Smith Girls Trip- NYC {Day 1}

I don't have as many pictures from our girls trip as I could've taken, but I do have some fun ones. 

Last Thursday afternoon Jessie, Cat, and I boarded a plane and headed to Manhattan! We took a taxi to The Intercontinental Hotel in the Upper East Side where we arrived at the exact same time as Elise and my mom. 

Fortunately we had young, energetic Jessie with us (I would've curled up and gone to bed right away), so we headed out on the town to explore and get some treats after we dropped off our bags in our hotel room.

We woke up at 9am the next day and went off to Central Park for about a four mile run. It was insanely muggy and I don't think I have EVER sweat that much in my life, but the location was gorgeous and company was fabulous, so we had a lot of fun!

I love this view of the reservoir

My run recovery breakfast of a black & white cookie helped jump start a day filled with lots of treats!

On our way shopping we stopped at Crumbs for some cupcakes and cookies. Elise and I shared the squiggle cupcake that is like a giant Hostess cupcake. Sooo yummy!

We shopped and shopped until we were ready to drop... and then we headed to The Plaza for afternoon tea. We are all still very sad that no one ended up with the gorgeous coat from Barneys that Elise is holding. I want a version in MY SIZE... but they didn't have Catie, Olivia, or Maddie's size. :( The one Elise is holding Catie would've grown out of before Christmas probably... so sad... though good for our budgets! 

Tea at the Plaza is insanely rich. Each tea comes with sandwiches, a drink, and several levels of desserts. The "chocolate tea" was my favorite... although the Eloise one was a close second. We couldn't decide which one to order, so we ordered all four and tried them all. The chocolate tea came with amazingly rich delicious fondue. 

After tea we attempted to walk off and shop off everything that we had eaten... and then we headed back to the hotel for a break. I sat down expecting to catch up on emails and managed to pass out within a few minutes. The 20-30 minute nap I had at 6pm (3pm PST... my usual naptime :)) was the most amazing nap I feel like I have had in awhile.

After our relaxing, we headed off to find some delicious NY pizza before booking it over to Times Square to find our theatre and watch Newsies!

 The musical was amazing! Cat saved the day halfway through (since I was getting a little sleepy) and surprised us with Newsies collectors cups filled with some caffeine :) It was just enough to get me energized for the rest of the show. No matter how hard I try not to, it is really easy for me to fall asleep in shows when I am pregnant- Wicked, Les Miserables, etc. have all been slept through. It is so sad. Usually I won't go to them any more because it ends up being a waste of money... fortunately I survived and loved every minute of the night!

We ended our first whole day with a walk through Bryant Park at night (gorgeous) and a stop for treats on the way home... where we crashed in bed exhausted!

First Day of Kinderprep

Andrew had his first day of Kinderprep yesterday and loved it. He has school Monday-Thursday from 12:30-3:30pm and is in class with about eleven other kids that are mostly age five. I think he's the youngest in the class, so we'll see how that goes. He turns five in February. There are four boys in his class (including him) and seven girls. Several went to school the same day as him last year and we've been doing playdates all summer, so he already knew many of their names and felt pretty comfortable.

He was so excited when I dropped him off he could barely focus for a picture- too much fun stuff to see!

Catie also thought she was going to school and was thoroughly disappointed (cue massive tantrum throwing herself on the floor) when we had to leave.

Andrew got to sign in all by himself when he got to school. Love my cute little lefty.

He said his favorite part of school was playing with the puppet that I made for him at Kinderprep Orientation last week (that is supposed to look like him). Totally does, right? He loved the "A."

On the drive home he also told me about everyone's different lunch boxes and how he needed a Star Wars one in addition to his Spiderman one.

My kids were crazy yesterday re-adjusting to me being home from my NYC trip so they were highly emotional/tantrumy... so we celebrated the first day of school by ordering take out Papa John's Pizza at the end of the day and watching NetFlix- nothing Pinterest worthy or super original. I was just too darn tired! :)

Cannot believe we now have school almost every day. Fortunately since it is in the afternoons, we can still do fun things together in the mornings.

