Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Auntie Reanna and Uncle Corey welcomed Elijah Thomas at 11:18 p.m. on Monday September 15th (12:18 a.m.on Tuesday for us here in Brazil) last night.  He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.25 inches long.  Little Eli was long awaited for, as Reanna was at 42+ weeks and was going to be induced yesterday had she not begun laboring on her own.  We talked to Grandma Cindy, who has been there waiting for this little guy for the past two weeks, earlier Monday morning when Reanna was not quite having contractions but was getting there then we hadn't heard from them so I finally couldn't wait any longer and called about 6:30 p.m. east coast time, 7:30 for us, after I'd put the girls to bed, and they were at the hospital and Reanna was at 8cm so I figured she'd be having him soon.  I got up and listened to messages first thing this morning, and there was one from Grandma Cindy saying that Elijah had been born via c-section at 11:18 p.m., with no further information.  Of course at this point I was so antsy for any more information than that but it was way too early to call, so I just had to wait for an update. 

I'm truly sad at not being able to be there to congratulate and to of course meet my new nephew right away, and I'm dying to see some photos... lots of them (hint, hint) but I know that the new family is surrounded by a lot of family and friends and we'll get our turn soon.  Abby and Zoë are really excited to be able to see their new cousin, and to not only be the big sisters but the big cousins as well.  Congratulations Reanna and Corey and welcome Elijah!

Yesterday when the girls were saying bye to Grampy, they were quite upset about not being able to see him for a while.  Little did they know that Grampy had planned to surprise them this morning by having us take them to IHOP (we didn't tell them where we were going) and he met us in the parking lot.  They sure were surprised and thought it was a funny trick.

Zoë and Abby were very excited to have some surprises for Daddy on his birthday.  Yesterday we sat out on the porch and I did their hand and footprints on card paper.  I was planning to do the footprints for Father's day, like I do every year, but Abby ruined the surprise the day before, so I told him he wasn't getting any this year... we surprised him with them for his birthday instead.  This morning the prints were dry, so the girls were able to finish up making the cards.  After they finished we got started on making him breakfast: an egg sandwich, cantaloupe pieces, and gatorade, and put it on the tray with the cards to bring him breakfast in bed.  When we walked into the bedroom, Abby and Zoë sang the 'happy birthday' song and gave him the cards.  For the rest of the day the girls asked if we were going to have cake.  Abby said, "but it's someone's birthday, we have to have cake!"

The girls had their fishy purses during our Target visit, that Aunt Elizabeth got for them last year.  I told the girls that they could both pick out 1 item in the candy aisle.  They were so excited.  Abby chose a can of potato chips, cheddar cheese variety, and would not be persuaded to get something else.  Zoë was being worked over by mommy to get something with chocolate, but Zoë didn't give in, she bought some Red Vines licorice.  So that Laura didn't mope the whole ride home in our broken down car, I bought her an 8 pack of mini mint 3 musketeers bars, after all it was our wedding anniversary. Thank you Target, you saved another marriage!

The party was held at the gymnastics place, which was lots of fun.  Abby and Zoë haven't stopped asking all day, when we'd be going.  They knew what time, knew afternoon, after nap, after snack... but still.

We got there and went up to put our present down and wait for the other guests to arrive.  Once mostly everyone was there, all of the kids lined up behind Anna Claire to hear the rules and then go down onto the floor.  There were all sorts of fun things lined up for the kids.  After some warm ups soon out came the rope swing, which both girls kept trying to cut in line to have another turn for.  They did lots of really fun things and then got set to go on the trampoline.  Once I saw them there, I went down on the floor to get some pictures.  (Andrea and her husband, Ben's video camera battery didn't have a charge)  I got a couple of group shots and pictures of them doing different jumps down the long trampoline and then they got to jump into the big foam pit.  After everyone had turns of each kind of jump and foam pit 'swimming'  they went to wash hands and go up for cupcakes and presents.

When it was time for presents, all of the kids sat with their presents and eagerly began handing them to Anna Claire.  Abby and Zoë gave her their gift and Anna Claire, and she was amazed at its size.  When she opened it she was in awe!  She stopped everything to run and show it to her mom, she was so excited.  Even after opening the other gifts she would check to see if her mom had seen the 'Cool beads set from Abby and Zoë'.  Once all of the presents had been opened, she referenced the beads set again.  It was obvious that it was the favorite, which the girls were really happy about.

The girls and I drove in the car, following behind Daddy, who was on the scooter, into Dover this afternoon.  It was definitely not prime scooter riding conditions, but Daddy has sold his scooter and offered to drive it to Dover for the happy new owners today.  The girls were really upset that he was getting rid of it, he's upset too.

