We're still around...

We are still here...we've just been super busy and super tired! We haven't even done much with friends since the camp. It's been all about D and I lately. We've gotten a whole lot of Christmas shopping done and that's really kept us pretty busy.

Thanksgiving was a BLAST! We had the BIG family year this time and it was so wonderful to see D playing with the big kids. I still can't believe he is getting so big!! As soon as I get our family photo, I'll be sure to post it here. It's so much fun to see how we've grown as a family. Next year there will be 4 of us!

This morning we went to visit Santa. Dominic did wonderful!!! This photo just makes me smile b/c they look deep in conversation. Dominic has always been such a curious child and he really seems to be giving Santa the once-over, don't you agree?

8 days and 4 stitches later...

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! I have just been falling in to bed lately and haven't really had any down time during the day to sit and post.

Last Wednesday we did one of the best playdates I've ever participated in (Halloween costume parade being #1). We met three other moms and kids at a local pottery place and got to choose an item to paint! I have always wanted to get D a personalized birthday plate for him to use for his birthday breakfast so we chose a birthday plate.

We painted it light blue and then D put his handprints on the plate with dark blue paint. Then I filled in the letters and added his name to the bottom. It should be ready for pick-up this Friday!! Here's the boy in action:










Unfortunately, the next day was not so good for us. D was running in the living room and ran RIGHT into the corner of the coffee table!! We had to rush to the ER and he ended up getting 4 stitches. Poor baby...
Look how gnarly this boo-boo is:




Please forgive the MESSY face, he had lasagna for dinner and we were bribing him with ice cream so that I could get his band-aid off.

This week we started our fall camp. I'll post separately about that later. I've got some great crafts for the little ones to do.

Only 52 more sleeps...

until Christmas, according to Santa's Official Christmas Clock!!!

I feel bad for Thanksgiving. It gets smooshed in between two kids holidays and it really deserves it's own time to shine. We went to the bookstore today to look for our camping titles and the stores are already all dolled up for Christmas! What happened to Thanksgiving?

My husband's family has a BIG family Thanksgiving every year and I just love it! He has such a great family (and I'm not just saying that b/c my MIL reads this blog every once in a while). The first Thanksgiving that I was a part of their festivities they just welcomed me in and chatted me up as if they'd known me all along. I LOVE that Dominic gets to experience the family Thanksgiving. They've been doing it for YEARS!!

So....I am going to let November do it's own thing this year. No more rushing it to hurry by so that Santa can be on his merry way. Each day in November I will mentally take the time to be thankful for the blessings in my life-and I have many. Lucky me!!

When I taught school I would have my middle schoolers keep a daily journal for the month of November. Every night they would list 3 things that they were thankful for that day. Think it sounds easy? The twist: they couldn't list the same things more than twice in the journal. That really made them focus on the little mundane things in their life. Try it out...you may find it helps refocus you, too!

So, enough about that. You're really checking in to see pics of our Halloween, aren't you?? We don't have much, I'm afraid. The hubster was in charge of the pics and he's not as nostalgic as I am, so we'll have to make do with what we've got.

On Wednesday, the 27th we participated in a costume parade at a local senior center and boy, was it fun!!! The olds just loved seeing all the kiddo's dressed up for Halloween. Of course D strutted his stuff like a pro.






Thursday we had a 12pm ultrasound. Baby #2 is looking good!! Heartrate of 176 (which means girl, for those wondering) and measuring right on track! We are 9 weeks preggo today.

This past weekend we went out of town to visit Aunt Suge and her crazy bunch. D loved playing in the boy's room!! We had a wonderful visit and a few hours after pulling in the driveway here at home we were off to the neighborhood block party.

D got to trick-or-treat for the FIRST time Sunday night. Our street is pretty quiet so there were only 5 houses to go to but he had a ball blurting out, "trick or treat!"





Yesterday we invited L and A over for some afternoon sandbox play. We haven't seen them in a while so D was excited to get some A-time in. As usual, the boys had a great time together.

I was going to post about the camp coming up but I think I'll wait until next time. The little man is napping and mommy needs to try and get in some z's too, if possible.

