Backpacking To The Library

Since being down to one car, I miss being able to just up and go somewhere with the kids during the day since the Hubs has the car at work.  Today we didn't let it stop us!  Trip to the library!  

One thing is for sure, I was prepared.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the boys in the bike trailer/stroller.  Ice water, bag of books to return, diaper bag with essentials of diapers, wipes, and a change of clothes for the potty training dude.  Daisy rode her scooter, I jogged while pushing the stroller.  It really wasn't that far - just over a mile - but quite a hike for little ones.  One the way back, Daisy wanted to ride so her and Jesse switched out.  We hung the scooter over the stroller and Jesse jogged beside me.  When he got tired about 1/4 of the way from home, I put him on my shoulders and pushed the stroller.  If only the paparazzi had come along just then.  They're always just missing me, it seems.

Daisy was such a trooper!  We walked into the library, hot, sweaty, and red as beets.  I'm sure we were a sight.  People just smiled.  We freshened up in the bathroom and fully enjoyed our library play time. 

Our library has an awesome kids section.  Not only great books but also toddler appropriate computer games as well as oodles of learning toys.  My kids could stay busy there for several hours.  Unfortunately we only had about 30 minutes before we had to head back so we could get lunch and get into nap time.

Okay, let me just be a proud Momma and brag for a minute.  Jesse is currently potty training and has been doing so good.  Today was his first time "out" without a pull up.  Completely dry the whole time.  AND he jogged almost the whole way back home.  He just might be my athlete.  

Now nap time!  Kid tip #354: If you want kids to take a good nap, drag them around town for a couple miles in the hot sun.  Works every time.

First 5k: Complete

Pre-race. Apprehensive. Excited. Nervous.

I did it!  While my family and friends never questioned my ability to meet this goal, I had my doubts.

I thought I would probably be walking half of it, throwing myself across the finish line dead last, after the awards were handed out and three quarters of everyone had gone home.

But that's not what happened.

I'm not really sure that I can adequately put into words what this experience has been.  I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.  I feel like reaching the next goal is possible.  

I ran with 3,999 other women/girls today.  All with a goal.  All with a purpose.  All on their own, individual journey.

My Cheering Section

There are so many reasons why I run, but these three miracles are a huge part of it!

Finished!

I started out this race thinking if I can just finish in under an hour I would be happy.  I finished in 39:45.  One of the reasons I was worried is because I have done most of my training on the treadmill, which is a world of a different track than running outside.  I ran outside a handful of times the last two weeks before the race, attempting to adjust my body to outside running.  It didn't go very well for the most part.  It discouraged me more than anything except for maybe one or two days.  I ran around my neighborhood, which also has hills.  The course today was flat except for one hill.  I think that made the difference.

Next up?

The Color Run on May 31st!

I think I might be hooked.  I told Josh as we were getting in the car to come home that I think I just might be a runner for life.  

My post-run, Mother's Day roses - nothing ever smelled so sweet!

I feel like my running posts have hijacked my blog.  Hopefully we can get back to our regularly scheduled crafting program very soon!  I've been a little busy.  :)

I Am Robot

As we go into the weekend, let's make a conscious effort to forget all about work and spend time with our families!  If you own or run a business, you know how hard and sometimes impossible it is to quit working on the weekend.  This coming from the wife of a man who will be holed up in the basement all weekend working towards his cd release in a few days...I am so thankful for a husband who, even in the midst of a hectic schedule, still finds time to spend with his family.  Even if it's just a 5 minute tickle fest on a break from the studio.

And if you are a Mom who also works (in OR out of the home), you know how difficult it can be sometimes to find that balance.

I love that my kids always remind me in their own special way the importance of spending time together, of just being silly together.  What would I do without them?  My life would probably be a little neater, a little more together, a little more organized and much less crazy and hectic.  But since you can't have one without the other, I don't want the neat, the organized, and the calm.  Bring on the crazy, because at the end of the day, it's all worth it.  So completely and totally worth it.

