New Wheels

With a post called new wheels just days after a post about getting rid of my car, you're probably expecting a picture of my awesome, flashy new vehicle. But no. In fact, I am writing about C and his brand new bike!

Believe it or not, this is C's first bike ever. He had a tricycle when he was younger but he had no interest in it. Zero.

And then M came around and she loved it. But C was firmly in the no camp. Then C got a scooter and he was perfectly content and happy with that.

Then the Easter Bunny brought M a bike and she has been loving it! She's really quite good. But that started to spark C's interest a little and finally, it got to where M couldn't use her bike when she wanted to because C would be using it. Cue the delivery of this bike yesterday.

It helps that we are currently having some beautiful weather! We brought the kids to one of the elementary schools to use their parking lot to really practice!

We even went back again this morning after swim lessons. Every little bit of practice helps. And there's already some marked improvement. Definitely still on training wheels but again, he hasn't even had the bike for 24 hours at this point and it's his first bike EVER. He'll get there! 

Geography Fun

This summer our school repainted the United States mural and we've been enjoying practicing our geography skills. Husband or I will call out a state and then the kids run to stand on it. 

Some states are of course easier than others. We're working on our East Coast states specifically. 

I am really impressed actually by how well C does especially. This is just one of the ways we sneakily work in some school stuff in the summer. 

Goodbye Old Friend

It's funny how attached to stuff people are. I am no hoarder but I certainly fall into the trap like most Americans of accumulating stuff. But then there are things that you hold on to because of sentimental value, even when you shouldn't anymore.

On Saturday I said goodbye to my 1999 Ford Explorer. It, no joke, was the car I learned to drive in. It became my car my senior year of college.

It safely delivered me to and from grad school. 

But we haven't really driven it for over a year now. And it's registration was about to come up due. And it was just time. It's 20 years old for crying out loud. I took it for one last spin Saturday morning. 

And it was an emotional process. No one pushed me to do it. I set it all up myself, but it made me feel sick to my stomach to see it drive away. To know that this key will never be on my key ring again. I should've just kept one of them. But there's nothing to be done about that and what would I have done with it anyway. 

For all the miles, and all the memories, I am still sad that it is gone. It was time. But it stings a little. I have recently determined that this is why people lease cars or trade theirs in more frequently. 20 years is a long time to get attached to one vehicle. 

I keep wistfully looking out the window at where it used to be. It was just such a part of me you know? It was technically mine for 12 years. I will miss it forever probably. Goodbye old friend. 

Wedding and a Hair Cut

So on Saturday Husband and I went to his cousin's wedding. It was a kid-free event, which I was totally okay with but it did cause some strife with the extended family. (Even some of Husband's first cousins missed the cut since they're under 18. And even the groom's nieces and nephews were only allowed at the ceremony.) 

Anyway, it was a nice wedding and the only proof I have that we were there is this picture of the dinner menu:

And this picture of the cupcake table per the request of my kids. 

 Anyway, yesterday was a big day. M's first big girl haircut! She had the cut at Disney World when she was two. But it was really a minor trim. Then she got another minor ttrim last August before school started. Yesterday she got her hair cut. She has been asking for one for a while. And her hair was getting SO long. Here are a couple before pictures.

Be 

And at the hair cut. I brought her to my salon and had my stylist do it. 

Here is her hair after. It's a pretty major cut actually, but I still think people would say she has long hair.

She wanted to go very short but we compromised at "elbows." My biggest fear is that since this was the official cut that got rid of her baby hair she won't have her curls any longer. Time will tell I guess. 

All Smiles

We are cruising into Friday with big grins. (Some missing more teeth than others.) 

I am excited to report that I do not work this weekend! I am not even seeing one show! It's been 7 weekends in a row that I've seen something so that's kind of fun. (I will make up for it next weekend seeing two shows.)

We have a wedding to go to so it's not quite a relaxing weekend but it will still be nice! Have a wonderful weekend friends.

Hi-Ho Wednesday

Hello from my Wednesday! It is really quite dark in my house right now because it's about to rain. (It's thundering and lightning right now but only sprinkling.) We have an excessive heat warning like the bulk of the Midwest right now so I've been keeping the blinds closed in order to keep the house as cool as possible. And I don't want to turn the lights on so it's dark. That's okay, I don't mind.

