36 weeks and my mind is STILL running on high

This is my self portrait taken yesterday in a state of creativity. I was tired of the same old belly shot so I thought I'd try it from different angles. I dunno...I'm kinda liking this one for some reason.

Anyway, the school year is rapidly coming to a close and my neighborhood group is beginning to wind down. I will continue to be the coordinator for our playgroup and I'm starting to compile a list of activities we can do this summer to keep us all from losing our minds. Here are some of my ideas so far:

** Have a playgroup garage sale.
** Weekly picnics.
** Have a movie night.
** Host an etiquette tea party.
** Splashpark outings.
** First Tuesdays at the Art Museum.
** Pool parties.
** Potluck happy hours for mom's night.
** Day at the horse races.
** Putt-putt golf.
** Minor league baseball family nights.
** Arts/crafts themed playdates.

I realize some of these are lofty ideas, especially with me having a newborn on the way in 27 more days, but don't some of these sound so fun???

blink*blink*blink*

Not really sure where this post will take me, but haven't posted in almost a week, so here we are....

This week we had another ultrasound and got to see little Miss again. She has been a good girl and is no longer sitting breech, but is now head down!! YAY!
I took, and passed, my glucose test. YAY!!
Ladybug's room is coming right along. The closet is finished, girly clothes are hanging up, pictures are up on the wall...only a few more touches and the room is ready for it's official reveal. YAY!!

I will share the link to one of the items I made specifically for the room. I saw this cute little butterfly mobile:



over at PBK and swooned. Then I saw the price and swooned again, I mean it's just paper and string. I resolved to make my own. And so I did. I must say, I did a pretty good job. AND I got to customize mine to match the room!

D has been sleeping like a champ and eating like a horse lately. I KNEW he was getting longer so we measured him yesterday and he's grown an inch and a half since his birthday 6 months ago! He's pretty proud of himself.

We made a chocolate cake for L's birthday and delivered it to her this afternoon. A was just waking from his nap so the boys got an impromptu playdate while L and I chatted. She is expecting in May so our little ones will only be 3 weeks apart (depending on the EDD). It's so nice to have some friends going through the same stage in life at the same time.

Sunday we were invited over to K and G's house after Mass for a pancake breakfast. G picked at her pancakes while D snarfed down 2+!!!
D wasn't too impressed with G's little brother, A. He liked to look at him sleeping but didn't really pay too much attention to him once he was awake. Ah, well....

We met them on Tuesday morning for some toddler fun at the local arboretum. I didn't get too many pictures as D was all over the place! The kindermusik people were there and D had fun dancing around with the big kids. I did manage to snap a picture of D and G sitting in the little mermaid's enchanted chair. Cute!

***Photos will follow shortly, my camera battery is dead and I'm too lazy to deal with it right now. I'm all cuddled up in bed with one eye on the monitor. There was a loud truck that just drove by and startled D so I was expecting him to call for me, but he didn't. What a brave boy!

BTW, my Lenten "project" has been going very nicely. I realize as I'm reading the book that I haven't really been too bad about taking my hubby for granted. We still seem to have the newlywed thing going for us.

What a difference a week makes!

So it's been about a week since it's snowed here. Actually last week it DID snow here. Yesterday we were invited to a picnic at the Arboretum with some of the neighborhood gals. There were about 6 of us who went. It was a great impromptu get together and we've discussed making it a standing Tuesday event to get the kids together (and socialize as mommies, too).

Of the 6 of us, 2 have recent babies and older sibs, 3 of us are pg with #2, and one is done with kiddos for now. This is a great support group for us mommies who are starting all over again with a newborn.

We were actually able to fly a kite!! The weather was AWESOME!! Here's D and I in action; you can really see my baby bump popping out!




The Valentine's party was pretty cute, not a whole lot to do, but they did have a bouncehouse which kept D busy. He also made Daddy a valentine's card and was so proud of himself! I should really take a photo of it for my Project Life book.

Mommy has Bunco tonight so Dominic and Daddy will have a guy's night tonight. I'm so glad they get to spend some time together, just the boys. Maybe they will work on sister's closet some more. They're really close to finishing, they just have to nail in the shelves and get the rods up. Then I can start hanging up all those tiny little clothes and the reality of a little girl may start to sink in finally.

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!

Spring has sprung!

Today D and I met some of the playgroup gals at the Arboretum for a picnic. It was a beautiful day and we picked a great shady spot to lay out our blankets and let the kiddos run and explore.



I talked with S a little bit about her part-time teaching gig. She teaches art one day a week for three hours. The school has had real problems with keeping students, so much so that this is the last year for the school to stay open. S isn't that bummed, though, she has a new son coming in July so she'll have her hands full for sure!!

We were all pretty much too busy chasing our little ones or feeding them or cleaning them up to really have any in-depth conversations with one another. But it was a great outing, none the less.

Tomorrow we have a playdate about 15 minutes away. I have a doctor's appt tomorrow morning so I'll be running late. This is a new meetup group so I don't know any of these girls. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!!