Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Trick or Treat Y'all


Jake & Cinderella hit the town with their neighborhood pals tonight while I manned the house with Riley, who I believe may have passed gas with every doorbell ring. I imagine they are having a blast collecting candy near and far.

Monday, October 29, 2012

So Far So Good...

However we are far from out of the woods just yet.  School is closed here, and that means that talking Avery into going to pre-school for a few hours knowing that Olivia is home is a waste of breath.  I am working from home, keeping my peepers on the beauties and watching Riley track the blowing leaves in the backyard (I may have to shut the shades soon, he is about to lose his mind).  But the rain is calm, some wind gusts, but nothing too bad, Riley will even willingly go outside to pee and takes his time, that is proof the rain is no big deal, the dog doesn't pee in the serious rain, he holds it.

Last night we dined on Loaded Baked Potato Soup and a French Baguette from Panera, it was delicious.  And I whipped up a healthier version of Apple Dumplings (1/2 the butter, 1/4 the sugar) and I almost ate the entire pan (because they are healthier, it just made sense, right? HA!)

Then after dinner we started making our Christmas Wish Lists...the Toys R Us big book of Toys arrived last week, so we had to take some time to walk through it so we could give some Family & Friends good ideas for the girls...


Brad hunkered down a bit and put the cleaned out Mason Jar to good use...


And this morning Riley snagged Avery's PB&J Toast, caused a few tears, but for the most part, all is right with the world. We are thinking of all the first responders out there, who are working to keep everyone safe.  I just read an article/report about a large sail boat sinking off the OBX with 16-18 people on board, the Coast Guard is responding...scary!

For now, the girls are going to continue watching Spooky Buddies (Thanks Amy & Ellie for delivering some new movies for us to watch).  I am curious to see what tomorrow brings weather wise. 

Friday, October 26, 2012

Yard Sale 2012: Bye Bye Baby

We had a "neighborhood" yard sale last weekend, which in summary consisted of 3 houses in total...ours, Insley's and Molly's.  So not so much of a neighborhood yard sale, BUT either way, it was nice to purge some of the baby stuff. It was sad to say goodbye to all the baby stuff.  I sorted through all the clothes and organized them by size, and it was a walk down memory lane for sure.


We didn't sell a ton of stuff, but it was nice to see some stuff go to new homes, and since then I've even placed a few things on Craigs List, and a few of my friends will end up taking some of the bigger things off my hands.

Olivia wore this in the hospital when she was born

Two of Brad's fraternity brothers just had baby girls so I am hoping we can share some of our girl clothes with them, it will be nice to have them land in a good home, and the bigger sizes will make their way home to Northfield in the Spring for sweet Mags!!

Yard Sale Guard Dog

I dread having Yard Sales, but they are such a necessary evil - getting everything together, putting it out and cleaning it up, woof, its exhausting.  We got up around 5:15am, and started setting up in the dark, it took me a good 2 hours to get everything set up, I was still setting up when the first customer arrived, and I don't think I finished cleaning up until 4:30pm - needless to say, for those hours worked, we didn't make enough, but the value to me, was in cleaning it out and at the end of the day, a Yukon XL full of stuff made its way to The Goodwill.

Five on Friday: Five Supplies for Storms

I have the pending Hurricane on my mind and thought it would be timely to share the 5 things that we try and have on hand when we need to hunker down for a storm.  Nothing too fancy, these supplies are not sponsored by anyone in the emergency management world, these are just the things we want on hand.

1) Fully Charged Electronics - whether its my Nook Color, or the DVD Player, having fully charged electronics is critical when you have small children in the house who can easily get bored without power. This also includes fully charged cell phones.

2) Bottled Water - this one is a rather standard supply to have on hand, but oddly enough we didn't have any, so I ran out this morning and picked up a case of good ol' Deer Park.

3) Bread - this one is likely recommended by the smart people who make a living at this whole emergency management business - the challenge becomes that Olivia doesn't eat Peanut Butter, so it looks like she will be living on jelly sandwiches should we lose power for a significant period of time. And Arnold Bread is BOGO free at Martin's this week - Cha-Ching!

4) Donuts - this one is a staple when you are in the business of keeping little beauties happy. Donuts make everyone happy, right? And the beauties are no exception to that rule, they love them some donuts.

