Art and Wind Festival

I spent the morning volunteering at the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival. Our preschool had a booth set up and I "worked" with another friend who is on the preschool board with me. We passed out fliers and let kids passing by play with playdough and bubbles at our booth. Ryan joined me and was mostly happy. It was a lot of fun!

Kevin brought the little kids over once the festival started and they roamed around playing at the park, getting kettle corn, and checking out the rides and booths.

Andrew and Catie were very excited about the free balloon creations. Andrew got a light saber... and then it blew away and he lost it... so then he got another one. Catie got a ladybug and held onto that thing for dear life.

We also let the kiddos go on a few rides before we grabbed some lunch and treats.

We enjoyed some Häagen-Dazs ice cream treats in honor of my mom's birthday.

We had quite the stroller brigade because I drove Kevin's car to the festival in the morning and only ended up having a double stroller in the trunk... and then Kevin brought a double stroller with him too. It ended up working perfectly because with coats and other bags and items we both pushed a kid and stuff and then Andrew walked and we didn't have to lug anything around over our shoulders.

We ended the day flying our newly purchased Star Wars kite before we hurried to the car as rain started the fall.

I love going to cute local events and having fun together as a family on holidays! It was also great to run into a few friends.

Happy Memorial Day!

Ode to Jules

Today is my mom's birthday... so since I can't be there in person to tell her Happy Birthday, I thought I'd send her some love via my blog.

Here are some of the tops 10 things that I love about my mom or think are awesome about her in no particular order. 

The list could be endless... so I just stuck to 10.

1. She loves my dad and makes him super happy. 

Aren't they adorable?

2. If you put her and Jessie together there is really no telling what might happen. All bets are off. It gets a little crazy. 

3. She's a big NY Yankees fan and makes sure her grandkids have the proper sports attire to be fans too. :) She's also secretly brainwashing the clients where she works.

4. She's always coming up with cute crafty and creative ideas. If you're planning an event with a theme, she's your go-to gal. 

5. She likes to be with her kids and cherishes time with them. 

This is a pic of her on the phone with Scott one Christmas when he wasn't with us. He was missed! I always have FOMO if she's somewhere and I can't be there too. I love spending time with my mom because she makes all of us feel important and like we are THE favorite kid (which I am... of course :)).

6. Shopping is always fun with my mom... so we do it a lot.  It involves loads of diet coke, treats, yummy food, and chatting too. 

7. She is the coolest Senior Activities Director out there. I wish I could spend my day at Aspen.

She also looks for any and every excuse to dress up in costume or wear a crazy hat. 

8. Her laugh and smile are contagious... 

9. Her unofficial motto (courtesy of my dad) is "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing"... so she makes sure that every event gets overdone. 

From Christmas to birthdays to random holidays. You never know when a surprise will show up from mom. She also make little moments important. I love getting random cards in the mail with a sweet note from her that always seem to come at the perfect time!

Christmas at the Smiths

I loved these surprise flowers that arrived when Catie was born

10. She makes family the most important and is both Super Mom and Super Grandma. 

My kids talk about her daily, loved video chatting with her, and can't wait till they get to see her again soon! Andrew always has a bit of a meltdown when she is visiting even before she leaves town if he doesn't know when he'll get to see her next. He loves his Grandma!

Not only does she love our family, but mom's actions show that we are the most important. She is always at big events and comes to visit just for fun or for silly things too. Some months we see her in the Bay area more than once. Andrew was especially excited when Grandma and Grandpa worked their schedule so that they could make it to his 5th birthday party. It was the highlight of February.

I thought my mom was awesome growing up and now that she's a grandma I think she is even cooler. I feel so lucky that my kids get to spend time with someone who is so thoughtful, kind, loving, giving, patient, spiritual, and happy! She is such a great example to them (and me!).

Happy Birthday to hands down the most awesome mom in existence! Wish we were there to celebrate with you! We will make sure to live it up Julie-style today in your honor. Can't wait to keep the celebration going all week long and have more fun in person with you next weekend.

Love you!

A 10K Saturday

On Wednesday night I decided to sign up for a local 10K. I ran the half marathon about 6 months after I had Catie... but I haven't been training enough to do a full half right now. The 10K ended up being perfect for my re-entry into races post-Ryan. My weekly running buddy Cara is almost 6 months pregnant and was running it too... so that left me with no excuses.

I use the term "races" in a casual way since I was in no way competing or going fast... this run was purely for fun. 

One thing I learned from this race is that I really need to buy myself some plain, cute running tops. All the t-shirts I have are super ugly.

On Saturday I woke up at 5:30am to feed Ryan and then got to the race around 6:30 to pick up stuff and then we were off around 7:15. I don't totally know what my time was, but I know I got home around 8:30/8:35, so it wasn't too fast and it wasn't too slow.

I loved this shirt that one friend running the 1/2 made

I ran with two friends and had a great time chatting. I could've run several more miles and was feeling great. 

