Mini Egg FAIL!

These little eggs of joy are one of my favorite Easter candies.  I love the crisp of the outer shell and the smooth chocolate inside.  They are my guilty pleasure of this season.

Imagine my heartbreak when I recently had a terrible Mini Egg experience.  I bought a bag (my second third...who are we kidding!...of the season) at Target the other day.  When I got home, I opened them bag up to have a couple for a treat.  The shell was soft and almost mushy.  The inside chocolate tasted like chalk.  Bleh!!  They were terrible.  It was almost like they had melted and rehardened.

I went on the Hershey's website (can we also talk about how I had no idea Cadbury was a Hershey company?!) and filed a complaint.  Who does that for a $2.00 bag of candy?!  I was really disappointed though!  Yesterday, I got this back from a customer service rep:

Thank you for contacting us about CADBURY MINI EGGS Candy. I am sorry you were disappointed and appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

Chocolate contains cocoa butter which makes the product sensitive to heat, humidity, and changes in temperature. Exposure to these conditions may cause a harmless discoloration on the surface of the bar known as cocoa butter bloom. At excessive temperatures chocolate can melt, causing the bar to look misshapen and tan in color with a loss of flavor. To help our products reach you in good condition, we have printed instructions on our shipping cases to inform all distributors of the proper handling and storage of our products.We apologize for the problem you experienced with our product. You will receive reimbursement by postal mail in two weeks. We appreciate your loyalty as a consumer.

So, it looks like a couple dollars are headed my way from Hershey.  Good thing I already went back to Target and got another bag!  One bad experience won't keep me away!

Green with Envy!

We hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Our day was very low-key, but that's exactly what we needed.  Kurt's been in Vegas all weekend, so it was just Sam and I at home.  We started out with swim lessons in the morning.  Since Kurt's away, I had to get in the pool with Sam.  This was my first time and WOW!  He's a mover in the water!  There were several times that I thought for sure that I was going to drop him because he's so wiggly.

After swimming, we came home, had lunch, and then Sam took a three-hour nap.  I admit that I actually took a nap, too.  Apparently I needed it because I was out!  

After naptime, we went to a really nice playground nearby.  It was packed, so we only stayed for about 20 minutes.  Sam got some swinging and rides down the slide in.  

Then, we went to the mall for a while.  Gymboree is having a good sale now, plus I had an additional 20% off coupon, so I stocked up on some summer clothes for Sam.  I don't know if you can see on his shirt in the pictures above, but it has Kermit the frog on it and says, "It's Easy being Green!"  We walked through Build-A-Bear and saw they had an adorable Kermit puppet.  I decided Sam needed it as a St. Patrick's Day present and he loves! He loves puppets!  After some Chick-fil-a for dinner, we headed home for a bath.

Gone are the days of all-day drinking and partying (who am I kidding...those were gone a long time ago!) on St. Patrick's Day!  Oh well, we had fun anyways!

Double digits

 Ten months ago today, this little guy entered our lives!  Part of me can't believe he's ten months old already and another part feels like he's always been part of our lives.  He such a joy!  Happy, active, smiley, funny...just a few words to describe our Sammy Doodles.  

 Sam has loved this nice weather!  He's such an outdoors boy!  The other day, we spent probably two ours outside and he was as content as could be.  He loves going for walks in the stroller or in his wagon, watching the neighbor kids play in their yards, and looking for birds and planes in the sky.  

 We're headed back to the pediatrician on Thursday for a quick check to make sure his ear infections are all cleaned up.  I have a feeling he weighs right around 20 lbs.  He's still in size 3 diapers, but wears size 4 at night.  Sam's wearing 9 month clothes.  He's eating pretty much everything we eat.  It's getting to the point where he has no interest in being fed by spoon.  I just hope he's getting enough food, since he still drops a lot on the floor.  

 Sam is sleeping about 11 hours straight through at night and takes two two-hour naps each day.  He's halfway finished with his second session of Waterbabies and still loves the pool!

 Little Mister is getting very close to walking.  He's cruising all over the place and walking with assistance from his "dinosaur walker" or mom or dad.   This week, he's started standing by himself for a few seconds at a time. 

Sam loves musical instruments (especially the marakas) and when we sing songs.  He's still not too interested in books, but we still read a few each day.  His giggles are absolutely contagious!

Happy 10-month birthday, Sam boy!!  We love you!!!

Cousins

I recently saw someone post something on Facebook about cousins being your first friends.  I truly believe that!  My cousin Kourtney, who is about 17 months older than me, was my first friend.  There are pictures from nearly thirty-two years ago of her holding me when I was just a few weeks old, and most recently, there are pictures of the two of us on her wedding day in November.  

I'm so glad that Sam has cousins whom he can grow up with.  His cousins, Jack and Will, are almost five and three, so that makes all three boys two years apart. Last night, we went over to Kurt's parents' house to celebrate Jack's early birthday (he's a St. Patty's Day baby!).  Now that Sam is active and mobile, it's neat to see them interact.  The older boys love "Baby Sam" and I can tell Sam already admires his cousins.  He loves to sit and watch them.  They live about 3 hours from us, so we don't see them as often as we'd like, but I've learned from my relationships with my cousins that distance doesn't matter.

Here are some pictures of the cousins from our impromptu get-together last night.  

 The three boys: Will, Sam, and Jack (Will was sad that the presents were for his brother and not him!)

Sam wanted to help his cousin open his birthday presents!

 Having a cupcake...and making a mess!

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three boys in a tub!

These are the days to remember!