We were close to Corey and Reanna's house so we stopped in afterward and used the potty.  Uncle Corey was in the back doing some garden prep work and Auntie Reanna was at work late for a meeting.  Abby and Zoë really wanted to go to I.H.O.P. to eat dinner, after hearing that it was kids eat free night, but we decided to go somewhere in Dover with Uncle Corey instead.  We ended up stopping into this little Indian restaurant and were very happy that we had tried it.  They had very yummy food and very interesting artwork.  Zoë was really really interested in this glimmering photo on the wall by our table.

When I went in to Abby and Zoë's room this morning the first thing Zoë said was "Happy Mother's Day!" and then Abby said it too and I got some big snuggles.  We went downstairs and the girls were super excited to give me my card.  The front of the card read like an awards ceremony, "The award for best performance by a Mom..."  then when I opened it up to read the rest, I heard the girls voices in a sing-song way saying "Happy Mother's Day, You're the best Mother in the world!" and then there was awards type music that played after that... it was really cute.

Next it was off to church.  In kids choir practice the kids are practicing the songs for the musical, which Abby and Zoë actually have down pretty well, at least the first and second one.  After the kids story the girls went down to the play room as usual and I stayed with them as well today.  Then after the 'coffee hour' we stayed for Sunday School, where we did some more musical practice.  Once we were done we had to hurry home to eat some lunch and get a nap before heading over to Reanna and Corey's house.  They weren't actually there, but we were meeting Grampy there so that he could help Daddy replace a part on the car.  First Abby and Zoë got to watch a veggie tales movie they haven't seen before.  After that they got a snack and went out to run in the back yard.  At one point they were playing tag, but kept getting side tracked by the dandelions in the grass.  I'd see them run 'round and 'round in circles and then both girls would be crouched down picking or looking at a flower.  One time Abby bent down to pick a dandelion, only to find there was something already enjoying the flower, so she ran back to me to sit with me for a minute while she regained her courage to go running again.  After a bit we came back inside and Zoë and Abby built with legos while I folded laundry.

By the time Daddy and Grampy were all done with the car, it was past dinner time.  We decided to head out to get some dinner in Newington.  It was up to me to decide, but I was having a hard time choosing and was still undecided as we got close to all of the restaurants.  Daddy was explaining to the girls that since it was Mother's Day it was my choice, and I told them that I was having a hard time deciding though.  Abby piped up, "Okay then, just let us decide!"  We ended up at Applebee's, where the girls sat on either side of Grampy.  At the end of dinner we ordered two of the new "dessert shooters", which are little layered desserts in glasses maybe double the size of a shot glass.  We got a strawberry shortcake and a chocolate moose.  Abby wanted the shortcake and Zoë wanted the moose and they were actually very content in not switching.  When Daddy and I took them to try some, the girls didn't want to switch, they wanted the same ones back.  They were very dissapointed when I cut them off and let the adults share the little bit that was left.   I had to explain to them that, contrary to what they thought, we hadn't ordered these soley for them.  When we got our check brought to us, the woman gave me a happy mother's day wish along with a little box of lindt truffles... woo hoo!  It had three truffles in it and the girls were trying to get me to dig into on the way home, I told them waiting was a better idea after all we'd just eaten.

Auntie Reanna and Uncle Corey found out the sex of their baby today.  I was very surprised to hear that Reanna is carrying a little boy!  Chris and myself, and even Reanna, had predicted that she was pregnant with a girl, but I guess it was very clear from the ultrasound today that we were wrong.  Now to give him a name.

We went to Auntie Reanna's house this afternoon for a surprise party for Grampy's 69th birthday.  Reanna set it up so that my dad thought it was just at Reanna and Corey's house, and that us and the girls would be there as well as Uncle Tommy.  What he didn't know, and Zoë and Abby actually did a good job of keeping it a secret, was that my other (half) siblings and most of their kids came as well.  My dad ended up arriving early, just after us and Uncle Tommy, who came with his girlfriend Liz.  He was still surprised as everyone else began filtering in.  Abby and Zoë had already told me last night at bed time "I'm going to make friends with the other kids there"... and they did.  First to arrive were Sam and her boyfriend Mark, along with Sam's kids Holly, Nick, Veronica and Leo.  Abby and Zoë took right to Veronica and she soaked it up.  She's almost 9 and both of the girls were sitting with her while she played a nintendo game like two minutes after meeting her.  Next came my Dad's oldest son's son, Joe with his wife Brooke and their son Jareth (the second great-grandson for my Dad).  After that is my sister Sue with her boyfriend Jim and her daughter Shannon.  After a little while came Rick (the oldest) and his wife Melody.

