Sorry for party rockin

23 May

In the world of 2 year olds, we had a hella weekend!

The hubs went up to our lake house to work on the minor major dandelion problem we have, so Georgia and I and some of our closest friends got our (2 year old) party on!

It all started with Sesame Street Live on Saturday morning. This was the first real “show” we’ve taken Georgia too and I was nervous, but she had a blast! We don’t watch much Sesame Street but of course, she knows who Elmo is and kept asking for him whenever he wasn’t on stage. I wanted to tell her that the teenage kid in the costume was probably really hot and needed a break, but I didn’t want to ruin the magic.

We had second row seats and let’s just say the kids got lots of high 5′s from the characters. I had no idea who half of the ‘friends’ who live on Sesame Street were – I mean, where did they come from? Did Snuffleupagus get evicted and then the weird purple guy with the big nose moved in? I was so confused.

 

Here’s Georgia holding her ticket like a big girl. This was before the show so I think I was more excited than she was at this point.

 

At intermission they turned the lights on and brought huuuuge Elmo balloons up near the stage. You could just hear every kid in Wells Fargo Arena saying, “I want a balloon! Elmo! Elmo! I want an Elmo balloon.” Damn, they’re smart. Have I mentioned my kid looooves ballons? And this Elmo balloon was $10.

 

Yup, we got one. And she was the happiest girl on the planet!

After the show we took the kids to the sculpture park for a picnic lunch. The day was gorgeous and the kids had lots of steam to blow off. They didn’t eat much, they ran a lot and we got some really great pictures.

Is there anything better than rolling down a huge hill?

 

Then we tried to get a good picture of all 4 kids in this huge bust made out of letters, but have you ever tried to get 4 kids to look at a camera at once? Yah, it didn’t work very well, but two kids in particular were quite comfortable with each other.

Now that I think about it, Georgia did want to sit by Henry at the show. And then we tried to take pictures and this is what they did. No prompting, I swear.

First they played it cool.

 

Then shit got real.

 

Then I couldn’t help but laugh, aaaand let my mind flash foward about 12 years. Wouldn’t that be nuts? But really, it was hilarious and so cute.

 

By then, the kids were zonked, so we went home for naps. That night G and I planted flowers in the hanging baskets and got good and dirty, took a bubble bath and had sprinkle pancakes for dinner. I know you’re jealous.

The next morning we went with our friends Erin and Peyton to the zoo. It was just the second time we’ve taken Georgia and she’s obsessed with animals so it was a no-brainer that she’d have a blast.

Checking out the otters.

 

Big eggs!

 

Playing in the kangaroo pouch.

 

Feeding the llama (and I prayed we’d leave with all 10 fingers intact).

 

And seriously, this guy was pissing me off. Calm it down, goat.

 

 

Leaving the new sea lion exhibit. Very cool, Des Moines. Very cool!

After all of this (and some Pizza Ranch) we all needed a nap! It was a big weekend doing fun things around the city and I had a blast. It’s weekends like these that I need to remind myself that Des Moines is a good place to live, to raise our family and that I should stop being so antsy about getting out. (and I think the grandparents would slash the tires on our car if we tried to move away.)

So yah, my weekends look pretty different these days, but I’ll admit it, this weekend was a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Hanging baskets!

22 May

and, as a writer, it pains me to say it,

AND MORE!

Did anyone guess what I was working on last week? A quick trip to Menard’s turned into $80, but it was money well spent, right?

 

Nothing says ‘Happy Summer’ like bright and full hanging baskets on a porch, and since we have 2 porches, we needed to have some baskets. Or so I told the hubs.

 

 

 

Ooh, look. Who knew a hanging basket could be so sexy? :)

 

Needless to say, I’m in love with the subtle change they’ve made to the curb appeal of our house. I still have some flowers leftover and I need to plant them before they croak in this heat. I’m thinking they’ll be the cherry on top of this sundae in a container right by our front door.

