A Touch of the Patriotic Fever,....

We did the whole shebang this year. Started the morning out with birthday cheesecake to celebrate Jorge's birthday. Logan has been in anticipation of birthday celebrations for Jorge for some time now. He can tell you the whole lineup of birthdays leading up to his 5th birthday in November. His little sister...eh, sometime after HIS birthday, so who cares right? I think he was a bit disappointed in Jorge's choice of cheesecake, but ate it with gusto just the same. He's getting more willing to try new things lately, it's a lot of fun! Still would live on hot dogs if I let him...but willing sometimes to try is a big step!

So...after the cheesecake we hit the local parade at the end of our block. I wasn't sure on the start time so we were waiting around awhile. And we had a swarm of ants on our front walk so the kids were freaking out over that. Then my inlaws surprised Jorge by showing up to the parade- fun!

So, parade, relaxing and finally we decided to go to the Family Fest at a nearby town. Bounce houses were Logan's favorite and Sylvie had her first pony ride. She obsessed over the animals while Logan won all the games of ball throwing and water gun shooting.

Fireworks were the night before, huddled under a blanket as it got REALLY cold! Kids did well and we all enjoyed.

Back to the daily grind around here and life pre-July4th. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

This is our house....my flowers came out pretty good for having a 2 and 4 year old help/take over didnt' they?

















Looking at the petting zoo animals

"Me So Funny Mommy!"

Dinner has been over for over an hour now...and the kids didn't really eat too much. But they had eaten at my in-laws house so I didn't push things too much. I sat down to eat a bite of dessert and Logan wanted some. I said
"Logan, did you eat your pizza?" He said
"Yes." Then, before taking a bite he went running back up to the table and said
"Oh no! I forgot! Me no eat Pizza yet! Me so funny mommy!" He took a bite and then came running back to claim his bite of dessert.

What a good boy I have!

Millenium Park in Chicago!

We met Jorge for lunch downtown and then I took the kids to Millenium park. It was so much fun! I have about 50 pictures,.....but here are a few highlights!

The YARD sale

It must be a spring cleaning thing and a desire to make extra money that gets people to insanely think that it would be a great idea to put all their extra stuff from inside their house to their yard or garage and put colorful price stickers all over it!

So I decided to have a garage sale back in April or May and started pulling things from every nook and cranny in the household and purging of all extraneous, duplicate or non-essential. It feels good to clean out everything, especially with dreams of making big bucks on the stuff! I made a decision to sell the kids clothing from size 18 months and up, 6 tubs of newborn and baby sizes is plenty! Many hours of free time were devoted to this preparation over the weeks, but I still spent all day Friday getting everything upstairs and ortganized.

So the night before I was giddy excited and the morning of....I think I woke at the 5 o'clock hour....which I probably have not done spontaneously since I had to drive my dad to work before going to High School. I jumped in the shower and quickly staple-gunned my mark on the neighborhood (illegally).

We started getting the house and kids awake before hauling stuff outside. Rain was on the forecast so we were debating the location of the sale. Meanwhile....the dog starts freaking out and running around. And I hear some unfamiliar voices. I had a big sign on my front door saying "Garage Sale HERE" with dates and times. Apparently a sweet older couple thought I meant in my LIVING Room! They asked if it was 1st floor only adn I kindly informed them it was going to be outside and was nowhere near set up, and 2 hours prior to start time. Then I freaked out and jumped into hyper-drive setting everything up outside! I knew garage salers came early but WOAH!

We had one customer show up early and ask about the sewing machine I mentioned in the ad. She paid full price and then ....well no one else showed up! Then it started raining. Then it started pouring and my neighbors and I started wondering what we were thinking! By then it was 9:15 and the kids were already bored with the "Yard Sale."

We all survived until 4 pm and the big highlights were....

*The fact that a double storm passed by and we got white clouds and it was so beautiful!

*My faith in human nature was restored watching a sweet hispanic family fawning over this beautiful 1 year old on mom's shoulders named Benny. They put on a hat from Logan at that age and I made them keep it....it was perfect for him. So cute!

*I met some of THE cheapest people alive. One woman looked lower income and wanted to pay $3 for items that originally cost $20-60 each. That's garage sale prices for you! But she bought two of my vaccuum cleaners, so that was good! Another family was horribly cheap and my neighbors were bartering with them on some furniture and it got ridiculous. They wanted everything for nothing and it just grated on my nerves so I didn't give in to them. Some of the things they wanted, I later gave away.