5) Batteries - for the flashlights of course!! We will need flashlights to get around this place if we were to lose power, so we are prepared for the stairs and the evenings, and of course since it gets dark earlier now, we will have a few hours without light that will require flashlights.

We are hoping that this Hurricane blows off (pun intended) without much fuss.  The reports are tough to track, no one seems to know which direction this storm is going to take, and how strong it will be.  The girls and I will be living it up tomorrow with gymnastics, a trip to the library and then a 2nd Birthday Party for their friend Maggie, looks like it will be wet, but not too bad.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

A Month Off?

It feels as though its been ages since I've put my fingers to keys and whipped out a blog post...and by the looks of it, its been almost a month - shame on me.  But as they say, life gets in the way and such is life.  I am going to work on blogging more, but to say I am going to make it a priority might be a bit of a stretch as I have so many priorities these days, it seems odd to even call them priorities.


Travel Buddy "Donald da Duck"  goes to California with Me

I thought I would do a catch up type post to remind myself of the last month...

#1 Yesterday on the way to school, this was my conversation with Olivia:

Olivia: Mommy, if I punch someone in the face will I be a bully?
Me:  Olivia, generally speaking punching someone in the face isn't the right thing to do
Olivia: But what would make me a bully? If I punched someone in the face over, and over and over again? Would that make me a bully? Because I don't want to be a bully.

Clearly they are talking about bullying at school - and she seems to be getting the "over and over again" part about it, but hopefully I can help her understand that it isn't always physical.

Found this blast from the past - check out those brows - good grief!!

#2 The other day she also asked me why there was a huge "Red Sign" in front of their school (after school care) - and turns out it was the largest Romney sign I've ever seen, so then I had to try and explain the concept of the "Election" and voting...that was a doozie.  Not quite as hard as "The Internet" and "Insurance" but tough nonetheless.

The girls and I run errands after Gymnastics every Saturday - they love the Target cart and the popcorn!

#3 - We went Apple Picking at/on Carter Mountain this past weekend and the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was nice to be able to take Riley with us.  I forget how much attention he gets though, everyone was stopping to pet him and ask a million questions about him.  I always love the variations of how people attempt to say "Weimaraner" - it really is a mouth full.

All ready to go

He was pumped to be outside, among the trees, surrounded by wildlife scents, he was however, far from thrilled to be on a leash, and unable to chase down those scents. 

The crew on top of Carter Mountain - bad lighting and iphone camera = bad photo


The girls had a good time as well, they got to take the tractor/hay ride this year, and didn't complain quite so much about all the walking - they really are growing up :) But all three kiddos (Riley included) were exhausted and rested most of the way home, which made for a peaceful ride for Brad and I.



#4 - Brad has been traveling quite a bit, the girls and I have had a lot of quality time together and with that usually comes a battle for who gets to sleep in Mommy's bed while Daddy is away.  We've taken turns, but this has also perpetuated Avery's inability to sleep through the night on her own, and her "going to bed" battle has been escalated just a bit.

Sneaking out of her bedroom for the 387th time

And with all the travel, Brad has been getting super creative in keeping the girls close, so this last trip he let them pick out one of his shirts to either sleep with or just have close by.  Olivia chose a green Polo t-shirt and Avery chose a cycling jersey - indicative of their personalities we think.



#5 - School is going really well for both girls.  Olivia is really enjoying Kindergarten, and she has her first field trip tomorrow.  I was hoping to chaperon, but all the spots are already filled, so no soup for me, hopefully I can join in next time. I actually love packing her lunches, but she is dying to buy school lunch.  I have to say, the menu grosses me out, between Corn Dog Nuggets, Mozz Sticks, Cheeseburgers, Chicken Tenders and Pizza I am wondering if they realize its school and not the State Fair, good grief, throw a veggie in there, would ya?

#6 - Avery loves saying the Pledge of Allegiance and I am simply amazed that the child doesn't butcher some of the words - I was hoping for something really funny to come out of her mouth, but she nails it.

#7 - Olivia is obsessed with singing, she loves to belt out a tune while in the car and she is picking up on several pop songs - she loves "Hard to Love" by Lee Brice, and Brad caught her singing "Whistle" by Flo Rida...yikes. We probably need to invest in more Kidz Bop CD's so she isn't stuck with the unedited version...have ya'll heard the unedited version of Payphone by Maroon 5, good grief, I played the album from my phone the other day while I was cleaning and had to run across the room to stop it, it was quite racy.