New Tab!

Hey Boys & Girls :)

Check out the new Tab at the top! Grow baby Grow! A photo collection of the boys from birth to present. My oh my, how time does fly~

**TAB CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION**

Clean Yo' House Up Tuesday- Vol 5

This week I found myself with plans today. A play date, at MY house. Can you see the issues here? Not only would that mean that I wouldn't be able to run around all day cleaning, but I needed my house clean BEFORE Tuesday. The solution?
Monday MADNESS!

I wrote up 'the list' and got it all done yesterday so that we were ready for for our guests this morning. I didn't want to miss out on 20 Chore Tuesday though, so I'm still linking up with Emily at Joyful Abode!

Here's 'the list' I worked on yesterday:

FIRST FLOOR:
1-Sweep
2-Steam
3-Vacuum back room
4-Wash tablecloth
5-Reset table
6-Clean off coffee table & side table
7-Dust living & dining room
8-Vacuum couch
9-Clean couch
10-Vacuum front porch
11-Work on Fall Mantle

SECOND FLOOR:
12-Put away all clothes
13-Straighten master BR
14-Clean 'J's BR
15-Clean 'A's BR
16-Change Master sheets
17-Change 'J's sheets
18-Change 'A's sheets
19-Sweep hall & steps

MISC:
20-Work on meal plan for the week
21-Grocery Shop
22-Wash diapers
23-Measure mantle for bunting
24-Gather items for return
25-Write blog post (Obviously this one got marked off...you're reading it now!)

Not gonna lie, Monday MADNESS was a little hard after the fulltothebrim weekend we had (which included a family field trip, family photo session with Anne Kern Photography & our Baby Group 2nd Bday Bash!). But all in all I'm glad I still got off my bum & got the job done!
Now that you've seen my list, show me yours! Link up over at Joyful Abode so we can all cheer you on!! And leave a comment below to let me know you did so I can give you a virtual HIGH FIVE! What's that? You don't have a blog to link up? Now worries, you can post your WHOLE LIST in a comment below! Come on...give in to peer pressure...do it...DOOOO ittt!

Post Script- If you are going to clean your couch, I suggest doing it like a normal person at night so it can dry while you sleep. Do NOT do it like me, at 10am so you have no where to sit all day. Lesson Learned.

Choo Choo - All Aboard!!

Thanks to some very generous friends, we were able to spend a Day Out with Thomas this past weekend! Because of an out-of-state death in the family, they were unable to use their non-refundable tickets to see Thomas the Train a little over a hour away. They wanted to give them to someone that would be able to take their place & with nothing 'on the schedule' for saturday, we accepted. Our hearts went out to them for their loss, & for their little girl that was going to miss out on a very special train ride. But if anyone could fill her shoes for the day, it was 'J'. His obsession love for trains is right up there with cars. We actually own a collector set of Thomas DVDs & there is a 10yr anniversary one that shows this very event! We decided not to tell him until the last minute, so as we rushed around early Saturday morning, we let him watch the DVD. Then when it was time to leave we asked him, "Do you want to go see Thomas?" "Yea! Thomas da' Train! Go see? Thomas?! Car? Go car? See Thomas Train! Shooooes. Where are you shoooooes? Come, mumma, come."

After battling construction traffic, we finally arrived 1/2 hr later than expected & just in time to board. As we walked into the station the first thing out of this mouth was "woah". Right before our very eyes was a life-sized Thomas the Train all hooked up & ready to ride the rails. I should mention that he has a bit of 'stage fright' when it comes to meeting idols. This has happened several times where we find ourselves up close & personal with one of his favorite things (fire engine, garbage truck, semi, etc) & he freaks out a little & hides. He's more of a "admire from afar" kinda guy. So I was not anticipating getting the "here I am with Thomas!!" picture, therefore I was not disappointed at all when the opportunity came & he ran away. LOL.

Yes, this is an outfit we already had hanging in his closet. Haha.

The conductor blew his whistle "All aboard at Gate 3", & up we went.

It took a few minutes for him to wrap his head around it all. We were actually riding on Thomas the Train! And not just for a few minutes, this was a full on 40 minute train ride, with Thomas tunes playing the whole time. What an Adventure! Little 'A' was lulled right to sleep within the first few minutes & missed all the fun, but being the good Big Brother he is, 'J' was sure to have enough fun for both of them :)

 Then we set out to find a nice shaded spot to enjoy the picnic lunch we packed. Even though we were sweating our butts off in over 95* heat, we made sure to explore the whole village & take part in everything the day had to offer. From hay mazes & activity tents, to story telling & a Bob the Builder Show! We danced, we played & we smiled a LOT.

 This is the closest we got to a picture with Thomas. 

 We found a nice shaded area in the back & relaxed for a while. Enjoying a tasty snow cone, & eventually a scoop of ice cream. Playing in the grass, exploring everything around us. And most importantly, spending time together as a family.

Finally, late in the afternoon & well past naptime, we took one final look at Thomas & said "bye-bye". We can not thank our friends enough for giving us this opportunity. And I think a special little girl will like the surprise 'J' picked out for her ;)

 I know the chances of him actually remembering this Adventure later on in life is slim to none, but I can say with certainty that this is an Adventure that we, as parents, will never forget.

