Lover not a Fighter

Sally and I had a little fight this morning about something ... I can't even remember ... and she stormed into her room, and I stormed downstairs, and about a minute later when I came back up, here's what I found written on the bathroom window with the post shower steam. Sally is always writing us notes to tell us how much she loves us and leaves them different places -under our pillows, in my purse. The most heartbreaking one was a few days ago to Tony who has been on the set for the past two weeks, which means he's barely home. Under his pillow she left a note saying "I miss you. I feel like I have no dad. And you are the most awesome dad ever." Heartbreaking! Also a few months ago Tony and I were having a fight in the office and when we came out, Sally was standing there holding two notes, one for me, one for Tony. Mine said, "Mom, do you still love dad?" with a yes/no box to check, his said "Dad do you still love mom?" We filled them out and she handed the responses to each of us, like, see, you still love each other, phew! I love how Sally expresses herself!

Tin Man

Okay, this is weird I know, but ... our friend Laurie gave us this big stuffed Tin Man doll a few years ago. He has these really piercing, violet eyes and when he's looking at you, it's super creepy. Anyway, I don't remember how it happened but a few years ago we started playing tricks on each other with Tin Man. One night Maggie, Sally and I snuck out and put him in the passenger seat of Tony's car so he'd be there to surprise him in the morning. Sally liked to put him in my bed, under the covers, we stood him up in Maggie's closet so when she went in to get an outfit, there he was. You get the idea. Hijinks. And then a few years ago we made a book about the Tin Man coming in and taking over Maggie's life while she's away at camp. Takes over her bedroom, her laptop, her friends ... and then we snuck the book into her suitcase for her to find when she got up to camp and unpacked. She loved it, her whole cabin loved it, Tin Man has become an unofficial Camp Birchwood mascot. Anyway, this year .... shhhhh .... we're going to sneak the man himself into her duffel! Here are some pictures from last years book.

a year ago

Found this in my camera from a year ago, never downloaded it. How cute is she?

pretty girls

Easter in Hawaii

Tony gave Sally strategy- go deep. Run to the middle of the field right away. The two of them were so funny, she had a serious look on her face as he quietly whispered strategy in her ear. It paid off!!

Sunrise at the volcano

Maggie and tony took a sunrise bike ride down the volcano in Maui this year. They had to get up at 2:30 in the morning, get picked up at 3, drive to top of volcano and see sunrise, bike down, have breakfast. They had a great time.

Hawaii

We had another great time in Hawaii this year. We went over Maggie's spring break in March (usually we go in May) so it was a bit more crowded but it doesn't matter, it's Hawaii! Some highlights this year were -

1. The Easter Egg Hunt

2. Tony and Maggie took a sunrise bike ride down the volcano

3. Mags and I went sea kayaking and snorkeling one morning and saw tons of fish and some Honus(sea turtles)

4. One afternoon we saw 3 whales from the beach where we were swimming, they were only a few hundred yards away and the baby was breaching like crazy and putting on a show

5. Nick, Cheryl and Madeline were there again at the same time and had us over to their villa for a cook out. Then Cheryl took the big girls on the Ocean walk and they heard these birds that sound like crying babies - creepy

We got into a nice routine, Sally went to the kids club each morning til noon, so Maggie, Tony and I would spend the morning reading by the pool, pick up Sal, lunch by the pool, swim with Maddie in the pool, go down to beach at the end of the day, get milkshakes before dinner, dinner, bed. Rinse and Repeat. Heaven.