Happy!

I'm so happy today. Well, I'm almost always happy but today my happy meter is nearly 100%. Mich and I had 4 days off in a row, yes 4! Thursday I had taken a vacation day to spend with my cousin Vicki and her daughters. We planned to go to Coney Island to go to the Aquarium and possibly go on rides maybe see if we could find a shell or two. Well, Thursday morning the alarm goes off and Michy says she's not going to work she's coming with us. Woo Hoo! We started out by going to the bagel store and loading in the Heffalump movie into the dvd player. The kids were happy, Vic and I were sitting in the front and Mich spent most of the ride on the phone with work. We got to the Aquarium just in time for the sea lion show and somehow snagged seats in the second row. I think the highlight was the kiss that Alyssa from the sea lion. Afterwards we went to dinner at Arirang for dinner. It's a hibachi place where they made a big deal about your birthday, flashing lights, a cake and a special song. Every time the lights would go down Sam would say is in my turn. So stinking cute. The next day was fun because we had Sue and we both had the day off. We went shopping for furniture, clothes for Sam and birthday presents. We had lunch just the two of us. That night we went to my mom's house to celebrate Sam's birthday. We always have an especially good time when Rob and Kate come. Mom did a Spiderman or as Isaac says man-man theme. Sam was in heaven. He got many gifts and was a happy boy. Saturday his eyes weren't even open for a minute when he asked can you call Jon, I want to see him for my birthday today. We told him that we had to wait a little bit in case they were sleeping and went downstairs to eat breakfast and open the presents we got him. We got him all the things that he's been asking for a batman watch, a batman space ship and a guitar. We also got him a some undies and pj's. We wouldn't let him open the guitar until Isaac woke up because that was from him. So he checked and checked and he finally woke up. We already had plans with Vic and the girls to go to Bowcraft and also plans to see Cynthia, Julia and Jonah. So we called Jon and he was available, we arranged to pick him up. Then I talked to Cynthia and Jonah had a fever so I arranged to pick up Julia. So there I we were with 4 kids in the car! We were off to Bowcraft, it's a little amusement park right near our house, perfect for the 4 year old crowd. They went on the big trucks, train, boats, motorcycles and scrambler. The also played one of those games were you shoot the water at the target and things race to the top. We told the kids that no matter who one they had to give the prize to Zack. It was a Bob the Builder doll. He loved it! In between the rides all the kids had ice cream too. Then we went to TGIFriday's where the adults refrained but were so ready for adult beverages. Service was kind of slow but it all worked out in the end. When every one was finished they came and sang a birthday song that was so funny. Sort of this rap thing, there were five people standing around our table clapping and stomping their feet. Sam loved it but of course didn't take a bite of the dessert they brought. Then we went back to our house to play in the yard and have the Buzz Lightyear cake that I decorated. It was a bad idea on my part to ask Sam what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday on Friday night as we were driving home from my parents, I guess it didn't dawn on me that he would ask for something that we didn't have in the house. So he said strawberries and a Buzz Lightyear cake. Crap where was I going to get one of those! So I was thinking that I'd go to the bakery and get a cupcake and surely they'd have a Buzz that they put on cakes. Well, all they had was "whatever's in the book lady", so I flipped through every page of the book and no Buzz. They had Woody but I doubt he'd do. So I went to the supermarket. Did I mention that I woke up extra early to try to do this before Sam woke up. At the supermarket they did have a Buzz cake in their book, things are looking up. Of course they can't just throw together the cake for me but I can buy the packet of stuff and do it myself. Great. So I pick a cake that is white with green trim and has only 3 balloons that I figure I can scrap off. I take a photo of the cake in their book with my phone so that I can see how to decorate it. I had already bought decorating icing for the jello gigglers that I was planning on bringing to school but then found out I couldn't use because it's not kosher for passover. I rush home to work on the cake. It turns out much better then I could have expected, I was proud of my efforts. I even had it all done before Sam woke up. He didn't make mention of the cake on his actual birthday so that's why we finally got around to cutting it after lunch. It was getting late and we had plans to go to the Gigantino's for dinner. I drove Julia home then headed to Jon's house. We got there and no one was home, poor Jon gave me this horrified look and said, Will you babysit me? Like I was going to leave him there alone. I called his mom on her cell to find that her husband had come to her job to visit with the baby. So we drove over there and dropped Jon off. I got back home and we rushed off to our dinner plan. It was such a pleasure to sit in the backyard and watch all of our kids run around and have such a great time. They have a son that is Sam's age and boy/girl twins that are Isaac's age. They got a cake for Sam. So many celebrations! We got home and crashed. Sunday we were going to Albany for Mich's grandma's 88th birthday party. It was scheduled to bring between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. Not really the best time for us to start a party that is taking place 3 hours from home but oh well. For some reason I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep so I went to the kitchen to make the jello jigglers for Sam's birthday celebration at school the next day. We had to do something that was kosher for Passover so we decided on jigglers. I looked at the package and saw that we needed 2 1/2 cups of boiling water so filled the tea kettle and took out the baking pans that I was going to put the jello in. Sam picks his jello by color so they ended up with green, yellow and pink or lime, lemon and strawberry kiwi. The water boiled I made each color and then got in the shower. The boys woke up had baths and got dressed. We went to the diner for breakfast and ate with all of the post church easter dressed people. Then got into the car to head for Albany. There was an accident that caused our trip there to be 30 minutes longer then it should have been. We figured out a wonderful thing, how to have the boys wear the headphones so that we can listen to music! So we opened the sunroof and jammed to the xm radio. We got to the party and had a great time. It was wonderful to see everyone in Michelle's family. The boys had such a great time running around and they were so social and wonderful with everyone. The boys got many gifts especially Sam, since it was his birthday the day before. We had the forethought to pack pj's so when we stopped at a rest area for a potty break we put on the boys pajamas. Both of them were asleep by the time we got home and they both transferred. The next morning we woke up and as Mich got the boys ready I went downstairs to deal with the jigglers. I decided that I'd cut squares, circles and triangles. I pre-plated one of each on to the Spiderman and Batman plates that had be selected by you know who. As I was doing it I was thinking these don't seem right, they seem too soft. So I plated each one and covered it with waxed papered and then stacked them into the guitar box. We all went to school together. We dropped Sam at his class and then took Zack to his class. It was great to have Mich there with me so she could see what it's like in the class. Also for her to see what our boy is like with his classmate. Sue came to pick up Zack and we went back to Sam's classroom. We read a book to the class, Green Eggs and Ham and then it was snack time. The jigglers weren't jigglers at all. It was basically a diaster, they stuck to the wax paper and the ones near the bottom were so smushed. The kids all seemed to love it though. They gave Sam a crown to wear and all sang happy birthday. It was so very adorable. Then it was back to reality as Mich and I went our separate ways to work. When I got home from work I looked at a jello package and found that I was supposed to use 4 boxes of jello. No wonder, I used more water then the regular recipe calls for.