We've been keeping busy so far this week. We all went to a birthday party for C's friend on Sunday. The kids ate pizza and cake and told ridiculous made-up knock-knock jokes.

We've had swim lessons this week every morning again. The last class of the session is tomorrow. C will not pass his level this go around. But I am glad to know that going in. M will "pass" but can't actually move up until she's five.

I haven't been taking pictures much this week. The kids have rediscovered Cosmic Yoga on Prime Video. I really like it because it calms them down and uses their bodies. C liked it so much he made up his own story.

And here's a picture of M.

She's been singing a lot lately. It's adorable mostly.

Life is pretty normal right now. There's good things and annoying things. Meal planning. This week's dinner menu is: Mongolian Beef, Ribs, Cheeseburgers, Chicken Quesildilas, Pancakes, Grilled Chicken and Pizza. I haven't figured out next week yet though.

Tomorrow C has another birthday party to go to. M is very distressed that she cannot go as well, and I still have to figure out something fun for us to do. M is also mad because she doesn't have any parties to go to. It's really strange actually, all of her friends have Fall/Winter birthdays and C's friends have summer birthdays.

Prime Day!

Hello and Happy Prime Day!

I know what people say, it's not a deal if you weren't planning to buy it. BUT... maybe you are planning to buy something. I like to use Prime Day to get ahead of the Christmas game. And I have been successful at that!

C had a specific request that was almost $10 off so lickadee split that was scooped up.

And I LOVE the book deal. This year it's PRIMEBOOK19 and it's $5 off a purchase of $15 or more. That's the best deal I've ever seen, usually it's a $20 or $25 purchase. I can almost promise you you can spend $15 on books. Our book club book for next month is $17 by itself!

There have been some good deals that are on Alexa only. Some that I recognize as good deals but not that I will purchase. And one that I absolutely did!

Anyway, if you too want to get ahead of the game with Christmas (Which as a heads up, it's a late Thanksgiving this year so Advent is short!)  or birthdays or whatever, it's a good day to shop. Target and other places are also running deals!

The World Keeps Spinning

Hello!

We are just living up our summer this way. This week was our first week of swim lessons and I am so thankful to March Madeline for picking the earliest swim lesson time. We've never done that time before, they start at 8:30 but I am really enjoying it.

It just gives our day some good structure. There's no waiting around for house until it's time to go to swim lessons. It guarantees we get up and moving. And afterwards, we are home and ready for fun by 9:30! 

On Wednesday we went with some friends to the Botanical Center. They have a children's garden with a splashing river. It's a lot of fun. We left the house at 12:30 and didn't get back until 4:30. And the kids didn't even want to leave! It was wonderful. And I was parenting like 2000 because I left my phone at home. (Accidentally) But you know what? It was really nice. (Except for not knowing what time it was.)

Yesterday the class lists for the next school year came out. It was very exciting!! Except it made me feel old because as we were pouring over the lists I was thinking "Back in my day you just had to show up at school to see who was in your class!" I remember calling one or two friends that I was really curious about and then waiting anxiously for "Meet the Teacher" night so I could look at the bulletin board or coat hooks that would be labeled. (Or walking around and looking at all the desk name tags.)

Tonight we are having our traditional Friday Night Family Movie Night. It's very fancy. We eat pizza and watch a movie. I have heard tell of families starting this when their kids are little and then even their teenagers appreciate having the time. That's my hope. Sometimes it's frozen pizza. Sometimes homemade. Sometimes we order it. But it's always pizza and a movie. Tonight we are going to watch Mary Poppins Returns! None of us have seen it and now it's on Netflix! YAY!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Things I Want to Remember

My sweet girl has been so cute lately and I just want to bottle it up. But I can't. That's not actually a thing. SO... I am just going to blog about it.

She would prefer to be outside over any other activity. And all she wants is a jungle gym of her very own. We don't have one. So she climbs this house. 