We also have a recipe club tonight and David made his SCRUMPTIOUS spinach. We should definitely win tonight!!! I'll post the recipe in the next post and let you know if we won or not.

Bosses Day, Brownies and Boo!!

I've been so preoccupied with worrying about what we'd see (or not see) at the ultrasound this week that I have completely ceased to post about our friendship odyssey. So this one's a catch-up post!

Tuesday we had a neighborhood playdate scheduled at our local arboretum's pumpkin patch. We got there at 9am on the dot, despite the dizziness from my medicine beginning to settle in. We were to meet at the front gate and I was surprised to see no one waiting for me. I'm used to being the first one to events due to my punctuality issue, so I decided to wait for the late-comers to show up. To my great surprise, no one was there after another 15 minutes. Looks like we were on our own!

It worked out pretty well, anyhow. The patch was totally empty, except for 2 other children, and we were able to run from cluster to cluster taking pics. Here are some of my favorites:





Wednesday we took it easy at home. Since we were just hanging out I decided we should make some triple chunk brownies! We both got all gussied up in our aprons (D got a new apron at last week's Market in the Meadow Craft event). Isn't he the cutest little baker??



Friday Daddy had a Boss's Day celebration at work. Since this was actually last week we had already given him a little token of our appreciation. Here's our $7 version of the florist's $25 one.



We also Boo-ed our neighbor Friday. They are newlyweds and both work so they haven't gotten to participate in many of our social events yet. I thought it would be nice to let them know that they are being thought of by Boo-ing them. I found the little Boo bag in the Target dollar spot. I just put some of Daddy's leftover candy inside and hung the bag on their front door.



Today I'll be hand delivering the Fall Camp t-shirts and detailed itinerary to our little campers. Make sure to check back in a few weeks when we have our camp. It's happening November 8-12th.

Picture = 1000 words

A picture may be worth 1000 words, but I've only got 3 words to say: "Thank you, God!"

We have a heartbeat and baby is measuring right on schedule!! We are still in shock with our wonderful news.

D went to L and A's house to play while Daddy and I went to the dr appt. When L opened the door at pickup time, A came running with a bicycle helmet on and I about fell out laughing! D even took a turn wearing the thing.

After a short concerto on the piano and some guitar strumming D was ready to go home and take a nap. What a most wonderful morning we both had!

Photos coming...

Know when to hold em!

While D is napping I usually hop onto FB and catch up with my "friends". Today I came across a link that one of the meetup gals wrote about our group. It was very complimentary and funny in parts. The end is what stopped me and made me think...

She mentioned one of the ladies in our group is her best friend. Now, I have hung out with R many, many times and she's never alluded to the closeness between the two of them, so this leaves me wondering...is this the total truth and I've just been oblivious to it and if so, have I said anything bad about her BFF?

There have been numerous playgroups that we have gone to where this BFF was present and I never got the feeling that they were overly friendly. I know they have hung out without the kids and done things together but it didn't seem like BFF chemistry. There have been plenty of times that I have bitten my tongue around said BFF b/c she irks me in one way or another. We just don't click!

Does this mean that my perception of R is skewed? If she can be BFF's with someone that rubs me the wrong way perhaps I don't really know her. This is a conundrum, folks. Maybe I am overthinking this "situation"?

So, what do you think, dear readers? Anyone have any words of advice for me??

BUNCO

Last night I attended my meetup's second Bunco night. As expected, it was a great time! I even won some money this time!!!

Surprisingly, I took no photos! Can you believe it?? It didn't even cross my mind.

My dear husband came home early from work to watch the little man and it sounds like they had a great time. I came home to a dark, quiet house (except for the dog, who greeted me like she hadn't seen me in years) and a loaded (and clean) dishwasher! Baby was in bed asleep, Daddy was in bed watching the Rangers game on volume level 1. What a pleasant way to return home.

I imagine this is what they must have looked like, just the boys...



Aren't they cute???

Today Daddy is taking a half day and we are returning back to the Fair to check out the shows we missed the first time around.

This little puppy...

This past week we were pretty busy.

Wednesday we met R and G at an Arts Center that houses a museum type children's attraction. It is math and science in nature and has some COOL exhibits! D especially liked the marionettes and the magnet board.





