Archive for the ‘Parenting & Marriage’ Category

Spring Break Day Three

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Today we visited the zoo. We were planning to go on our own, but I called my girlfriend and she was heading to the zoo too so we decided to meet up. We purchased our zoo pass for the year ($55 for a family pass), but we visit the zoo often and also go to other more expensive zoos, so it ends up paying for itself within a few visits.


Do you see anyone else in the picture? The tiger is in the far left, and the crazy lady with the camera is dead center. The kids loved seeing the tiger!


Ethan’s best buddy, Alexis!

Emily’s favorite exhibit was the monkeys. She loved making monkey sounds at them. Say, “Cheese!”


Taking time for a quick pose on the turtle.

We packed a lunch to save some money and ate at the park. I had some leftover Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad that made the perfect lunch. The kids enjoyed some yummy peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, apples, and crackers.

The rest of the day I plan to catch up on laundry and getting the house back in order since I was away. If you are looking for some fun things to do with the kids today, check out my post, “Creative Toy Replacements” featured on Blissfully Domestic!

Sound Off: Do you purchase a family pass to any area attractions?

Spring Break Day Two

Sunday, April 6th, 2008


Today we worked on the yard together as a family. I mowed the lawn to help mulch up the leaves, we worked on our flower beds a little, trimmed the hedges, and also laid down some grass seed. It doesn’t sound like much fun, but that was what needed to be done today!

While I mowed, the kids were watching me from the window. They kept knocking on the glass to get me to wave and making funny faces.


After it was safe for them to come out, they helped rake and gather leaves with me. They also spent some time playing in the water table, blowing bubbles, and kicking a beach ball.


We headed inside for a yummy dinner- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, Cheese & Crackers, and some freshly chopped carrots. I timed a Netflix free trial subscription to our Spring Break so we watched, “The Bee Movie” while we enjoyed the yummy food.

This would have been another day of no spending, but Ethan cashed in his tickets to rent a game. Does anyone else think that $9 is a bit too steep for a Wii game rental? What in the world? My husband took him and let him pick what he wanted. Next time, we agreed that we will get a Playstation game or even buy a used game for that price (at Blockbuster). What a rip off!

Spring-y Break Day One Pt II

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Emily loved the swings best of all! She spent a good hour letting me push her in the swing. We all took turns giving her a good push- even Ethan!


Ethan prefers the slides!


Complete and utter joy.

Dontcha wish your mommy was hot like this? Crazy wild hair ensues after a day at the park and there were tears all the way home from Emily. I look like I am smiling, but I am gritting my teeth because she is doing the best to kick the back of the seat because she is mad that I made her leave the park. Ahhh! Motherhood!

Spring-y Break Day One

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

We match perfectly! You know, me and the color red– I am enforcing the color on my kid now too!


Peeking Out


My handsome hubby!


Emily was not looking forward to her picture being taken. It was keeping her from the swings! Remember, it is painful to have our pictures done with our mommy!

A fun day at the park with the kids was how we decided to kick off our spring break! It was a beautiful day outside and we couldn’t resist taking advantage of such a perfect day. I have missed the kids so much and they enjoyed a whole day of fun & sunshine with us!

We are looking forward to a fun week ahead and I have lots of ideas for fun & cheap things that I can do with them while we are on break. Ryan is back to work, after taking vacation time for my trip, so it will be just the three of us during the day this week.

Sound Off: Any big plans Spring Breakers?

I Can Die Happy…

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

My life is complete- TED ALLEN!

Not Today, Please…

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

UPDATE: Bunny was found!! Only fellow moms could recognize the tragedy we would have faced without him! Thanks for all of your well wishes and I will write more on location in NJ!

Have you seen this bunny anywhere? It appears my daughter has lost, not just one, but BOTH of her bunnies are missing. I have spent the past hour trying to find them- searching the car, checking behind chairs, looking in cupboards. I am supposed to be packing, but there is no way I am going away without a bunny in her arms.

When I find him, I am going to have to figure out how to install a tracking device inside. I wonder if one of those remote finders would fit nicely on the interior of his face? Wow! Never thought I would say that!