I was greeted by my cute cheerleaders once I got home. Ryan had just woken up and had barely even known I was gone. He was SO happy to see me as were the other littles who ran around giving me hugs.

I love getting a workout in before the kiddos are up for the day... especially a fun one with friends.  

Lights and Paint {Remodel Update}

The remodel is coming along. Feel free to skip this post if you are totally done hearing about this. We were supposed to be done last week, but since the slabs were delayed, the project was delayed a bit. This week everything moved much faster.

The painter was at our house every day from 9:30am -5 or 6pm. He still probably has another week (at least) till every part of the house is done... but maybe only a week left in the remodel space?

We got lights today in Ryan's room... plus outlet covers and power!

Kevin's closet also got a light. The rest of the bathroom and my closet will get hooked up on Tuesday.

 

The bathroom and toilet room are painted now and some trim is done too. The fixtures are almost all in. I didn't like the shower head after all... so we're sending that back and choosing again.

The toilet and bathtub are ready to go in on Tuesday. Hooray!

Walls are all painted in all the rooms except the master bedroom. That happens Tuesday or Wednesday.

According to our foreman, we could install carpet next Saturday. We'll see if that happens... if so... that means we are SO CLOSE to being done! Hip hip hooray!

Now on to figuring out what new bedding we want to choose. Our current bedding has been well loved and it is time to say goodbye! If you have any favorite places where you find good duvet covers, pass them along! If you have a master bedroom pinterest board... share it! I need inspiration!

Here are my thoughts so far.

The Little Dude

How did I get so lucky to be this happy little guy's mom?

Man this kid is adorable and makes everyone who meets him smile really big.  

He doesn't get nearly enough blog coverage lately because I've been crazy busy with commitments to my Toddler Approved blog, preschool, church, and the other little people.

I do however manage to snap pictures of most of the important moments. Here are a few recent ones. They are usually posted on Facebook or Instagram too.

Playing with Catie... he will hang out and watch her forever and she randomly babbles at him

And she also kisses him and rolls over like him... he loves her and she loves him...

until he finds her hair and pulls it

Ryan was introduced to solid foods this week. So far he's tried mum mums, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal.

Aunt Jessie introduced him to the sweet potatoes and he liked them, but he loved having her feed him and talk to him even more.

All dressed up for church. He doesn't nap at church... which makes the three hour block seem very long. Fortunately all other days if we stay home he'll usually take a nap from 9-12 or 10-12, another one from 1-3 or 2-3, and another one from 5-6. Depending on our schedule he either gets all three naps or just two. Fortunately so far he's been pretty flexible.

Ryan likes to be part of things. The big kids always make sure to give him a light saber so he can participate in little duels.

Ryan goes to bed around 7:30 or 8 or 8:30pm depending on what time he's gotten up from his previous nap. I usually get him for the day at 7 or 8am. He sleeps part of the night in the guest bathroom and then we move him into the family room to sleep once we go to bed.

Little dude is very determined.

He won't sit still and wants to be reaching and moving on the floor if he is down. He wants to be part of the action. I was really hoping for a baby who would sit and play with toys and be content. Looks like he will not be that kid. He is already trying to move his arms and slam his legs to get himself places.

He gets really mad if he can't reach something and is so proud of himself when he does.

He turns 7 months old next week. I can't believe it. He is almost 20 lbs so my arms are exhausted all the time. I love cuddling him and kissing him and he has the best little giggle!

We are so fortunate to have him in our family!

Mom and Catie Date

Catie and I go on Mommy/Catie dates every weekend. Usually to exciting places like Target or JoAnns. ;)

Really our dates are an opportunity for Kevin to get something done in the house while Ryan naps and for me to run errands... but Catie is delighted to tag along and I love it!

Tonight I let her decide how our date would go since we got to have a Girls Night Out while the guys are at the Father/Son campout. She wanted to get orange juice at McDonalds, feed the ducks, and get a cookie. Easy peasy.

We had chicken sandwiches for dinner (plus her OJ).

Then we "rode" rides. I like how she still doesn't care when I say I don't have any money. Andrew has me figured out all ready. She makes her own entertainment wherever she goes.

This happy dude just tagged along and smiled at us and said "ga ga ga"

This little girl wanted Catie to be her friend. It was all good until she got handsy and was trying to boss Catie around too much too. She gets enough of that from Andrew and flipped out a bit. The girl's mom was nowhere to be seen, so I had a chat with her about using her words to talk to Catie and not dragging her around or grabbing her to bring her places. It didn't really sink in... but I tried.

Ryan just kept smiling.

We enjoyed our date in style. Originally Kevin was going to take his car on the Father/Son campout. I convinced him to take my disaster of a car. I think it was a win/win. This beauty didn't need to get all dirty and my car is so dirty you'd never know they used it camping!

Catie told me right when we got in that we couldn't get daddy's car dirty. He has her trained well. We ate a bite or two of our cookies outside the car before we drove home... and then we finished them on the front steps... since I don't like crumbs all over my kitchen!

I love this little cutie and have so much fun having Mommy/Catie dates with her!