*Men love a good deal too. Jorge had a computer there and there were probably 4 very interested people but they ALL wanted to pay next to nothing. A computer is not really a garage sale thing, but we had it and it sure attracted some interest! We lowered the price, but no one wanted to pay that....so forget it!

*People all bought used shoes. And ignored the clothing I spent hours labeling and hanging so it looked nice. Hours. And Hours.

*Pets are fun at a garage sale! Especially turtles. They were a HIT! My nieghbors were trying to sell them. In the end, they went for free to a family down the block. So they have a new home but the little girl who owned them was pretty upset. The most interesting part was seeing all the other kids discuss it...they were talking about how sad the original owner was and how exciting it was that they stayed local.

*The last thing I learned is that the next time I want to make some money....I will NOT be having a garage sale. It was soooooo much work for what the gain was! We had so many people come through and the average person spent $4. Not a whole lot! The biggest hit was some boxes of candy my kids don't eat. Everyone bought 1-2 boxes!!!

McLatte

Jorge brought me a Latte. From McDonalds. It's a sugarfree "Large" latte. I don't think Starbucks even makes a coffee this gigantic! I told Jorge and he said "Starbucks is for wussies." Seriously now....this stuff is very chuggable and sweet and good and refreshing on a summer day. But does it NEED to be this large? I got their "free sample" the other day and it was the size of their yogurt parfaits. Probably a good "Small" size. This one in comparison is so huge!

Here you go.....enormous and tasty! With our nasty tile and countertop that are kinda "retro" cool but still scream 1967 dontcha think? The Diet Coke is obviously for comparison's sake.

She can blow bubbles now!

First...she gets ready...


Breathe in deep....


Then she blows the bubbles- such a big girl!


So dainty....




She's imitating the "Baby Mozart" Dragon - Bump Bump Bump - BLAH!!!!

Adventures in the Kitchen

I was multi-tasking as usual. Making steaks on the grill and baking sweet potatoes in the oven to make a sweet potato casserole. I came in from outside and went to grab the sweet potatoes. I had a cookie sheet in the level below them so it could catch any drippings (which seems to happen). So I grabbed that first with my potholder. Well...or so I thought. Make that....I grabbed that flaming hot cookie sheet with my left hand! Aaah!!!!! Ouch! I dropped it right away and quickly got the potatoes out and my hand under water.

Meanwhile the kids came in with me so they started barraging me with requests for everything - juice, certain tv shows, a pony, a massage....you name it. I had to tell them I was hurt and needed to take care of my hands first. Logan quickly said "I'm a good boy and I'll sit here." Sylvie was relentless and I was starting to freak out from the pain. She wanted juice. She wanted mommy to hold her. She wanted marshmallows. She wanted attention. AAAAAAHHHHHH!

I started thinking of the recent stories of moms I have read about who had their kids present during childbirth and how the hell they dealt with a whiney child during those worst pain moments. And thought....that's what the deep breathing is for. To block out the whining. I get it now.

So I, who have apparently not mastered the techniques of the hypnotic childbirth methods, threatened a time out, asked her to please please please go find something to play. And when all that failed and the "Mommy....Mommy....Mommy....Mommy" started I asked her "WHAT!?!?!?!" and she said "Mommy,....I'll be like this 'shhhhhhh.'" Meaning she would be quiet for me. Thank goodness she was and she got her hug as soon as I got some massive ice packs on my hand. It took all evening but now the pain is almost gone, just a weird sensation in my hand.

But....in true supermom fashion I will let you know that with an ice pack in my left hand and in a lot of pain I managed to skin the sweet potatoes, guide the kids in putting the chunks into the kitchenmaid mixer. Warm the milk, melt the butter, mix it all together, spray sweet potatoes OUT of the mixer all over the place, cook it in the oven, cook the steaks on the grill and clean up toys. Oh, and play outside and give the kids baths. I am truely the supermom I was meant to be tonight. Now let's hope I can go back to regular old MOM tomorrow!!!!!

We hit a milestone.....

It's morning....we are all half awake and trying to eat some breakfast. The tv is on kids tv and the sweet quiet show cuts to loud, obnoxious commercials. I glance up and see the Polly Pockets Pool Party. Complete with 6 giggling girls and what looks like a LOT of fun. Quickly followed by....

