continue...and that just proved that she still likes it!

Bradlee loves the bridge at the playground, and Emma loves playing "pirate" on the big wooden ship, which is complete with a window and a fire pole! :)

Safety Town!

This past week, Emma was able to experience "Safety Town" at a local (Fenton) school. Safety Town is a week-long, 3 hour a day "camp" for 5 year olds (who are going to be starting kindergarten) where they can learn about all kinds of safety. This is presented by the Fenton Area chapter of Zonta, a group of business women in the area! This was the 16th year they've done Safety Town in Fenton and my boss, being a member of the Zonta Club, let me know about it and encouraged me to send Emma!

I dropped Emma off each morning and Tony picked her up 3 hours later. She learned SO many new things about safety, including songs! Tings like water safety, stranger safety, playground safety, fire safety, and even things like which side of the road she should ride a bike on and such. I don't think she's even comprehended all that she's learned, but every once in a while, she'll say something like, "Oh, I remember something ELSE from Safety Town!" LOL

On Friday, they had a "graduation ceremony", which I was able to leave work to attend. When I arrived at the school, Emma was getting ready to "tour" a police car! I told her it was the *ONLY* time she was to be in the back seat of a police car! LOL

The instructors were kids who have attended Safety Town in the past and in 6th grade and up! Emma's teachers were Makenzie and Makena. They were awesome! They kept their eye on the 4 kids in their group and Emma just loved them, too! Here are some pictures of Emma with her instructors, the police officer who was with them all week, and the graduate! :)

Emma had a great week and even received a new bike helmet when she was done! I'm sure that will be put to good use! :)

Summer Fun!

This summer has proven to have lots going on! My favorite part has been the on-the-fly things that we do with the kids or that they surprise us with!

Last Saturday when Tony was DJ-ing, Lynne and I took the kids to the park after dinner. We were the only ones there, as it's behind a church right in our neighborhood. It's a quaint little park and has just enough to keep the kids occupied, it's fenced in, and it's really maintained well by the community college next door, as well as the church. They have a set of bars to hang/swing on that Emma and I practice her gymnastics on. Bradlee decided he wanted to do it too, so he just grabbed the bar, and hung on! His feet are off the ground in this picture! We've decided that we're going to sign him up for gymnastics in the fall!

This past week was quite busy for me...I have been playing in a concert band in Saginaw a few times this summer, and this week I was asked to sub again on short notice. It's about a 40 mile drive to rehearsals, twice a week, then the concert's on Sunday. Well worth it, though, as after the last concert I played in, Emma told me, "Mama, when you play your clarinet, it's STUPENDOUS!"...plus I get paid to be in this group, too!

Late last week, we made chicken kabobs on the grill...Here's Bradlee "helping" Daddy get them ready! He was fascinated with the different colored peppers and loved trying them all!

On Monday, after dinner, the kids were in rare form...just being plain goofy! I went to use the restroom and when I came out, this is what I found in the kitchen:

Yes, they were chanting as well! LOL I called it their "after dinner meditation"! LOL

Then, this one came around the corner...I think she's trying to be like her Aunt Julie! She even had a pager attached to the bottom of her shirt!

On Wednesday, Karyn and I travelled to Kitchener, Ontario (Canada - about a 4 hour drive) for a baby shower for my friend Lauren. She's due in mid-August and she had no idea we were coming! Of course, I didn't take any pictures! Dang! But, that was just another thing added to the week. It was so awesome to go see her and know that I support her and am so excited for her and Scott!! I just can't wait to meet baby boy!

This afternoon, I went to pick the kids up from Tony's parents' house and ended up staying for dinner and such. Emma was having some fun in the pool with her clothes on when I got there, so when it was time for dinner, I changed her clothes to this...well, it USED to fit! LOL She thought she was so funny that she wore it the rest of the night! :)

Happy 4th of July!

What a fun-filled 4th of July weekend! It started Thursday night with a Flint Symphony concert at Crossroads Village! The Flint Symphony performs free concerts during the summer and this was their first one. The kids not only love being outdoors, but they love hearing the different kinds of music, and, I think, just the atmosphere of an outdoor concert! Here's Emma enjoying "American Salute" by Morton Gould. As you can see, she also got her hair cut this past week!

When the concert was over, Bradlee kept trying to tell Tony he wanted to hear "one more"!!! Here is a photograph of this conversation:

Friday, after work, I headed home to find Tony in bed with a migraine, Bradlee was gone with Tony's parents, and Emma and Lynne were playing happily and waiting for me to get home! It was the night of our annual Detroit Symphony concert at Greenfield Village! Unfortunately, Tony wasn't able to go, and we thought it best that Bradlee not go either, since we would have the same amount of "stuff" to carry, but one less adult! So, Emma, Lynne and I headed down to Dearborn, stopped at Jimmy Johns for dinner, and then into Greenfield Village for an AWESOME concert! :) Emma just loves this concert, and I can tell because she asks me all the time when "the big outside concert" is! She told me she was taking her stuffed tiger, "Tchai" to the concert because his real name is Tchaikovsky and he wrote the "last song with all the canons"!!! This girl amazes me! The guest soloist was a harmonica player and he was incredible! If you have ever heard the piece "Bugler's Holiday", he played the trumpet part from that, using 4 different harmonicas! The orchestra also played "American Salute" that the FSO had played the night before, to which Emma exclaimed, "HEY! I heard this YESTERDAY! Mom, can you put this on my iPod?" LOL