Weekend Reel

How is it that another week has already passed? I can't tell you how many times I finally sit down at the end of the night with every intention of writing up a new post or two, open my google Reader & spend my quiet time reading everyone else's blogs! LOL. Then before I know it, its bedtime. And the weekends, don't even get me started on those. We are moving so fast in every direction that we hardly have time to take it all in. Then *BAM* its monday & the cycle starts all over again.
At this moment I find myself sitting here with the small dude asleep upstairs, & the medium & adult sized dudes sitting a few feet from me creating a new world out of wooden train tracks on the floor. And me with an open laptop on my lap. But the clock is tick tick ticking away & very soon it will be time put 'J' in bed for the night & tend to a house that has seen better days.
So before I go, I'll leave you with some snapshots of our past week, & a sneak peak of the Adventure we went on yesterday (fingers crossed you get the full story in the next day or two!)

Enjoy the Weekend Reel~

-MONDAY-

*Inspiration for a possible gift idea at the Pottery Studio

*Picked up my finished plate from Date Night with my BIG Sister

-TUESDAY-

(Due to frost damage to early apple blossoms, we have a small apple crop. 

As a result, we cannot offer U-Pick Apples this year) 

*I was shocked & saddened to learn that there will be no apple picking this Fall. It is a family tradition & I can't yet wrap my brain around it.

 *Blowing Bubbles IN a Bubble Bath. 

-WEDNESDAY-

 *Self-dressed toddler on a teething/congestion "hunger strike" 

equals long sleeves in 90* weather & baby food pouches

 *New project. Not even close to finished.

-THURSDAY-

*What, me? I'm just sitting on my own. No biggie :)

*Taking advantage of my mum's sewing room while she's away,

this won't be the only visit in the next couple weeks...

-FRIDAY-

*Mmmmm, pears

*Playing. Sharing. Giggling. Brothers.

-SATURDAY-

*Choo-Choo...All aboard!

*Yes, that is EXACTLY who you think it is...Life-Sized!

-SUNDAY-

 *The hit of the party

 *Our 2nd Annual baby group birthday gathering.

This is almost 1/2 the amount at last years, but it was

still fun to see the toddler hijinks that ensued.

I see your 4 & raise you a 5, K?

So let's point out the obvious...that Post title is pretty lame. No? These are the things that pop in my head. Stupid, stupid things that I often chuckle at. Nay, LAUGH at.
ok, now that that is out in the open, we can move on.

This past weekend we got outta Dodge & headed a few hours NorthWest to our dear friends, the Martins. Oh how we adore the Martins. What's not to adore- they are funny, they are nice, they are fun, their daughter is a gem & they let us stay at their house whenever we want. Our trek was for 2 reasons. First: they are the ones that talked us into doing a 5K (remember I mentioned it a while back in this post?). Well we needed to be at the starting line at 8:30am Saturday morning. And the second reason was really more of a BONUS reason... there is this thing called The Dream Cruise. Its an annual event where car crazy people hole up in/around our town all week & on the weekend they drive their (mostly, but not always, sometimes not even close to) classic/specialty cars up & down a certain road for miles. A certain road that we just happen to live off of. Which means we can't leave our house if we stay in town. Therefore we leave town. We have taken to calling it Nightmare Cruise. And it's not a little event either, it's huge. Like millions of people huge. Like celebrities have been known to come (like Jay Leno!) huge. Like a lot of Local Businesses just shut down for the weekend because you can't get to their store & there is literally NO parking for miles because the lots are all rented out HUGE.

Ok, moving on. Back to the 5K. We said in May we would start training for this. Take it seriously. Do our best. Well...we managed to do 1 out of the 3. We did out best. And you know what...it wasn't half bad! My last 2 races I finished in 51 mins. I said I wanted to do this race in 45. I thought that was a reasonable goal seeing as how I didn't really condition myself for it. Well I didn't make it in 45...I made it in 39.16!!! And the Hubs was a RockStar & finished just ahead of me in 39.09...and that was pushing 50lbs of kid in a double bike trailer!!! Then we all celebrated, napped & relaxed the rest of the day. We headed out Sunday morning so we could get home in time to see my WONDERFUL Grandmother before she left town. She came in for the weekend to watch my smartypants cousin graduate from UofM's accelerated Nursing Program. On a sad note, it was also the day I had to say goodbye to my smartypants niece before she heads North 4 hours to Ferris State for their Honors Pharmaceutical Program. That's all I can say about that...or I will cry...more...

Overall another jam-packed, fun filled weekend!

Here are a few highlights from the weekend:

We're so awesome at doing 5K's that we even
walked the 1/2 mile there, and back! That's an extra mile folks.

Turns out...this is a pretty big race. There were so
many runners it took over a minute just to get to the starting line!

The Hubby, stretching out. Work it baby.

Meet the Martins!

Post Race & feelin good :)

These two did SO good in the trailer!

Know what happens when your son poops/pukes
all over all of his packed clothes? You borrow some
hand me downs from your hosts & get a daughter for the day ;)

Oh Yeah, and THIS!!! He is sitting. On his OWN!!

I was able to finish an embroidery project for a friend :)
(I used this pin she posted as a template.)

This is what happens when you start to celebrate after
the kiddos hit the hay & somehow start talking about
 how crazy scientology is...one thing leads to another
& you're checking your electric output...

Cheers!! We did it!

The boys & I with their BisNonna.
(Don't mind 'J', he was a little annoyed to have
to stop playing to pose for a picture.)

My last picture with my college-bound niece!

There you have it, a looksee at how we spend our free time :)