Thursday we went to the church mom's group playdate at a local playground. If you are looking for a nanny, this is the place to find one! The playground is in the middle of a very affluent neighborhood and when I first rolled up on the scene it was only dark skinned older women with very light skinned, blonde haired children. I knew right away that this was nanny utopia.

Since D wanted to eat his snack before playing, we sat at a picnic table in the shade and I got to eavesdrop on the nannies. It is an interesting dynamic. I am so thankful that I get to stay home with my son and be the main influence in his life. I cannot imagine that I could truly trust anyone else to give him the love and attention that I can. It is a sacrifice to stay home, but one that I'm happy to make and I'm so glad my husband feels the same.

I did run into J and her two boys, I and V at the park. I haven't seen J in about a year and it was good to catch up. We figured out that her youngest and D will be in the same grade at the school! I am happy that there are already a few cool mom's that I know who will be with us at the school as D grows up. It'll be great to continue our friendships as well.

Friday we met AM and M at a local consignment sale and I bought D some shoes, books and a few long pants for the upcoming season change. We made plans to meet up that afternoon to go to our local neighborhood park. K sent us an email earlier that morning inviting us to meet them as well. There ended up being 6 of us there and the kids had a ball!

I am so glad the weekend is almost here...I can really use some mommy sleep time.

Supermom status running on high

I am always amazed at how many "chores" I can squeeze in to my son's one hour naptime. It would be wonderful if he would consistently sleep for two hours, but I'm afraid that's never going to happen. This kid has the CMO disease: Can't Miss Out. He doesn't want to miss out on anything that might happen while he's sleeping...

Anyway, today I was able to wash AND fold the laundry, unload the **now working!!** dishwasher, load it up again, eat lunch and write this here entry before the little man woke up. If I finish this post, it'll be a miracle.

I call these bursts of chore-chopping my Supermom moments. They are few and far between and require some sort of sugar intake to initiate the cleaning frenzy that ensues. This made me think about different ways we can all be called supermoms.

When I look at the mom friends that I have I can certainly assign each mom the title Supermom for one reason or another. So here's my tribute to my Supermom friends:

AM is Supermom for being a Green Momma. She recycles and cloth diapers.
K is Supermom for keeping her and G busy, busy, busy and so well-rounded in their activities!
K is Supermom for always volunteering for things with a smile and always remembering birthdays and other important dates.
L is Supermom for reminding me not to hover over D and just let him do his own thing.
M is Supermom for rearing her child her own way, and not being afraid to ask for a little help when needed.
R is Supermom for always looking for fun things to do with G.
S is Supermom for choosing to stay home with her almost 4 month old while babysitting another 4 month old. BRAVE!
S is Supermom for making it ANYWHERE on time, despite having 2 kids under the age of 2 to corral and get ready.

So, for all you Supermom's I know, this little award is for you! Feel free to copy-paste it, print it out on sticky paper and wear it around whenever you are having a Supermom kind of day!




and PS- I typed, saved AND posted this entry before the little man woke up!!

Go HORNS!

Today's the big Red River Shootout!! Go Horns!

Surprise, ya'll!

I have been busy this week getting things together for a surprise dual-70th birthday party for my folks on Saturday and haven't posted so I wouldn't leak out any details. Now that the party is over I can post a recipe that was SOOOOOO delectably good I can't even handle it, ya'll.

My dad's favorite dessert is banana pudding and I searched the net for a perfect recipe and I can safely say I have found it!! Leave it to Ms.Paula Deen to give us a scrumptious banana pudding.

Here's the recipe:
(It's not for the faint of heart or those on a diet)

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
6-8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5 oz.) box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip

Line the bottom of a 13x9 dish with one bag of cookies and layer the bananas on top.
In one bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.
Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir to blend.
Pour the mixture over the cookie/banana layer and cover with the remaining cookies.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is simply divine, ya'll!!! No kidding!

And since the post title for today is surprise, here's another one for you:



Please pray that this one is a stick-around-er!

At least we look ready for the PGA...