Home School Mom

I never thought I would be a home school mom.  For several reasons.  For one thing, I have always considered myself a horrible teacher of anything and have a terrible time of explaining things.  But then I had kids and started thinking about it.  And now I am a home school mom.  At least for this year.  Who knows what next year or the year after that will bring.

The preschool curriculum we are using is God's Little Explorers.  And let me tell you.  I cannot say enough good things about this!  Stacie Nelson  from Motherhood on a Dime wrote this curriculum for her own daughters and did such an AMAZING job!  It is so hands on which is awesome for little ones and extremely versatile.  I am using it with my 4 year old and my 2 and a half year old.  Many of the activities can be catered to the ages of both my kids.  I just love it.

This box is going to be the kids' explorer's kit that they will keep all their little school supplies in.  I covered it beforehand and then they decorated it this week.  It is simply a diaper box with all but one of the long flaps cut off.  The second long flap I just taped to the first, still connected, long flap so that it opened more like a lid.

We have had a great first week and are looking forward to next week!  

Princess Daisy - Last year of Preschool

Superhero, er, King...uhh...this is Jesse - First year of Preschool

Looking forward to next week!  Here's to me actually being prepared before the night before we begin again!  Oh, to have it all together.  Maybe one day.  But probably not.

Thursday Thinker: Infertility Revisited

Imagine something that you have always wanted.  That one thing in your life that you have always aspired to.  That one thing that is the only thing that you know you want for your life, more than anything else in the world.  Then imagine sitting down with a professional who tells you nope, not gonna happen for you.

I was told almost 7 years ago that I would not have children.  I know I've written many times about this before, but when I was trying to think of a topic for my first thinker post since the blog overhaul, I kept coming back to this topic.

I try not to pretend like since I experienced a short time of infertility that I know all about it or that I know exactly what everyone who has experienced this is feeling.  Because I think that even though there is a special bond that is formed between people experiencing this, I also think that there are differences, too.

Let me just say this, though.  I do know how you feel when your friend tells you she's pregnant.  I do know how you feel when you hear about that teenager who made a mistake.  I do know how you feel when the lady in your church that everyone prays around does get her answer to prayer.  I do know what it's like to constantly try to avoid the question, "So when are you having kids?"  I do know what it's like to not like your own reaction to these things, to wonder how you can prevent yourself from hurting in response to someone else's innocent joy.

Today, I have 3 children, and even though I have walked that road of infertility for a short time, I don't know that I have answers.  Quite honestly I still don't know the why.  I had someone who also dealt with this tell me a few months ago that it was 11 years before she was able to turn her pain into help and comfort for someone else who was going through it.

So a few things I do know.

PAIN

TRUST

COMFORT

The pain is obvious.  There is pain in infertility.  The trust we need to have is in God.  I failed miserably at this many times.  It is a daily need.  To trust that He has my life in His hands.  That He understands my desires and my pain.  That He has my best interest at heart.  That He sees the whole picture and makes it all work together for good.  The comfort comes from truly believing it.  Believing with your whole heart that those things are true.  How do you get there?  Pray.  No matter what you are feeling.  Anger, pain, uncertainty...pray through it.  Talk to God. Cry out to God.  Let Him see your anger and your pain.  Just don't stop.  You will get there.  The pain will not ever, ever go away, but it will become manageable in the comfort you find in baring your soul to Him.

a candyland party success

Well the big Candyland party that we have been brain storming for, planning and anticipating is finally over!  And we've got one very happy and content 4 year old in its wake.  We have a lot of family and friends who live halfway across the country and could not be here, so this post is essentially for them, while also passing on some of the great ideas I came across in blog land for anyone looking to throw their own Candyland extravaganza!

Let's start at the very beginning - invitations!  I knew I wanted to make my own, but ideas out of the blue is not my strong suit.  I usually do pretty good at recreating someone else's ingenuity, however.  The problem is, I forgot to take pictures of the ones I made, and I didn't make any extras.  So I will have to settle for the original from which I got the idea in the first place: Gumball Invitations These invitations look much better than mine, but I was pleased with how they turned out anyway.