Sylvie: "Mommy....oh I LOVE that. I NEED that. We could get that? I really really like that. It's so pretty...Mommy? See that?" and the look of sheer awe on her face wondering if anything could possibly be so wonderful and could we possibly have one of those in our house?!?!

Oh boy.....it might be a LONG 16 more years til she gets to college.

Happy thoughts

Here are happy thoughts of the day.......We have been blessed enough to experience some cool weekends lately. One was a weekend at my parent's cottage in Michigan. The kids were thrilled with the beach. My husband came and when he took his shoes off to feel the sand, and encouraged the kids to do the same, I think I fell in love with him all over again.

Melding two families is difficult. And if you have two different cultures and upbringings, can be even more difficult. But the fact that he loves my family and I love his family, this is fantastic. Do they drive me crazy? Sure! But heck, his lazy brother who has things handed to him got a JOB. Yes a job. So we celebrate the victories and try to overlook the rest, no?

Oh, and here is Logan's t-ball experience for today! How exciting! He is doing a very low-key tball thing through the park district.







My dad, my son, my husband



Oh, and can I whine that Photobucket was RIDICULOUSLY slow today?

Here's Logan's t-ball pics

Been too long

So does every blog have one of these posts? I would say "I've been busy" or some other lame excuse but I really have been trying to decide...do I pour my soul out to the internet or post pretty pictures for grandma to see each week? So, I decided I'll email grandma pictures and I'll drink a glass of wine and see what comes out of my fingers:)

So, the first big thought I remember thinking I should blog about was about a week ago. I got a chance to ride my bike. This is my passion. For sure. And if nothing else it brings me back to my teenage years when I was able to do this every day if I wished. But I biked all the way until I moved to Seattle - when HILLS and mountains got in the way. We did haul our bikes around sometimes, and if we lived near a path, I rode on it. But as far as regularity...not so much. I was riding around in springtime thinking about this and that and it dawned on me...oh my gawd I am a bit of my father. He has all these stories of how he goes in his "think-tank" AKA "hot tub" and comes up with these fabulous ideas on what the next step of his life is. The one I love best is "I will be a farmer." So he bought land and an antique tractor and hired out people who knew what they were doing. I love it. I love being like my dad. So I was riding around on my fabulous bike path that I am still mad I never discovered for the first 2 YEARS I lived here, and thinking "There is so much more to me than this. I am not living my full potential." You know when people have pass away and their eulogy is all about losing this fabulous life on the earth...well I feel like I COULD be this fabulous person. I try to be the best possible to my kids. And really you would probably puke at how much fun I have with my kids. I really do adore kids. I offer to babysit other people's kids, but they usually turn me down:)

I guess I turn on the mom guilt sometimes and feel like I need to do more. But at the same time I feel like I'm kind of biding my time and it hit me a week or so ago that there is something BIG waiting for me. I'm an architect. I love it. It makes me happy to draft away, to create space. I interviewed for this job downtown and I wanted it so badly. I wowed the interviewer ( a partner in the firm) to the point that she said "wow!" after I finished speaking about architecture and what it means to me. She kept pushing me to see if I would go full-time and I would not. I had gone from a SAHM and moved from Seattle and that life to Chicago and this life and it was not the time. I got the call that I did not get the job based on not letting go of my part-time dream. So I got a slew of part-time jobs that have not fulfilled me completely. And the last job, I was really getting into it, and work slowed down to a crawl and he let his employees go. A huge life event I got through.

Did I mention yet that I have this fantastic husband who is truly my soulmate? When he is gone, I don't worry about how I will survive two crazy children like most people do, I worry how I will survive my days without him. 11 years and counting.

So it's been slow in my current office and it's hard to decide whether I should move on. I think I should stay. Now is not the time to move. Yet I see it there someday. Something big. Something that will overwhelm me and fulfill me. But it will be hard to leave raising my kids to someone else. But it is me. I see it...and I hope when I need to jump on that train, I am ready.

Sylvie...what's your baby's name?

Me:"Sylvie, what's your baby's name?"
Sylvie: "Banana candy." This might be the first time she ever answered me to that question. I'm wondering if she was trying to be all subtle in suggesting that SHE could eat some banana candy. I'm thinking the given Cabbage Patch Adopted child name might be appropriate. I believe it was Campbell and the middle name was something along the lines of "shamalamadingdong." On second thought, Banana Candy sounds pretty good.

Water Gun Fight!!!!!

