I'm so bad at updating this blog! I've been a little slow on M's blog too, since Matt came home. We've been soaking up the sun and enjoying our new stroller too much to sit and type! All that can be seen here. In the past month we're had Elizabeth's play, Matt go on TDY, Liz catch a nasty cold, M's stroller come in, taught Liz to roller blade and much more!

I'm going to try and get back into updating this more often! No promises though! It is summer after all! Who wants to be inside?

Elizabeth's First Dance!

Both kids had their first school dance last night. I'd forgotten how little dancing actually went on at these things! More running around, throwing balloons around, eating food or talking in groups. Oh and the frequent girls bathroom trip with a pack of girls that lasts far too long. I was good though and didn't poke my head in, even though I wanted to. I tried to not be TOO obnoxious with the picture taking either. It killed me to leave my camera at home and only have my phone but she REALLY didn't want her mom following her around with a camera.

Check out how Michael did at his first dance!

Virginia Beach

Words can't describe how great we all felt during this vacation! We didn't even do that much! Maybe that's why it was so wonderful. It reminded me of a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat Pray Love. 

“Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure.Ours is an entertainment seeking-nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one....This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype- the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.”  

  Always we go on vacation and Do Do Do. We have to set alarm clocks so we can all be up, showered, fed (maybe) and on the road to the next source of amusement. We rarely had days (hours?) to do anything on a whim, without having to check our watches. I'm happy to say, aside from our one scheduled day at the Epilepsy Walk, that we really relaxed this vacation. There was no rush to wake at a certain time because there were so many all day breakfast diners within walking distance. Lunch and dinner were the same way. There was endless entertainment just outside our door. And since that entertainment was the ocean, sandcastles, pools that never closed, walks along the beach, playgrounds or sitting on our balcony enjoying the view...we could do it any time we wanted! It never closed! ♥ 

We love all our vacations. We can't wait for another 'scheduled' vacation. They are filled with as many memories, smiles and laughter as this one. We are just happy to know we CAN do this type of vacation and love it! We hope to take similar trips (probably always to beaches) every year!

Liz Sewing a Pillow Case - Pt. 1

Miss Elizabeth flutters from project to project. We LOVE that she is always wanting to learn something new. At the same time, she also is quick to leave a project shortly after she has figured it out or realized that it takes time. :) This week we are doing a sewing project. And I say 'week' because it will take a few nights for her to complete it :)
She wants to make pillow cases for her brother because all our extra cases are her girly ones. So instead of buying some for him she wants to make them. I do believe she attempted sewing once in New Hampshire with my mother, but that is it. We did a 'test' pillow a couple days ago. She did great. We started the full size pillow case last night.

She ironed it with this cute pink craft iron that my mother-in-law, Amy, got us for Christmas one year. We love it. It gets just hot enough to get out the wrinkle or flatten the edge but not hot enough to damage the table...or Liz's fingers when she repeatedly touches it to see if it is warm :)

She wanted to do a 'fancy' stitch and not the 'boring' one. :)

You can see where she bunched up fabric, or tugged a little. You can also see where she would simply stop and look at what all she had done so far and then resume... in a different spot. :) All in all, not too shabby. :) This was as far as she got. Her interest quickly turned to a new TV show about to start. Since there is no homework this week I'm hoping she will finish it tonight. Maybe by the end of the week Michael will have two new cases! :)

Pied Piper Creamery

I feel like we did so much in our recent Nashville visit that I can't fit it all into one post (and Michael would never let me sit here that long!) :) We went to this cute little ice cream shop that we found on a '50 things to do with your kids in Nashville' website. It was called The Pied Piper Creamery.

 They have so many DIFFERENT ice cream flavors! Matt, being predictable Matt :), ordered C is for cookie. Cookie dough ice cream, I believe. Matt likes to play it safe :) Elizabeth and I got a little more daring!

The blue one is mine. It was called Smurfberry Crunch and made of blue raspberry sherbet and Nerds :) Mmmmm! Elizabeth got Trailer Trash! It was vanilla ice cream mixed with all the yumminess pictured below!

She LOVED it!

Michael enjoyed eating a little bit of everyone's but mostly he loved doing circles around the corner booth then playing outside! We ran UP the stairs then Mommy carried him down.... then we ran back UP! I think I got the hard end of that game!

This delightful little shop was so close to Michael's hospital that we plan on visiting every time we're over that way!

Elizabeth and Matt are on a long weekend from school/work. To pass the time yesterday Elizabeth took my camera outside and took pictures of "Spring things" :) 

We have plants popping up all over the place! These two come out
BEHIND our big bush. They won't get much sunlight and never live too long.

