Category Archives: photos

Week(end) in Review – Game Night Edition

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Meghan from Clean Eats, Fast Feets for another Week in Review!

So it’s really just the weekend in review rather than the whole week, but that’s mostly because Josh and kids were getting over various illnesses and who wants to relive that?  The fun really began on Friday when friends from Wisconsin came to stay for the weekend.  I also tested the new little camera I picked up with my surprise bonus.  I wanted something that was lighter for traveling with and I think my little Sony A6000 is going to be just what I need once I get used to it.

TV watching or game playing… who knows.  I’m loving that it’s getting lighter outside each day.

Since I’m allergic to bunnies, I may never actually get to have real ones… I’ll have to be happy with fake ones on the table in the meantime.

Munchies and stuff for game night!

Hello, Kendra and Tyler!  (Or Skyler as Phoebe kept calling him). Haha!

Chip sneak!  Better than his sister who snuck I don’t know how many cupcakes and proceeded to only lick the frosting off them.

I soaked these cherries in Amaretto for 24 hours and then dried them and dipped them in white chocolate candy coating and sprinkles.  So potent and good!!

The taco dip also went fast, as did the Buffalo Chicken wraps I forgot to get pictures of.

The first game played before other people arrived (and the kids’ favorite).

Think Uno… only with poop.  You have to try not to clog the toilet. So gross, and perfect for any kid.

This picture was as the night was beginning to wind down, I believe.  If you’re looking for games to play, though, Betrayal at House on the Hill is always a fun one. Utter Nonsense got a lot of laughs, as did Joking Hazard.  Wow… I’m not sure if we actually got around to any other games besides those… if we did, it’s slipped my mind.

Anyway, it was a good weekend and we need more game nights.  Happy Monday!

Photo Dump – Just another excuse to blog when I have nothing to say or new pictures to share…

It’s a glorious day, it’s Friday, and because I haven’t taken any pictures at all lately I’m going to dump a few that have been hanging around. Sure, I could just delete them, but it seems so wrong… which probably explains why I have a stack of art work the kids have done in school that is probably as tall as they are. I’m getting better about throwing out some of their papers that they bring home, but I really need to get over my attachment to everything they’ve ever created and do some purging. Keep the special stuff, get rid of the rest.

When the car decided to start dying. One day we’ll get El Guapo back… hopefully soon. The kids get ridiculously attached to our vehicles and are not fans of the loaner and will only ride in the van.

One day she’ll love this super flattering photo of her as an ice cream zombie.

May we never have lice again… ever!!!

With how dark it is outside, this should be nighttime, right? Nope. Enzo likes to get up early on the weekends. Every weekend. I don’t remember what it’s like to sleep in until the sun is actually up…

You can just tell by the look on his face that he knows exactly what he’s doing. Sure, Phoebe, let’s play this game where you push me around on a chair. It’ll be great!  Do my bidding!

Hey, remember when it was fall and there were corn pits?

CORN.

I will climb this bear despite my short stature. Overcome any obstacle!

I can’t wait for the weather to stay warm so I can go on more weekday walks… and weekend walks with the kids.  I would have today if I hadn’t had errands to run.

On that note, tea sounds lovely. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

 

I’m a Little Teapot…

I don’t recall exactly what brought up the subject of tea parties, but while I was playing with Phoebe and her Calico Critters she announced that Mama Koala was going to have a tea party.  It was then that I asked her if she would like to have a real tea party.  The look of joy on her face as she (in very girly fashion) squealed with delight was magical. However, as is the norm with 3 year olds, she said she wanted to do it then and there.  I explained that we should do a little planning and go shopping so we could go all out for her first tea party.

So to Target we went and I pulled out my tea set and appetizer tower.  Phoebe invited Josh and Enzo (who was at first uncertain as to whether he wanted to go or not), however, she told them in no uncertain terms that they could come only if they didn’t spill anything.  Enzo brought his rabbit as his plus one and Phoebe brought her rabbit and Liliana her doll. Phoebe had said she wanted something orange for her tea party, so I suggested we go with tea that had orange peel and she picked out a heavenly earl grey with orange peel and vanilla.  We obviously had to get some fancy cookies, which she also picked out and I made little sandwiches with what I could find in the cupboard along with some fruit.  Oh, and of course cupcakes.

