All For Chocolate!

Cassidy is approaching 16 months and isn't walking. She will take just one or two steps at a time. She walks from me to Ryan or alongside you but not just on her own. It has really bothered me so I devised a plan. I bought a bag of M&Ms and spent 20 minutes bribing her. I had her walk from the piano bench to me and she got an M&M when she walked but when she didn't I would take it away. She got ticked when that happened. But just after a few tries she figured it out. Walking gets you chocolate. After working with her she began to choose to walk on her own for no reward at all. As she played with the kids the rest of the night she was walking so much more. So, all in the name of chocolate. Here are her two videos.





She walked all that way on her own with no reward. Pretty darn amazin'!

Aidan is SIX!

Aidan is six today. Yes SIX. So crazy. He has been so funny about his birthday, quite the DIVO- male form of Diva, which is true Gremmert form. First, a couple of days before we came home from our trip he told us that starting Sunday we could start calling him Birthday Boy. Good to know. Then he told us that he wanted a ride to AND from school. He told us all day he could do whatever he wanted because it was his day. That night he asked if he could fall asleep in our bed and I said no. He said, "That doesn't make any sense that I can't fall asleep in your bed on my BIRTHDAY!"

Last night we went out for pizza with my parents for Aidan's birthday. He opened their presents which were a new spiderman ball he had lost in the nearby ditch and a tennis racket. He was thrilled about both. Today we took treats to his class. He sat in a special chair today and received a small gift from his teacher. They even announced his birthday over the intercom at school. He loved that.

When Aidan got home from school we had decorated the house in Star Wars streamers, balloons and a happy birthday sign. He walked in a screamed. He then said, "This is my best day ever!" We played for awhile after school. Then he wanted dinner and presents. I asked what he wanted for dinner, his choice. He said, CEREAL. I tried to talk him out of it and even offered to go out but nope cereal it was. We had cake and presents after. He got soccer goals, a leapster and Star Wars game, a Lego Star Wars pen, a kickstand for his bike, and some legos.

To finish off the night, Ryan took him to play tennis, just the two of them.

"Our Really Long Date"

Early Sunday morning Ryan and I left for our "really long date" (as named by Lacey). We were off to St. Maarten in the Caribbean for the week. We were celebrating our 8th anniversary on May 4th and my mom came in to watch the kids. We have been looking forward to this for a long time.

St. Martin is an interesting place. It is half Dutch and half French but most speak English and they accept the dollar everywhere. I guess you suppose the island will look wealthy because it is a big tourist attraction but really the local life looks quite poor. I felt like I was in Mexico. Ryan kept comparing it to El Salvador. The roads were real small and driving was an adventure. Food was very expensive. A bag of Doritos was $7.00. Insane. It wasn't as tropical as I expected. There were a few mountains but they weren't green and lush. The beaches were nice and clean though and there were enough palm trees to know you were somewhere tropical.

We had such a great location. We had a studio condo on the ground floor and the front "lawn" was the beach. It was awesome. Anytime we had a few moments we just grabbed a chair and laid on the beach. Or we ate lunch and breakfast watching the waves roll in. It was great! The water was so beautiful, a bright turquoise.

View from our room

Our highlights:
We were able to explore most of the island. We visited 12 different beaches. All had something different to offer. Our favorites were Rouge, Cupecoy, and Little Bay. It was fun to explore each one. Some had softer sand than others, some had prettier views, and some had no people on them at all. Ryan and I loved napping in the sun, talking, watching the waves, floating in the ocean, and reading. One beach had great snorkeling real close. You could see other islands off in the distance at some locations.

Along with discovering all the beaches we played tennis, swam in the pool, ate out, ate in, read on the beach, made pina coladas, and went shopping. It rained some days but never for the whole day.

LOW lights:

I tried to give Ryan the gift of me loving scuba diving, but it just didn't happen. I tried. I took a discovery dive, practiced in shallow water and everything. But when we got out into the real ocean I freaked out a little. Okay a lot. I could see Ryan below me in the water and it just spooked me to go down so far. I felt like I was being buried alive. I felt so bad that I just couldn't overcome the fear. I know Ryan really wanted this to be a hobby we could do together but it is one we can definitely cross off our list. We are NOT going to be that couple that goes on dive trips together. I guess he will have to settle for a wife who relaxes on the beach or shops while he dives. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't give that to him but he said he still loves me. However, Ryan was able to do two dives a different day. They both ended up being wreck dives where they explored two boats that had sunk. He had a great time. He saw some cool fish and went to 110 feet which was a first for him. See I tried!

