Exasperation

 

Eating at our house lately has reached a new level of fun.

This is how yesterday morning went down.

Andrew starts off the morning super early in my face complaining that he is hungry.
I say, "sound great, let's go get breakfast" and we head downstairs.

I pop a waffle into the toaster and he starts yelling, "I'm not hungry!"
I say, "Well, I just made you a waffle, so let's try and eat some of it."

I cut up the waffle and put a little syrup on it and bring it over to the table.
"I don't want anything on the waffle and I want it whole. Not cut up!"

Seriously? No syrup.

I was being extra nice yesterday I think, so I said, "OK, if you ask nicely, I can make you one without syrup and I'll eat this one." Normally I'd just say, "sorry, this is what you're eating."

Fast forward 3 minutes and he has a plain, non-syrupy waffle on his plate.

"Mom, can you cut up my waffle?"

Seriously? You just had a major tantrum about the fact that the last one was cut up.

A few minutes later, "Mom, can you put syrup on my waffle please?"

Grrr. Sigh of exasperation. I pushed the other plate towards him with the already cut up waffle covered in syrup that I'd made him ten minutes before.

Gotta love three year olds.

A Mini Reunion

On Saturday evening, after the beach and birthday party, Kevin had a mini reunion with some of his former college roommates (and groomsmen). Bryant recently bought a house nearby us in the East Bay... and Kevin and Bryant's old roommate Peter (and wife) were visiting friends in Yosemite... so everyone came over for some food and fun at our house.

This picture is of the guys at our wedding... Kevin was the last one to tie the knot... so they celebrated by all showing off their wedding rings 

It was so cool to have all of them at our wedding in Manhattan

One of these days we'll all get together for a big reunion again... but in the meantime, these three had fun catching up while Peter's wife Kristy and I chatted and watched my little hooligans.

Can't you tell that they are loving that we made them pose for this picture? :)

We ate Zachary's pizza, drank rootbeer, devoured delicious strawberry pie made by Candice (even though she was working and didn't get to come... sad), and then Kevin made us peanut butter bars too. I am stuffed just thinking about it! 

We talked and talked until the little people started revolting and needed to be taken home to bed.

It was a great night and so fun to catch up!

We were so exhausted after everyone left that we even attempted to go to bed early (before 1am)... but the little people had different plans and took turns waking us up all night. What little sweethearts ;)

Let's hope we get a chance to recover from our weekend this next week! Happy Sunday!

Santa Cruz 2011

One of the items on my Summer Bucket List was to go to Santa Cruz as a family. Although we are definitely not accomplishing everything on my list, I didn't think this one would be too hard.

As luck would have it, our 2011 Opening Social for the youth at church was a trip to Sunset Beach (just south of Santa Cruz... so, close enough!). I convinced Kevin and the little people to tag along and we spent most of the day on Saturday at the beach.

Who wouldn't want to spend a day with the awesome teenagers from our ward? 

We played tug-o-war to see who got to eat first. Kevin helped make sure our ward beat the other ward and got to eat right away. :) 

Andrew was in volcano heaven... and had a troupe of twelve year old girls that wanted to help him lug water to his volcano area and dig super big holes too.

Catie and her new crawling skills definitely kept me on my toes. She slept for the first hour of our beach time (which is why she is in jammies) and then it was freezing (60s), so I kept her in them for the rest of the day. Her favorite activity was sneaking handfuls of sand and trying to shove them in her mouth before I caught her.

These two had fun collecting sand dollars and roaming around while I chatted with friends and helped set up and clean up lunch.

We ended our trip with a brief stop at Marianne's for ice cream (a family tradition) before we trekked home for some afternoon birthday party fun.

Andrew definitely kept Kevin and I laughing on the way home. I love that kid. We also loved having a whole day of family time together. That never seems to happen anymore since Kevin leaves for work before Cate & Andrew wake up and gets home after Cate is asleep.

Fortunately the time we spend together each Saturday usually makes up for it.

Despite the cloudy weather, we just LOVED our trip to the beach. Andrew was hopeful that we could go back again today. We definitely might need to try and go one more time before the summer is officially over!

Ride Em Cowboy

Andrew went to Kendall & Avery's birthday party yesterday.

They are two of his favorite friends in our neighborhood.

My friend Kara (their mom) knows how to throw an awesome party.

Andrew bounced in the bounce house and rode a pony around the neighborhood.

He even got to ride his pony on our front lawn so I could take a picture :)

(quickly... before the horse left us any presents)

Meanwhile, Cate has figured out the crawling thing... 

so she spent the party crawling around on the grass.

She also likes to do crafts like her mom... 

RAWR!

What a fun afternoon!

Studio Grow

Cate's little buddy Beezie came up to visit this week. The girls are about 2 months apart. We had to show her a good time, so we took her to one of our favorite places at Blackhawk- Studio Grow. 

Cate practiced standing

and watched as Beezie zoomed past her

Cate made the loudest squawking sounds when B would crawl by. I think she was grumpy that she couldn't move that fast.    

Andrew kept himself busy for a long time with the volcanoes and dinosaurs... which Cate liked to try and eat if Andrew didn't snatch them away quick enough.