 


My vision for the outside came to life.  It really did.  It was exactly the way I wanted it to look.  I had another peppermint lollipop at the end of the driveway too.  Then the balloons at the end of the driveway shrunk.  And a few posterboards blew away, and the sign would not stay in it's place for anything.  I'm so glad Josh got a picture of it before it fell apart.  At least we know what it looked like, even if our guests only saw one or two squares!  :)

The peppermint lollys were fun to do.  This idea was all over the internet.  The one I referenced is HERE.  I made it with paper plates, craft paint, cellophane, thread and a wooden dowel.  I was a little hesitant on the peppermint design at first but once I got going it was pretty easy.  I painted the outside of two plates and then used hot glue to stick them together.  I bought a roll of cellophane at Target and the wooden dowels I swiped from the kids' windmills (sshhh! ;)  Then I just tied the balloons on with some ribbon.

We almost lost this puppy.  At just a few minutes before the party was supposed to start, we realized the white part had come off and blew away.  Josh found it on the neighbor's tree.  Several pieces of packing tape later we were back in business.  

 


The Birthday Wreath!  I think I am probably most proud of how this turned out.  I originally made some candy in different colored fabric because I was using what I had.  But then I went to JoAnn's and found this purple and pink fabric in the remnant section and picked it up.  I'm so glad I did because it looks so much better!  The candy idea came from this blog post at Small Fry & Co. For sake of time, I switched it up a little.  I cut my wreath circle out of cereal box cardboard, and painted it red so it wouldn't stand out against the red door as much.  I cut up toilet paper rolls and stuffed them with polyfill.  I cut the fabric into rectangles and sewed up the long side making a cylinder shape.  I stuffed it all in there, twisted up the sides and tied it with white thread!  It was really pretty easy.  I do think I would have liked it better with the cellophane like this blogger did originally, but I just didn't have much time.  I really like how this turned out though!  Oh, and I got the idea to put the 4 in there from a picture on Pinterest, but it was an Etsy listing and no longer exists so I couldn't link to the original post.  I just cut it out of the cereal box cardboard, painted it white and then painted different color dots all over.  I love it!

This paper plate candy was pretty easy, yet a little time consuming.  Sadly, it's the only one I made.  I wanted more, but just didn't have the time to make them.  

Candy on the walls and lollipops on the mantle.  The lollipop sticks were supposed to be painted white but again...ran out of time!  I blame it on moving two weeks before the party.  Link for lollipops.  I don't have a link for the balloon candy.  I found it on Pinterest and my computer won't take me to the site due to a suspicious link.  Weird, but you really don't need instructions.  Just wrap a balloon in cellophane!  I tied it with white thread so you couldn't see it.  

I lied.  I said the wreath was my favorite, but I think this garland is my favorite.  I didn't really have any instructions for this because the link I found was to an Etsy site where someone was selling it.  But it didn't look too hard to me so I gave it a whirl.  I did it a little different in that I left about 4 inches of space between circles rather than sewing them right next to each other.  I think I like it better because you can see into the next room very easily and it gives such a nice "pop" to the decor.

The sugary treats display!  I put some boxes under the table cloth to make it a little different.  Now that I'm looking at the picture I would have arranged it a little differently but at this point in the set up I was feverishly piping and decorating the cake while quickly spouting off to Josh where I wanted everything.  More on the cake later - whew!

I thought these marshmallow pops were a perfect addition, and being a bargain shopper I was excited to find them at the dollar store.  Daisy tasted one yesterday and said it was yucky!  Oh well.  At least they looked good.  :)  I stood them up in a goblet-full of marshmallow ice cream cones.

Having the party just a couple weeks after Easter came in handy this year as I was able to save a lot of extra jelly beans as well as get some on a major sale after the holiday.  I love the idea of displaying the cake pops this way.

Here are the original candy pieces I had made and decided I didn't like for the wreath.

