Playing catch up!

I did it again...got behind on our activities.

Thursday we had our own version of S.H.I.T. night. What is S.H.I.T. night, you may ask? Well, for MANY MANY years the men in my husband's family have gotten together every Thursday night and made dinner and enjoyed some good wine. That's right, they COOK!! They enjoy getting together and seeing what they can come up with. It stands for Sure Happy It's Thursday.

Anyway, we S.H.I.T. night widows have been meaning to get together ourselves, but have never followed through on our plans. So Thursday night we did! It was so much fun!!! We had it at hubby's Aunt Katherine's house and she was prepared for kids. She has a whole room strictly for the kids with all kinds of cool stuff! D was in toy heaven!

He got to play with some of his second cousins whom he only sees at Thanksgiving. They were all so gentle with him, I didn't mind enjoying the family talk while he was in the other room. I managed to sneak a shot of him playing with a baby doll. CUTE!

**pic coming**

Friday was my hubby's birthday as well as our 5th wedding anniversary. D helped me bake Daddy a cake. Isn't he cute???



Saturday we had one of DH's college buddies over for a cook-out. Their birthdays are one week apart so we celebrated them both. He has two boys and D loved getting to check out their i-Touch. Why are kid's so into electronics???

Monday we took it easy. Grocery shopping and a nap. We had an impromptu playdate with R and G at their house. G is learning how to share. I know I am biased and all, but I think D is a wonderful playmate to learn how to share with. He is pretty patient and doesn't mind having to play with a different toy in lieu of fighting over one.

Today we played over at Nana and Papa's. D was asking for them yesterday so we made a date for this morning.

So, there you have it! We are all caught up now.

Tomorrow we have a pool playdate. Thursday and Friday I have to set up for my summer camp that starts next Monday. My neice will be here Thursday to help me get organized. Everyone is excited to begin!!

A hidden oasis in the midst of the city

We were told of an indoor playground this week. It is not too far from the house and best of all, it's air conditioned!! A must in this 100 degree heat.

We checked it out on Monday and decided it was worthy of a repeat visit, so we went again today. There are three large playthings for climbing and sliding and a little balance beam, of sorts for the littler ones.

Apparantly this has been a well-kept secret as there were no other kids there but us! Another reason to keep it on our list.

We met a couple of ladies there. K and G, from the neighborhood group, and AM and M, from the meetup group. How funny that they had previously met at a yoga class. How random!! K just revealed via FB that she is 16 weeks preggo. You'd think at 16 weeks no announcement would be necessary, but you've seriously got to see this girl! She doesn't even look preggo in the least!!! SO not fair!

AM and M showed up about a half an hour later. She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to make it, due to the nap thing, but they did. I haven't seen her since her daughter's 1st birthday party on the 3rd of this month. She must have been pretty busy, as she said she's had company since then. She mentioned that her SIL has a drastically different parenting style than she does. That makes the time seem even longer, I'm sure. (See my post about parenting styles!)

I also got some dirt on the meetup group comings and goings. Since there are a lot of women, a lot of them very young, there has been some drama. What a surprise, right??? Women=drama?? Who'd a thunk it?





Tomorrow we have a pool playdate at K and P's. We may have to skip it so that D and I can check out a storytime for our summer camp in August. We'll just see how the weather goes. If it's too hot we'll skip it.

Friday we are hosting the baby bounce here. It's also my hubby's birthday AND our anniversary. Fun!

Giggle, Giggle, Quack!

The Children's Theater in town presented the play version of the book, "Giggle, Giggle, Quack" by Doreen Cronin and Target hosted a free ticket day yesterday.

I invited a few of D's friends to join us. Two other couples and their sons took us up on the invitation. The show was FANTASTIC and the boys did great! The first act was 40 minutes, followed by a 15 minute intermission. The second act was 20 minutes.

D was mesmerized by the singing and colorful costumes. We'll definitely have to do that again! I wish we could have gotten pictures with the actors after the show, but D was NOT having that!! Oh well, maybe next time.

After the show, one of the couples had to leave but the other couple and us had plans to go to dinner. So, off to the restaurant we headed!

We had a wonderful time eating and hanging out. The boys are so cute together. When I get the pictures back from L I'll post a few.

This place is a zoo!! (Truly!)

So the bright idea was to meet some neighborhood ladies at the zoo since it was Dollar Day. Only $1 admission for adults and the babes were free. Sounds great, no???

Well, the exit for the zoo was so backed up it took me 25 minutes to get to the light. Police were directing traffic down a side street away from the zoo.
Looking back, this should have been my second clue that this was a BAD idea. I should have realized that the parking lot was totally full, as was the overflow lot. Already. At 10 AM.

I followed the HUGE line of cars meandering through the side streets through the ghetto neighborhood surrounding the zoo until the line just dispersed into various shopping parking lots and along sidewalks. No way was I leaving my car parked, unmonitored, in front of some house in the ghetto!! Not a chance!

We were on our way back to the highway to go home when I noticed the frontage road to get back on the highway was blocked by police cars. My way home was blocked!

That forced me to continue the quest for a parking spot. I came upon an elementary school fairly close by and snagged a spot. After a 15 minute walk in the 100 degree heat we finally got to the doors. Well, sort of...

We had to wait another 15 minutes in line to pay our way in.

Needless to say, our time there was short. I hate to admit this, but we didn't see ONE SINGLE animal. Epic FAIL!!

So, in light of the terrible morning and having NO pictures to share from my day, I thought I'd post the birthday craft I worked on last week.

This is an idea I got from one of the many blogs I follow. Here's the link: http://www.birthdaygirlblog.com/2010/06/guest-post-cupcake-stand-standoff.html

I took a terra cotta pot from Michael's and painted it Toodee blue.