It was a blast.  The kids are excited about having a big fancy tea party at least once a month and I’m sure we’ll do more simple parties more frequently. It was so much fun to watch them set up plates and cups for their dolls and help them eat their food and watch them add a little sugar to their own tea.  I’m looking forward to many more gatherings.

Don’t you just love the fake smiles?  They really were having fun…. I swear!

Yeah… still struggling with the looks of joy.

Solitude on the Road

I’ve always loved going for drives in the car, mostly as the passenger, but I’ll gladly do the driving if it means being alone and recharging for a bit and possibly doing some exploring. One thing I miss from Colorado is that feeling of remoteness that I often had. I didn’t live in a big town or even that near a big city so it was very easy to drive a short distance and feel like there weren’t a lot of people around. It’s been a little more difficult to find that here nearer a big city without having to drive too far.  So, I had the idea to take day and do a lot of driving on a weekend and Josh said, why not stay the night somewhere so you don’t have to do all that driving in one day?  Sold!

I think everyone needs to be on their own at times, but as an introvert it’s a necessity for me.  I do often get quiet time each day, but it doesn’t always feel like enough, especially when one or both kids has trouble sleeping and that time is interrupted. Also, as much as I love the cats, Uzi has somehow become even clingier and the second I relax, he’s on my lap. There are times when I am just touched out – by kids, by cats, by everyone and everything and even my own skin feels like it’s too much. So, this time away was very much needed and overdue.  I drove… and drove… I think I spent about 10 hours in the car total?  I went with the intention of looking for birds and did find some, though, not as many as I had hoped.  I didn’t take any amazing photos, but I did find a very funny squirrel and most of all I found space to breathe deeply and in silence.

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I accidentally left my really warm clothes at home, so without my big hat and gloves I wasn’t able to do much of the wandering by foot I had wanted to do. It was around zero outside, and with just a light knit hat and gloves I didn’t want to wander too far.  The snow was crunchy so I managed to scare a deer or two and some other birds, but once I got farther away from a road (with barely any traffic) I just stopped and it was… perfect. I could hear birds even if I couldn’t see them, many of which I had never heard before.  I could hear the scurry of squirrels and what I imagine was another deer or two as the crunch of the snow was louder, but more delicate than my own trudging.  It was in that moment that I knew when we got our own cabin it has to be more remote. I need a place to recharge on a more regular basis.  I need my place, you know? Now if we can just find that perfect spot near a lake for Josh. Granted, my ideal place would be in the mountains, but I’ll take what I can get.

Day in the Life – The Abnormal Edition

It’s time for the Winter Edition of a Day in the Life!  I decided to take pictures on the weekend (as usual), however, this round ended up on a weekend that was fairly atypical. I also only took photos with my phone, so we’ll see how those turned out.

Stats:

Josh – 37
Heather – 34
Enzo – 4 years, 9 months
Phoebe – 3 years, 2 months
Ziggy – 14
Uzi – 12
Vega – 1

There wasn’t much sleeping in on Saturday (there rarely is), but I definitely could have used more sleep after overindulging a tad the night before at my company’s holiday party. Whoops!  Right away Phoebe asked for hot chocolate and wanted to try out her pink hot chocolate that she got in her stocking. It was neither pink or very good.

Rather than immediately reaching for coffee, I grabbed a Green Machine from the fridge.  The kids were watching some television since it was early yet, so I took the opportunity to do a little reading as well.

I slowly started to feel more normal and got up to make coffee… or maybe Josh did and I finally decided to just go grab some?  Either way, I tripped over a cat or two and finally got some coffee.

