b-day party at the YMCA

Today we went to a birthday party for Sydney's friend Andrea. Andrea is also in kindergaren with Sydney, and lives right down the road. Both kids went to the party and the first half of the party was swimming in the pool at the YMCA. They had a blast! I even got to go swimming with them, since Zack needed supervision. Thank god the water was nice and warm!



Here is the birthday girl!

Kitty!!

We're getting a new kitten soon... hopefully we can pick her up on Thursday. We are getting her from a shelter and she is on some medication right now. To be named soon!!

The power of a sticker!

We have been battling with Zack for what seems to have been months now about him going to the bathroom - I mean, he does it, but only on his own terms. He waits until the last second. He'll do the potty dance, the pants grab, the uncomfortable stand, and even the "I can't walk right now" move, but if you tell him to go, he refuses. It's a power struggle that gets ugly. After many stories on how it's not good for him, and he'll have to go see the doctor, or even worse, have surgery and stay in the hospital (!) I finally remembered something that worked well with Sydney... the sticker chart!! Sydney was the queen of the sticker charts, and I can't remember a time when they didn't have great results. I guess I keep forgetting the difference in the kid's ages since Sydney is in Kindergarten and Zack tries to do a lot of things that his big sister does. Well, I made a chart with 12 spots on it, and told him he'll get a sticker everytime he goes to the bathroom without asking, or even if we ask and he doesn't refuse. Boy, that worked like a charm. First thing he does is hops out of bed and gots to the bathroom in the morning. Then he goes again after breakfast! He is really proud of his accomplishment, and the best thing is that he gets that sticker that brings him one step closer to the prize - going to Walmart and picking out a Matchbox car (we were there last weekend and they had a big display of them, for only 97 cents!!). What a deal. After that chart, another one will go up with the "grand prize" of a day with Mommy which involves a trip to the "train" library. I hope this reinforcement has a lasting effect :)

Easter

Happy Easter!! The kids woke up and went on a Easter Egg hunt. Sydney was out of bed at exactly 7am, because I told her not to get up until 7am, and she thought the Easter bunny might still be delivering treats and she didn't want to make him go away!

Eggs were cleverly hidden all over the house. A GeoTrax train even was delivering one!


Sydney found her basket right away, but for Zack's we practically had to go over and show it to him. I guess his was hidden a little too well...

We all loved the Madagascar animals the kids got in their baskets.

This was the funniest part of all - the kids helped me make a pineapple upsidedown cake, which used a bundt pan. I was pretty psyched about using the pan since I think I've only used it once in my 10 years of owning it! I was sure bummed to find out that I hadn't greased the pan good enough and it wouldn't come out when I flipped it over. waaaa We did get a pretty good laugh out of it for sure! Heck, it still tasted yummy, I didn't care :)