Day 1075 | The Love Tree
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This beautiful crab tree was planted almost 11 years ago as a gift to my parents for our wedding. Look how our love has grown! And we were actually local to see the blooming tree this year. Yay!
Day 1074 | Touch + Feel Fun
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I don't know why I didn't think of this activity before! I had the boys use their sense of touch to identify items I found around the house + backyard.
Exploring Our Sense of Touch
What you need:
- A few plastic cups (five seemed about right)
- A random assortment of items identifiable by touch: I used pine cones, dandelions, rocks, mini trains, and chocolate chips
- A blindfold for each kiddo
How it's done:
Present one cup with one type of item for each round. Make sure they're not peeking (a definite challenge at our house) and let them guess what's inside.
The surprise chocolate chips as the last round was a total shock to them and made the activity that much more enjoyable.
Yay for free + fun educational activities!
**Special thanks to Uncle Matt for joining us for this activity via FaceTime.
Day 1073 | Shorts Season
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Look at those cute little legs. The first day of shorts weather is always reason to celebrate. The other big thing to celebrate? Robbe's truck shorts still fit! It's some sort of Christmas-in-May miracle.
Day 1072 | Spring in EC
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Remember when spring used to arrive on the blog in April? Yeah, I miss those days, too. Luckily, the gloom + rain of last week was followed by some warm + sunny temps over the weekend. The trees and plants are loving it (and so am I!).
See above for a few of my favorite signs of spring that I've captured in our yard + around the neighborhood. We might not have cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin (like here or here), but these trees are holding their own.
Day 1071 | A [Final?] School Tour
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After too many school tours to list (seriously, between DC + EC, it's pretty ridiculous), I think we might have completed our final school tour! This sweet little elementary school is where Robbe will be attending his speech + language intensive program in the fall. The teacher was delightful and seemed very motivated and experienced with little ones dealing with exactly Robbe's challenges. There's something very reassuring about that.
As we were leaving, Robbe said, "me like my school really bad." Translation: he likes his school a lot. So sweet, right?
Day 1070 | What a Weekend
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I think we might have crammed as many things as physically (and emotionally) possible this weekend. The warmer temps + sunshine were calling our name and we took advantage.
Just a few of the weekend activities:
- hosted a Cinco de Mayo get together
- sold one million sandwiches
- gave the family who designed + built our house a tour
- took in an art event at a nearby park
- went to church
- attended a two-hour church meeting
- spent an afternoon chatting in the sunshine + sitting around a bonfire with some of our favorite people.
I'd say we made the most of the 2.5 days.
Day 1069 | Working for a Living
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Chase and I spent the morning selling pork sandwiches at the family grocery store for the town's thrift sale day. He was such a trooper! We labeled him Money Man as he was responsible for taking the money and giving back change. Luckily, the sandwiches were exactly a $1 so it was the perfect math challenge for him!
Plua, we got some quality time with a couple of my nieces. Woohoo!
Day 1068 | Cinco de Mayo Crafts
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We used today's holiday for extra crafting inspiration. We made these fun maracas with some friends this morning and then made cute flowers (used as pins and hair flare) with family this afternoon. I couldn't find a simple enough online tutorial so here you go instead:
A *Super Easy* Tissue Paper Flower
- Fold a full piece of tissue paper into about 5"x5" squares.
- Cut into a flower shape with rounded petals.
- Staple center of flower.
- Crinkle each individual sheet to bring the flower together.
- Hot glue a safety pin or a bobby pin onto the back of the flower to make it wearable.
It was a good day.
Day 1067 | What I've Been Working On
/I've been busy continuing my work with Mary Catherine but in my *free* time I've been working on a few fun projects on the side. Want to take a peek? See below.
A Birthday invite for Chase:
A poster for a friend's shower gift
A flier (+ logo) for a local non-profit fundraiser
Day 1066 | Reading in the Sunshine
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Another lovely spring day around here (two in a row!). How did we spend the time between school and dinner prep? Playing outside, of course. Actually, the boys played while I read a book (they also read for the few minutes it took me to snap this photo). It was amazing. I'm hoping this moment can be replicated over and over this summer, but, just in case, I did not take it for granted!
And, as luck would have it, I have a new book I'm really into. Thanks to this Book of the Month Club that I started last month, I'm reading a relatively random and fun book called Startup. A new book every month? Super fun, right?!? Big thanks to Mary Catherine for the sweet Christmas gift (that I finally redeemed).
**Side note: if you're interested in joining the Club, let me know I can send you a link to get your first book for $1.
**Side side note: no, I'm not getting paid to endorse this Club. I wish I was. ;)
Day 1065 | Tee Ball
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The sun peeked out for a brief time today so we gave Chase's new tee (thanks, Uncle Matt) it's inaugural practice session. I think we have *a bit* of work to do this summer, but I'm hopeful. These two definitely have some raw talent.
