Weekend RoundUp!

Good morning little sunshines!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Here is what we were up to!
Friday night we made it out with our friends.  We had a great time and even saw some of our former students who now work at this particular establishment.  That is always awkward.  We got home and promptly went to bed because it was 9:30.  #wearecrazy.

Saturday morning we woke up for some yoga and then headed over to our friend Kacy's 1st birthday! How do babies grow so fast?  She looked cute in her pink dress and seemed to enjoy stuffing cake in her mouth.  Charlie stayed close by my side so I wouldn't be tempted to hold, look, glance at other children.  He's a smart cookie.  We came home for naps and when the boys woke up Ryan made them this AWESOME fort.  They stayed down in the basement and watched Toy Story while we were upstairs drinking wine watching Scandal.  It was genius.

Sunday morning we woke up and I took the boys to the grocery story.  The time to get groceries around here is EARLY Sunday morning.  They don't seem to mind because they get a cookie and can ride in the car cart (I want to meet the person who invented the car cart.  It.is.awful) and it is less busy.  We came home and Paul had a play date with his girlfriend Sophia.  I went to yoga and Target ALONE.  Play dates are amazing.  When I picked Paul up he hugged Sophia and she planted a kiss right on his cheek.  When he told Ryan about the incident he covered his eyes with his hand, as if he knew to be embarrassed.  So cute.  

Sunday afternoon we had a visit from Nana and Papa and then nap times.  I tried to do some school work (gross) while I watched the Bronco game with Ryan.  Paul woke up from his nap and we made cookies.  These cookies were very important.  I didn't have to work on Friday, but Paul had school. When we were getting ready that morning Paul asked me where Charlie was going.  I STUPIDLY replied that he was staying home with me.  Someone was very sad.  Tears in his eyes sad.  So I did what any good mother would do.  I lied.  I told him I was just teasing him.  That of course after we dropped him off at school I was taking Charlie to daycare.  He seem to buy the story but to ensure my lies I told him we could make cookies this weekend, just the two of us.  I am probably going to hell. I called Ryan right after I dropped him off to confess my sins, but I am not sure if that helps my karma in the universe.  Anyway, we made cookies and everyone seemed happy.  

After Charlie woke up we walked to the park for some baseball time, also known as wear the kids out so they'll go to sleep time.  It was actually a perfect end to the weekend.  The air was crisp.  Paul rode his scooter.  Charlie pushed his own stroller with nothing in it and Ryan and I walked calmly with a beer in our hand.

Then it was back home to vacuum, pack lunches, clean up the kitchen, blah blah blah.  I gave the kids baths and they love the towels Aunt Kascie made them.  Paul is "roaring like a Polar Bear" if anyone is wondering!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and good luck tackling Monday! 

Weekend Recap- Some Fun and some Throwing Up!

Well it is Monday again!  How does that keep happening?  We had some good times this weekend and some throwing up in my car.  Not by me, which is good I guess.

Friday after work Ryan and I escaped for a date night.  We went to the Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit.  It was cool, different, and looked amazing when it turned dark!

Then we went out to dinner based on a recommendation from our co-worker.  Joe has the best recommendations.  He first gave us a tip when we were in Sonoma/Napa and I still think about that meal.  Friday night was amazing as well and we drank wine (well some people drank whiskey) and laughed and laughed and laughed.

The next day Paul threw up.  In my car.  All over my yoga mat. And himself.  The fun was over. Charlie gave him the sickness (I'll tell you where Charlie threw up tomorrow) and of course I felt bad for him because he was STARVING but anytime he had a morsel of food he had to throw it up. Saturday looked mostly like this:

But actually it helped us hunker down and we both graded some papers and read books and cuddled both boys on the couch.  Charlie was sweet to him and gave him knuckles, high fives and hugs.  So this week we had two kids throw up.  PLEASE universe do not let Ryan or I got this bug.  Please.  Do you think that plea will work?

