super helper

not only is ryan a super-inventor, he's also a super-helper for me in the nursery at church. these little friends L O V E ryan! he is so great to get down on the floor and play with them. they climb all over him and try to knock him over. it's very funny and very great for me!
this picture is from today's craziness.

missing tooth

ella was snuggling on my lap just a minute ago, when i realized there was a tooth missing from her mouth! she's had a really wiggly tooth for the past few weeks and it just fell out, but she didn't even realize it! we started looking for it and i asked her if she had lost it at school. she said "i don't think so". then ella looked on a plate that had remnants of reese's peanut butter cups melted on it, and there was the tooth! this is ella's first lost tooth. hope the tooth fairy is good to her!

ella said "it just happened when i ate that chocolate and i felt a chompy part and just put it on my plate. then mom noticed my tooth was missing and that was it!"

super inventor

tonite we went to the honeywell patent award dinner. we've been invited the past few years, but this year was different. this year ryan was presented with his first patent award!!!!

the process for a patent to be filed and then put through the whole patent system takes a very long time. years, actually. ryan submitted this particular patent in 2004 or 2005. it was actually granted in 2008. however, due to the economy, the patent award dinner was canceled last year and therefore was awarded tonite.

ryan has had one or two other patents granted in europe, as well.

i have to brag a little about this boy, because he doesn't get a lot of mention on this blog.

he's doing a fantastic job at work. in fact, today he was a tour guide to a group from the department of energy. there were also local and state dignitaries in attendance. they'll be on the local news tonite. it was a great day for the buffalo research lab, and ryan was able to be a big part of it.

way to go ry!

bookfair time

last thursday we had the school ice cream social/artshow/bookfair/playground basket raffle. phew!

my friend, cynthia, and i are co-chairs for the bookfair. we were able to get the bookfair combined with the other events, and it worked out perfectly. we made lots of money!

the theme for the evening was '50s diner. we had lots of cute decorations and it turned out great.

birthday loot

here's the birthday boy opening gifts. after the famous "larry the cable guy" card we gave ryan a few years ago, it's been hard to find a card that will tickle ryan's funny bone. so, the girls went with the musical cards this year. ella's played happy birthday and aftie's played the song that says...celebrate good times, come on! the girls thought the cards were hysterical!
ryan received the following:
many, many hug coupons
many, many shirts
two coupons for golfing with each of the girls
snickers bars for his trip to utah
and $$ for a new flat screen tv.

and i would just like to take a moment to give myself a shout-out.
many people can attest that i have a difficult time saving money. HOWEVER, i saved money that i earned babysitting our sweet little friend, jude, and gave it to ryan as his birthday gift to go toward a flat screen. really, i think the fact that i saved any money was a gift in itself. so maybe i'll just take that money back and get myself some new shoes. a really fancy pair.

look who got to see the president!

check out the man in the white shirt closest to you. that's my ryan. he got to see pres. obama with about 199 other buffalonians last week.

happy birthday ry!

this handsome boy is 34 today!

he is getting gray hair and feeling quite proud about it.

we love you ry!

golf party

well, the celebration of afton turning 9 has finally come to an end. we finished up on saturday with a fun round of miniature golf, lunch and a giant cookie with a candle. aftie and friends had a great time golfing!
ryan literally picked up this cutie to move her in front of the ball!

aren't they beauties?

and this picture was taken at the end of the evening while waiting for dinner at applebee's. these two turkeys had stayed up until 2am the night before! they were so proud to have stayed up so late.

and on a separate note, ella had a very successful 1st, official sleepover!

real simple daily quote

“As we grow older, our bodies get shorter and our anecdotes longer.”
― Robert Quillen

everyday i get a quote emailed from real simple magazine. this is today's. it just made me smile, because i think my stories are getting longer, and i'm not even going to talk about the body.

more birthday pics

feet up.

ready to unwrap.

new jean jacket?

ella, aftie and scoodles. scoodles is the new zhu zhu pet.

9 yrs old

this girl turned 9 yesterday! here she is modeling her new nine year old self and a cute, new, birthday dress.

ry and i surprised her for lunch. we brought pizza and soup from our favorite pizza place and ate with her. i think she loved that the boys from her class were a little jealous about the yummy pizza! they kept trying to trade their lunch for her pizza.

we had peanut butter noodles (lettuce wraps) for dinner, aftie's choice, and milkshakes for dessert instead of cake, also aftie's choice.

she loved her presents...zhu zhu pets stuff from ella, jean jacket, itunes gift card, jammies from justice, shorts, alice in wonderland jewelry from marmee and gg, and money from great grandparents!

we love our aftie girl!

being celebrated

i love being a mom for many reasons, but mother's day is one of the most fun reasons. somehow i've set some high expectations for mother's day, because every year i am spoiled rotten. really.
i always have a delicious freshly made yogurt parfait brought to me in bed, often accompanied by flowers!
i always have a delicious meal and dessert prepared for me later in the day.
and one of my favorite parts of the day is opening presents!
the pictures above were made by the girls. they are done in chalk and then framed. truly i am a lucky lady. i had other beautiful gifts made at school and church that i will treasure for years to come.
the photo above was taken during ella's classroom mother's tea on friday. we had lemonade and cookies and were serenaded by the most darling 5 and 6 year olds.
my mom asked ella if i was the cutest mom there. ella said she didn't think so, but then decided i was the most beautiful.
i'll take what i can get!

super surprise

apparently i'm a pretty fantastic mother because i was rewarded with tickets to see Jersey Boys! jersey boys is a broadway show of the rise and fall of frankie valli and the four seaons. this was my early mother's day gift from ry and the girls. they kept it a secret all week long. i've been dying to see this show for a few years and everytime i saw an ad for the show, i'd make a moaning/whining sound and say "ohhhhhhh, i wanna see jersey boys!"

so, we did a little dinner at siena, which is one of my favorite local spots. they have the most amazing wood oven, thin crusted pizza. seriously. but it's a fancy-ish place with other delicious items like steak for my ry.

then we headed to shea's for the show. it was a great show with amazing music and fun choreography, but lots of naughty words.

mom-do not see this show!

ryan always has the best surprises, which makes life so much fun, and makes for great memories.

i love my ry!

costume call

afton had costume call this week at dance. we (afton) finished getting the sequins on the leotard and a sequin choker made, just in time. i actually did sew some of the sequins on, but afton decided to take over and did a fantastic job. she sewed them on while ella had tennis lessons and my friend couldn't believe afton was stitching those on by herself! then we went to the dentist the next afternoon and the hygenist couldn't believe afton was sewing! the girl is a wonder!
we were able to watch the entire dance this week! it's looking pretty good and the girls all looked beautiful in their costumes. way to go aftie!

lunch with ella belle

ella had a special lunch at school this week for grandparents or other special guest. since her grandparents are far away, she decided i could be the special guest. the special guests were to bring their own lunch and we ate with the kids in their classroom. when ella saw what i brought to eat, she said "salad? i should've known you'd bring salad!"

then the kids sang a few songs and we got to look around the classroom and chat. it was very fun.

i asked one of ella's classmates to take a picture of us with my iphone. she had a very difficult time giving it back to me, so i thought i'd include one of the fantastic images she captured...here's one ella's teacher took.
it was a special day for ella and me!!