Family Visitors

This past week we had some visitors from out of town: Doc's sister Jill and her family.  Jill's kids were on spring break for the week and decided to spend a few days down in our neck of the woods.  Unfortunately, we just don't have enough room in our house so we could host them, but we were still able to meet up and spend a fair amount of time with them.

We met Jill and her family out for dinner Thursday night, but the bulk of our hang out time was on Good Friday.  Our kids were out of school and Doc was able to work just a half day (I was stuck at work all day, boo).  After loading up on ribs at the Rendezvous, their plan was to spend the afternoon at the zoo.  Turns out, that was the rest of the city's plan too.  Since it was so crowded, they opted for a park in our neighborhood.  Doc was sweet and took my camera along.

(Just so I'll remember:  Anna is 11, Wyatt is 12, Nathan is 8, and Henry is 6 in this pic.)

Looks like Anna climbed as high as she could to get away from the boys.

We sat outside while Doc cooked our dinner on the grill.  I gave Henry and Nathan a piece of cheese to feed Lolli so she'd love them.  I think it worked.

Lolli had extra kisses for Uncle Chad too.

Love this sweet face.

I had a long list of things to get done in the kitchen.  By the time I went to bed that night, I had baked a chocolate cake, a white cake, a yellow cake, and 3 batches of lemon cupcakes.  Luckily I had some helpers along the way!

Anna is always excited to be a kitchen helper!

All the baking was for a couples' shower my mom was hosting the next night.  I volunteered to make cupcakes in a jar (like I did a while back) and cake pops.  It was a huge undertaking but I figure I probably owed it to my mom, she does a lot for me.

The first batch of lemon cupcakes were a bit of a flop.  I used this recipe that's just a cake mix and Sierra Mist.  I accidentally poured in the whole 20 oz. bottle of Sierra Mist instead of just 12 oz.  Oops.  They still tasted good, they were just a little sticky.  It was a good thing I had a house full of willing taste testers!  We needed an appetizer anyway...

The second two batches went well but they didn't rise like most cupcakes.  Taste wise they were great, but that meant that it took one and half cupcakes to fill up each mason jar.  Gah!  We finally got 'em done before bed though.

But then there were the cake pops.  Oh, the cake pops.  It was my idea to do 3 different cakes so they'd be different flavors.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  The problem is that one sheet cake alone makes about 3,000 cake balls so that means three cakes makes roughly...quick math...9,000 cake balls.*  I would've taken a picture of all the fun** we were having rolling the thousands of cake balls, but my hands were too messy to pick up the camera.

We called it a night around 10:00.  I didn't sleep a wink because I couldn't stop thinking about all the unfinished balls in the fridge.  By 7:00am I was up and at 'em and back in the kitchen.  I'm new at the whole cake pop thing and had no idea how long it would take.

I pulled out the first cookie sheets and decided to start with chocolate.

I dipped my sticks in melted chocolate before sticking them in the cake balls.  I read that this was a good idea to keep the balls from falling off; it sounded legit.

Then it was just a matter of dipping them into melted chocolate.  Of course, I had to take it up a notch and do each flavor with a design.  My first batch got dyed blue.

Then I got fancy and drizzled white stripes on them.

With 9,000 cake balls in the fridge, I totally underestimated how much styrofoam and sticks I'd need.  I had to send Doc out to the store to fetch me some more.  By 10:00, I had an assortment of cake pops.

Obviously that's not how they were displayed for the shower, but we'll get to that in another post.

I had enough time to take a quick shower before Jill and her crew were back over for the afternoon.  We attempted to get a few shot of the kids, even though they weren't that interested in it.

This one cracks me up.  Ha!  I can't remember what Doc said to Nathan to make him perk up...

We got one of the boys with their sister Jessie too.  Lolli kept trying to photobomb this pose so getting a decent shot was tricky.

While we were outside, I got out some cascarones that I'd bought for Easter.  These are confetti-filled eggs that you smash on your head for good luck.  Wyatt was the first to go and smashed his hard!

Nathan got covered with confetti while Henry managed to stay clean.

I think Anna was nervous that it would hurt!

