Project 365: Weeks 110, 111 & 112

Hoping to get my blogging mojo back soon.  In the meantime, here are several weeks of 365 that I’m behind on!

May 4, 2011:  Bennet’s 3-year-old check-up.  He’s doing great, and is still in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head circumference!  He had to get one shot, which he handled very well minus a few tears.

May 5, 2011:  Our local mall had a “Moms Night Out” with free food and non-alcoholic margaritas (since it was Cinco de Mayo.)  I went with my friends Brooke and Jess and we had a great time.  We even got to do some shopping around the mall and grab dinner afterwards.

May 6, 2011:  Date night with our good friends, Mike and Rachel.  Great food, great wine and lots of laughs.  It’s always fun to get out with other grown-ups and leave the kids at home!

May 7, 2011:  This is our first Spring in the new house, and I was thrilled to find these gorgeous orchids blooming in our back yard!  I quickly cut them and put them in a vase in our dining room.

May 8, 2011:  Mother’s Day!  I had a wonderful day with my sweet babies.

May 9, 2011:  Bennet has been very into Legos lately.  He got lots of new sets for his birthday, and we spend lots of time building with them!

May 10, 2011:  Look who’s crawling!

May 11, 2011:  My sweet Bean at a play date in the park!

May 12, 2011:  Kennedy and her best friend, Addison.  We got invited to their house for a play date, and the kids had a great time.

May 13, 2011:  Kennedy’s best friend Addison happens to be the daughter of one of my best friends, Amy.  Amy and I got to sneak out for a girl’s night, having dinner and catching up without our crazy kiddos.  What fun!

May 14, 2011:  Crawling, drinking out of a straw…she’s growing up FAST!

May 15, 2011:  Bennet went into the kitchen, got the canister of Fruit Loops, and helped himself.  So funny.

May 16, 2011:  Did I mention she’s pulling up to the train table to play now?  Slow down, Beanie!

May 17, 2011:  We had our friends, the Postells, over for dinner.  They have two beautiful little girls, both of which Bennet has a crush on.  The kids had a great time playing with sidewalk chalk and bubbles, and swinging on Bennet’s new tree swing.

May 18, 2011:  Oh, how I love the few blissful moments each day when the kids are starting to play together.

May 19, 2011:  I bought this tea set at a consignment store to use for Kennedy’s birthday party.  Bennet was pretty excited about it, so Andrew had a tea party with him when he got home from work.  Even Sophie joined in.  Who knew a tea set would be such a hot item!

May 20, 2011:  My sweet friend Shelley was several days overdue with her first baby, so we took advantage of her maternity leave time off by grabbing lunch.  I had to take the opportunity to snap a picture of Kennedy and her newest best friend!  I’m happy to say that a few days later, Shelley gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who I cannot wait to meet!

May 21, 2011:  At Kennedy’s friend Addison’s 1st birthday party, Addie didn’t want her birthday cake.  When they put the high chair tray on the grass, Kennedy hiked it across the lawn and helped herself!  My girl looooves to eat!

May 22, 2011:  Bennet is about to be a ring bearer in his favorite babysitter, Liz’s, wedding!  His suit came in the mail and I could not wait to try it on him!  He is going to be so handsome!

May 23, 2011:  Kennedy is going to be the flower girl in the same wedding, and I am making her dress.  It still has some finishing touches to go – but I love it and I can’t wait to see her wear it on Liz’s big day!

May 24, 2011:  Like I said, my baby girl loves food.  She is so messy after dinner every night.  I’m always impressed!

Project 365: Weeks 108 & 109

Can you make Mother’s Day resolutions?  If so, mine is to start blogging more frequently.  Allow me to catch up our 365!

 

April 20, 2011:  The kids and I hit up the dollar store and the snowball stand (that sells plants) to put together two window boxes for our back porch.  The previous owners left two sets of brackets to hold window boxes, and I was excited to fill them up!

April 21, 2011:  One of the first presents I received when I found out Kennedy was a girl was this cute, pink Puma track suit from Ashley.  We broke out the 12 months clothes for our little chunky girl, and I was thrilled to find this in the box!

