Cinco De Mayo

Last weekend, Layla, Ryan's mom and I headed to our local Cinco De Mayo Festival.  Ryan and his dad worked on our yard (it needs some major love!) and Grady was down for his nap so the girls headed downtown!  Thanks to Cathy for the pictures below!

It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun and Layla was in her glory to head in whichever direction she picked for the day.

 

Layla's pony had an itch and kept shaking his body during her ride.  I thought she might get scared but she did a really good job of hanging on tight.

 Layla is showing some skill in the bags game category!

  Layla took three turns at swatting (tapping!) the pinatas.

My favorite sight from the day was a little dog with a mini sombrero tied to his collar.
I wish I had a picture, he was so cute!

And as we played at the festival, here is a picture of Ryan and Verlyn hard at work in the yard.  They were trying to shape up the top of a tree here.  By the end of the day, they filled that whole trailer up high with trees and clippings.  I don't have quite the enthusiasm for the outside of the house as I do for the inside of the house, but I am really excited to see our yard transform!  I am trying hard to stay interested, but all I know is that I really like hydrangeas and gardens :)

Friends!

I have been lucky enough to get lots of friend time in lately!

First up was a 30th birthday trip with my college girlfriends.  We see each other pretty often, but typically we have the kids running around when we meet.  Everyone loves to see the kids, but it is tough to get in time to catch up and talk.  So we headed to New Buffalo, Michigan for a wine weekend.  We had a great time on the wine trail (hired a driver!), eating (and eating some more), chatting and antique shopping (I have noticed when it goes from thrift to antique the prices go way up!).  

I cannot believe I have known these girls for twelve years.  I am so lucky to have them and we had fun celebrating our 30th birthdays together!  I love New Buffalo if you are looking for a fun overnight trip!

  

Stephanie decided to embrace the photo bomb :)

Love this picture my friend Steph took.  Wine bottles and breast pump bottles...times have changed since college ;)  Wine and not wine coolers?  Hee hee.

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Next up was a baby sprinkle for my friend Nicole and her husband Kris.  They are welcoming a second little boy this month.  My girlfriend Kayte, Sharon (Nicole's sister) and I had fun planning a surprise sprinkle for the baby-to-be.  The construction theme worked out perfectly because they broke ground on their new house that same day!

I met Kayte and Nicole right after college but before kids.  I was a little eager for new friends at that point, not living in the town we worked, and I was so thankful they took me right in with open arms.  We now love to get our families together often and I have met so many great people through both girls. 

 

Very surprised!

Thanks to Ryan for making these new balloon stands for me!  They will be used again and again and I will get to save a little helium and money in the process.

The boys were really good sports.  The games were only for the boys.  Here Kris and Brody were competing in a little Daddy Olympics which involved car seats, baby dolls, diapers and strollers :) 

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And lastly, I got to spend an evening with my "mom friends" last weekend.  I initially met each of them through a breastfeeding support group at the local hospital.  I am thinking it was a great place to meet people as they have easily transitioned from my "mom friends" to some of my closest friends!  

I am so grateful to have these girls because making "mom friends" can be a bit tricky.  Maybe similar to dating?  You have to find people you enjoy being around but also parent somewhat similarly to you and it helps if the kids are similar in age.  It is tricky, tricky stuff.  Who would have known?  

Relieved I found these girls early on!

The five of us now live in three different states but I was so excited to have some time all together! 

Thanks to Ryan for always being a good sport about my friend adventures!  I would not be able to partake without his support (I also enjoy BUNCO and book club!).  He is more than willing to take the kids on his own and a happy participant in being involved sometimes too (i.e. crazy shower games).  

He may have won the Daddy Olympics :)

More updates on these two coming soon.  Soon they will be two and five!

Spring is here!

 The weather has finally turned nice-ish here.  I am now considering anything in the 50's up to be beautiful weather :)  I just counted and we have been to seven parks since Friday.  What?!?  You can tell we were ready for time outside to run free.

 Layla had her spring sing a couple weeks back.  It was really cute and with each "sing" Layla has grown more confident up on the stage.  It is still a very subdued performance from what I see at home, but I captured some of her cute dance moves on my camera. 

We have really enjoyed the preschool program and teachers and I am so not ready for preschool to end.  The summer means kindergarten will be that much closer to becoming a reality.  And I am really not ready for Layla to be in kindergarten.  How can five years fly by so incredibly fast?   

 

Here's to hoping many nice spring days are ahead!

Grady 22/23 months

Grady is just one month away from his 2nd birthday.