The final "official" piece of the concert is my favorite each year. The orchestra performs the "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky with REAL CANONS! :) It's such a neat piece to begin with, and then you add the canons, man....just heavenly! :) LOL

To close the night, the orchestra plays a number of marches (mostly by John Phillip Sousa) to a fabulous firework display! They, of course, close with "The Stars and Stripes Forever"!! Here are some pictures from our awesome 5th DSO @ Greenfield Village concert!!

On Saturday, Emma and I got some things done at home, then went to Tony's parents' to pick Bradlee up. Mom had texted me a note that Bradlee had fallen asleep in his bean bag chair on their patio while watching a movie...and he was still there when Emma and I arrived! I think that little pool and playing outside just wears him out!! We also jumped in the pool and had dinner!!

Sunday, we got up, made some pancakes for dinner, then everyone got their swimsuits on and we drove over to Tony's parents' for the 4th of July festivities! On our way over, we played some patriotic music for the kids to enjoy and listen to...including "God Bless America", "God Bless the USA" and then "America" by Neil Diamond! The kids LOVED this last one, joining in the "TODAY!!!!!" part! I think we listened to that song about 4 times! Here they are singing along!

My parents came over in the afternoon and we had a wonderful time celebrating America's birthday! My dad and Emma had a water fight (my dad started it...Emma was in the pool, he was out of it!), we had a great BBQ with some great food and great company! We spent a lot of time in the pool, too! We left around 8:30pm and ran home to grab a few things, then went to a spot around downtown Flint to get ready for the Flint fireworks. For a troubled city like Flint, they did a very nice job of fireworks, and we found a great spot! Bradlee was a little nervous at first, clinging onto me, but within 10 minutes of hearing and seeing what was going on, he would start clapping and cheering on his own, and turned to me and said, "dat coo!!" (that's cool!) with a HUGE grin on his face!

It was really nice to also have Monday off, so the four of us just hung out at home during the day, and then went to dinner with my grandparents, aunt and uncle from Chicago, parents, sisters and Garrett. I didn't get a single picture at dinner...figures! I'll see if anyone else did from that night and post it later!! Hope all of YOU had a great 4th of July weekend, too!!

Relay for Life 2010!!

This was the 4th year I have participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Davison.

Relay for Life is a 24-hour event held in cities all over the globe. The main purpose is to bring awareness to the American Cancer Society's fight against cancer. It's also a major fundraiser for ACS and brings in thousands of dollars each year. There are different ceremonies held during the 24 hours, such as a "Fight Back" ceremony (to introduce different ways to help fight back against cancer), the "Survivor" ceremony (to honor survivors - and according to ACS, you are a survivor the day you are diagnosed with cancer - and their caregivers), and the "Luminary" ceremony (to remember those who we have lost to cancer). Teams are formed and "camp out" around a track for the 24 hours and the goal is to not only raise money, but to have someone walking on the track from your team for the entire 24 hours! There are different themes for each hour of walking to keep things interesting and there are all kinds of fundraisers and fun things happening throughout the night. If you are ever able to go to a Relay for Life, I highly recommend it! It's for a great cause and is really great for the community!!

My first two years with the Relay, I was a team captain for a youth group my sister-in-law was working with. Last year, I was team captain for our family team and also on the committee as the accounting/registration chairperson. This year, I was on the committee again. This event is a major passion of mine, and I just love participating in it each year. Last year was the first year I really got Emma involved as well...we raise money together and then we have also spent the entire night together at the Relay! I also try to explain to Emma exactly what we're doing. She knows that the disease we're raising money for is cancer. She knows people who have beat cancer (my grandpa, our friend, Deb)...and she knows that we have lost people to cancer (Tony's grandparents, my old band director, Jim). We also visit Relays in the area to get ideas and just to experience the magic! Our first one this year, Fenton, we were walking with my team from work. We got there as the survivor ceremony was ending and Emma was asking what we were doing. I told her that we were clapping and cheering for the people in the purple shirts (all survivors that come to Relay get a purple "SURVIVOR" t-shirt) who either have cancer, or beat cancer. I gave her the examples of Aunt Deb and Papa and she completely understood. I know this, because the very next day, we went to the Grand Blanc Relay, and as we were walking up to the track, she said, "Oh Mama, there's a purple shirt!" When I asked her what it meant, she said, "Well, it means they either have cancer or they BEAT it!" Smart girl!