This one is nowhere near the flowerbed. It comes up every
year out on the side of our house by the shed. It will stay
until the yard crew doesn't notice it and accidentally mows
over it

Liz loves these tiny flowers. She picks them when she is walking
home from school. She then floats them in a cup of water and
gets sad when they're dead the next day. Yet she keeps getting them..

This one isn't too "springy". We have a lot of roots around our
front yard and I guess she wanted to capture a picture of them.

Our weed flowers :)

New Shirts and shoes!

Elizabeth was the only person in the house to not catch the stomach bug. This weekend we decided to go out and have some shopping fun. Since she now has to try clothes on, and does so very reluctantly, we only hit up a few stores. We used to be able to say "Liz is (insert size)" and just buy anything and everything in that size. Now we try it ALL on and it will take a few trips to get a spring wardrobe. She got 4 "dressy" or "cool" shirts and 3 tshirts. She also bought a pair of black flats. She still prefers comfy jeans for her bottoms but is slowly getting into dressier shirts and shoes. Her year of dress code at school made her used to a plain tshirt and jeans all the time.

 Since Matt was gone for the whole day and night we got goofy and she took a picture in all 4 fancy shirts :)

Her favorite pose :) 

< - - - "Mooooooommmmm! Enough!"


She went to go lean against the wall and it was further away than she thought :) So she almost fell.                   - - - - >

Same shirt with a pink sleeveless underneath.
She has a green one she wants to put under
it as well.

Showing off her new ring!



cuddling with his cow in mommy
and daddy's bed



It's amazing how little gets done with we're all sick (all but Elizabeth). My allergies have been kicking my butt since last Friday. On Monday Michael woke up with a stomach bug. I won't disgust you with the details, but Matt and I both got the bug as well and it hasn't been a pretty week. Now it's Thursday morning and Michael is still home with me. Matt is feeling a million times better and is at work. He even managed some PT this morning. I'm doing okay here at home with Michael but I'm not willing to eat much :) I'm HOPING to get this house in order again but that's seeming impossible with Michael being so needy. We're also hoping to get Elizabeth to tennis tonight. She missed it on Tuesday since both adults were too sick to drive.

We did do at least one craft though. Elizabeth and I made a couple Waldorf stars. We even have a BIG green and blue one to put on the front door. We want to try tissue paper ones for the windows as well. But right now, tape is not sticking to the windows (with all the moisture on them) so it might have to wait.

Elizabeth and I got to have a couple silly Girl's Nights while the boys were sick. Matt took her to Subway on the night I was too sick to function. Hopefully we're all better by this weekend. Matt has a long 24 hour shift so Liz and I will find something fun to do after Michael goes to bed. And we need to clothes shop for picture day on Monday! Both kids need some new short sleeve shirts since they've both shot up a few inches since the summer/fall.

We have had some busy days! Last night was family night at the kids' school. Can you find Liz in that picture??? :) We did!

We also made some yummy desserts in Elizabeth's Easy Bake Oven.

We had some chaotic moments when our drains got backed up and we couldn't use our sink, dishwasher or tubs!

Now we have Matt's grandmother visiting! <3 She drove up here from Florida, on her way back to New Hampshire. We're going to have a fun filled weekend and have a lot of pictures to share next week.

Ohh...and that crazy Super Bowl thing Sunday... :)

Pancakes!

Dieters beware... this is not for you! :) We LOVE our pancakes in this house. Matt's the only boring one and will only eat plain pancakes or ones with fruit in them. And while Elizabeth, Michael and I do love the fruity ones as well, we also enjoy creating new ones....usually involving chocolate :)

Today we made Matt his plain boring ones and tried two new kinds for ourselves.

Our additions to the pancake mix:
White Chocolate Chips
Peppermint

Elizabeth wasn't sure if she'd like the peppermint

chips so we made a few with just the white chocolate.

Michael and I were excited for the peppermint and white chocolate ones.

And as it turns out... So was Liz! Now we have about 4-6 white chocolate left over for another day...and a bunch of peppermint :)

Our first attempt at melting crayon

Elizabeth and I were reading blogs this morning when we saw Karen's. We were immediately interested in her melting art seen here. So Elizabeth and I gathered our crayons and canvas and decided to experiment ourselves! Ours didn't come out as well as Karen's but we sure had fun!

For her first attempt she chose an assortment of colors

It took awhile to get the colors to start flowing

We really liked the glitter colors. We may have to find more of those!

She took a 4 inch cardstock 'E' and got some of the crayon to melt over it. I don't think it turned out quite the way we were hoping but we'll figure out a better technique next time.

Our second attempt had colors a little more organized

We made a heart and melted purple and blue crayons over it and hot glued it on top. Elizabeth liked Karen's flowers so much that she took a flower we had saved from a broken headband and glued it on top. Tomorrow we will hang them on the wall and maybe make a few more. I have a feeling our wall art will be changing regularly.