She loves to snack. Cheese and strawberries are her favorite. Well and sweets but that's all kids, right? Look at this crab she made based on a recipe from her Peppa Pig magazine. She loves getting mail (must be genetic) and the Peppa Pig magazine is her favorite mail. 

Her favorite dinners are hot dogs, mac and cheese or pancakes. If it's not one of those options she probably will be sad for a bit. On Saturday I took her to this restaurant, it's a Mac and Cheesery. They only have mac and cheese and grilled cheese (regular and gourmet) on the menu. It was very special and fun for us. We went to a playground after because of the whole outside climbing thing. 

She also loves to help in the kitchen. She is a self-proclaimed "good stirrer." Which, for 4.5 she actually is a pretty good help. 

She loves Barbies. LOVES them. Watching her play Barbies is one of my favorite things to do. 

Her favorite colors are purple and pink. She gets a little disgruntled if her clothing does not feature one of those colors. 

Things she's said lately that I just love:

"Cookie Monster does not eat cookies gently! And he makes a big mess. He eats too fast!" 

Calls chipmunks "Chick-munks" 

Loves to sing songs from the musical "Hairspray" especially cute is her "Good Morning "Alt-a-more" and I also am partial to her "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now" dance. 

Still loves swimming and is such a little fish! 

Fun with LEGO

Oh man. I never really got into LEGO as a child. And if we are being honest, the sound of sorting through a big box of them makes my ears bleed. But C has been getting into them lately and I am supportive.

This weekend we set out build all of the sets he has of the Arctic Lego City. Obviously, the kid likes the Arctic so he's slowly been collecting the sets. So we built them all. And let me tell you, rebuilding LEGO sets when the pieces are in the big LEGO bin is insane. Let's just say that now the bulk of our bricks are currently sorted by color. (I am sure that will last until Wednesday.)

Once we put them all together we turned his LEGO table into the Arctic with snow and ice. And seriously, it looks pretty cool!

This was the final set that we built today, but this one was for the first time since he had it left from his birthday. He does a pretty good job building the sets, but he did get help with this one.

He has had a lot of fun already playing with these and I anticipate that he will get a lot of fun out of this Arctic setup. (I for sure cleaned up all the sparkly snow after taking the pictures and letting them play with it for long enough to decide that it was going to drive me crazy if it stuck around a minute longer.)

We made this iceberg a long time ago for his penguin figures but it works well for these mini-figures too. 

That's what we did this weekend! How 'bout you?

Fun on the 4th

You know me. Super low key and not at all interested in the traditional ways of celebrating. Aided this year by the fact we all seemed to have caught a summer cold.

We had brunch bagels. The kids even had some that were red, white and blue.

I got it in my head that what would make my holiday better was moving everything out of the kitchen and mopping. I often use Swiffer Wets to clean the floor but there is something very satisfying about moving everything and deep cleaning.

In my defense, when I clean the floor I listen to Hamilton. (Do you have specific soundtracks for tasks in your life?) And that is pretty patriotic so probably it was destined.

The kids made a fort with the table and chairs, a time-honored tradition when mopping the floors.

After dinner with red, white and blue star-shaped Rice Krispy treats for dessert, we settled in to watch The Music Man. It's funny, we started that last year and my kids took it as gospel. They got the DVD out and even told my parents about it on Skype. Admittedly, it's a good one. And the town of River City does celebrate the 4th of July during the movie. AND it takes place in Iowa so it really is the best musical for the 4th. 

They made it to 76 trombones watching straight through, then we skipped around to the songs because we had told them we couldn't light the glowsticks until after "Shipoopi." 

Madeline of 5 years ago is just patting herself on the back for coming up with the glowstick dance party Fireworks on TV plan, because again, my kids take that as set in stone. Due to the colds, Husband and I were slightly less excited about the dance party portion of the evening this year, but C was insistent that "everyone has to dance, it's what we do." 

As you can see, we were fully stocked with glowsticks! And then at 8:30 the Macy's Fireworks began. They were way cool this year using the Brooklyn Bridge for some of them. The NBC director really biffed it with the finale shots though. Way too many close-ups and once there was a shot of just blank sky while stuff was happening somewhere else. But we had fun anyway!

