The day Wesley's dreams of growing up shattered...

Evan: Let's make a cake for mommy's party!

Wesley: What kind of party is mommy having?

E: It's her birthday.

W:  What kind of party is she having?

E: A 37th birthday party.

W: NOOOO!  What KIND of party?

E:  You just have parties when you grow up.

W:  How about a Spiderman party?

E: (laughing)

W:  We could do a Scooby Doo party!

E:  It's just a party.

He LOVES me!

My DH listened to my hints and now I have a new baby...

(...and this one doesn't keep me up at night with its teething and diaper changes!!!)

I have to say I am in love with this technological creation! It is:

a) pretty

b) chock full of fun things to do

c) a phone, but oh so much more!

d) a babysitter (hello, youTube!!!)

e) MINE!

The day was perfect:

Morning: a great garage sale where I got two cute new wrought iron beds for the guest room and then dumpster diving at GAP. Did you know that they just throw away those huge oversized frames around the store? How could I let them leave such a big carbon footprint with that "garbage", so I took a few to save the universe. (about the amount that Evan might not notice)

Afternoon: Came home to a darling birthday cake made by 8 loving hands and a set of 3 and 7 candles, and interestingly placed sprinkles. It was precious and delicious! Then all of the presents: artwork compliments of Sophia & Wesley, then the grand present! (see above)

Evening: The best Visiting Teacher EVER arrived on my doorstep promptly at 5pm so that Evan and I could have a night on the town. We took the Mini down to SoHo and just wandered, shopped and ate. It was divine! Got some fun gadgets at Sur La Table, then had a delicious dinner at Ideya, a Latin Bistro and finished it off with a trip to pinkberry! Have you tried pinkberry yet?! YUM!

Thanks for all the calls, notes and well wishes! 37 is going to be a great year!

Happy Birthday, Lizzie

For my birthday, I'm going to go unconventional and write about myself:

10. I'm spontaneous. Want to go to a movie at 9pm on a weeknight? I'm there. Wanna stop by to visit for a few minutes? Great, I'll pour you some limeade. Great deal on airfare and hotel in Vieques this weekend? Let's jet!

9. I love getting lost in the details of parties, events and life. Some people may say, why does it matter that all the towels are folded the same way to fit uniform in the closet, I say, it's like art in your home. Some may say, who cares if there are fresh flowers on the dinner table and fun coordinating plates--it matters to me. Got a party to plan? I'm on it!

8. I love maps. I've always loved to study them and look at the world and all the places I've never heard of and imagine life there. I can't believe how far away civilization is from some islands. Do those people feel isolated?

7. I love flowers. I wish I had the time and patience at this stage in my life to garden, and my latest attempt at planting seeds that grew into beautiful seedings failed last week when they all dried out in the warm sun. Oops. They were getting so big and full too. I guess I had better stick to buying cut flowers.

6. I'm addicted to Kettle Corn, Microwave Popcorn and only the Stop & Shop brand. I've never even looked at the label. I'm afraid to see what the calorie and fat count are.

5. My favorite color is navy blue.

4. I love garage sales except for the really depressing ones where everything is broken down, full of cobwebs and dust and looks like it came from the dumpster.

3. My favorite shows are all the reality ones. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Survivor, Project Runway and American's Next Top Model. It's an interesting observation, but I love to watch how people evolve in a game situation and they really do or they are booted off.

2. I am the luckiest girl being married to Evan.

1. Sophia, Wesley and Luke haven't cried all day today and that's the best birthday present yet!

37 isn't so bad!

It's SPRING!

The Royal Star Magnolias are in full swing, that's how I know!  I wish I could paste the fragrance on this blog somehow because it's such a lovely smell.  Here is an example!




 The yard is coming back to life from its long, Winter sleep and we couldn't be more thrilled!  Welcome back SPRING!  

We missed you.

Does April Fool's last all month?!?!

Have you ever had things happening around you and you keep looking for the Candid Camera or Punk'd team to come out and say, hahaha, gotcha!??!?!

Last week, our cat Dolce started showing signs of a very infected mouth, so we took him to the Vet which ended up referring him to an oral surgeon in the Vet realm.  (Don't ask, just think lots of $$$$$$) Dolce, Luke and I arrived at Dr. Surgeon's office. (yes, that's really his name)  He pulled Dolce out of his carrier and I proceeded to pet him to calm him down.  The Dr. practically dove across the examining room to get my hand to stop caressing the cat because he was A L L E R G I C to cats.  Yes, a Vet that is allergic to cats!!!  I couldn't think of anything more ironic.  He immediately started wheezing and into a full blown attack as we was explaining to me how he was going to treat Dolce's mouth and all I could do was look at him in between his coughs and guttural throat clearings and think, "OK Ashton, you can come out now with your cameras!"  I really thought this doctor was putting one over on me.  Wouldn't you think he would take a proactive Claritin knowing that a CAT was coming in that day?!  I mean it was getting progressively worse as time went on.  I finally said, "Ok, do what you need to do and call me when I need to come get him."  I just wanted to get out of there so I could call Evan!

Then, I can't get over the fact that our pet Beta named Sparkle is a trick fish.  He knows how to play dead!  I'm not kidding!  Often, when I go downstairs in the morning to get breakfast going, I look over and Sparkle is on his side and I think, "Ok, today's the day that the fish gets flushed!"  But when I reach over to tap the glass, he spooks and goes swimming around his bowl!  OK, I know dogs, cats, horses and other animals that do the side sleep, but really, have you ever heard of a fish that sleeps on his side?!  When he really does die one day, I am apt not to believe him!  We should have named him "Wolfie."

30 seconds at a time...

...so, many of you know about my tv shoot with Current TV featuring Curly's and Trash Talk Media as a stay at home mom.(still yet to have its final edit)  Our next publicity stunt is today's NY Times Home section.  Well, actually it's not necessarily a stunt because they came looking for us as did the tv shoot.  Our kitchen was featured in the Times today.  The kids made the final cut where they are making pasta by hand at the counter.  Suzanne, the NY Times shutterbug was at our house for an hour and a half on a Saturday snapping shots of every angle and corner of our kitchen including the knobs, the drawers, the fridges, us, not us, the doors, the hinges, the spices, the breadbox, the baskets of fruit, the counters, well, you get the idea, don't you? (I could go on!) I have been so curious to see what made it to ink.  Congratulations, Wesley, Sophia and Evan's world famous fresh pasta!  Here's the story!  Slowly, we're making up our 15 minutes of fame...30 seconds at a time!

***As a side note, our picture made it to press, but wasn't included on the online version.