These might have been the biggest hit with the kids...or maybe it's because they were closest to the edge of the table, but by the end of the party there were only a few left!  I took locations from the game and put up signs next to candy that resembled it, just to add a little cuteness.

Sweet Tart gummies!  I originally thought these would be fun on skewers and then I thought, "what am I thinking?  Skewers at a toddler birthday party?"  Yeah.  Glad I thought that one through.

I've been wanting to try these cake pops for a while and just never took the time to.  This was the perfect opportunity and they turned out great!  SusAnna's Sweets will definitely be adding these to their site!

One of my favorites: Laffy Taffy!

Marshmallow sticks!

Another fun pop display.  These cupcakes were a lot harder than they looked! 

I like how the black basket turned out with the ribbon threaded through it.  Unfortunately this is the best picture I have of it.  Cupcake cake bites and marshmallow cupcakes along with some very large dot candy!

Now...the cake!  I was very happy with the crumb coat.  It was the best I've done on corners, I think.

Here it is iced up, before attempting to smooth it out.  I made a mistake and stuck it in the fridge before smoothing it.  I didn't think it would make a difference, but with my time crunch it definitely did.  When I pulled the cake back out to smooth it and decorate it, I had very little time to work with.  I like to use the hot knife method when smoothing cakes but with it being hardened in the fridge it just did work.  So I just tried to cover up the really bumpy parts as best I could.

I could sit here and tell you everything I had planned to do that I just couldn't because I didn't have time, but I think I will just show you the cake and leave it at that.  :)  I think it turned out cute, even if it wasn't totally what I had originally planned out in my head.  The ice cream accident on the top is my favorite part.

I also like the cake bite cupcakes on it.

Okay, I will tell you one thing I was going to do different.  I wanted the letters in her name to be all different colors, but the white on white is okay too.

Red KoolAid?  At first I couldn't figure out if this was really smart and cute because it was a Candyland party, or just really stupid to have at a toddler's birthday party after just moving into a new place with nice carpet.  Thankfully it was a nice day and the kids were able to be outside a lot so we came out unscathed with zero spills!  I missed getting the plates, napkins, forks and spoons in the picture, but they were all different colors.  I loved that part of this theme.  And as you can see, part of my garland became a table decoration when Jesse decided to high-tail it through the hanging circles over and over at lightening toddler speed.

I can't believe I didn't get a better picture of these.  I made some candy beanbags out of felt for the kids to play games with.  The idea came from this post, although I think I actually like mine better.  :)  For some of them I painted on a peppermint and spiral design, and I used white thread to sew them so you wouldn't be able to see it very well.  The only thing is, I didn't have small beans, I only had lima beans, but I'm a big fan of using what you already have on hand if at all possible.  So I used the lima beans, and they worked great, but probably would have been even more fun with little beans.  

The kids had a blast with it.  We had them try to toss them into the bowls.  Fun times for all.  :)

I thought the treat buckets were fun.  I had a different color bucket for each kid.  Each bucket held an ice cream lollipop, a toothbrush, and then before leaving they got to pick whatever candy they wanted from the table to fill up their bucket.  I'm sure the mommies appreciated me.  ;)  It was a great party, our girl had fun.  That being said, if ever we have a birthday during a time when we are going through a major life change (like, oh say moving, for example) I will never do this again.  Haha!  I think if this ever happens again we'll be doin it up Chuck E Cheese style.

Brainstorming Candyland

Our sweet little Daisy will be turning 4 in just a few short weeks.  I have been talking to her about what kind of party she would like to have, and she kept telling me she wanted a Dora party.  Now, I have no beef with Dora, not really.  Daisy has loved her for a long time now and she does learn a lot from watching her.  But I just felt like Dora would be sort of....run of the mill.  I just felt like there were a ton of other, cuter, more fun options out there.  Also, Daisy didn't seem very excited about it.  She was just sort of interested.  So since it's my party, I mean, Daisy's party, I suggested to her a Candyland party.  We had gotten her the boardgame for Christmas and she loves it.  Ever since that suggestion she has been so excited and keeps wanting to talk to me about her Candyland party and what all we will have there, what we can make, what we can do.  THAT'S how I wanted her party to be!  Something she was over the moon about!  She has looked online with me to see what ideas we can come up with for food, decorations, etc.  Of course, she wants everything so we are picking and choosing.  I have found a ton of great ideas.  I just hope I can pull it off!  Have you ever done a Candyland party?  Do you have some great tips, suggestions, ideas for us?  Any ideas welcome!