Any guesses?

19 May

Tonight, inadvertently, I decided to start another project.

A harmless trip to Menard’s to get weed killer for the lake house turned into a big ‘ol purchase. Or a lot of little purchases. I’ll give you a sneak peek.

Any guesses as to what we’re up to?

(and doesn’t this picture remind you of the close-up-picture game in (I think) Highlights magazine? yah, I’m a huge nerd.)

I’ll reveal what it is after the weekend. Or maybe sooner. Who knows!

It’s coming together

16 May

The second coffee table arrived from Target.com and miraculously wasn’t damaged, so the basement is starting to look a little more put together.

And Ari is such a diva. I walked downstairs with the camera to snap these pictures and of course he followed me (he has a serious fear of being alone or left somewhere). As soon as he saw where I was pointing the camera, he jumped up on the couch and posed. No joke.

The table is a Target.com exclusive piece and as soon as I saw the simple lines, the criss-cross bottom, and the dark stain that isn’t too cherry, I knew it was perfect. You can buy it here. (and now it’s on SUPER SALE, of course)

Not only are things shaping up inside the house, our landscaping outside is looking pretty lush. I think this might be my favorite time of year in Iowa. Late spring, when everything is in bloom.

I mean, check out these knockout roses that we have in front of our house!

I’m no gardener, so when the guy at the landscaping store told me these are super simple to take care of year to year AND they continue to bloom and bloom all summer long, I was sold! Though I’ve noticed that a lot of the leaves have little white dots/holes in them. Any thoughts? Aphids?

We also are currently hosting a small family at our house….a small (soon-to-be) family of robins!

Last week I heard a lot of chirping outside our master bedroom, which is at the front of our house off of the upper deck, and when I finally remembered to peek out when I heard the noise, I saw this.

If you know me at all, you know I hate birds. They’re dirty and freak me out and when they build nests and people mess with them, they can get hostile! You can guarantee I wasn’t getting anywhere near that nest, but finally I got the hubs to peek in on it when the momma (daddy?) bird was gone and we saw exactly what we were afraid we’d see. An egg.

So, as much as I loathe birds and the bird crap that is ending up all over our deck, the egg is fabulous shade of blue AND I can’t bring myself to  knock down this nest now that we know for sure there is an egg in there. I’m not totally heartless. That poor momma birdie would be heartbroken and I just can’t do that, so I’ve been googling how long robin eggs take to hatch, because as soon as that baby bird can fly outta there, that dirty nasty nest is gone. Well, I’ve learned a few things. Robins lay 1 egg per day, so if she laid that egg today or yesterday, there might be more eggs coming. I also learned once all of the eggs are laid, that momma will snuggle in for 12-14 days! Then, once they hatch, it takes 9-16 days before the babies can leave the nest. I guess we’ll be staring at that icky dirty thing for a while longer. You’re welcome, Momma Robin. You’re Welcome.

Tags: , , , ,

To all the Mommas

14 May

I hope you enjoyed the day with your families yesterday. I hope you got a little spoiled. Or a lot! I hope you were taken care of by your kids and spouse. I hope you were told at least once how thankful your family is for you and all you do for them.

I read this article in the Huffington Post and wanted to share some of the pieces that I pulled from it and will carry with me, as I reflected on what being a mom means to me.

The writer, Farah Miller, says this, “Know you’re remarkable … When it comes down to it, there is not one mother I’ve met who I am not flat-out awed by. Which means only one thing. You all deserve to be worshipped.”

No matter what your situation is, parenting is hard work. It isn’t just the single moms who have it hard, or the working moms, or the moms who are lucky enough to have nannies – every mother in the world struggles along to way and you’re all amazing!