We had a meetup at a local golf course. Even though D preferred picking up the ball and gingerly placing it in the hole, we sure looked the part! Check him out:



There were only three other ladies that showed up. It was pretty hot by the fifth hole so we decided, as a group, to head inside and order brunch. We had a great conversation and the kids were all well behaved.

I had one major SNAFU on the way out, my car wouldn't start. I figured this was probably the best place to be in need of jumper cables. I mean, the place is FULL of men!! Just as I thought, I found someone with some cables and he was nice enough to take care of it for me. Thank goodness for good samaritans!!

Insert witty title here...

It's too early to be creative this morning, so I hope you'll stay with me.

Friday we went to the Arboretum and met about 9 other mommies. For the first time there were more girls than boys. We paraded through the blooms until we found a nice, large, shady spot and popped a squat. Some of the moms remembered to bring a blanket (which is my sneaky way to say that I forgot) and we all shared the three blanket space together to eat our snacks and/or lunch.

I packed D an early lunch: peanut butter and jelly sammie, diced pears, banana yogurt and a sugar cookie. He ate it all!! One ingenius mother brought a plush soccer ball as well and D had fun kicking it all around the shady area. I DID remember to bring bubbles (shocker!) and L and I took turns blowing them for the boys. I always forget how quickly blowing bubbles takes the wind out of your sails!



After getting good and sweaty, L and I headed over to the frog fountains to cool off.



She invited a former co-worker of hers to join us with her 11 week old little girl. She was so cute, with her big bow-head. I got the feeling that I was a bit of a third wheel, however, so I tried to give them some space. Perhaps they hadn't seen each other in a while or something? Anyway, I know she may have felt awkward being with a large group of women who have known each other for over a year this closely. It was nice of L to stick close to her friend.

D fell FAST asleep on the way home! Perfection!! He transfered to the bed easily and gave me a great break.



Saturday we attended our neighborhood's welcome party. We did some dancing, rode a little train, checked out the fire engine (and got a shiny badge sticker), listened to a few stories and ended with a good 20 minute bounce in the bounce house. Needless to say, he took his longest nap EVER: 2.5 hours!!!

Today we are going golfing with the meetup group. They have child sized clubs so this should be a real riot!

Bunco (minus 25 years)

My Meetup group suggested we start a Bunco team as a MNI idea. I've never played Bunco, as I'm a good 25 years younger than your average Bunco player, but I thought this was an idea I could support! So I hosted the first Bunco night last night at my home. My husband took D to the IL's for the duration of the party and we girls got loud!



It was so much fun!!! We only had 6 ladies total, so we adapted the rules to fit our group. We played 4 games, each round you only needed 10 points to win, so the rounds didn't drag on and on like it would have if we played to 21 points.

Surprisingly, all 6 of us had a Bunco at one point or another. Our Bunco privilege was to wear a large scarf, babushka-style! Here I am sporting my best old lady look:



Since Bunco is traditionally an "older lady" game, I made these nametags to wear and we all wrote in our Grandmother's name, whether maternal or paternal. I was Fannie (story coming); we had an Ezal, Doris, Torah, Ida and one other I can't remember-oops!



We learned from my South African neighbor that to them Fannie is the front part of the bottom area. When she first moved here to NY she saw a commercial (advert) for the Fanny Lifter. You can imagine her shock until her husband (who is American) told her that here Fanny means the actual bottom. HA!!

The next Bunco night is already on the calendar and I'm definitely going. I'll be inviting some of my neighborhood ladies again. This time there is no conflict with the adult group so we should have a better turn-out.

We are off to the Arboretum this morning with my neighborhood girls. I've got some cool ideas to bounce off of them and am excited to catch up.

Siete amigas y margaritas!

Well, I am afraid I don't have any pictures to show from last night. I know, right?

As the coordinator for my neighborhood toddler group, I wanted to do something a little special for my local hostesses who had a playgroup at their home during the month(s) of June, July and August. I had to figure out a way to have something nice while not breaking the bank- there were 10 hostesses in this time frame.

I finally settled on a Mexican Taco bar theme. I had chips, salsa, dip, taco meat, taco shells and all the fixin's for a taco salad or tacos. I had pineapple upside down cake for dessert and margaritas, of course!

One of the guests brought some awesome chocolate chunk cookies and we munched on those as well.

