Monday, May 30, 2011

Happy Memorial Day!




 {yes, that's a spare rib bone in his hand}
 {he gnawed on that bone for hours!}

We've had a fun-filled busy week, and a fabulous holiday spent with family today!  More posts to come soon...

Monday, May 23, 2011

What we've been up to...

{Day with Thomas - from a few weeks ago}

So I mentioned Poppy's boy friend last week.  This is the funniest thing.  All of a sudden, out of no where, she has been talking non-stop about her friend from school, Ty.  Luckily, he lives right around the block from us, so we've been meeting up for quite a few playdates lately.  It is sooo funny to see how differently Poppy acts around him!  They really are so cute together!

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And Poppy started playing soccer last month.  I am shocked by how much she loves it!  Marc usually takes her, but last week I was able to go with them and snap a few pics.  I was impressed by how determined she was and she has already made a few goals during the little games they play.


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 Then there's this little pork chop.  Man, this kid can eat!  But he will only eat the exact same thing I am eating!  He doesn't want anything to do with baby food or any plain steamed veggies.  His favorites are coconut curry chicken with peas and baked sweet potato fries w/ cayenne pepper on them!  Oh, and rice!  Between him and Poppy, we go through about 5lbs. of rice a week!


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 We've been working on our garden lately and Poppy has been quite the helper.



In addition to a few flowers, this year we planted tons of lettuces, tomatoes, green beans and sugar snap peas.  And a few carrots.  We'll see how they do!  Poppy is pretty excited to see the fruits of her labors!

And on the running front - I just completed my first week and I'm still loving it!  Yay for exercise!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

inspired

So, I've been inspired by Jenna, to finally get off my couch and start the "couch to 5k" running program. I've had the app downloaded for well over a year (maybe even 2 years!) but I've always been able to find every excuse to put off starting it.  But my post-preggers belly apparently isn't going anywhere on its own, and a membership to the gym isn't fitting into our budget anytime soon, so today I decided to just literally get off the couch and head outside for my first run.  And I cannot believe how good it felt!!!  It even started raining about 5 minutes into it, and Lola started dragging behind about 15 minutes into it, and I still loved it!!!  Fingers crossed that I actually stick to it - and this isn't the type of thing that I would normally post about on my blog, but maybe if you guys check in on me to see how I'm doing with it, I'll feel more pressure to stick with it.  K?

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{scooting to school, with a balloon for her boy friend - another post on that topic to come}

And I was determined to get a picture of Sam's wake-up smile.  But first let's talk about that blankie.  It stays in his crib and when it's time for a nap or bedtime, all I have to do is hand him his blankie and he immediately snuggles his face into it, pops his thumb in his mouth and falls asleep.  Just like that!  It amazes me every time!  We could be playing on the living room floor one minute and then next minute if I bring him to his room and give it to him, he just knows to go right to sleep!  I wish I could do that!

And that is the awesome smile I get every single time he wakes up.  How super duper adorable is he?!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Birthday Party

Finally, the last installment of Poppy's birthday celebrations!  Usually, we throw a big party with all of her cousins and friends and family, but this year we decided to scale it back and just do a smaller party at home with the just the regular pizza Thursday crew and her Godparents.  

Poppy decided on a "movie theater" theme...
{popcorn cupcakes}

{and popcorn for snacking on during the movie}

{Poppy requested bee bim bop for dinner, and we had to introduce it to everyone by reading the book}

{singing Happy Birthday for the 100th time that week}

{the kids were surprised that the cupcakes weren't popcorn flavored!}

Once all of the kids had their dinner and cupcakes, we corralled them into the makeshift movie theater, aka: our living room.  We moved all the furniture around, hung a sheet on a wall and used a projector to show "Tangled".  Marc even printed out tickets that the kids had to turn in in order to get into the movie theater.


{it was actually pretty dark in there and the movie looked really cool and the kids loved it!}

And the best part was that all of the adults got to sit back and relax and talk and eat, sans kiddos!  It was a genius idea, if I do say so myself. 


At the end of the night, we asked Poppy what her favorite part of the party was, and of course she said "Opening the gifts!".  Her favorite gift by far was the fishing pole Marc got for her.  She has been using it to "fish" all over the house, and has been asking if she can go fishing first thing every day.  Marc is super excited to take her once it stops raining!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Lucky girl.

Lately, I've been feeling like I just might be the luckiest girl in the world.  There was a point in my life (when I was like 16 years old) that I swore I never wanted kids.  Can you imagine?!  And now I am the proud mama to the 2 best kids in the whole wide world.  There was a point in my life when I swore I would never want to be a stay-at-home mom.  Now, I can't imagine what my life will be like when I do have to go back to work.  I am so grateful that I get to take 2 years off of work to be home with my babies.  We are definitely a typical two income family, and Marc and I are making huge sacrifices to make this work financially, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.


The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous and we are trying to enjoy every second of it outside.  Poppy got a scooter for her birthday, so on Monday morning we scooted up to the playground to play and then scooted home for some lunch on the porch.  Tuesday morning we spent at the zoo.  Today we just played outside, and baked cupcakes for Poppy's birthday party tomorrow.  The time that I am spending right now with Poppy and Sam is so precious to me.  Our days like we've had this week make it all worth it when I have to pass on buying those cute shoes I really wanted, or when Marc and I decide that a 'night out' just isn't in the budget and we have to stay home and rent a movie instead.  And I know that being able to stay home with your kids isn't a realistic option for a lot of people, which makes me feel even more grateful for this opportunity.

