Happy Birthday Gina!

We celebrated my best friend Gina's birthday this weekend with a Luau party at our house. We had some great food, friends and some delicious ice cream cake. We love ice cream cake so we have it at every birthday. I think all the kids had a really good time. Jack, Emma, Jake, and Austin played outside by throwing ice cubes everywhere and chased each other around inside. They were hilarious! Happy birthday again Gina and we hope you had a great one!

Me, Gina, and Laura

We even decked out the umbrella out back.

Jake drinking from his Hawaiian cup. I bought all the kids a little Hawaiian cup for the party.

We had some yummy food and cute Luau decorations

Nice tacky Hawaiian shirts Bobby and Lee

Laura holding Ben

Rob and Travis chatting outside on the deck.

Ben will make you jump jump

I took a picture of Ben eating a biter biscuit in his Bumbo. I bought a tray for it last week so he loves hitting the tray with his biscuit and hand. They are the messiest things to eat, but he loves chewing on them. If you click on the picture, you can see just how messy they are by looking at his face. Ben turned 10 months yesterday. It is hard to believe we will be celebrating his 1st birthday in just two months.


Here is a little video of Ben enjoying his jumperoo this weekend. He had so much fun jumping and laughing that I had to video it.

My son, the photographer

Jake has a toy camera he loves to play with. My aunt gave it to him for his 2nd birthday. He always faces it towards his face and says he is taking a picture of us. So yesterday, he picked up my camera once again facing it the wrong way and says he is taking a picture of me. All the sudden I heard a "click". I got the camera away from him and the above picture is what I found.

Toys, Toys, Toys: Help?!!

Please help! I am drowning in toys. What do you moms do with all the toys? Jake still plays with some, but has outgrown most of them. Ben will have plenty to play with if I get rid of a quarter of them. The funny thing is, most the toys were not purchased by us. They were birthday, holiday, and of gifts from grandparents. Our poor living room has turned into a toy store and looks horrible. Anyone want to come over and do some shopping?

More toys

Even more toys

Getting together with friends at the park

Today, Jake, Ben and I met my friends from elementary and high school. Kendra and I have been friends since 5th grade and Jeanette lived right down the street from me growing up. Kristie and Jeanette were best friends and Kendra and I were, then we all became good friends in high school. We were always together. It is hard to get us all together, but we finally did it! We met at this park in Woodstock named JJ Biello. If you live near there, you should definitely go. There was a really big playground for little ones and one for bigger kids. There are picnic tables under a big pavilion where we sat and caught up while we ate lunch. The bigger kids (or the girls) watched the little ones on the playground while we had some adult conversation. It is so funny that Kendra and Kristie's oldest are 14 and Jeanette and my oldest are 1 1/2 and 2. Anyway, it was a hot, but very fun day! Thanks ladies. Maybe next time we can go swimming in Kristie's pool as soon as she gets that pool house built and cabana boy to bring us drinks. :)

Jeanette holding Tanner, her twins Cole and Hunter eating lunch and Jake eating some watermelon.

Jake swinging

Here is Kendra's oldest Lauren holding Ben. She is 14 years old.

Here is Jeanette's youngest Tanner

Here are almost all the kids. There are 11 between the four of us. Ben and Tanner were taking naps. Kendra and Kristie have 3 girls each, Jeanette has 3 boys, 2 are twins and I have two boys.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Last night some friends and I went to see the True Colors tour at Chastain Park Amphitheatre. My friend Laura invited us a couple of months ago and we were all super excited! Audrey, Gina, and Laura and I all headed down to the park around 6:30 or so. The traffic was pretty bad around the park, but we eventually made it. We packed a cooler with a variety of drinks and Gina embroidered us some really cute koozies to hold our beverages. You can see them in the pics. We then met up with my cousin Candice who works for the catering company Proof of the Pudding. She gave us some awesome food to eat. There were two opening acts which I can't remember their names. I do remember that Audrey was excited to learn that they were from Toronto. Then Rosie O'Donnell came on and she was hilarious. After her, the B-52s performed and they were awesome! They haven't changed a bit and their music was still very entertaining. They did some new stuff and of course their old, like Rock Lobster and Love Shack. After they performed and while Cyndi Lauper was getting ready, Carson Kressley came out to entertain and fill the time. He was hilarious too! Cyndi Lauper came out and stole the show. I can't believe how good she still looks and sounds after all these years. Her performances of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Time After Time were my favorites, although when all the artists came out to sing True Colors that was definitely good too! It was a late night and I was really tired this morning, not to mention we were out of coffee, but it was well worth it!

Here we are with our cute koozies again and delicious food

Lobster Dip, a Brushetta tray, chicken on a stick, shrimp, beef tenderloin, chicken caesar salad, cheesecake and poundcake were our menu for the evening. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Candice!