 

At 22 and 23 months he loves:

basketball-- and the Bulls, especially the opening part of the home games.  We have it recorded on our DVR, he and Layla go crazy for it.

rearranging icons on iPads/iPhones-- these handy little tools are crucial in Grady not falling asleep right before nap time in the car! Now if I could just find my text messaging icon...

pushing Layla's buttons-- he seriously already knows how to do this!  They can be really sweet together too, I especially love when they are reunited after preschool.

being outside-- especially loves our new swing set, playing golf and flipping burgers on the play BBQ set

someone deciphering his conversations-- Grady loves to talk and will converse back and forth with you.  If you guess correctly what he is saying, he loves it!  I have been hearing more words forming lately.  Just a few new added in the past week are: "I dig" "I do" "bull" "poo poo" (yes, already saying "poo poo" and thinking he is hysterical!).  His most common words right now are "dada" "basketball" "uh oh" "kitty" and "fishy."

Grady loves "planting flowers" in this sensory bin.  So easy-- beans for pretend dirt, dollar store planting cups, dollar store fake flowers and shovels and watering cans from the garage! 

playing fearlessly at the park-- Layla has just started going down big slides independently.  She has always been very cautious at the parks which I have appreciated.  Grady loves going hard at the parks and prefers to do slides on his own and giggles the whole way down.  We honestly have not had many nice days and he has already cut his lip open twice and gotten his first black eye at the parks (all three times, I have been directly behind him)!

having his little toenails painted-- It is something I have always enjoyed doing with Layla.  Grady loves to be a part of the action!  We are sticking to clear for now (our carpet cannot handle much else!), but I am sure you will see many colors on his toes in the future!

cars (favorite toy right now!) and trains

his dad-- Grady is a total daddy's boy.  He is happy as can be with me during the day but the second Ryan is home, he is by his side.

Spring Break 2013

Our spring break flew by this year. The first part of break was filled with all house projects. Our upstairs carpet was torn out (thanks Matt and Scott for helping Ryan), Ryan and I painted Grady's room and all of the trim upstairs and then the new carpet was installed. Whew! It was a lot of work...but so worth it. The upstairs definitely needed some love and it is looking much better now. Thank you to my parents for helping with the kids while I went back and forth to help Ryan.

But after the projects were over, we did get to have some fun.  The kids and I had a visit with my college girlfriends and then Ryan and I were off for an overnight trip with the kids.  The kids had a blast at an indoor amusement park/arcade and train restaurant.  We have been many times before and it did not disappoint once again!

 

 Grady is basketball obsessed.  We hear a lot of "ba-ball, ba-ball, ba-ball."  It is pretty cute and Ryan is a bit excited to have a sports buddy.

 

Layla rode this ride at least five times. 

Happy dance!

Grady loved the train restaurant.  This video will give you an idea where Grady is on his "talking."  We know Grady has a ton to say and he is just trying to figure out how to get it out.  I know a few speech therapists read this blog and rest assured...he has been evaluated for speech therapy :)  I am a huge believer in early intervention and a plan has been set in place for Mr. Grady, but no therapy is needed at this time.  We are hoping his expressive language will soon catch up to his receptive language! 

Next up, we headed to our hotel.  We went for the cheap-o hotel this time to save some money.  We stayed at this place about seven years ago.  Whew, a rough seven years for the resort!  But the kids loved it and Layla actually wanted to go back for her birthday.  I love that they don't have a clue about that stuff yet!  But Ryan and I thought maybe we would skip this place next time ;)

The next day we made a stop at Build-a-Bear.  A great place for both ages!  We found coupons at the hotel and the kids had a blast. Grady made a basketball dog, but I do not have a picture of the final product.  It is very cute too!

Meet Hearty Valley Pinky...named by Lay :)  She found her in the bottom of a bin, leftover from Valentine's Day.

And there it is....Spring Break 2013! 

Easter 2013

We had a nice Easter week this year.  You will find way too many pictures are below.  

I tried to narrow them down...so this is the narrowed down version :) 

This was an egg hunt and meet the bunny in our hometown.  There was also a little carnival afterwards.  I think we might make this a tradition, we really loved it!  Layla loves a good bunny (although she will tell you it is just a person dressed up in a costume) and Grady kept pointing the opposite direction.  He liked watching from a distance this year.

We love our miniature train!  They have a one day only Easter train every year.

 

Easter baskets.  The sippy cups were the big hit this year.  Toothbrushes were a hit at Valentine's Day and now sippy cups.  I think both got a squeal out of Grady, too funny.

 

We dyed quite a few eggs this year.  My parents came to help with the first round.  My dad showed the kids how to dye the eggs half and half.  Grady was one enthusiastic egg dipper!  Layla dyed and decorated most of the eggs and ate a lot of hard boiled eggs (hold the yolk, please).

 

Layla loves a chocolate bunny.  If you ask her what she would like in her Easter basket, 

this is always the answer!

Hunting for eggs!

 

 Cousin fun!

 

 

 

Ryan's mom always plans fun Easter games.  This year she was just two weeks out from foot surgery and still planned the games and prizes.  The kids love it.  Poor Verlyn ended up with the "pluck a duck" water on his lap.  Grady is also an overly enthusiastic "pluck a duck" player :)

 

Happy Easter!  We hope you enjoyed your weekend!