Logan got a water gun from his friend as a birthday favor. We needed at least one more to fight back so I got 3 more. Daddy got stuck with the little ones...we got the big ones!

How Sylvie lets me know she's sick....

She says "Mommy...I can't FEEL better!" "I need medicine!" and she calls bandaids a multitude of things and I never know what she's referring to them. But her latest is "Mommy I need a 'Bad Guy."(Bandaid). Too hilarious.

A Black and White Glimpse

It was very humid out so Sylvie's hair curled up and she was wearing a crown, so of course I took pictures. What a cutie!



He was so proud to bring Clifford home from preschool for the weekend!



Remember when the evening just wasn't complete without a comfy set of jammies? Remember when jammies weren't just flannel pants and a t-shirt?



And lest you think my kids are too angelic, this is how Sylvie spent our evening coloring time.....coloring her legs! Aaah! Thank goodness for Waterproof markers. The hardest part is getting her all the way to the tub without her touching anything else, including me!

Secret confession

I still listen to Christmas music on Itunes in the summer:) My favorite is the Sarah McClachlan "Wintersong" - it's the BEST music to clean the house to......Time to go do just that!

Logan's idea for Mowing our Lawn

Like the rest of the midwest, I woke up one day and the snow had melted and our trees had leaves! Our grass went from dormant to hyperactive, and jumped to a foot tall and the flowers are about to bloom. Since it keep raining on the weekends, I haven't had a chance to get out the lawn mower yet.

I was telling Logan "I need to mow the lawn! It's getting so tall!" He was trying to form some words to tell me something important, and finally said "We need an animal to cut the grass." I said "Really? Animals?" He said "No. Only one animal." I said "Which animal would eat our grass Logan?" excited to have a real conversation! He said "A Llama." I seriously have NO idea where he learned about llamas. When I asked he said "When I was a baby, I saw a llama. He was big and fuzzy and smiled like 'this'." What a conversation!!!!

Anyone have an extra llama to spare? I think it would be a lot more fun than the lawn mower. Environmentally, we'd probably get some brownie points too right?

"Grandpa"

Well you know my kids are spoiled by young grandparents- 4 of them! They are supremely lucky to have such wonderful "playmates." Logan and Sylvie were playing dollhouse with me and Logan decided that this was "Grandpa." Maybe the mustache? When I played with this figurine when I was young, he was the dad!

Gotta love cable

I went to record the "Biggest Loser" from cable. You can scroll through all shows alphabetically to set a recording, so I did that. As I was in the tv shows and movies starting with "B" I came across "Babes in Toyland." I clicked on the info wondering if it was the Drew Barrymore version but it was most certainly NOT. It was definitely some adult movie so I am glad I didnt' set THAT recording! We're definitely going to need parental controls once the kids know how to turn the tv on themselves!

The crazy neighbors

My neighbors next door are a stitch. They are well-intentioned, and sweet but the husband has been remodeling the house for 5 years (perfectionist who can't get anything to look even decent!) and the wife must have ADHD because she's pretty flighty. But we love them anyhow and thier two kids. We did an egg hunt at their house and they mentioned they were going to DisneyWorld.

They recently got a hamster and my husband chimes in that "we'll" watch it for them while they are gone. Now they have done us one favor and let our dog out once while we were out, but not like we're doing favors for each other all the time. I knew they would wait til the last minute for details on the hamster. I called on Monday and the neighbor husband said they were leaving Wed so Tuesday night I said they could call me and explain the hamster and such.

So fast forward to today and I have answering machine messages saying they are leaving in an hour and hope I'm still on board with watching Sandy the Hamster. A second message asks if I could please move their 4 cars to the other side of the street on Monday night. NO WAY!! Oh my god. Seriously now. They have 2 little normal cars and then bought this nasty old truck to haul lumber in and their Sister in law's car is there as well. We are not allowed to park on certain sides of the street on certain days around here. We park our cars in our garage. They have a garage full of junk. No cars park there.Oh and then there was a third message about how often to feed the hamster. No note, no mini-how to care for a hamster lessons, nothing. Goodness they are trusting!!!! And the fourth message finally told me when they were returning from their trip.

Gah! I left a message on their phone saying I was working all day, I was still planning on watching the hamster, I got the massive number of keychains in my mailbox and that they will need to find someone ELSE to move their nasty cars because we won't be around to do it.

Maybe I should make a copy of the key for the truck and randomly start borrowing it without asking whenever I need to do my own home improvement projects!!!!