Right off the runway of the airport is Maho Bay, a beach that you can sit at to watch planes land and take off. About 25 feet separate you from the runway. We saw a couple of planes take off and a few come in to land. It was one of the craziest things I have ever done. When the plane comes into land you are staring it right in the face. It is very loud and you are really hoping they don't land on you. BUT the taking off is what is crazy. We watched two planes take off. One was a 737 and another was and Airbus. The first was pretty cool and you could definitely feel the thrust of the engines but the second one we watched was PAINFUL!!! The first one hadn't come to a complete stop before it took off. It kind of rolled around the corner and continued to take off. So the thrust of the engine wasn't as intense. The second one come to a full stop and then took off. The thrust of the engines kicked up so much sand and threw it right in our faces. It was seriously so painful. Ryan and I ran down the beach toward the water to get away from it but it just got worse. My shoe flew off, Ryan's sunglasses came off and we had sand permanently embedded into our skin. I took a video of it but once I realized what was happening I hid the camera in my towel so it wouldn't be ruined. The camera continued to record so you can hear me screaming and screaming. It was hilarious. So no kidding, one of the craziest things I have done. Probably up there on my stupidest too.

The trip was so fun for us. It was great to just be us again. We were often mistaken as honeymooners which made me feel young. I loved having Ryan all to myself and having no commitments to anything. We could do whatever we wanted when we wanted. We did miss the kids a lot and received plenty of voicemails from sad children. They were happy for us to come home. Aidan was up at 5:30 a.m. the day we came home anxiously waiting for our arrival. Lacey kept asking why we needed to go on a long date. And when Cassidy saw me for the first time she looked at me in wonderment. She couldn't believe it when she saw me. Her mouth went open wide and her nose crinkled up. It was so funny. I think she was permanently attached to me for the next 24 hours. They were great for my mom though and had a great time playing with her.

Working in the yard with Daddy.

Ryan redefined helping daddy work in the yard.

Cassidy was just standing at the window yelling for him so he opted for this solution. She really enjoyed it. She was outside with him for about 45 minutes and not once cried. Ryan said she just jabbered as she rode along.

Game On!

We started Lacey and Aidan in soccer for the first time this year. They are on the same team. They have had 2 practices and 1 game. At the first practice during one of the water breaks, Aidan asked me how much longer of practice. I asked if he was tired and ready to go and he said, "No, I love this!" I could tell he was in heaven. He talks about soccer constantly. He aggressively goes after the ball and is so engaged. Lacey on the other hand runs after it some and then dilly dallies around some. She likes that she is playing though and that she is involved in something. She also like her pink shoes.

At practice the coach walked the kids in a row around the lines of the field to talk about each part of the field and what happened there. As they walked around each section, they pretended to be different animals or people. The first was soldiers, and then monkeys then tigers. When asked for another suggestion, Lacey said, "Let's be stars". I thought the coach would ask for another suggestion but no they walked around saying I'm a star, I'm a star, leaping and making jumping jack motions. I was laughing so hard because that is SO Lacey to suggest being STARS! She has a good coach to accommodate her free spirited mind.

The game was fun to watch. Both did great! They also both had the chance to be goalie. I don't know if this is the beginning of a long road of soccer games but we are sure enjoying the beginning.

Camping Party

As you have seen on previous posts we tend to do something fun Friday nights. Be it a movie and popcorn, a trip to McDonalds, or just making forts. Well, we have upgraded our fort to a real okay, semi real tent. It was $10 at IKEA and would save me the headache of creating a fort all the time. I love it. Well, the kids wanted to sleep in the tent. So I upped the annie and said, "Let's have a camping party." I suggested smores and a campfire. The kids took it from there. They wanted to cut out grass, trees, bushes, the moon, and stars. I told them that I could dress up in dad's fuzzy jacket and pretend I was a bear. I got shut down on that one.

We were all really excited for Friday night. Lacey and I did our shopping that day and were so excited when we found glow in the dark stars to put on our ceiling. I was about to cut out stars and paint them with glow in the dark paint but this was even better. Once Aidan got home from school the cutting and gluing and taping began. They loved it. Then we set up the tent and decorated. Cassidy got into most of it but we did what we could. We had a blast. I especially loved how our campfire turned out.

The smores were good as always and we loved the stars glowing in the dark. It kind of made me home sick. Some of you may not know, but in the room I had for most of my time growing up had a sky blue ceiling with white clouds painted on it and also glow in the dark stars. So during the day it looked like the sky and during the night it looked like the night sky with all the stars and even a big E.T. moon that glowed in the dark. My mom spent hours putting the stars in constellations on the ceiling initially for when my older sister was living in the room. I loved falling asleep to what seemed like the real sky. It was magical. They still glow to this day. So I did my small rendition of some constellations and put each kids initials in "our sky".

The best part of our camping party............I still got to sleep in my own bed. My kind of camping!

The Office

While we were in Seattle the kids were introduced to the workings of an office. Ryan's mom was in the middle of tax season and has several employees working for her in her home office. The kids, especially Lacey, fell in love with office work. I don't think I saw Lacey from 9 to 5 because she was working with the girls. She used post it notes, worked on the computer, carried around a pen and notebook and even made a name tag for her desk. I was shocked how much she loved being in the office. I really hope she wasn't much of a burden to them. As the days went on my kids started wearing a pen clipped on their shirts just like Grandpa Arden did.