Hurray!

Catching Up

Gotta catch up on our weekend events before this next weekend hits and I have even more oodles of pictures to share!

Labor Day Weekend was a blast!

Once my house was actually clean (finally), I decided I wanted to throw a Labor Day BBQ... so we had two families over (Aguilars and Heymans) and had so much fun! Andrew was the only boy and he loved it.

Catie decided to make the house a mess right before our guests arrived

The kids got along great and other than Catie, everyone seemed super happy and had fun!

They designed posters for Andrew's "clubhouse" (our empty backyard shed) and there was quite the sticker explosion all over my kitchen. It was so fun to see them all creating. 

I also started off Labor Day with a 7am run with my friend Cara. We ran 5 miles and it felt AMAZING... and then afterwards I felt like I was waddling for the rest of the day.

Andrew did a lot of play dough all weekend long.

We took a family shopping trip to hit up some sales at the mall. These two hooligans were crazy and kept me laughing while Kevin tried on clothes. I only tagged along to look at baby clothes and eat cookies.

Here is the only pic I have of myself lately... proof that I exist and am pregnant... still haven't figured out how to take a side view shot of myself, so all I have is front view. This is one of probably 4 outfits I wear lately.

We also had a great Sunday! We made good food, all took naps (except Andrew who played in the backyard by himself- more play dough), relaxed, and I went on an hour walk by myself. Love when that happens!

I loved Catie in her Sunday outfit, so I snapped a few photos.

The kiddos and I were soooo sad to see Kevin go back to work on Tuesday! Fortunately he's taking Thursday and Friday off to hang with the kiddos while I go on a girls trip! They can't wait!

Never Leaving Home

Yesterday when I told Andrew it was going to be Saturday the next day and we would all be home he said, "So we can stay home all day together and never leave?" (in an excited tone that made me wonder who he is related to).

So stay home we did... almost all day. To be honest, I actually loved it because I got tons of stuff done.

(today's masterpiece for the grocery store that he was creating)

Andrew has been starting off the day with art projects. I'll wake up and he's drawn something new and cool on his easel paper. As soon as I was awake he was asking to go play outside... 

Once Catie was awake, she joined him. The kids (and sometimes Kevin) played outside all morning long. I snuck out occasionally to snap photos and then worked on organizing, cleaning, laundry, some projects, and more cleaning.

Catie liked to come inside to beg for treats.

And band-aids for her doll.

Her daddy can't say no

Such little cuties... Catie obviously needs to lay off the chalk. 

We also met with a contractor about some stuff we may do in the house upstairs and then Catie and I worked on loads of blogging activities while Kevin and Andrew went swimming at the pool.

Andrew helped end the day on a high note by cracking me up with his clothes and then surprising me by hiding in the kitchen (after I thought he was in bed) wearing a newborn baby hospital bunny hat (ones we made as an Easter service project last year). I have not laughed that hard in a LONG time.

After the crazy week that we had, it was so nice to stay home together today... and almost never leave. I love my family!

Grumpy Pants and Running Laps

Catie's face portrays exactly how we all felt yesterday- GRUMPY! Too many errands, too much to do, and not enough time to play!

Right now Andrew and Catie's favorite thing to do is run. I guess I am setting a good example and making it look cool? ;) They love to run away from me and run basically whenever we are anywhere. Yesterday that meant they ran all over the camera store and JoAnns... which added to my grumpiness. In the late afternoon we finally found the perfect spot for them to get out their energy- the preschool storage unit hallway. 

When we get home from errands Andrew always asks, "Can we run a lap?" and then when I say yes, he says, "C'mon Catie!" and the two of them race around our cul de sac. I seriously love our cul de sac. If we don't have anything going on or need to rush inside, they will run around and around the cul de sac again and again while I sit on the grass and relax. Best activity ever.

