Mom's Birthday Bash

My wonderful mother had a birthday this Friday, March 27th, so we had a big party to celebrate her! There were 35 people in our small house, so it was a bit tight, but THANK YOU to everyone who came over to make the night special for Mom! And thanks for showering her with presents and love. :)

Mom arrives and dons a flashing tiara. :) With Maureen:

The boys were impressed with the tiara:

The fruit of my labor: a 12 layer cake!!!

Some pictures of party-goers:

The Crockers.

Uncle Danny and Uncle Jonathan drove up from MA.

Amber and I posing for a self-portrait. :)

Pretty Margo.

The beautiful Birthday Girl. :)

Benjamin finds a blue lolipop!

Thomas trying to save Malcolm from Josiah's repeated attempts to tackle him!

Saying good-bye to the Townsends while Uncle Danny tries to Find Waldo.

Uncle Jonathan and "The Girls", Gloria and Dottie :)

Uncle Danny and Papa chasing Benjamin! So fun!!!

The Week in Pictures

I'll do a separate blog with pictures from Mom's birthday party last night. Here are pictures chronicling the 'other' highlights from our week:

Josiah and Benjamin help Daddy with the balusters.

A new train set entertains for hours and hours.

Benji is developing a decent head of hair (16 months old now).

Visiting Grandma at the hospital while she was in for a blood transfusion. Still waiting to hear what is causing the severe anemia...

Always smiling...:)

Watching "The Polar Express" this afternoon

Going to dinner at The Thistle Inn this evening...YUMMY!!!

Josiah was proud of his 'big boy cup' :)

Late Night Reflections

I'm sitting up late tonight in solidarity with Logan, who is working feverishly to finish staining all of the posts and other such 'wood parts' to our new banisters, which are going in tomorrow. I hate to go to bed and leave him on his own, when he has just finished a long week of hard work, just to come home for more!

So here are some Perry anecdotes while I sit here and try to stay awake.

Josiah exclaimed this week: "I'm a Poopier!!!" Me: "A Poopier? What is that?" Josiah: "A Poopier is someone who pushes poopies out REALLY FAST" (said with both hands clenched and a distorted face for effect).

Benjamin climbed onto the table tonight and into his high chair while I was making dinner. Then, from his perch, he moaned and groaned and grunted and pouted for nearly 15 minutes before I was ready to put dinner on the table. He has not learned about delayed gratification yet.

Benji had extra time with his girlfriend Lily this week. We normally watch Lily and her big sister Katy on Mondays, but this week we also had her Tuesday and Friday, so Benjamin has been strutting his stuff! They chase each other, give each other kisses, sit alongside each other while they play with toys and read books, etc. They're so cute together. She's 5 weeks older than Benji, and they're both in a climbing phase. When she's here, I'm constantly plucking toddlers off of furniture from one end of the house to the other. It's exhausting!!! :)

Benji was saying "Papa, Papa" today, so I said, "Are you talking about your Papa, Benjamin?" Josiah said, "Not his Papa, MY Papa." "Oh, who is Benji's Papa?" "Benjamin has Grandma."

Josiah's imagination is growing all the time. I love overhearing him while he's playing with his toys. Especially when he's mimicking the "big people" of his life. Logan and I have to be on our best behavior now, because Josiah repeats EVERYTHING that he hears!

Pictures from this week:

Mommy's day off!!!

Life with a 1 year old and a 3 year old has taken a toll on this frazzled Mama, so I brought Josiah and Benjamin to Papa and Grandma's first thing yesterday morning, and they stayed the whole day and night!!! I'm feeling more like myself again after 24 hours without interruptions, catastrophes or tantrums. Some of the latest episodes include Benji's call to 911 (the operator stayed on the line for 8 minutes saying 'hello' before I walked by and heard him...fortunately, he didn't send a rescue squad!!!), Josiah standing on the oven door, causing the whole stove to topple on top of himself and Benji, Benji pullng the eggs out onto the floor everyday, Josiah's accidents with his recent upgrade to "big boy underwear", etc. etc. etc. I didn't miss having the chaos yesterday at all, until Logan and I stopped by to see the boys on our way to dinner. Benjamin gave me the cutest bear hug, complete with pats on my back, that I can't get out of my mind. They'll be back in 20 minutes, and I can't wait!!! They're so sweet. :)

The week in pictures: Beautiful sunshine...could spring be around the corner???
Playing with the camera timer. A token shot of myself for those of you who tell me you want to see my picture on this blog too!

Josiah telling Papa about the "ocean liner" (i.e. sea weed) he pulled out of the water. :)

Benji loves this train set at Papa and Grandma's.

Too much fun.....must sleep.

The Perry boys squeezing into Josiah's toddler bed.

Story time!

Our cute little batman.

More syrup!!! We have a pancake tradition on Saturday mornings, followed by cheese biscuits on Sunday mornings. That calls for a lot of syrup around here!

Playing with the vaccuum.

Cutie Petutie.

Playing with another favorite toy: a flashlight! We can't keep batteries stocked around here...

"The girls" at Papa and Grandma's....no granddaughters yet, so Heidi, Frankie and Molly will have to do.

Ready for their stay with Papa and Grandma! Matching sweatsuits thanks to Grandma's retail therapy. :)

Fun toys!!! Alright, you can go now Mom.