a tea for two

I have to admit, a tea party is one of the things I've really looked forward to since we found out nicolette was a girl, way back when. I mean, who doesn't want to have a tea party with a beautiful little (days away from) two and a half year old? This tea set has been in the closet, just begging to be used for almost two and a half years. When nicolette got it, it seemed like forever until it would get some use!

So, with spring just around the corner, we planned for our tea party. We waited until mr. cole-man got all cozy in his crib, and then we broke out all our accessories! A tea party is not complete without a tea hat (which still had the tag on in the first picture!), and some beads. We not only played the part, but we needed to look the part too! We got the teeny quilt that once laid so nicely in nicolette's crib and put it down. We set up all the "stuff" and got right to our party!






Nicolette wasn't too sure of what to think. She hasn't, after-all, had a tea party before! She was amazed at the silverware. I have to admit, I was too. I have a thing for little versions of normal stuff.




We made one small change though. Tea just didn't sound good to us. We didn't have any good varieties left, and we didn't want to wait for it to heat up, so we made pink milk instead. We've recently (re)discovered strawberry syrup in the Pollard house and Nicolette and I thought it would be a lovely substitute!




And what tea party is not complete without fun food? We didn't have time to make or buy petite fours, so we opened up a bag of Princess fruit snacks and added them to the menu.




Cheers to a fabulous afternoon!




How can you not fall in love with that face?

popsicles

This plastic popsicle set has been sitting in the lazy susan for ages!

I got it over the summer in hopes of making healthy treats for the kids in the blazing summer heat. Well, we had good intentions, but never actually made them. Fast-forward to February, in the freezing cold weather, where we decided that homemade popsicles would be a fabulous snack for the afternoon. We needed a little pick-me-up and hot chocolate was just not doing it for us.

We got all our ingredients (yogurt, fruit, juice and milk), poured and blended away and ten filled those little holder to the rim!

Only Mommy was missing a piece, or didn't put the blender together right and we made a mess. Not just a little spill. A really, really big mess( a little Laurie Berkner, for all you fans!). And the worst part was, we had no idea it might happen, so imagine the look on my face when our mixture just kept pouring out the wrong end. No worries though... I'm used to disasters in the kitchen. It was easily cleaned up, and we salvaged much more than we needed.

Our little munchkins enjoyed their frozen treat after dinner the next night. Cole hasn't learned about the holder yet, and cried every few seconds when it got too cold for his little hands, but otherwise, both kiddos enjoyed their little tease of summer!

all work and no play for this mommy

Nicolette has really gotten into her babies lately. She literally will play with her babies all.day.long. Here was a typical morning this mommy's day...

First they had to eat breakfast. Both babies are in their high chairs in the picture, but that didn't last long, as they then had to take a nap.


After that, and without finishing breakfast, they had to go to Target and Wegmans. I was bribed to go and told I would get a treat if I came. Hmmmmm.... wonder where she got that from?? And when they got back from buying Spiderman fruit snacks, they had to read.



And then we took a break from the babies, or so I thought, and we went to the mall. But, we could not leave the babies along at home, so we brought the stroller and the baby with us!





It's exhausting being a mom...

a masterpiece

On a random afternoon, we decided that painting was in order. And by we, I mean I decided and Nicolette was up for it! So, we brought up the easel, and got old t-shirts, paint and paintbrushes. We hung paper up and the kids got right to work.




This was a new experience for the little guy and I wasn't sure how it would go.


Nicolette had fun practicing colors and the letters of her name.

The little man was not a happy camper. I took my eyes off of him for a split second and when I turned around there was paint all over his face. He didn't seem to mind, so, if you're interested in eating Crayola paint, please know it tastes just fine!

I should have known better than to let my 14 month old paint, but we thought we'd give it a whirl. He was not happy being a spectator for the rest of the time!

happy

Not everything in my life has gone the way I've wanted or expected it to, some big and some small, but despite it all, I have a lot to be happy for. We're all healthy here. Of course, we wish we were a little thinner, but we are healthy, nonetheless. We have two beautiful children, who are happy. Yes, they have their moments, but our kids are happy, and polite, and easy-going and fun.