Everyone brought something to eat for a main dish, and a handful brought dessert, the most famous being Sue's cheesecake that she's been making for years and has been my favorite cheesecake for as long as I can remember.  After a game of Strawberry Shortcake played with Veronica and Mommy, with Leo sitting by and observing, the kids were ready to eat.  Abby and Zoë were really good about wanting to try all sorts of the foods that were out.  They had Reanna and Corey's quesadilla's, which were filled with sweet potato, chicken, cranberry chutney and of course the cheese.  They also had some of the very tasty eggplant lasagna that Mark made.  They enjoyed the home made bread that Reanna and Corey also made.  Then all of the kids played hullabaloo in the back room (everyone was really glad that we'd brought games).  After this Reanna set them up with a movie back there too, they all decided on Monster's Inc.  Pretty soon it was time to pause the movie and have dessert.  We told the girls that they could choose two things from the choices: Reanna had made a yummy apple pie, Joe and Brooke had made a chocolate pudding pie with strawberries, we'd brought a cinnamon swirl bread with cherries on top, and then there was the cheesecake, which I'd been first in line for so I let the girls taste it before they decided.  They also tasted Reanna's apple pie before deciding on the cheesecake and the cinnamon bread.  After the girls had finished their desserts, Reanna scooped a little more cheesecake from her plate onto Zoë's and Zoë scarfed that down and then looked at me, smacked her lips, and gave a thumbs up.  "Mommy, that was good, may I have some more?!"

After that the kids went back to finish their movie and a little later Holly, who is attending Boston Conservatory for Music-Voice/Opera, performed a couple of songs for us.  Zoë and Abby came away from their movie to come out and listen.  They had been belting out the tunes the whole ride over, but when Chris and I tried to get them to sing something they didn't want to perform for a crowd.  After a little more bread for snack I got the girls' teeth brushed and we packed up to head home, it was late!  The girls got into bed after 9:00 p.m., it's been quite a while since we've been out that late... Mommy was right behind them in climbing into bed.

It's so funny how excited both Zoë and Abby were that it is my birthday today.  They woke up and Zoë said, "It's Sunday... your birthday!" Both girls let out these squeals of high pitched, "Yay, it's your birthday!" and gave me big hugs and kisses.  Luckily everyone forgot about the 25 spankings, and I didn't remind them.

We missed church, mostly because I put off shoveling the snow we got overnight and ended up not having enough time to do it before church started.  We hung around the house and played some computer games, and Chris let Abby and Zoë watch 'My Dog Skip'.  I was going to go get food from my favorite Mexican restaurant around here, but realized that we had bought all the stuff to make burritos and we'd just made fresh salsa and guacamole, so I made us some burritos for lunch.  Later on, after Daddy shoveled us out, we went over to Wal-Mart to get a couple of items we still needed for dinner and then headed back to meet our company.

Grampy and Reanna arrived, and a little bit later Uncle Corey, who had been finishing up his plowing, showed up too.  We had Chris' specialty chicken parm pasta dish with garlic toast, which was very yummy and the girls ate it all up, not even mentioning the fact that it had sauce.  After our bellies settled it was time for another of Daddy's latest specialties, 'chocolate cake shake'  He blends up some ice cream, some cake, puts in a splash of milk, and voila... your calories for the week in a glass.  We used the half off cake we got at the bakery the other day, but Grampy had also made a cake (the same he's been making me for many years) with the help of Uncle Corey and Auntie Reanna, so we had some tastes of non-blended cake too.  Abby and Zoë were just loving having all of these goodies.  They were so excited about it even when we were eating dinner that Zoë proclaimed to Reanna, "I pooped today, I'm going to get to have some ice cream... I pooped today!"  Good job sweetheart, good job.

After the post office and a couple of other errands, we decided to head to the Olive Garden for an early dinner.  Abby and Zoë hadn't eaten snack and were hungry and we also wanted to avoid the dinner crowd, so we went ahead and went early.  Nonna sent me gift cards to the restaurant and we were going to wait until Sunday to have a birthday lunch there, but decided against going on a weekend day.  We got there before 4:00 p.m. and got a front row parking space.  Surprisingly, we were not the only one's enjoying an early dinner, however I think we were the only one's under 65 eating an early dinner out.

We chose three meals and then the girls and I hit the bathrooms.  When we got back, our salad and breadsticks had arrived.  It wasn't too long before our dinners were out.  Chris got the chicken parmesan dish, I got a new lasagna rollatini with chicken dish, and the girls got a new dish as well,  Chicken & Gnocchi Veronese to share.  Our waitress was surprised that we were ordering from the regular menu for Abby and Zoë and asked, "They're going to share that?  That's okay with the roasted red peppers and everything?"  For dessert we got a limited time dessert, Apple Pane Dolce which is "A traditional Italian apple-cinnamon bread pudding served warm with vanilla cream sauce and a caramel drizzle."  Very tasty.