The girls made friends and played with magnets

I totally want to make one of these magnet areas for my house.

(new friend)

Cate tried to swipe a few toys when no one was watching

Her favorite new thing is to slap tables and make loud sounds 

Andrew attempted to put on a puppet show for the girls... but they weren't too into it

After playtime, we wrangled up the kids and headed off to lunch. Cate liked trying to steal B's food. They both always want what the other one has. :) They also LOVE dropping food and making big messes underneath tables!

Andrew silently inhaled his ice cream and hot dog at his own special tables and then went off to make friends at the playground.

Kaari and I (and the girls) ate, chased ducks (or at least watched Andrew do it), looked at the water, and then went back to play at Studio Grow for a little longer.

We were exhausted when we left to go home! Andrew was annoyed the whole drive back to our house that Beezie wasn't coming back to play with our toys. He thought it was so fun to show her around and have her follow him places.

We will definitely need to play again soon!

A Blank Canvas... or two

I sit at my house and stare at empty walls a lot.

Like this one.

Our furniture isn't adult-sized yet to fit the space :)

I am afraid to go too big. I thought the photos I had printed were big. Hmm... not so much. Neither is that itty bitty lamp. The little Target side table has been with me for almost 8 yrs. Elise helped me pick it out when she had no job and loved to help me use my money to furnish our tiny apartment.

I have a lot of home ideas now collected on Pinterest, but I'm afraid I won't like what I do... so I do nothing.

Our dining room sideboard table is begging for some decoration.

I think it would be cute to put something above this doorway into my kitchen... in that cute little rectangle. Maybe our family theme? "Enjoy the journey. Stop for treats." :) It would make me smile every time I walked through the doorway.

The stairs are also a blank canvas. I am terrible with sizing... like this photo frame that seems way too small for the space when you look at it from a distance.

Some people think we just moved in because our walls are so empty... but really it is because I don't know what to put on them. This wall (below) stares me down every time I go downstairs. I want it to contain something meaningful... not just random art... so I overthink it... and do nothing.

I constantly contemplate hiring a decorator to help me... but then still do nothing.

I may actually get some pictures on my wall due to this photo wall display formula... but first we need some pictures that I like enough to put up- that are also recent. That is a constant dilemma. You'd think it wouldn't be... since you all know I take wayyyy too many pictures.

Instead of tackling the blank walls... I take baby steps and keep bringing things home from stores to try out. This week I'm attempting a "Back to School/Fall" theme on the sideboard. If you look closely you can still see all the price tags on everything. The vase needs to be more full. I didn't want to buy too many things and then have to return them (like I did a few weeks ago... but then LOST the receipt and had the most horrendous store return experience ever). Everything I try is BORING to me.

I also need some sort of Fall colored runner? By the time I make up my mind it is going to be Halloween or Thanksgiving and I will need to start all over again.

I love my very white kitchen... but it has no personality. It basically looks exactly the way it did here when we moved in. I saw this tutorial today... and now I want to attempt Faux Roman shades in my kitchen over my sink. I think I change my mind every day when I see a new creative idea though.

Does anyone else have the same commitment problems that I do?

I usually solve this blank canvas problem by planning a party or organizing some playdates. After all, when I die, I'm not taking my house with me... so I guess it doesn't really matter? But I think I would enjoy the time I spend in my house more if it was a better reflection of my personality.

Pass along your ideas. What would you do with my blank canvases?

Almost a Failure

We tried to go to the last Car Show of the summer tonight. Kevin was working late and then went out with the missionaries... so the little people and I ate dinner and then headed downtown. We drove around. And around. And around... We never found a parking spot. Caitlin screamed. Andrew pointed out every handicapped and red-curb spot in town and couldn't understand why I wouldn't park there. I finally decided we were going to just go home. Andrew was on the verge of a tantrum. He just wanted a shave ice. 

When we pulled into our driveway, I promised Andrew that as soon as I put Cate to bed, we'd have our own Car Show. A much cooler car show than the one we missed. 

We made it so that all the cars had a designated spot... which was useful when there was an Andrew EarthSHAKE and all of the cars went flying.

The little people were so excited about our car show... they flew in just for the day.

It got pretty crowded. Some people even brought their dogs.

Oh no! A fire at the Car Show! Fortunately, Captain Andrew and the firefighters were there to help out.

Andrew built us a bounce house... and all the Lego men went jumping like crazy

Next, we had a little shave ice at the Shave Ice stand. Good thing we saved our containers from the last car show. I knew they'd come in handy for something :)

Andrew makes a mean Shave Ice :)

Yum! 

We also had some mini ice cream cones... since chocolate is a must at the Car Show.

We played and played until we were exhausted from laughing. I loved the sound of Andrew's giggles when I would make the little people yell, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" as they tried to escape the earthquakes and fires... and I think there were some volcanic eruptions too.

I managed to avert the tantrum. 

Kevin arrived home about 20 minutes after Andrew went to bed with an actual shave ice from the Car Show downtown. He managed to convince the workers to make one for the little man as they were packing up at the end of the night.

I think we'll be continuing the Car Show fun tomorrow... but with some yummier treats :)