Wyatt got another egg so he should be extra lucky this year.

Unfortunately, after our confetti party I had to leave to deliver my goodies and help my mom set up for her party.  I gave my farewell hugs to our visitors since they were gone by the time I made it back.  It was a good to see them all and I'm glad they were able to visit!

*Slight exagerration.  But only slight.

**Sarcasm.  Nothing is fun with that many balls.

Blogging in Bullets

I've gotten into this routine with blogging.  Around Wednesday of every week, the only thought constantly running through my head is that "I haven't blogged this week, I haven't blogged this week, I haven't blogged this week..."  And then at some point towards the end of the week, I force myself to sit down at the computer.  Most of the time, if I can keep my eyes open long enough at night, I try to crank out two posts at one time: the first to post immediately and the second to be scheduled for the next day.  Then I pat myself on the back for not being a complete slacker blogger and exhale a sigh of relief for buying myself some more time before I've got to put the fingers to the keyboard again.  Before I know it, the following Wednesday rolls around and the vicious cycle starts all over. And it's not like I don't have anything to say because I do.  I actually have several things I could blog about right now.  It's just that after sitting at a computer all day at work, I just don't want to do it again at home.  Plus, with my newly adopted 8:30 bedtime, it's hard to squeeze it all in.  So, just like last week, I'm going to have to turn to bullet points.  I had planned all week to do a weekend recap, but now maybe it'll just be a recap of the weekend plus a few days.

• Friday night, the weather was perfect.  We sat on our porch and cheered on 5K participants as they made their way past our house.  After the race, the street was full of shrieks and laughter from all the kids playing (ours included).  I chatted with neighbor friends while the yummy smell of dinner wafted from the grill.  It's nights like this that will really make me miss our little street when we move.
• Saturday morning was all about being productive.  The yard got some much needed attention.  Weeds were pulled, bushes were trimmed back, monkey grass was pruned, and the patio was pressure-washed.  Doc also washed both of our cars, just in time for the rain to come this week.
• Saturday afternoon was spent running errands with my mom (surprise, surprise).  We both had numerous things to pick up before this coming weekend and it was good to get all those things checked off the list.
• All the shopping made me pretty hungry.  Our last stop was the mall and I was just drooling thinking about the Auntie Anne's pretzel I was going to devour.  I was so bummed when they didn't have the kind I wanted (almond with caramel dip!) and ended up leaving with no snack.  My stomach growled the whole way and right as we pulled up at my house, Anna came out and announced she made cupcakes all by herself.  I could've hugged her so hard her little head would've popped off (I refrained).  She even died the icing Easter colors.

I had scarfed down half of a green-iced one when I asked her what color she had.  "Dad wouldn't let me have one yet."  Oh.  Oopsie daisy.  I told her to go ahead and help herself.  Who can wait when there are freshly baked cupcakes?  Also, I hope she always enjoys baking like she does right now.  I will make sure there is always a box of cake mix or brownie mix in the pantry.

• Anna and I worked on another quick kitchen project after that which I'll give a post of its own since I have several pictures.
• Sunday after church we stopped by a friend's house to meet their new puppy.  They were walking out the door for lunch so we kidnapped the puppy and said we'd babysit while they went out.  I really had a lot I needed to get done but I just can't turn away from a sweet puppy.  I mean, just look at this face!  His name is Miles and he's a cockapoo.