Sunday I got up and went to yoga.  The yoga studio is doing a "make your own challenge."  Did you know there are only 10 weeks until Thanksgiving.  Seems pretty crazy for me.  Anyway, the idea is to write an intention for the next 10 weeks, hang it on the wall to be accountable but to also encourage others with their goals.

Some people want to commit to going to yoga a certain amount of times or try new teachers or eat more smoothies.  Mine is to remove refined sugar from my diet.  I only watched the trailer for the documentary Fed Up and it scared me.  I don't think it would hurt to be more aware of what goes in your body, what all those "weird" ingredients are and since the movie clip compares sugar to cocaine, I think I should probably take a break.  But I am still drinking wine.  Because hello. You only live once!  And really the only reason I am writing this on here is so I'll feel bad sneaking chocolate chip cookies.  Or dark chocolate.  Wine and celery go together, yes?

Later in the day the neighbor boys asked Paul to come over to play which was SO SWEET but Charlie cried because he was not invited!  I love neighbor friends!

How was your weekend?

Friday Favorites!

Sometimes short weeks seems like long weeks.  Am I right?

But my favorite day is here and it is raining in Colorado this morning and all I want to do is curl up on the couch with a blanket and my coffee and read PEOPLE magazine while the Today Show is on in the background.  Instead, I will go and entertain teenagers and try to teach them something.

This blog is so flipping awesome because even though not a lot of people read it, my family does.  And so who got themselves a faux fur vest?  This gal.  My mom is a shopper, always been a shopper and she likes to be on the hunt for something.  So one day this week I get several text messages, all pictures of fur vests from my little shopper.  Of course she was already out of the store before I could answer, so what does that lady do?  Go the next day to make a purchase.  She would make a great personal assistant.  It is still a little warm to wear the vest, but I'll be sure to take a picture when I do.

My dad is actually similar in this way.  Sometime this summer I mentioned I wanted to read the book Quiet.  And what do you know, the next time I was at their house, the book was waiting for me on the counter.  My dad will say, oh it just happened to be at the store when I was there, even if he had to travel to six different places to find it.

And a shout out to my sweet husband who also is a dedicated reader to this blog.  When he read the post about my fashion desires, he quickly text messaged the best shopper I know, Maureen.  He wanted to surprise me with a little present but was shocked when he searched for fur vests and found they were over 1,000 dollars.  Ryan, welcome to the word "faux."  Anyway, he told Maureen he wanted to get me something since I work so hard and Maureen later scoffed, "Elaine.  I mean we all work hard."  Ha. My mom beat him to the bunch, but don't you worry Ryan.  I'm sure I can think of something else that you can reward me with.  Love you.

This is a great mom article about everything we struggle with every single day.

This one really had me laughing.  I am guilty of so much on this list.  But seriously, who doesn't love pumpkin?

And a little tribute to Joan Rivers.  

Happy Friday my friends! 

Home Improvement DIY

I don't think I would call "do it yourself" home improvement our "thing."  In the process it usually leaves one of us not mad, but huffy.  Is that an adjective?  Nevertheless, I was on Pinterest overload this summer and had a lot of "ideas."  But these ideas only came to fruition the last week of summer.  Of course.  

The first project was a jewelry organizer.  I don't know about you but my jewelry was just bunched all together in my closet, in a drawer and I never knew what I had.  In fact when I went through things for the project I found many broken earrings and many without matches.  How did I lose so many earrings?  Who knows.  But now everything is organized and sorted.  Hello summer nesting.  No I'm not pregnant.  

So I found this project on Pinterest (duh) and I swore I pinned a link to it, but now I can't find it anywhere.  I just spent 20 minutes looking but now I am giving up.  Know that this is not my original idea and I did follow some steps.  I bought a frame and a metal sheet from Hobby Lobby.  Yes, Hobby Lobby.  And I feel bad about that because of the no birth control thing, but I couldn't find this ridiculous metal sheeting anywhere else and so I went in and I felt guilty the whole time.  If this jewelry organizer didn't look so cute I would feel really awful.  