Sometimes I stop and wonder how I got here. Yesterday, I was washing nicolette's hair in the tub and thought, wow, I am doing exactly what I imagined I would be doing one day. I knew I wanted kids and feel so fortunate to have my babies (who, btw, aren't really babies anymore). It was a struggle for a bit and my dreams were tested, but we got here.

I have many friends who have struggled with infertility and having a baby. It breaks my heart to see people I care about go through that- because I've been there, and it's not fun. At all. I don't know how we got lucky, but God graced us with not one, but two miracles. Sometimes I stop and think how lucky I really am. I don't want to forget that. And I don't want to take a single day, or hour, or minute for granted, because that's just time you can't get back. I look at these smiling faces and hope it's always this easy and fun (I know it won't be). Those smiling face me me smile. And that makes me happy.

We take pictures all the time here. We take a lot of pictures, to capture most things we do. I don't want to forget a moment of these days. I've always taken a lot of pictures. I remember the summer after my senior year of high school and 6 of my very best friends and I went to Disney for the week. I took hundreds of pictures and got them developed while we were still there. Many of those 6 friends were not happy with my constant "photo-shoots" but when we got home they wanted copies of all the fabulous pictures I took. Those were some of the best times of my life. Ok, back to picture taking...

I am the photographer of the family. Jon only takes a picture if I ask him to and many times gives up after one or two shots. Since I am always the one behind the camera, I am very rarely in any shots. Lucy, our favorite friend, was here the other day and captured some great shots of me and each of the kids.

And one of Lucy and the kids. They adore Lucy. She is so good with them and loves them so much!

And these are some shots I got while playing around with my new camera. I love my Nikon d3000, but there is so much to learn! I think I need to take the Valentine's Day decorations down.

And here are some more of our pictures, just enjoying life!

a post of firsts

I got a gift certificate from my wonderful husband out of the blue awhile back and hadn't used it. I love.love.love. to get pedicures and the middle of February in cny is a fabulous time to get one. My parents were headed out to Vegas and my mom wanted to get one, so I thought, hey, why not bring nicolette along. She loves to toes painted by me, so why wouldn't she love a pedicure?



It's hard work being a girl. Do you know how many crazy O.P.I colors there are. I made a mental note to write down the color nicolette chose, but that never happened and the color has escaped me (I am close to 30, ya know!).


You have to sit in massaging chairs.




You have to sit still. Do you know how hard that is for a two-year old?


The girl asked nicolette if she wanted a flower and after thinking loooooong and hard, she opted to keep it!

Nicolette has had her hair trimmed a couple times by me or my mom, but her hair just keeps growing in the back. We wish we could say the same about the sides. Needless to say the mullet was getting bad. I refuse to give her bangs (they are just not my thing), so she needed a trim. My mom's friend Barbara cuts her hair, and mine and trimmed it up for us. She was a perfect angel, sitting very still while her hair was trimmed up. Honestly, you can barely tell, but it looks better and has that freshly cut feeling!

I got 99 problems, but my kicks ain't one

I've been posting a lot about things I've done with nicolette and I feel like I have neglected cole on here. Really, IRL, I haven't. It's just that he's too little to help with a lot of things and tries to eat whatever we are doing. I know kids his age put things in thier mouths, but seriously, this kid LOVES to eat. He eats more than nicolette on most days.

He has saying more and more words lately. He is constantly babbling and yelling. I would love to know what goes on in his head and what he is really saying all the time because man, is this kid loud! I love having a "converstation" with him. He understands me and I make up what I want to hear him saying. Hey, I won't always be able to hear what I want from him.

My baby is growing up. I look at pictures and he is no longer my baby. He has toddler features now, and runs, and talks. He's our last and it's kind of sad to do it all one last time. Having a boy is fun though. I know everyone says girls are more fun, and they are sometimes, but boys really are a lot more fun than I thought they would be. And, let me tell you, cole is all boy.

Check out these cute kicks cole got from his Uncle Luke.

He has another pair, Nike Jordans, that are still in the closet. Yes, his uncle has spoiled him with sneakers, kind of like he spoils himself with sneakers. Seriously, my brother has over 30 pairs. I would expect nothing less from him.

No, cole does not have 99 problems (does he have any??). I just saw a shirt with this saying and it reminded me of my brother, which reminded me to capture these sneakers on my little man's feet.

I will miss these days when they are gone...