• Miles may never be allowed to come over again after all we put him through.  We took him to my parents' house for some fun in their backyard.  Part of that fun was a few trips down the playset slide.  Poor Miles has really gotta working on that landing.  Henry didn't realize how much bigger he was than the puppy and kept trampling him.  Oh, and we hadn't even been outside an hour before we looked over and saw Miles laying on his belly in a big mud puddle.  We had the honors of giving him his second bath ever.
• Sunday evening we had dinner with some friends that we hadn't seen in far too long.  It was good to catch up!  And the weather was nice again so we were able to sit outside.  Thanks to Mary, I now have a couple of pregnancy/baby books to read, including one all about mocktails for moms-to-be.
• Doc and I made a big grocery store run Sunday night, which is not fun at all...I only mention it because my lunch bag this week has weighed about 5lbs. everyday.  I have so many good snacks to choose from!  We also stopped at Walgreens for one last item and as I checked out, a man was escorted out in handcuffs.  So that was fun.
• Speaking of our grocery store trip, have you had Simply Lemonade with Raspberry?  Ohmygosh, it's goooood.  Definitely my newest obsession.
• I finally got my winter clothes packed away and all my summer clothes hanging in the closet.  My "offseason" clothes are stored in the playroom closet down the hall and since I was home alone and tryingnot  to carry too much at a time, it took FOREVER.  I was worn out afterwards.
• We have two pots that sit on either side of our front door.  Usually, I just plant a fern in each one of them for the summer, but this time I decided I wanted a big assortment of plants.  My mom helped me pick things out - we had to visit several stores - and I finally got them finished up around 8:15 last night.  I hope at least half of this stuff lives.  Don't know the names of everything in there, but there's some sweet potato vine, creeping jenny, 3 different fern varieties, and...other stuff.

 

That's all I have for now.  I'll try to squeeze one more post in before the weekend.  We've got lots of stuff planned so it should be a good couple of days!

Birthday Finale

I finally got a chance to upload the pictures from my final birthday celebration, but I have not had time to do any kind of editing (story of my life these days).  My last party was with my family and was held last Sunday afternoon after church.  It was perfect - the weather was nice enough to play outside and a lot of little people that I love were there.  I hadn't seen them in what felt like forever! Bren and Jett were the first to arrive and we spent some time playing with sidewalk chalk.  I had them lay down on the driveway so I could trace around them.  They are so ticklish that they couldn't lie still!  When we finally got a decent outline, we decorated them.

 

Bren's drawing is on the left and says that she's Gone Flower Pickin'.  Jett's is on the right and he's Gone Fishin'.  Of course, as soon as I drew something for one, I had to draw it for the other so they're actually both holding flowers and a fishing pole.  Multitaskers, I tell ya.

We also played some hopscotch and man! that's a lot more tiring then I remember it being!  And either I'm really, really bad at it or there was some creative score keeping going on by Jett because I lost big time.

Bren made up her own rules when it was her turn so she beat me too.

I finally told Jett, my six-year-old best buddy, about the baby in my belly (did you catch that announcement?).  After I told him he gave me a quizzical look and said, "You want one?"  I wasn't sure if that question was because I'd never expressed interest in having a baby (around him) or if it was more of a 'but you already have me' kind of question.  I like to tell myself it was the latter because he loves me so much and wants to keep me for himself, but I'm pretty sure it's really the former.  While I love all the little people in my life equally, Jett was the first baby born in my adult life that I've spent a lot of time around.  He'll always have a special place in my heart.

The other two boy munchkins arrived as we finished up hopscotch.  Parker was sporting a nice bruise on his forehead.  He is ALL boy!

And this little squish face was wide awake!  I can't believe how much he's grown.

My mom had everything ready so we could grill out hot dogs and hamburgers.  She'd also made not one, not two, but THREE different dips (dips are my favorite food group).  After lunch I had several extra hands while I was opening my gifts.

We moved outside for dessert and this little sassafrass said she'd help me blow out my candles.

I really think Jesus (and the wind) blew out the flames before the birthday song was over, but we pretended anyway.  It just wasn't in the cards for me to blow out candles this year.

Jett, Bren, and their parents had to leave soon after dessert because they were headed camping.  I'm still waiting to hear how that went!  Bren had her minky dot princess sleeping bag packed and said she was ready to sleep outside.  I hope, for her parents' sake, that she did do some sleeping that night.

Ramer took turns in all of our laps.

This was my favorite shot of him; Doc had him grinning pretty good for a few minutes.

And then they had to leave too to go take naps.  I konked out for a pretty good nap too, so it was an excellent birthday afternoon!

Ok, enough of that.  Who's staying up late tonight to go watch the premier of the Hunger Games at midnight??  This is the first time I've ever considered going to a midnight movie, but in the end I decided a 3 am bedtime would not do me any good at work the next day.  Doc and I have purchased our tickets for a 4:30 showing tomorrow afternoon.  I can. not. wait!!