Anyway, I spray painted the frame and then secured the metal sheeting behind it.  Ryan hung it for me.  Ryan and I have a different approach to hanging things.  I eyeball things, cross my fingers and hope for the best.  Ryan measures, there is a level involved and it is a much more arduous process.  But don't worry, it looks better when Ryan does it.  Figures. 

The Handyman

The final product.  I hung my necklaces on a contraption I picked up at IKEA for 10 dollars.  I'm pretty impressed with myself.  

The next project was a little harder.  We wanted to frame the mirror in the boy's bathroom.  By we I mean me.  All of our mirrors are the standard, old, boring look but I decided to tackle the boy's bathroom first because if we really messed up there was a less of a chance people would actually see it. There are tons of tutorials on this on Pinterest as well, but I found this one the most helpful.  It is not perfect, but it looks much much better.  And now we need new light fixtures in there.  But I have to give Ryan a break or else he will divorce me.  

Before

After-- SO MUCH BETTER.

Finally, we have quite a bit of blank wall space in our house.  But I hate putting stuff up just to put it up.  I like the idea of a gallery wall, but I am not sure if I want to showcase it in our main family room. There is a large wall between Paul's room and the guest room and I thought we could experiment there. This is just a start and I'm thinking we can expand this and fill up the entire wall.  I bought some of these frames at IKEA and some at goodwill and spray painted them.  I have a new found love for spray paint.  

Don't worry, I have many more ideas... stay tuned.  Sorry Ryan.

Hola Mexico 2014

I miss you sweet ocean! 

At the end of July we were able to take a CHILD FREE vacation to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. I KNOW!!!  My requirements for the trip were a swim up bar.  Seriously, that is all I cared about. And just so you know, I frequented that bar many, many, many times.  My itinerary read as: read, eat, drink, repeat.  Well, we were very successful on all accounts.  We came home tan, a little fatter, and 100% hungover.  Oops.

The swim up bar: Where many of my troubles occurred.  

We mostly stayed on the resort but one day we did venture out for a Catamaran boat ride that included  snorkeling and the boys doing synchronized dives off the side of the boat.

Does this bikini top look like lingerie?  I think so too but then I thought, hell it's Mexico.  Anything goes. 

See that man in the middle?  We learned that he lives in Mexico and at Christmas time dresses up as Santa and gives presents to all the little kids.  Which is nice and he really did look like Santa Claus.  But ole Santa had a few drinks on the boat ride and became a little creepy.  When we were disembarking the boat, Santa fell down (apparently he just had hip surgery) on the cement.  He wanted NO ONE to help him get up and it was a strange situation.  So obviously instead of being compassionate, Ryan reenacted the scene a million times.

"My hip."

It was so nice to spend a little one-on-one time with Ry guy.  It was actually hard to appreciate the freedom of NO time restraints.  Plenty of times the first day I was reaching for my phone wondering what time it was.  Finally I had to tell myself, "it doesn't matter what time it is.  There is nothing to do." That realization was magical.

This getaway also included our friends Kathy and Ryan which was nice because the boys could do "boy" things like play ping-pong and the girls could do "girl" things like drink 32 margaritas.

You can also thank Kathy for every single one of these pictures because as usually I took none.

My Ryan continued to tell us we were WILD.  We took it as a compliment.  I don't know if he meant it as one.  

This Ryan decided to create his own signature drink.  It was served it the tiniest cup I have ever seen in my life.  

Me with a drink.  This is what I looked liked for 4 days straight.  

We had a great time and it only took me two weeks to fully recover at home.  Thank you to both set of grandparents for watching the boys.  They also had a "vacation" of a lifetime.  Mexico seems like a lifetime ago, as Ryan's alarm went off super early this morning and he hit the road for his first day of work.  Mine is tomorrow.  I will mourn at the pool with the boys today.