D hung out at my MIL's house during the party so we were totally kid-free for about 3 hours. I have to admit it was a little weird not having him run around. We had a wonderful talk, though and got to know each other a bit better with no interrupted conversations.

Here is the recipe for the dip I made. It was a real hit!!

Monterey Jack's Dip

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 (16 oz.) can chili (with or without beans)
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Monterey Jack cheese
1 (4 oz.) can chopped black olives

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
*Layer cream cheese, chili, green chilies, cheese and black olives in a baking dish.
*Bake for 30 minutes.
*Serve with chips.

Try it, I know you'll like it!!!

Searching for my lost shaker of salt!

I'm busy busy busy today getting ready for a neighborhood shin-dig tonight and don't have much time to post but here's a little something to pique your interest:



And for giggles, here's what mommy does when she's spent too much time playing kitchen and watching Toy Story:



Notice Buzz doing his business and Mommy taking a nap in the baby's bed. HA!

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name...

Yesterday was the school's back to school pool party at the club pool and my husband was on the volunteer grill team. We made an obligatory trip there to say hello and to let D see Daddy before he went to bed. Check out the slide!!!!





I've got to say this impromptu trip really pumped up my ego a bit. I walked in and immediately had three ladies coming over for a hug and to say hello. This is big time, folks. I actually felt comfortable arriving somewhere alone. Well, the little man was with me, but you know what I mean.

I was ushered over to a table to meet some other moms and ran into a church buddy from a few years back. She just moved churches just like we did and it was great to see her friendly face. We caught up on the church news and had a great chat!

We had to leave pretty quickly as the dreaded bedtime was looming before us. I drove home feeling renewed with my friendship odyssey. This was exactly what I was looking for when I started this blog 5 months ago. I have managed to come out of my shell and make some AWESOME new friends!!

Speaking of awesome...I was invited over to R and G's on Wednesday afternoon to make sock puppets. D has really enjoyed the two sock puppets we have here at the house so I knew this would be right up his alley. We used an old pair of socks, some pieces of felt, some googly eyes and some craft glue to make a cute puppy puppet. Here's ours:



We had a meetup yesterday afternoon that was cool. It was a football theme and the kids all wore their colors. D of course wore burnt orange. There were 8 of us present and we were able to sit back and chit chat while the kids played amongst themselves quite nicely with little parental interference. It's great when there's a group that genuinely gets along nicely.

This has been a great week friendship-wise. I feel like I am solidifying the friendships that I do have while continuing to cultivate new ones. Gosh, I sound like a gardener or something.

I know I've slacked on the monthly progress reports. I'll post one soon for June and July, I promise. I want to see just how far I've really come with my goal.

Can you stand more Gabba???

Too bad!! I've got some more Gabba goodness to share. I've had some requests for some more shots of the cake, more precisely, the other characters I made so here they are:

Here's my version of a Muno:



And here's Plex:



Here's Foofa:



And one of the front with Toodee on top:



Here are the cookies I made for the favors:



Halfway through the present opening, D had enough and had to thrash around in all the paper for a bit.



It's funny, but without my little friendship odyssey we'd have had a very different looking party. I'm so glad that my little man was able to turn two with all his best buddies by his side!

On that note, I attended the welcome coffee mixer for my church's mom's group. Since we plan on putting D in school there I thought it would be wise to join now and get to know some of the mom's there. I already know 3 kids that will be in D's grade! How cool is that??

Two ladies are also in my neighborhood group so we know them quite well by now. The other one lives in my neighborhood, but isn't really that friendly. I've met her on a couple of occasions and she wasn't real chatty. I'll have to make a point to try and talk with her at the upcoming meeting. Maybe she's just shy like me and comes across as snooty, much like I think I did before becoming aware of it.

I'll keep you posted!

Yo Gabba Gabba birthday style

So, we made it! We had a rockin' Gabba party and we survived to tell the tale. Little man is now officially two and MAN, did this kid get a lot of loot!! Check it out:



This is why Christmas at D's casa will be slim this year. :-D

We had a house full of guests, both young and old. The youngest was my friend, Sarah's little girl, Brooklyn at just 11 weeks old. It's hard to believe that had we not had the first miscarriage I would have a 3 month old right now. Crazy!!!