Today felt much less crazy than yesterday... maybe because I woke up before everyone and actually showered at some point during the day- unlike yesterday? Cara and I ran 5 miles early this morning and I spent the rest of the day waddling around recovering. We had a bunch of preschool friends and moms over to work on curriculum projects and then I finally sat down to relax and do NOTHING but eat ice cream and watch Netflix shows around 1pm.

I was too tired to even nap. After the kiddos had nap/quiet time, Andrew kept himself occupied with drawing and playdough creating by himself forever... so Catie and I sorted laundry and put it away. My laundry system today was sort, fold, put clothes in drawers, take out clothes Catie put in wrong drawers, re-organize drawers, try and sneak a nap on the floor while Catie played, then move to the next room and repeat... I loved that Catie eventually caught on to my system and would yell, "No Mommy, wake up!"

I love having such a cute and crazy buddy as my helper! She'll totally sit on my lap and say, "my buddy!" and give me hugs. It is adorable... even when it is annoying.

We ate dinner outside tonight and had a blast doing more creating with playdough. Catie finally stopped eating it. Hooray! Andrew was outside creating by himself for a long time and was so proud to show us his volcano creation.

I am going to be so sad when summer is over and it starts to get dark earlier! I love our evenings outdoors.

Only one more day till a long weekend, so we definitely won't be grumpy tomorrow!

Duped

I spent a few hours over at Andrew's preschool today working on Curriculum stuff and running errands. I am the Curriculum chair on the parent board this year. Andrew and Catie hung out with a new babysitter while I was gone. She is awesome and Catie was practically pushing me out the door (not crying hysterically- like usual) when I left. Yay!

My little Andrew "monster" chose not to cooperate with some of the things the babysitter asked him to do (cleaning up? why would I do that?)... and instead decided to pout. Until he wised up and told her that he was going to go pout in his room... with the door closed. A normal person would think, "oh, how cute, he put himself in time out." Someone who knows Andrew really well would know that the iPad somehow made it into the room with him... so instead of reflecting on his bad behavior, he was happily watching Avengers on his bed.

Made me laugh.

This crazy kids cracks me up.

The monster mask featured above was from a birthday party he went to on Saturday for his friend Simon. The soccer cones are his favorite accessory.... Today they only got worn in the car though. When we got to the park he said, "I probably should leave all of this in the car so that kids at the park don't think I am weird."

Really? Why would anyone think that? ;) Love this boy!

Tired

These two seem to have limitless energy. It makes me tired just watching them. 

In the mornings a few times a week I've been running 4-5 miles with my friend Cara. We run before the kids wake up. I love it and am so pumped to be so productive when I get home... but by 3pm on those days I am wiped out. 

I hate napping with the kids because 1) I always seem to fall asleep right when they wake up and it is sleep torture, 2) I feel so unproductive when I do actually nap...

So today when they woke up they played nicely in Andrew's room and I closed my eyes and tried to sleep on the floor. I was tempted to let this stealth iPad watching go on for awhile... Andrew claimed "Catie said she wanted to watch Avengers!" when I caught them :) Yeah right!

After unsuccessfully not napping (because Catie jumps on me anytime I lie down), I finally convinced my kids that we should leave the house. Lately they throw tantrums when we have to go anywhere because they like playing with their toys and each other so much (fighting with each other is super fun to them too). They also like dumping out every toy that we own all over Andrew's room :)

I bribed them with cookies and off we went to Blackhawk to feed the ducks, eat Draegers sugar cookies (yum!), and pass time until Kevin got home. I am not winning any mother of the year contest anytime soon... since it was 5pm and we were eating cookies before dinner.

My little cookie monster

Chasing ducks

Quacking like a duck

We made it home just in time to hang out with our fabulous neighbors for a few minutes before Kevin pulled in and helped me get the kids fed and to bed after our short little Family Home Evening.

Crossing my fingers I can sleep in a bit tomorrow! I may actually go to bed before 1am for once.