And at 9:00, just as the buggy, crowded local fireworks were set to begin, my kids went off to bed. Leaving the aftermath of glowsticks in their wake. But it was kind of sweet actually. 

I hope you had a lovely, safe 4th. Have a good weekend!! 

Mo Reading To Do

We are just over here living our best reading life lately. I met Jennifer Weiner. My kids have been counting down the days until the new Pigeon Book was released. And about an hour ago, the UPS man came by and dropped it off.

C's favorite part was finding Flappy Squirrel. M enjoyed spotting Knuffle Bunny. I am just overjoyed that they still love Mo.

In further exciting news, C lost another tooth today. (The one next to the front tooth. Note the extra large hole.) He came over to me and said "Mom look how wiggly my tooth is! Oh! It came out!" Sure enough, it had. Pretty good day!

My Awesome Weekend!

Happy Monday Friends!

So let's just start with VBS week wrapped up with the final day on Friday, and that was good.

We learned all about that when Life is Unfair, Scary, Changes, Sad or Good, God is GOOD!

But then on Friday afternoon, I went on an adventure with my bestie! Ages ago I got wind that my favorite author Jennifer Weiner was going to be less than two hours from my house on her book tour. And I decided we had to go. In truthfulness, I gave her the option of coming with me or watching my children so Husband could come with me. She is a teacher librarian so she obviously opted for joining me. Only thing, she hadn't actually read any of her books!

Well... I am nothing if not a good friend so Primed her a copy of her first book to take on her trip to Philly for a teacher conference. Fun fact: Jennifer Weiner is from Philly and her first book, Good In Bed takes place there.

Anyway, once we made it to town we stopped at a gas station for a very healthy dinner.

Hahahaha no. I mean, yes that was our dinner but I just didn't want to be late so we just grabbed a snack. In fairness, as chocolate is a bean, it's a vegetable. Coconut is a fruit and almonds are a good source of protein so it's practically a well-balanced meal. (I'm kidding.) 

We weren't late. 

It wasn't as empty as it looks in this picture. But we still had time to kill. And I was getting very excited. I've read all of her books you see. And I really love her.  

And then she appeared. And it was amazing. She's so smart. And funny. And inspiring. 

Then we waited in a very long line for the book signing and meeting. I had her latest book Mrs. Everything preordered for ages. But in Kindle format. Which is the best because it releases at 11:00 CST so I got it an hour before I was supposed to and it downloads immediately. But then I had to buy another copy for her to sign. And Husband was kind enough to get me a copy. Because even though we figured they'd have books there (and they did) we knew I wouldn't want to wait in line. And then I got to meet her. 

And I had absolutely no chill, was awkward as heck and stammered on and on. But Jen (I'm going to call her Jen because I feel like we're best friends even though we are not.) was kind. And signed my book. 

Let's just note that I am more obviously excited meeting Jennifer Weiner than I was meeting Kevin Bacon. But hey, readers gotta read. Anyway, she must have liked us well enough because she answered my question that, yes in fact, if she liked my tweet, it was really her. (OMG) AND she got to meet Sutton when she was on Younger. Which is way cool. 

But we even made her Instagram/Facebook post about the event. So clearly we are friends. 

On our drive back we stopped for actual food at a place called BeerBurger. Which had surprisingly bad burgers. And while we were there, JENNIFER WEINER responded to my tweet about the event via Direct Message and told me I could DM her!

I obviously did. And she wrote back giving me advice. And OH MY GOODNESS. Did I mention it was the best weekend ever?

So anyway... Saturday I went to see a show. And it was really good. This one I did have to write about but clearly, I was drawing inspiration from meeting a talented writer and I was quite pleased with the result.

And to bring it all back full circle, yesterday was the end of VBS program and farewell to our associate pastor as he leaves for his next assignment tomorrow. We are very sad to see him go, he is just wonderful with the children. But the final VBS program was really cute, we did three dances.

There were signs up all over with what each elementary crew liked the best. It was sweet. And while I am a little sad VBS is all over... I am still pretty excited that today is a day with absolutely nothing to do, no one has any restrictions and it feels like the first day of actual summer because of that!