Dear Beach House...

...It's so hard to say goodbye!  At the time that this posts, I'm probably sitting in the front seat of our rented minivan boo hoo-ing as we drive towards our house that's not brand new, doesn't have a pool in the backyard, and isn't within walking distance of the beach.  And, last I checked, it was raining cats and dogs at home so we'll likely be greeted by mud puddles and foot-high weeds.  Sigh...why can't we just stay here forever? This week was the kids' spring break so we brought them (and Doc's parents too) to see the beach house for the first time.  During building, we kept it a secret from them so they had no idea it even existed.  I mean, they knew we were headed to the beach and that we were staying in a house, they just didn't know it was our house.  As we pulled up, we told them we were all going to take a quick tour of the house and then we had to meet out on the patio for a family meeting.  Doc used his serious voice thinking he'd make them nervous (especially since last week we'd had a family meeting and told them about the new brother or sister they'll be getting in September!) but I think they just thought he was going to go over the "vacation rules."

Before telling them the house belongs to us, we asked them what they thought about it so we'd get an unbiased opinion.  They both thought it was really cool...they got their own rooms and it had a pool!  I had my camera poised to snap a pic when Doc told them that the house belongs to us.  I was ready to catch their excitement on film!

Um yea, not really the picture I was expecting.  What we actually got was about a billion questions.  "Wait...so this used to just be an empty lot?"  "You've seen this house before?"  "We can come here anytime?"  "Other people can come here too?"  I guess it was a lot to take in.  We asked them if they remembered all the mattresses and couches that used to be in Mimi and Poppy's (my parents) garage.  "Yea?"  Then we told them those were the mattresses we'd be sleeping on the couches that were in the living room.  Slowly but surely it all started to make sense to them.

Then they got excited!  And also wanted to know why didn't build a third floor.  We tried to point out the positives; tweens don't really get mortgages and things like that.

We also told them that noone had swam in the pool yet so the race was on to see who could get suited up first.   Wyatt was first but we made him patiently wait for his sister so they could jump in together.

Finally she made it down and we counted them off.  They made sure I had my camera ready so we'd know for sure exactly who went all the way under first.

Three, two...

...one!  Looks like Anna's off the ground first.

But Wyatt's catching up.

Looks like Wyatt made it under first.  The camera doesn't lie.  Just don't tell Anna, ok?

It didn't take long after they jumped in for us to realize the pool heater wasn't turned on.  Pool water on March 14th is COLD!  Doc spent a while on the phone with the pool guy.  Turns out the gas wasn't hooked up yet.

Wyatt became the pool boy and got to work cleaning out the leaves.

The rest of us pretty much just sat around and watched.

I spent about an hour out by the pool the first day.  I was finishing up a book on my kindle and just had on shorts and a tank top since it really wasn't that hot.  As it turns out, the sun was doing a job on me and it looked like I was wearing that tank top for the rest of the trip.  That, or a bright red bib.  Lemme tell you, it was awesome.

Before we got the heat turned on, Anna mastered the art of getting onto the raft without getting wet.

Poor Wyatt got soaked every time.  Luckily, he didn't seem to mind.

The second full day of our vacation was my birthday!  My sneaky little family turned into busy little bees while I was in the shower that afternoon, because I walked outside to a surprise party on the porch!

 

I wish I'd had my camera to show you things from my point of view.  Doc told me to come outside and I saw the balloons but noone was there.  And then Lala appeared from behind the bike shed, Anna and Papa rounded the corner of the house, and Wyatt pulled up the driveway on his bike.  And they all had presents!  (Anna's and Wyatt's were even wrapped in paper they'd decorated.)

Lala took lots of great pictures at the party but yea, I'd just stepped out of the shower so must of those will remain unposted.  One of the presents I opened was a new pair of TOMS ballet flats.  Super cute!

I also got a Built bag for my laptop.  Really excited about finally having something to cart my computer around in!