the joy of snow

We have had a couple snow days here in Kansas over the last week or two.  It's been fun.  There's just something about getting lots of snow that makes you feel like there really isn't anything you can do except go out and play in it, or stay inside and watch movies.  I don't know what it is.  I stay at home with my kids so it's not like having to stay home all day is anything new or different for us, but give us a ton of snow during the night and it's like a free pass for not having to accomplish anything but fun the next day!

There are so many things about this photo that I love!  The crooked hat, the tongue, the mis-matched mittens-both girl mittens, by the way.  I bought him some new mittens before our Christmas vacation and managed to lose them so well that they have yet to turn up.  He never even got to use them!  So we've been scrambling ever since because I keep thinking, well it probably won't snow again till next year.  Boy was I wrong!  At least I found some old ones of his sister's so I didn't have to strap his dad's on him again.

This picture reminds me of one that would be in a magazine somewhere.

I was so proud of him dragging the sled all by himself!

That about sums it up!

water, water, everywhere!

I am a daddy's girl, through and through. I was never a "girly girl". Climbing trees, riding bikes and traipsing around barefoot in cow poop were more appealing to me than your typical girl-like activities. My mom felt the need to remind me on several occasions that I was, indeed, a girl. Somehow wrestling with my brother in the hallway didn't appear to be too ladylike. That said, I followed my dad everywhere. Feeding the cows, running conveyors, in the tractor bailing hay....I was his shadow a lot of days. My dad is a very quiet man. Solid in character, a man of few words, and known for the zingers. You know what I mean. Those little one liner jokes that, if you're not listening closely, you may just miss. One of the coolest places on our farm, I thought, was the underground tunnel that connected the barn to the silo. This is how we fed the cows, on conveyor belts running from the silo with the grain (or whatever it was) to their pens. Well, for some reason unknown to my small little mind, the area around the silo under there always got a little flooded with who knows what. I would say water, but, well it's a farm and pretty much anything goes. Now, I'm sure this happened more than once, but I remember one time in particular on one of our many trips down through the tunnel. I don't know if maybe I commented on the flooded floor or if my dad just broke into verse, but here is what he said: "Water, water, everywhere, someone lost their underwear!" As a small child, I remember thinking that this was the funniest thing I had ever heard in my short life. I laughed and laughed, and if I remember right, my dad just smiled. =)

prego pic update and stuff

16 weeks. Almost halfway there! I am definitely enjoying pregnancy so far. Especially since my doctor gave me some nausea medicine. That has helped immensely. I have really enjoyed following the development of the baby week by week. The process is so completely amazing!

I've been a little homesick lately. Homesick for family and just for the northeast part of the country where I grew up. I feel like Nashville tries really hard to have a fall season but it just doesn't even come close to the falls of PA and MD. Then there's the whole baby thing. Something I would love to be sharing with family and as much as we try through pictures it just isn't the same. I never thought I would be one of those people who had to live near family. I mean, I love my family, but growing up I never had a problem with going away for a while and experiencing new things. The longer we live here, though, I wonder. The difference between when I was growing up and now is, I always went back. We go and visit when we can now, but I'm finding it's not nearly enough!

Josh and I are going to check out the midwife wing at the Vanderbilt Hospital on Tuesday. I already know what I want my birthing process to be like, which makes me think we will be switching our care to a midwife even before we've talked to them, but I am trying not to make up my mind before weighing both options fully.

I feel like this post is all over the place, but, it's my blog, so it's okay, right? =)