One thing you also do not want text messaged to your phone, right before a trip, is this:

“I am starting to think I have shingles.”

Nope, my husband is allergic to penicillin. He made a trip to the doctor’s covered in a fiery rash from head to toe. He is completely miserable, but got a prescription to calm down his reaction.

Oh, and since we are talking about fun events that happened today, here is another great one! I typed up a document called, “Daddy’s Cliff Notes” with all of the things that he asked me to write up for him, all neatly typed in my favorite Georgian font. As I hit, “Save” the screen fades and says, “Microsoft Windows is not responding.” Yup, that document… yeah, it’s gone. Didn’t even save itself to be recovered to make up for being so flaky.

We will see if I actually get to go on this trip after all!

Off to Camp!

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Today I am getting ready for my trip to Johnson & Johnson’s Camp Baby. I am so thrilled to be included in this! I tend to get overlooked for a lot of mommy blogger stuff and I still haven’t gotten to go to a BlogHer conference, so I am looking forward to meeting and making some new mommy friends. These “perks” are a dream come true for me. Seriously, sometimes I just shake my head and wonder how a small-town gal from Indiana gets included in these shindigs. I hope they won’t figure out the error of their ways anytime soon!

If you want to hear all the details on my trip, you can read what we will be doing! I don’t know what I am more excited about- meeting new moms to hang out with or meeting TED ALLEN and doing a wine tasting with him. Yeah, I am going to be the annoying girl with the camera so I will take lots of pictures to share when I get back!

PS- For those of you searching for spring cleaning stuff, I have been sick and am behind on making printables. When I get back, I promise to get some printables cranked out and we will get back on track!!

Who Is the Old Lady Now?

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

I have been having so much fun teaching Ethan some cool card games. Growing up, we had a deck of Old Maid cards that we played Old Maid with so I had no idea that you could play Old Maid with a regular old deck of cards.

This game is great for kids between 5-10, because it is easy to learn and to play. This game is more fun if you have 3-6 players, but you can play with two players (which is easier for smaller children and putting together matches).

Before you can begin, remove all of the Queens in the deck except for one. Shuffle and distribute the cards, one at a time and face down.

Each player looks at their hands and pulls out any two cards that match in rank. Each player lays his match face down in a pile beside him. If a player has three cards of the same number, one stays in his hand.

After matches are all sorted, fan out your cards for the other player to grab from. Keep taking turns and making matches. Since there is only one Queen, the Old Maid, no match can be made for her. At the end of the hand, the player left holding the Old Maid loses the game.

You could also pretend to cry, like Ethan demonstrates for our photo!

Want to switch the game up? How about making the Old Maid an Old Boy and using the Jack as your odd man out!

Family Night: Earth Hour

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I had been looking forward to Earth Hour all week and sharing this experience with my family. We talked to Ethan about why we were celebrating Earth Hour and how much fun we were going to have. Since Earth Hour was between 8-9 PM, it was a special treat for the kids to stay up late and spend the hour with us.

The kids took a bath by candlelight, which they thought was a super fun treat! We filled the tub with lots of bubbles and threw in a couple of whisks and spoons from the kitchen. They whisked up bubbles to their hearts delight and sang fun songs by candlelight.

Ethan thought he looked pretty cool in front of the candles so he took some time out of his busy schedule to pose!

After our baths, we enjoyed a yummy snack while Ryan & I made shadow puppets on the wall for the kids. They thought these were hilarious and super cool!

Ethan had so much fun, he asked if we could celebrate Earth Hour every day! This gave me an opportunity to share with him easy ways he could celebrate AND save the earth. We talked about doing our recycling, turning the lights off when we aren’t in a room, and not being wasteful. Since this family night was such a hit, I hope we can do it with the kids again. Not only did the kids have a blast, but it was super frugal, while being extremely memorable for all of us!

Sound Off: Did you celebrate Earth Hour? How did you celebrate it?

Earth Hour: A Family Night to Remember

Friday, March 28th, 2008

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town. You can sign up today!

What will you do when the lights are off? Visit Crunchy Domestic Goddess for some great ideas for a family night or even a date night with your spouse!

We are planning to participate this year and I hope you will join me!