Then I printed out a group photo of the Gabba gang and adhered it to the pot using ModPodge.



Then I wrote my son's name along the bottom. We will use this at his party in September. I'll put his birthday cake on top of it.

Pretty crafty, right?

Peace, love, and Nemo

Yesterday my 9 3/4 year old niece came over to visit. She graciously brought with her a tye-dye kit that she was given for her birthday 3 years ago. We made her a t-shirt using one of my husband's Hanes t-shirts and then made 5 toddler t-shirts for my upcoming "summer camp".

I sent out an email to 5 of D's friends to see if they would be interested in joining us for a week of fun in the sun! All of them responded with a resounding YES! Well, one mom is a tentative yes, she is planning a trip to Seattle sometime around the same time, so she's not sure yet.

Anyway, I took photos to document the process.

First you band the shirts and soak them in the soda ash for 20 minutes.



Then you squeeze out the excess water.



Next you shake up your dye.



Then you apply the dye to the shirt.



Wrap the shirts up in plastic wrap (and a ziploc) to set for 4-8 hours.



I pulled them after 5 hours and rinsed them under hot tap water until the water ran clear. I also machine washed them twice and then dried them.

Here is the finished product AFTER I added the iron-on camp logo.





Look for upcoming posts regarding my summer camp in August.

Another successful baby bounce

Thursday was our group's third baby bounce. There were 8 ladies who showed up. The host of this week's playgroup chose to include some Spanish songs. She provided a lyric sheet to help us non-speakers keep up.

I got many comments about what a great job I've been doing with planning activities each week. That made me feel great! Little do they know, I need to get out of the house and that is why I diligently look for things to do each week.

Next week we have a zoo trip planned. I am so excited to get D to the zoo and see the animals. He has really started to learn more animals and associate them with their sounds. This trip will be fun for him to see the large and colorful animals and will be fun for me to see his reactions to them. I'll take lots of pictures!

This weekend D's cousins are visiting from Austin and we plan on spending some quality time with them. We don't get to see them very often and I want him to spend as much time with them as we can. Here's one picture from last night when we went out to eat with them.



And another from this afternoon at the pool. Aunt Suge, enjoy!!

Is this the DMA or the Zoo???

So yesterday's outing to the DMA for Free Tuesday Childen's Activities didn't exactly go off without a hitch. There were four of us who met up at the museum.

D and I parked in the wrong parking garage and had to scrounge four quarters out of the ashtray in order to leave the lot. We found another one (that thankfully took plastic) and prayed the rain would hold off as we walked the mile to the museum.

Once inside, it was a zoo! Kids everywhere!!! Free apparently gets folks out of the woodworks.

We slipped inside the theater for a little storytime action and after singing a few songs, the storyteller began a L*O*N*G oration on fishermen and legends of long ago. Obviously, our under 2 kids got bored really quickly and we decided to slip out.

We found sanctuary in a kiddie room off to the side. It was sort of hidden and had a lot of great under 2 toys to occupy the boys.

It was approaching naptime and that signaled time to go. We trekked back out to the car and drove home. All in all, a successful morning adventure.

Happy Independence Day!!

Well, we had the bbq despite the deluge of rain that swept through! After a good twenty minutes of vertical rain the skies cleared and the boys fired up the Que!

I forgot my camera (duh!) but used my mother in law's and got a few shots of the cake. They came out blurry as I don't know the specifics of her camera.





Today it's off to the KC pool (weather pending) and our social activities will continue on Tuesday!

Happy Fourth!!

Baking Day!!

I love to bake!! I have visited many blogs that have inspired me to be more creative with my baking. This being a holiday weekend was a PERFECT opportunity for me to try something new.

Tomorrow we are having a cook-out (depending on the rain) and I am bringing dessert. I made a small square cake for the five of us to munch on after lunch. What's so special about a square cake, you may ask??? Well this one is red, white and blue tyedyed when you cut into it. I obviously don't have pictures of the inside, but when we cut into it tomorrow I'll snap some. Here's the top:



Sunday, the 4th, we have plans to attend the KC 4th event at the clubhouse. They are in need of sweets for the cake walk. I decided to try my hand at it this year. So I whipped this baby up today:



Not very special? Well, I am loving the surprise inside cakes and this one is three layers; top is red, middle is white, bottom is blue!! I wish I could get a picture of the inside of this one, but alas, I'll never know who ends up with it. Ah, that's life...

After baking all morning we went to our second baby bounce playdate. There were 8 of us, one a new member! The kids loved wiggling and then got to have some play time afterwards.

A few of us made plans to meet up at the EC 4th of July Parade tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain and we can check it out. There is supposed to be LOTS of kid friendly entertainment. Rain, rain, go away...Come again some other day!!

June Progress Report: Ice skating in July???

Yesterday we had a full day. Pool playdate at L's and an afternoon play session at the play area at the mall.

While at the pool playdate I extended two invites to join us at the pool today. They both accepted, although one had to cancel because A was showing signs of allergies again.

After a nap, we headed to the Galleria's play area. It was really cool! D had a lot of fun climbing, sliding and crawling around. He got knocked down three times by some larger kids who were over the height limit. We left shortly after and went to the bottom floor to watch the ice skaters practice. D and G were fascinated!!!

Now for the Progress Report!!

30 number of days in this month
15 number of scheduled playdates we attended
18 number of invitations issued to/by me
2 number of invitations I had to turn down
1 phone number stored in my cell phone
1 friend made this month!!

I think I need to amend my original goal. Two friends a month is quite a bit, especially when you've got to upkeep the ones you have.

So I will state it now: From this point on, by official decree, one friend a month is my goal!!

Now, let's bring on July!!