April 22, 2011:  We had been on the hunt for a cheap outdoor dining set, when I found this wrought iron set on freecycle.  It’s an indoor set, but we re-covered the seats with outdoor fabric and made it work for our back porch!

April 23, 2011:  Leaving out carrots for the Easter Bunny on the night before Easter!  I had to de-thaw frozen carrots, because I forgot to buy fresh ones.  The Bunny didn’t seem to mind!

April 24, 2011:  Happy Easter!  We had a great day – opening Easter baskets with the kids, going to church, and spending the afternoon at my Grandma’s with my family.  I made matching dresses for Kennedy and I, and the boys wore matching blue polos – too cute!

April 25, 2011:  Sophie is always in trouble lately.  She’s been peeing and pooping on the carpet, and I’m thinking of selling her to the circus.

April 26, 2011:  Look who learned to hold her own bottle – finally!  Life is much easier around here now that I can put Kennedy on the floor with a bottle and let her feed herself.

April 27, 2011:  Andrew sent me to a salon near the house for a manicure and pedicure.  So relaxing – and I loved the girl who did my nails so much that I ended up scheduling an appointment for her to highlight my hair the following week.

April 28, 2011:  Bennet started getting birthday presents in the mail!  Kennedy enjoyed helping him check out all of his goodies, and he did a fairly good job sharing with her.

April 29, 2011:  Bennet’s preschool class took a field trip to the zoo.  We spent most of the day walking around with two of his best pals, Zachary and Isaiah, and their parents.

April 30, 2011:  I scored some yard sale leftovers for free from freecycle.  Kennedy and Bennet loved playing with all of my finds in the driveway.  It kept them busy all afternoon!

May 1, 2011:  We celebrated Bennet’s 3rd birthday with a Fire Truck themed party!  I’ll post more about it this week – but it was a grand affair!

May 2, 2011:  For Bennet’s actual birthday, we went to a Japanese steak house with my family.  He had a good time, but was a little afraid of the fire!

May 3, 2011:  Kennedy and I spent our morning grocery shopping at Aldi.  I love our mornings together while Bennet is in school!

Catching up!

I honestly don’t know where my head has been lately!  Take two crazy kids, mix them with Momma’s spring fever, add in trying to maintain a paying freelance gig – and you’ve got my wild life! 

A little bit about the recent happenings around our house…

Monkey is just a few weeks away from turning three!  He gets smarter, more talkative and increasingly independent every day.  The above photo is of the first time he got dressed all by himself.  His clothes absolutely don’t match, his shorts are on backward, and his shoes are on the wrong feet – but he was so proud! 

This kid wears me out – chattering away all day, wanting to know where we’re going every morning, always on the go.  I can barely keep up with him these days! 

We’re hard at work planning his 3rd birthday party – a fire truck theme.

Kennedy is still the sweetest baby I’ve ever met.  She’s getting a little more demanding as she gets older, which has been a challenge for me.  It’s been interesting to learn to juggle the needs of the two of them all day long! 

She just got her first haircut, and she is trying desperately to start crawling.  She says “Da-da” and “Na-na” (momma) perfectly.  I am loving springtime and being able to dress her in cute sundresses! 

Oh the joy of having a girl!

The weight loss is still slowly truckin’ along.  I started a weight loss challenge with some of the moms in my Moms Club two weeks ago, and I’ve lost 2 pounds in that time. 

9 pounds to go until wedding weight, which is the smallest I’ve ever been.  I’m not sure I’ll get there – I feel pretty happy at the weight I’m at, and I’m sort of coasting at this point! 

I’ve been going to the gym a lot, and have really started to enjoy yoga.  Honestly, just feeling healthy and fit is great, and those extra 9 pounds aren’t a huge focus for me right now.

I’ve been keeping myself busy with sewing projects.  I made Easter dresses for Kennedy and I.  (Hers is above.  Mine is coming in a later post.)  I still have to make ties for the boys – I should probably get on that, huh? 

I also have an incomplete Lisette dress on my sewing table, as well as a stuffed bunny for Kennedy and some pants that need to be hemmed.  The to-do list never ends, and the patterns and fabric in my stash continue to stack up!