We were able to rent the party room at 'The Cedars' for just $25 so we went ahead and had Abby and Zoë's fourth birthday party there.  I met Reanna over there this morning to get the room set up and decorated, but by the time I had to leave to go and get Chris and the girls, we hadn't really gotten all that much done, besides some furniture rearrangment and a few decorations, so Reanna really did a lot to set up the room while I was gone.  I picked up the family, Matt and Caitlin were there to follow us over, and off we went.  When we got there, Leann had recently arrived with Dakota and Quinn.  Next to arrive was Grampy, then Uncle Tommy with Liz, then Kate, and after a little while Angie, Beau, Hunter and Kayla arrived.  Unfortunately Tom, Sue, Jack, and Anna weren't able to make it due to sickies going around their house. 

Abby and Zoë had so much fun just running 'round and 'round with Dakota while we waited for the other kids.  Once all of the kids were there, we played a game of "strawberry, strawberry, shortcake" (aka duck, duck, goose)  Next we played 'pin the stem on the strawberry' and then came the 'cake'.  The cake was actually a bunch of cupcakes put together to look like a strawberry.  Daddy and I were up until midnight finishing the frosting for that thing and figuring out how to arrange the cupcakes. We sang happy birthday to Abby and she blew out the candle, then we sang to Zoë and she really blew strong to blow out the flame on the candle.  After everyone was done their treats, we moved over to the floor to open gifts.  Kate got the girls a pattern board set, Hunter and Kayla got them a 'webkinz' dog and an early reader book, Matt and Caitlin got them lots of neat art stuff, Dakota gave them a Strawberry Shortcake house and got them a Strawberry Shortcake and Apple Dumplin' sleep over set to go with it, and they opened up a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos from Tom and Liz.

After this it was time to thank everyone and say good-bye's and get the place cleaned up.  Luckily for us we have very helpful guests, and most were able to pitch in to get the job done.  On the drive home both girls fell asleep, no surprise as they had trouble with congestion while sleeping (especially Zoë) and at 4:00 a.m. I brought Zoë down to rest in the reading corner and then Abby came down too to rest on the couch.  At around 5:30 a.m. they began whispering across the room to each other so I set them up together on the couch with a movie. 

Zoë woke up first this morning, and when I brought her into the bathroom and said happy birthday to her she said "It is?  Now?"  Then downstairs she told me that she wanted to be four and I said that she was, "Now?" she asked.  I said yes and she asked, "Abby too?" then a pause, then "Can you still pick us up?" I replied that I could and she asked, "Even though we're four, you can still pick us up?"  I made blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup for breakfast, and then after sleepy head Abby, who slept until 8:00, was up and had a bite (literally) to eat, the girls got to open some gifts.  They opened presents from Nonno Ernie and Martha, who got them undies, socks, books, and neat Strawberry Shortcake 'throw' pillows.  Next they opened the presents that Nonna sent, with underwear and a camisole for both, a couple of ornaments for the tree, a school days memory book for both, and lots of nice clothes (including great fleecy pieces).  They each had a present with a candy cane on it, as well as a five dollar bill in their cards.  When Zoë opened her card, Abby saw what was inside and said, "Wow, five bucks!"  They got hello kitty socks and new movies (Larry Boy and the Bad Apple, and The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's - both veggie tales movies) from Great Grandma Ehlers.  And Grandma Cindy called just as the girls were getting ready to open the presents from her and Papa Norm.  They received a Strawberry Shortcake hide 'n go seek game, which they'd played with their friend Anna Claire, and a Strawberry Shortcake camisole/underwear set. (There's one more thing to go along with the theme that didn't arrive yet)  I had set up the play kitchen that Grampy got for them a couple of days earlier and surprised them as they came in to the living room from the hallway the other day.  (I knew they'd have so much to preoccupy them this morning, that they'd be able to really enjoy a "big" gift like that on its own)

Later, after a nice hot bath, while I was showering, Chris got Abby and Zoë all suited up to play in the snow on the porch. Next we went and had lunch at Newick's seafood restaurant.  Zoë fell asleep on the way home and took a little nap in the reading corner when we got home.  At 4p.m. the girls and I had to be at the church to rehearse for a holiday 'living nativity scene' in which we will be angels.  One of the times we were standing in line in the hallway, one of the teenage girls started everyone singing happy birthday to Abby and Zoë and so the hallway was filled with everyone joining in on the singing.  The girls felt pretty special, even though they got all shy.  Later in the evening, we met Auntie Reanna at Coldstone Creamery, where she was waiting with the birthday coupons she'd printed for us.  Abby and Zoë each got to choose a 'love it' (medium) sized signature creation for FREE.  I was surprised that they got a medium and not a small.  They got a 'birthday cake remix' and 'the strawberry blonde'.  We all enjoyed a little ice cream, especially the girls, who eventually became alright with us sharing their ice cream (that they're really not supposed to have anyway) and then Reanna gave them their birthday gift from her, a full sized doodle pro 'writing board' as they call it.

What a full day it was, thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts.  Happy Birthday my sweet four year olds!