Day 1064 | A Three Year Anniversary
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It was a gloomy, cold, snowy (ok, just a teeny bit, but still!) May 1st. Two things that helped to brighten my day:
- This super sweet May Day gift from a neighbor. I'm not exactly sure which neighbor but I think I have a pretty good idea. It definitely made me and the boys smile.
- Today's the day. This adorable little blog turned three years old today. Three years and 1,064 posts later and I couldn't be happier to be sharing our daily journey with all of you.
Before I jump into my "best of" post, thank you for your support and encouragement over the years. It makes my heart happy whenever anyone makes a comment or texts or emails in response to one of my posts. As much as I continue this blog for me, it's also for all of you. Thank you.
Now, without further ado...
My favorite posts of the past year
Day 1063 | Consignment Treasures
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I've been loving hitting the local consignment stores lately. It started with the giant kids consignment sale where we found this scooter. Then, a friend and I scored some great treasures from two stores earlier this week.
Enter yesterday: Chris and I checked out this sweet little store, Spaced Out Furnishings, and we found some more great stuff. Photographed above: an awesome magazine rack, a framed watercolor Lincoln Memorial print, and...wait for it...a new typewriter! We got all of that plus a few more quality odds + ends all for about $60. What?!?
I imagine the excitement of finding the next treasure will fade eventually...just not quite yet.
Day 1062 | Date Night!!
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And loving every second. Thanks, Mom + Dad!!
Day 1061 | Thank You
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I’m going to be honest with you. As May 1st approaches (that’s this blog’s anniversary, for those not keeping track), I’ve been thinking a lot about stopping. Had I known three years (!!!) ago that I would be sinking this much time + energy into this simple blog idea I had, I might have reconsidered ever starting. But, three years and 1061 posts later, I’m happy every day to have this chronicle of such a fleeting + fast-paced time in our lives…that’s one of the reasons I started it after all.
The other main reason for starting it? I wanted a way to make people feel like they were involved in our day-to-day life even if we didn’t talk every day or if they didn’t live in DC. Now, this reason is almost more important as I’m feeling so disconnected from my DC friends lately and hope that at least by keeping tabs on me, they still feel included in my life.
So, having said all that, I was still *just about* to call it quits. I’m burned out. Chris is tired of asking me if I did my post for the night. The boys are probably tired of all the photos…although they’ve been shockingly good sports all along.
Then, I wrote this post. You remember the one…about Miles starting speech therapy. This post triggered such a sweet, loving, + emotional response from several of my dear friends that I realized I still need to share. Parenting isn’t all about the smiling photos. It’s hard stuff and if any of my posts make even one person feel inspired or connected or comforted, than it’s worth it.
Thank you to everyone that reached out after the speech therapy post. It was a tough one to write but the outpouring of love + kind words (plus admissions of everyone else’s mom challenges) warmed my heart and renewed my motivation to keep on keepin’ on.
p.s. We also went to a water park today. See photo above. It was pretty great. That is all.
Day 1060 | Game Night
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Chris and I have been pretty into game night lately. It stated with the game Forbidden Island (which we play as a team so no one loses!) and then last weekend I picked up Rummikub from the consignment sale.
If you have to be locked in every night after 8pm, game nights are the best!
Day 1059 | Making Masks
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Top-left: That's Robbe tracing his own eye holes, in case that's not apparent.
For the record, I would have never guessed how much of my time at 33 would involve crafting various superhero masks.
Day 1058 | Burley to the Rescue
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This relatively spontaneous purchase back in the fall was about the best thing that's ever happened to me. No seriously. If our neighbors hadn't randomly asked if we wanted to buy their Burley, I don't think the idea would have dawned on me. I would have been left trying to figure out how to maneuver a double stroller through the snow + ice + slush, not to mention figure out how to keep the boys warm, and would have, inevitably, had to give up.
As it turned out, I was able to walk to Chase's school (only about .6 miles away) every single day over the winter. The bitter cold + wind, the freezing rain, the piles + piles of snow...nothing could hold us back. After all, the boys were warm and cozy so they weren't complaining at all.
Fast forward to slightly warmer temps of late and yet again the Burley continues to come in handy. I can walk with it in the rain, too! Our old rain cover only covered one of the stroller seats. Now I've got no excuse not to don my raincoat and walk through the spring raindrops. I have realized, however, if this is going to be a regular occurrence, I should probably invest in some rain boots. Noted.
Day 1057 | Mittens
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This is what our little nugget has been wearing to bed (and naps!) for about five weeks to stop the sleep-induced thumb sucking. Crazy or crazy awesome? You decide.
Day 1056 | Burley Boys are Back
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Chris tuned up the 'ol bikes and Burley (after an intense winter) for our first family bike ride through the sunshine today. It was just perfect.