 

And the best part of the article was how she wrapped it up,

“We need to stop the worst kind of mom-judging.
Just because all of you are amazing does not mean I suck. And yet, whenever I talk to impressive moms, I have two thoughts: Whoa, you are remarkable. And, I am a bad mom. I know I’m not alone in this. Especially not online. It’s time to stop turning other moms’ accomplishments into our own deficiencies. We can learn from the mothers who impress us. We can emulate their amazing qualities. We can reject them for ourselves too. Whatever it takes, we have to stop comparing, because we all measure up.”

I can totally relate to her saying that we look at other moms and think, “They’re a better mother than I am.” Every person who is a mother knows how hard and at the same time, how rewarding this big job is – so work on looking in the mirror and seeing the strong, smart momma who loves her kids unconditionally. If you ask me, that’s pretty damn remarkable!

UPDATED: I’m pretty sure these don’t come from the factory this way

11 May

UPDATE: We finally took the table out of it’s beautiful packaging yesterday and oddly enough, it was unscathed! It was a Mother’s Day miracle, I think. :)

But honestly, the table is really sturdy and the color is great with the gray couch and wall color – the only downside is that it’s a bit lower than I would’ve liked…but I think we’re going to just go with it. It’s one more thing we can check off the basement ‘To Do’ list. 

 

 

Since we started putting the basement together, I’ve been slowing checking things off of my “Basement” inspiration board on Pinterest. Finally we got around to ordering the coffee table from Target.com. Don’t get me wrong, I loooove me some Target, but I’ve been less than impressed with this purchase.

Here is the coffee table we ordered.

It is exclusive to Target.com so we had no choice but to order it online, but since I’ve gotten my Target Debit card (that’s right, not credit card – DEBIT card. It’s awesome), we haven’t had to pay shipping from Target.com, which makes big purchases less painful.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we ordered the table. It arrived in a box that was pretty mangled and you could hear the screws rolling around freely inside – which is never a good sign –  but the hubs opened up the box and started putting it together. There was a sizeable nick on the bottom of the table, but I’ve been waiting for this so long I didn’t care. Then he flipped the top of the table over and there was a big ‘U’ shaped  scratch on the top. Shit.

Thankfully, we could return the table to a Target store, so we did that and then ordered another one online.

It arrived today and check out this box.

Do they use regular packing tape in the Target.com factory?


Seriously?

I’ll be honest, we haven’t opened up the table yet, but who wants to bet me that it’s damaged, too?

Anyone? Anyone?

Tags: , ,

Busy, Busy

10 May

Since turning 2, Georgia has had quite the full social calendar. (and since life at home has been crazy the last two weeks, a picture post of what she’s been up to is gonna have to suffice!)

Big Girl Bed, part cuatro

9 May

In Part 3 of the Big Girl Bed saga, I said we were going to be stern with our sassy 2 year old and I was pretty sure that would solve our problem with bedtime. Or at least make things better. Welp, I’m here to tell ya it didn’t make much of a difference.

We’ve tried a bunch of different methods, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

We hold her hand. We sing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ We stand in the door way and tell her she needs to go to sleep. We let her cry and then stand in the doorway telling her it’s time to go to sleep, that we love her, but it’s time to close her eyes now. We sing her ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ again. We let her stay up later, hoping she’ll be really tired and go right to sleep. We take a walk after dinner hoping it will make her really tired and then she’ll go right to sleep. Sometimes, we do all of these in one night.
When we’re sweet and nice and hold her had, bedtime is a mess. When we’re stern and let her do her fake cry until she really starts crying, bedtime is a mess. I have yet to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t, so every night is a mystery.

Tonight, it took going in her room 3 times. 1st time: nice momma, holding her hand for a big and singing another song. 2nd time: more stern momma, standing in the doorway, telling her it was time to close her eyes and go to sleep. 3rd time: quite stern momma, covered her up and told her there wasn’t anything to cry about, she was safe, but had to go to sleep. Then after a few whimpers and a quivering lip (so hard to look at!) she finally went to sleep.

And by the time she’s asleep, I’m exhausted and I don’t make it more than an hour past her. It’ll get better, right? Tell me it does.