These are my cousins Candice and Bill. They are brother and sister. Thanks for making us look extra pale with your tan Bill.

This isn't a great pic., but this is the B-52s performing. They were great!

Here is Cyndi again singing out in the audience. That is the great thing about this venue is that the artists come out into the audience to sing.

Here is Cyndi Lauper performing

This was all the bands that performed. The opening acts, Cyndi Lauper, and the B-52s, Rosie O'Donnell and Carson Kressley

Happy Daddys Day!!

Happy Daddys day (as I like to call it) to all the Daddys out there. Who really calls their daddy father? It will always be daddy to me. It is so special to be a parent and Lee is the best daddy ever. Today, we let daddy sleep in because we had a late night at a couples baby shower. When he got up Jake gave him his gift and told him Happy Father's Day. It was so sweet. We later went to my parents to see my daddy and have dinner. We had barbeque chicken on the grill, broccoli, rolls, hashbrown casserole, and corn on the cob. It was delicious. Even though Lee's dad is no longer with us, we think of him each and everyday, especially today and remember what a great daddy he was. There is nothing greater than being a mommy and daddy except maybe a grandparent (so I've heard). There is a video below. I am so impressed with myself that I actually was able to do it. It was suppose to be a picture, but my mom had the dial on my camera turned to video.


Me and my daddy

Papa and Jake. Notice the yellow highchair in the background. It was mine when I was little and now Jake and Ben use it at Mimi and Papa's house.

Lee and Jake in my parents' backyard.

Ben jumping in the jumper with Abby looking on.

Papa and Ben. Ben chewing on a ball

Ben chewing (again) on a spoon

Nana's house

On Monday after the wedding we staying at Nana's condo in Boston. Lee invited our friends Josh and Sara over to visit. It has been a while since we last saw them and they have new baby girl named Seraphina. She joins big sister Lyra who is 3 years old (sorry you guys if I misspelled their names). It was great to see them and catch up. Sara is a teacher also and is still in school for another week. WOW!

Earlier in the day, Jake and Nana watered her plants outside. If you know Jake, he loves it outside. We warned Nana that she might not be able to get him back in, so Ben, Lee and I joined them outside too.



Nana and Jake watering the flowers outside her condo.



I love this picture of Nana and Ben


Lee and Josh


Sara and their new baby Seraphina


Jake and Lyra

Sarah's wedding in Boston

Well, we went to Boston for my sister in law's wedding this past weekend. We arrived on Friday and spent the evening with Nana, aunt Margie, Sarah and Jonathon at Nana's house. The boys did great on the plane. Jake slept almost all the way there and back. He had so much fun being on the airplane we couldn't get him to get off. Saturday was the rehearsal dinner at Papa Razzi and it was delicious. Earlier in the day we went to the Horticultural center where the wedding was held to rehearse. It was hot!! We thought we were getting away from Atlanta summer heat, but of course Boston decided to have a record breaking heat wave the weekend we came. After the rehearsal, we met up with Lee's friend Aaron for lunch. Man, did he ever pick on me! He was really on a roll with his southern jokes and mocking my accent. He is a great guy, but I will get him back. Sorry, I got a little off track there.

On Sunday, we headed to the wedding around 3:30. It was a beautiful day, but still pretty hot. The wedding was at 4:30 outside in a garden setting. Sarah looked beautiful and the ceremony was very nice. Lee's aunt Katie sang a song and she has a wonderful voice. After the ceremony, there were cocktails in the garden and then a reception inside with dancing, desserts and a Dj in an attached tent. We had a great time and it was wonderful to see Lee's family again and meet new ones. We met some family members that sent us wedding gifts, but weren't able to come to our wedding. It was nice to put names to faces. I attached several pictures, so please enjoy.

This was the little girl Jake started playing with in the Boston airport the day we left. It was a match made in heaven. She pulled out a box filled with toy cars from the movie Cars. (Jake's favorite)

Sarah and Jonathon at the rehearsal dinner


Blue bear, Ben, Me and Lee at the Rehearsal dinner. It was really yummy!



There goes the bride and groom.  Sarah's dress was actually the one her mother wore on her wedding day. She made a few alterations on it, but it was the original dress.  I thought that was really special.

The bride and groom. Jonathon loves to make faces for the camera. They both looked great.



Nana, Sarah, and Lee coming down the aisle.


The Koster Clan. Cousin Michael, Aunt Katie, Uncle Robert and cousin Jason. What a great looking family!

Jake found a new friend to play with at the reception. It was cousin Michael's girlfriend Liz.



Nana and Jake



Nana and my handsome husband



It's a little blurry, but it's Nana dancing the Horah too!


Sarah and Jonathon dancing the Horah!