Doc baked brownies for the party and Anna arranged my candles into a 2 and a 9 (last year in the twenties!).  Unfortunately, there were no matches so I had to pretend to blow them out.  That just means I got them all and my wish will come true!

Later that afternoon Doc took me out for a quick shopping trip and a birthday dinner.  Of course I didn't take a picture of us actually showered and cleaned up, but it was a great date night!  It was a really good birthday and I'm so glad I got to spend it at the beach with these guys!

As for the rest of the trip, we did as little as possible.  We spent a day or two at the beach and lots of time lounging around the pool.  I spotted three of these guys (or maybe they were all the same one?) hanging out by the pool with us.  To be so afraid of snakes and other creepy crawly things, I actually think these little lizards are pretty cute.

We bought two more bikes while we were in town so now there's a total of four at the house.  There were lots of bike rides while we were there.

  

As always, Doc was the head cook and whipped up some great seafood meals.  Like the pool, we also broke in the dining room table and ate dinner at it a couple nights.

While I was in the back taking that picture of Doc grilling, I also snapped a couple of the back walkway since I left it off our tour (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four).  This is the view from the back door looking towards the pool.

We've got an outdoor shower with both hot and cold water.  Wyatt took a couple of ten minute "rinse offs" after swimming in the freezing cold pool; I think he liked it.  Next to the shower is a rack for you to hang your towel.

    

So that was our quick spring break vacation!  I'll leave you with this picture of Little Miss Sassy.

March!

March is my favorite month (I'm pretty sure I've already explained why) and so far, March 2012 is shaping up to be pretty swell.  Now that we're all moved in to the Beach House, I've got all this extra time on my hands and since the weather's been semi-decent, we've been able to enjoy doing some fun stuff!  I haven't been great about taking pictures but I'll go ahead and get caught up on what I do have pictures of... Last weekend was our weekend with the kids.  We invited my parents to join us for dinner (flank steaks! and homemade ice cream!) and after they left for the night, I took this picture.

It's not a very good picture at all, but here's what's going on:  all four of us (five if you count Lolli who was sitting on my shoulder) were sitting on the couch using some kind of tech-y device.  The tv wasn't even on.  Wyatt was on his laptop, Anna had her iPod Touch, and Doc and I both had out our iPhones.  It's no secret that I'm terrified of technology taking over the world, so this was slightly alarming to me.  Hopefully this is not what family nights of the future will look like.

Speaking of sitting lined up in a row, the next day we ventured out for a family movie.  We haven't had time to do this in forever!  (In fact, I've already been to the movie theater twice in 2012, which is some kind of record for me.)  We brought Jett with us and the kids voted to see The Lorax.  In case you can't tell by their craned necks in the dark picture below, our stop at the concession stand before going into the theater meant we got front row seats.  Super!

The movie was really cute if anyone's thinking about going to see it.  I would recommend it, especially if you have kiddos in tow.

Yesterday we were invited to join some friends on a trip to the zoo.  You know what's crazy?  This was the first time Doc and I had been to the zoo since our wedding day back in 2009!  As much time as we spent there prior to the wedding getting things planned out, it's weird that we hadn't stepped foot there since the big day.

It was a great day to be there.  The weather was great - a little cool but perfect if you were in the sun.  The animals seemed to enjoy the sunshine as much as we did.  First we saw the panda who was going to town on some bamboo.

Little Alice crouched down close for a good look.

  

Did you know you could ride a camel at the zoo?  I had no idea.  This could've totally changed my entrance into our wedding ceremony...

Andrew's smiling in the picture below, but rumor has it that the back seat of that camel is no luxurious ride.  Apparently there's some sort of bar down the middle that hits in all the wrong places.

Alice loved the camel ride so much she went for a round two on the carousel.

I would like to buy this elephant some moisturizing lotion.

My favorite, the giraffe!  Next time, I'm definitely feeding one.

We ended our zoo trip with a stop by the fountains.  So fascinating when you're so little!

That pretty much gets you caught up on what we've been up to the last week.  Tonight we had the first of several birthday dinners but I haven't downloaded my pictures yet.  Maybe tomorrow!