The moral of this story is that everything takes time with kids, but the older the kid is and the more their personality shows itself, the longer these transitions can take. So I have hope that soon we’ll get back into a nice, relaxed bedtime routine. Soon.

Tags:

A Clever Cover-Up

3 May

One of the things I loved the most about the contractor who did our basement (Eric of Just Right Construction), is that he focused on the overall project and thought through all of the details, too. If you’ve ever worked with a contractor, you know how rare of a find that is!

In too many basements, the electrical panel is smack dab in the middle of a room. It’s rarely hidden in a closet or put in the room with the furnace and hot water heater. Why is that? Anyway, our electrical panel in the basement happens to be in the living room, on one of the first walls you see when you walk into the basement.

Pretty, right? Nope.

When we did one of the first walk-throughs with Eric to discuss our plan for the basement, he pointed out the electrical box and said he would build a box and frame around it so we could hide it. I thought that was genius – and immediately trusted him. It’s about the details, people!

Once the basement was finished, this is what he had built around the electrical box.

Initially Ryan wanted to just paint it the same color as the wall so it blended in more, but it’s so big I thought it would still be pretty noticeable, so I started brainstorming (and searching Pinterest). It didn’t take long before I decided I could make it a fabulous and colorful pinboard to show off all of Georgia’s arts and crafts.

It is in playroom, you know?

The ‘box’ isn’t on a hinge, it’s actually attached to the frame around the electrical box with these pegs.

Here’s what you’ll need for the project:

  • 1 pkg cork tiles (+ adhesive tape that should come included)
  • scissors
  • decorative fabric
  • heavy duty staple gun and staples

First, I bought those cork tiles that you can get at Target or Wal-Mart in the office supply section. I used the adhesive strips that came with them to stick them to the front of the board.

I had to trim a few of the edges, but it was easy to do with a scissors. It did cause little bits of cork to get all over my new carpet, but a quick pass with the vacuum eliminated the mess.

And turns out, Ari is not the best DIY assistant. See how he’s ignoring me?

Anyway, once the entire thing was covered in cork, I wrapped it with fabric I found at Joann’s for 50% off!

Bonus!

The fabric is  by Waverly, but I’m having trouble finding the style online. I’ll update this post once I find it.

Since the fabric has horizontal stripes, I had to be very careful that I kept things straight and didn’t pull one way or the other when I was prepping it to be stapled. Once I had it situated, I stapled the fabric to the back of the wood door with a heavy duty staple gun, checking the stripes every few staples.

When I had gone all the way around the door and hung it back on the wall, this is what I had.

A view from the side.

I love the bright fabric and the way it plays into the teal accents on the couch and the polka dots on G’s bins. Now it’s time to add art on the rest of the walls, but this is a good start.

 

How did you turn an eyesore into an accent?

Tags: , , , , ,

Going to the Chapel

1 May

Last weekend my baby sister got married – and even though it was a litttttle chilly that day, everything was beautiful, especially the bride.

Here’s the couple making it official!

And then there was lots of celebrating! I was incredibly nervous about giving my speech at the reception, but thanks to a couple of glasses of champagne (and maybe a shot or two), it went well and I even had people laughing and crying. Success, right?

The Bride and I

My SIL and me

And let me say that the flower girls were beautiful and adorable walking down the aisle! My niece Addie (below) held onto G’s hand the entire way, which was a good thing because Georgia didn’t look up once. I think in her head she thought, “If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.” It was sweet and I was so proud of them!

We ordered the flower girl dresses on Etsy from a store called OliviaKate Couture and they were beautiful, comfortable and the girls loved wearing them. Check out the video below.

As soon as both girls had their dresses on, they couldn’t help themselves from spinning and dancing!

[Bridesmaid dresses: Alfred Sung style:D494 http://www.dessy.com/dresses/bridesmaid/d494/?color=daffodil&colorid=115#.T5_r1cRYt9U / color: daffodil]

 

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 133 other followers