I’ve been covering some local news stories for the Pasadena Patch, in addition to writing my weekly Patch columns.  I’ve been getting to go to all kinds of events, and meet some great members of the community. 

I’m having a love affair with freelance writing, and have been applying for other interesting positions when they come up. 

The picture above is of a ham and oyster dinner I went to a little while back – yum!

Things are hectic right now, but I’m trying to stop here and there and just enjoy the kids and the house and the wonderful husband I’ve been blessed with.  (I also just bought tickets to see New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys with some girlfriends – and I am thrilled for some down time/a girl’s night out!) 

We have a tree in our front yard that I am in love with.  I keep meaning to post about it, but I haven’t gotten around to it.  Right now, it’s blooming with amazing, pink cherry blossoms – it’s gorgeous!

I stand on the front porch and stare at it several times a day, thinking how much that little tree reflects our life – blooming, beautiful, bountiful – it’s nice to have such a lovely reminder of how blessed we are!

Project 365: Weeks 106 & 107

April 6, 2011:  Andrew went to the Beer, Bacon and BBQ festival, and brought Bennet these temporary tattoos home!  I put them on, but quickly realized that we should probably take them off before sending him to preschool.  Unfortunately, they only stayed on for about a day, but they were lots of fun while they lasted!

April 7, 2011:  After I picked up Bennet up from school, he helped me clean out my car and vacuum it.  Since it was so clean inside, we decided to take it to the car wash to clean the outside.  We took Sophie with us, and Bennet was thrilled both with driving through an automatic car wash and having Sophie ride with him in the back seat!

April 8, 2011:  Andrew’s mom and dad came to town for a visit!  Bennet and Kennedy had such a great time playing with them and visiting with them, and we loved having them stay with us!

April 9, 2011:  My mother-in-law loves collecting sea glass, so we headed to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to hunt for sea glass!  We had lunch in historic Chestertown, and then went to Tolchester Beach to look for glass.  Such a lovely day!

April 10, 2011:  Kennedy got her first hair cut!  I can’t believe we had to do it before she was even 9 months old, but her hair was getting out of control!  Special thanks to Grammy for taking lots of pictures for us to commemorate the big day!

April 11, 2011:  Andrew took off work for his parents’ visit.  Since they left early in the morning, we had the whole day to do something fun with the kids!  It was beautiful outside, so we went to a local park and had a picnic lunch while the kids played on the playground.  Bennet is growing up so fast – last summer he would never have attempted this rope bridge but this year – he was all about it!

April 12, 2011:  This was my day.  Beanie had been running a fever which I believed was teething-related.  After her growing increasingly grumpy, I took her in to the pediatrician only to find that she had a double ear infection!  A long couple of days for Momma, but as soon as the Amoxicillin kicked in, things were looking up!

April 13, 2011:  My kids love the dollar store!  Nothing makes them happier than roaming the aisles, checking things out!  On this day, Bennet chose a toy snake and a basket to keep it in as his treat.  Kennedy picked out a stuffed caterpillar. 

April 14, 2011:  I ordered Little Einsteins stuffed animals on ebay for Bennet, and they finally came in the mail!  He was sad that he didn’t have a “rocket” to put them in, so I improvised and made one out of an Amazon box, red tissue paper, paint and Modge Podge.  He was, obviously, thrilled with the result!

April 15, 2011:  We took the kids to the mall for pictures with the Easter Bunny!  Bennet got stickers and a toy in a plastic egg, and Kennedy was pretty excited to chew on the egg!

April 16, 2011:  A rainy day.  Shenanigans on the front porch with the kids and the dog.  Just another day at our house!

April 17 2011:  Since being sick, Kennedy has gotten very needy.  She insists on being held all the time, and cries when you refuse to hold her.  Although it has been getting better, on this night she cried unless I let her hang out on a blanket in the kitchen with me while I unloaded the dishwasher. 

April 18, 2011:  One of the big benefits to finally fixing the front porch and front yard up is that I get to play out front with the kids.  Bennet loves driving his cars all over the front porch.  I love how smart and interactive he’s getting!

April 19, 2011:  Are you freaking kidding me?  I found this pin for Kennedy at a thrift store and I had to buy it!  A Human Bean!  Love it!