A week later, we went to the Flushing Relay (where Tony was actually DJ-ing!) and as we were pulling up into our parking spot, Emma says from the back seat, "Okay, Mama, remember. If you see a person with a purple shirt on, it means they either HAVE cavities or they BEAT it!" I looked at her in the mirror (she had a funny look on her face) and said, "Cavities?" ~pause~ "CANCER." She replied! :) She's a hoot, and I love that she knows what's going on and that she wants to participate!

So this year, she was all excited to spend the night as well! Our Relay was June 26-27 at the Davison High School track (VERY nice facilities!)...we went to set up our campsite on Friday night...here's Emma and Bradlee (who cheers for "lee-lay!" whenever he knows we're going!) getting ready to go set up:

Saturday morning, I got up and headed to the track to make sure my banking area was set up and get some things together and Tony brought the kids around 9:45 or so. The Relay started at 10am and ended at 10am on Sunday morning! Here we are, ready to Relay!!!

Tony sang the National Anthem to kick off the Relay, and then it we were off!! He had to DJ that night in the Lake Orion area, so he had to leave fairly early. What we did last year and this year was have one or two of Tony's students come and watch the kids from noon until after the luminary ceremony. This is because it's basically a family event! I am the accounting chair, my sister-in-law was the co-chair for the whole event, and my mother-in-law was the luminary chair! So, the help was greatly appreciated and the kids have a great time playing with someone a little closer to their own age! LOL This year, Tony's student, Kortnee, came to watch the kids. Emma's pretty easy, but man, Bradlee's a handful!! Here's Tony singing the Anthem, Kortnee, Emma and Bradlee sitting in Emma's shark tent eating ice cream, and Emma and Kortnee showing off their face painting!!

As I'm sure you can imagine, being outside in the sun and heat all day can not only make adults cranky and tired, but kids, too! God bless Kortnee, she was able to get Bradlee to take a nap...not sure if you can tell from this picture, but Bradlee found the sand pit right next to our campsite as well, and his shoes show it! Plus, on top of the stroller, you can see that his elephant "Ellie" is whipped, too!!

At 6pm, we had the Survivor Ceremony. My parents and sister, Karyn, came to see it, and my dad's high school classmate (and still one of his best friends), Don (we call him Uncle Max) also came with his girlfriend, Betsy. Uncle Max is a cancer survivor, and we learned that Betsy is also! It was so great to have them there and to honor them! Here's Uncle Max with my dad!

One thing we make sure we have at Relay for the survivor ceremony is golf carts to help those who can't walk much be able to make it around the track for their survivor lap. They are usually completely filled and are definitely much appreciated. Well, this year, we brought along the little princess car of Emma's that she has at Tony's parents' house. There is a little girl, about 4 years old, named Kaia, who is a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with neuroblastoma of the kidney when she was 18 months old and this is her 3rd Relay with us as a Survivor! When I told Emma about her, I was just saying that Kaia was a survivor. Finally Emma interrupted me and said, "Wait, Mama. Does that mean she'll have a purple shirt on?" I told her yes, to which she responded, "Does she have cancer? Or did she beat it?" I told her Kaia beat cancer. Emma got a smile on her face and said, "Oh GOOD!" Amazing. So, to kick off the survivor lap, Emma drove Kaia in her princess car around the whole track and they were the H-I-T of the event! It gives me goosebumps just writing about it, and by far, this was the highlight of this year's Relay for me. I think they're going to want to do it again next year! Here they are...(oh, and they didn't run into anyone, either!!!)!! LOL

Around 10pm we had the Luminary ceremony, where we light decorated bags around the track in honor of those we have lost to cancer. Here are some of the bags we had around our campsite...

On the bleachers of the track (it's actually a football stadium, so on the visitor's bleachers) there are plain bags that are lit to spell out "HOPE" - then during the luminary ceremony, they "magically" move to spell out "CURE" - and then back to "HOPE" to burn the rest of the night. Here's a really good picture of "HOPE"!!!

Emma finally fell asleep around 1:15am and I ended up staying up the whole 24 hours...making sure I walked the track at LEAST once per hour! She fell asleep on top of her sleeping bag, in her shark tent, in the bigger 4-room tent! She gets a big kick knowing and telling everyone that when she fell asleep, "It was already morning!" LOL

We woke her up around 8:45 the next morning, just in time to eat some pancakes and help clean up a bit before the closing ceremonies. Compared to last year, in which she was a CRABBY girl, this year, she was awesome! She helped out and ate her pancakes and was smiley the whole morning!

We had the closing ceremonies and get everything packed up before a line of severe thunderstorms came through the area...we lucked out again! It was a great weekend and we had a great time! Emma and I raised over $750 ourselves and the Relay for Life of Davison raised over $90,000!!!

If you want to know how you can help, this year or in the future, either send me an email and I can help, or go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/kristyemma to make a donation! We can collect money for our Relay 2010 (the one we just had) until August 31, 2010. After that, it goes towards next year's totals. If you wait until after August 31st, I wouldn't do it online until next year, so just contact me, and I'll make sure you are notified when 2011's website is up and running! Emma's and my goal for this year is $1000, and right now we've got $790, so tell all your friends, too! :)