Every minute I get to spend with this cute face is worth a million bucks to me!
So for whatever reason, I'm just feeling really lucky these days.  Lucky to have such amazing kids.  Lucky to be able to spend so much time with them.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Poppy's birthday & Mother's day

Poppy's birthday turned out to be fantastic.  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 4.  4 years old!  That's just crazy.  

Her day started with her requested breakfast in bed.  It was adorable how excited she was when she saw us carrying in a tray of muffins and donuts and juice to be eaten in her bed.  Then we had Marc's family over for bee bim bop and birthday cake.  Poppy said her favorite part of the day was opening all of the presents, of course!


Mother's day was fantastic as well.  The night before Marc asked if I wanted breakfast in bed, but I told him he could take the morning off.  Instead we went out for a nice brunch with family.
{our attempt at a family picture - I'm not sure why I'm the only one looking at the camera!}

After brunch, Marc and I hung out outside while the babies were napping.  It felt soooo good to be outside all day!  Once everyone was up we headed to Uma and Upa's for more playing and then dinner.

Check out the mother's day gift Poppy and I made for Grandma and Uma... 
It's a bird feeder!  We made a loaf of bread and covered it in seeds and then added painted sticks for the birds to sit on.  Poppy and I thought it was rather clever, but everyone in my family seemed to think it resembled something that belongs in a toilet and they thought it was soooo funny.  

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Poor Marc with all of these holidays.  Just about every night this week, after I went to bed I could hear him get in the car and drive somewhere, and then come back an hour or so later.  He was making runs to get stuff for our breakfasts in bed, flowers for mother's day, movies and snacks for our anniversary date night, etc.  He did such a great job and I am so lucky to have him!

Friday, May 6, 2011

3 down, 4 more to go.

My birthday this year turned out to be one of my favorites ever.  It started with Marc and Poppy bringing me breakfast in bed.  Poppy was soooo excited that we got to eat on our bed.  She even requested that we do the same thing for her birthday.  

Then the sun decided to make its first appearance in months!  I was so excited to see my old friend!  As soon as we were all dressed, I loaded up the stroller and we headed to the playground.  Sam slept all morning in the stroller and Poppy had a blast with the playground all to herself.  

Then we headed home where Poppy and I made my absolute favorite cake in the world - strawberry whipped cream cake!  We even used the last of the frozen strawberries that we picked last June.  And yes, some might think it's a little odd that I made my own birthday cake, but I love baking with Poppy.  We really have so much fun in the kitchen together.  I told Marc, I feel like Poppy and Sam both knew to just be extra good kids on my birthday.  There was not a single tear or whining or tantrum or anything.  Everyone was just so good and happy.  It really made my day to be able to spend it with my family.

When I saw a picture of a "ruffle cake" on pinterest (of course!), I knew that I had to try making one myself.  And it was so easy to do!  Didn't it turn out cool?

And everyone surprised me with a Mexican Feast (my favorite) instead of boring old pizza for pizza Thursday.  And the sun was still shining!!!  It was such a perfect day!

I've included a video of everyone singing happy birthday.  I was cracking up when I watched it, it sounds like there were about 100 kids there!



 {Louis loving the fact that he's not the baby of the family anymore - he's a big kid now!}

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Then today was Poppy's birthday party at her school.  I didn't think all the little boys in her class would appreciate a princess themed party, so we decided to go with owls instead.  Poppy and I made demo crafts yesterday...

 and then we all got up bright and early this morning to decorate her owl cupcakes...

 and I went in and read an owl book to her class...
We read Wow! Said the Owl, which was a really cute book.

then we all made an owl craft!  The kids really seemed to have fun with our owl theme, and Poppy was in her glory with everyone wishing her a happy birthday.

But the real highlight of her day is going to be when Marc takes her to "Day Out With Thomas" tonight.  She's been talking about that all week long.

Still ahead: Poppy's actual birthday tomorrow, mother's day, and more parties!!!

sources:
ruffle cake
owl craft
owl cupcakes 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Let's get this party started!

And so the chaos known around here as 'birthday week' has begun.  We celebrated my MIL's birthday on Sunday.  We'll be doing my birthday at pizza Thursday, followed by Poppy's birthday on Saturday.  And Mother's day on Sunday.  Oh, and I almost left out our wedding anniversary on Saturday too.  

Poppy and I were inspired by the cake the fairies bake for Sleeping Beauty when we made my MIL's birthday cake.  Poppy didn't think we would be able to do it without magic wands, but I think we pulled it off.  :)


All that celebrating means a lot of cake eating (and making)!  I'll try to post pics of everything.  We decided to tone it down with Poppy's birthday this year.  Just smaller family parties and a party at school.   She is soooo excited for all of the celebrating!

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I've been dying to catch Sam's sweet smile he gives me when he wakes up from his nap every day.  So when I saw he was sleeping extra late on Saturday, I decided to go in his room and open his shades and try to snap a few pics of him waking up...
 {sleeping baby - sucking his thumb and holding his blankie}
 Wait a minute, this isn't the sweet smile he always gives me!  That's the stink-eye!
 Let's just say he was not happy that I had a big black camera in front of my face.  As soon as I put the camera down, it was all smiles.

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