It also apparently went from really dark to really light outside. Anyhoo… I knew we didn’t have a lot planned for the day and just one or two things that I wanted to accomplish before I left the house at 3:00 that afternoon.  I figured we would just hang out and see how things went.

I figured I should get at least one picture of myself during today’s randomness, so thank you, Phoebe for making it a good one. 😉

At one point I heard giggling and looked in the kitchen to see that the kids had come up with some sort of game where Phoebe pushed Enzo around on his chair and they both thought it was fairly hysterical.

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt and I figured that eventually it would happen. Thankfully it wasn’t bad at all, but Enzo was done with the game after that.

At some point I decided that pizza for lunch was the way to go, so I pulled out the bread maker and our go-to easy pizza recipe.

While the bread maker did its thing, I put together a couple of shoe racks because our closet was a disaster area.  Mostly my fault, I know, but it was out of hand and I wanted to try and start getting it under control.  I suppose I should actually start using those weights and the yoga mat. 😀

I could actually use another one as some of my shoes are currently sitting in the entry way.  Hey, at least I got rid of a couple of pairs??

In the meantime, Josh was keeping the kiddos busy in the living room making a fun fort.

The living room has been extra messy thanks to the aftermath of Phoebe having lice.  Thankfully, though, we have plenty of blankets and probably could have turned the entire living room into a fort had we really wanted to.  Hmm… must try that next time.

Phoebe and I spent a little time playing with kinetic sand. I love this stuff!  I need to try one of those recipes I’ve seen online on how to make your own and see if it really works as well!

At some point the bread finished up and it was time to make pizza!  I went for Chicken Alfredo this time, which the kids didn’t even want to try. What???  Oh well, more for me!

As it neared 3:00, I started to pack up my overnight bags and random items I was going to take with me on my mini adventure.  I had decided to head north a few hours and Josh encouraged me to just get a hotel room and the next morning  would get up and drive around and look for wildlife.  Not everyone’s idea of a great time, but it’s something I’ve always enjoyed.

Everyone started to feel a little sleepy since it was after lunch – cats and kids alike. It definitely just felt like a sleepy kind of day for some reason. Cold days are always that way for me, though.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to hit the road!  This time of year it always feels so much later than it actually is and I already knew I’d be stopping for coffee at some point on my almost 3 hour drive.

However, about 20 minutes into my drive, I was off to a bad start.  I had a feeling I should have taken the van to begin with when the car didn’t want to start earlier. Josh figured it was because it was cold and hadn’t been started in a few days, but something seemed off to me and sure enough… suddenly the check engine light came on.

So… back home and I went and quickly shuffled stuff from the car to the van and set up the GPS again crossing my fingers that there wouldn’t be anymore unplanned stops.

Onward ho!  I love road trips, but admit that I prefer it more when I’m not driving myself.  Haha!  I get so bored. It wasn’t too bad, though when all was said and done.

I made it to the hotel nice and easy, so I figured I’d grab my stuff and hang out and watch crappy TV or HGTV since we don’t have cable, but I had one more glorious moment of “Oh Crap” when I went to grab my stuff out of the van.

See that empty spot?  That’s where the bag with my clothes should be. The bag with long johns and my hat and gloves and also little things like deodorant and makeup and stuff.  Apparently when I was in a hurry to switch vehicles I left that bag in the backseat of the car. YAY!  Thankfully there was a Walmart nearby that is open 24/7 so I was able to get some emergency long johns and warm weather gear for the next day and for fairly cheap.

Whereas the “Old” me would have probably gotten kind of upset over the turn of events of the day, the “New” me couldn’t help but laugh that of course I would forget that bag and was just really grateful I had a backup nearby. On to TV watching!  That got boring fast, though… there was nothing on. NOTHING, which is exactly why we don’t have cable anymore.

Thankfully I brought my planner and stickers so I could do that, and a book, of course.  Since I knew I’d be up early the next day, it was fairly early to bed (before 10:00) and that was Saturday!

I really need to work on taking notes throughout the day, but I always say that and then forget or get lazy. Oh well… pictures it is!