This party would definitely NOT have happened as it did. And I'm so glad it did, we had a blast!! I'm happy to say the cake was delicious, in addition to cute as a bug!



The little Gabba creatures are made out of Starburst! What a neat idea, huh? I can't take credit for it and sadly I don't remember which blog to give credit to for the idea. Just know that it was from some party planning site. Goodness the time I can kill surfing those blogs!!!

Anyway, we had 8 little ones + their parents, 2 sets of Grands, 3 aunt/uncle combos + their combined 5 children, 4 relatives from out of town, and a co-worker of DH!! The bouncehouse was ready for action, but it was a bit on the toasty side yesterday so there was minimal bouncing. My neice and nephew monopolized the swimming pool while the little ones kept cool inside playing the fishing game.



We waited until company left before we let D tear into his huge pile of presents. We took photos of him opening each one to use on their thank you card. I already have them all designed and saved. I just need to go to Office Depot and pick up some 4x6 photo paper and I can get these babies out in the mail tomorrow!!



His favorites?? The Buzz, Woody and Bullseye posable figures from Aunt Suge and the play kitchen from Nana and Papa. Thanks guys!!!

A bad case of Palmolive hands

With just 4 days to go until the big birthday party, the dishwasher has decided to go on the brink! My brother, the handyman supreme, promised us that he will take a look at it on Sunday before the party, but that means between now and then we either eat on paper plates or I have to hand wash everything. Not a good thing when I have to bake a cake AND cookie favors for the big day.

I have been hard at work getting ready for my little man's party. This "Toodee-inspired" shin-dig is coming along famously. I have outdone myself on one craft in particular:



This is a cardboard cut-out that I hand drew, cut out and painted. This little gem will be outside holding balloons around her arm, welcoming guests to the party.

I also finished the balloon wreath. Here's a picture of the unfinished product:



We are hosting the first neighborhood playdate of the season here tomorrow. Crazy, I know, what with us having a birthday party two days later. As the coordinator it is only right that I host the first one and it'll be a doozy! We are having a bouncehouse (that I secretly hope to use for D's party Sunday), a photo booth (well, sort of), swimming (if it doesn't rain-40% chance that it will), sandbox, sidewalk chalk, wagon rides, and my favorite: a Root Beer float bar! We have had 5 new faces RSVP so far. I am excited to meet all the new members.

And just for giggles, here's what shenanigans my husband gets up to when I'm not looking:



Nice, right???

6 days and counting...

First, I have gotten some inquiries about where we are with the miscarriage. I apologize for not updating. With the trip to Boston, baking for the shower and getting ready for D's SECOND birthday party, I've been overwhelmed lately.

The m/c is officially over and was painless and not nearly as bad as I was expecting, God be praised. This was our second m/c in a year so we knew this was a possibility, but it still sucks all the same. We are focusing on little D and what a blessing he is to our family and that has helped us heal. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. <3

Now, speaking of D, I can hardly believe that in just 6 days my little baby will be turning 2!!! He is already dipping his toes in the "terrible two" pool. Yuck! I still have my sweet little man about 85% of the time, but the other 15% is pretty difficult to muddle through. It's a fine line between frustration and madness, you know.

We are planning his big party for next weekend and I've been busy at work getting things ready. Here are some sneak peeks at what I've been working on:



This will be on the cake top along with a cookie shaped 2. Toodee is the inspiration for the party.



These will be in the favor buckets. It is a compilation of 7 of D's favorite Gabba songs.



This will be one of the signs to welcome guests. Remember the pot I made???

I plan on making some "Parking for Gabba fans only" signs for along the curb. I also have to finish my balloon wreath for the door and finish painting the Toodee land mural.

Now, here are the pics of the treats I created for the bridal shower that my neighbor hired me to do:



Strawberry jam filled shortbread cookies.



Red velvet cupcakes with fondant topper to match the shower colors.



Surprise inside cake. Four layers, each a different color to match the shower theme. My neighbor called me last night to let me know the cake was "F***ing awesome!!" I'd say she liked it!!!