Homew.ood Suites… God’s gift to parents who want to travel easily. I can’t believe we didn’t think of this sooner. Separate bedroom, Die.t Pep.si in the fridge, wine, beer, fresh baked pizza, and HAPPY kids. What a treat!
(See you tomorrow, Steph!)
Category Archives: Matthew
School Has Begun For Matthew…
… Thank GOD! I think all three of us let out a collective sigh last night as we got clothes laid out and the backpack ready. Matthew has been going to preschool since he was 2, so this was just another rung on the ladder for us. After 2 years of preschool and 2 summers full of camps every-other-week, he was ready to be back at school. It was exciting, but uneventful, just how I like it!
Matthew insisted on having a fire truck shirt for the first day of school, so I headed off to Ga.p last week to get the one that he liked after he asked for it three times (he’s very flakey right now and really doesn’t care too much about clothes, and I wanted to be sure so I asked him over and over again for days). It was a big win… until he got his “Food Truck Shirt” (truly, it has food trucks on it and he is fascinated by food trucks). This morning, he said no to the fire truck shirt and asked for his food truck shirt, but it was literally in the washer so that was a no. He’ll wear it tomorrow.
How cute is this shirt???
Hottie was out-of-town on a work trip (my fault, I forgot to put the first day of school on his calendar) so it was just the boys and me this morning. Matthew does not like having his picture taken – he’s told me so several times – so I asked him to please smile for 5 pictures and then we’d go get a donut before school. He didn’t know that the donut was happening no matter what, so he obliged! Bryson wanted to sit on the porch with Matthew for every picture, and Matthew was perfectly fine with that and even asked him to help him hold up his sign. Bryson was NOT happy about Matthew leaving. He would not smile for me and just looked so sad the whole time. I didn’t read into it, I thought he was just a bit tired.
We headed off for donuts and that was fun – and FAST! Matthew is as neat as a pin, so Bryson lapped him on the donut consumption but we had plenty of time for him to take his sweet time eating (like his dad!). Sprinkle donuts for both boys!
He can’t keep up with Bryson (who eats fast like me)!
He gave me a free smile!
We got to school too early and had to hang out outside his classroom. Matthew was so excited, he could not wait to get in there! We took a few extra pictures before heading in to the cubbies. It was fun watching Matthew welcome and hug his old friends and make new friends instantly. The kid is a master at introducing himself and asking his friends their names and then asking them something about themselves. He truly amazes me every day with his friendly, outgoing personality! Bryson didn’t want to leave his brother’s side and I should have known it was going to be rough when we had to leave.
It was finally, finally, time to go into the classroom so he ran in, washed his hands, grabbed his name tag, and kissed me goodbye. “Bye, Mom! I love you!” That was it… with Matthew. Bryson did not want to leave and I had to tear him out of there. He was kicking and screaming the whole way to the car and then several miles down the road. “Don’t take me, don’t take me, MOM. I want Matthew! I want to play with school toys with Matthew. Go back, go back NOW!” It was the worst melt-down he’s ever had, which isn’t really saying much because neither of my kids completely freak out very often, but it was definitely a melt-down. It was not good.
We ran errands, Bryson played at the mall play area, and it was time to go back to school (short days to ease them into it this week). I left Bryson in the car – I did not want a repeat of the freak-out – and went in to get my big kid. Matthew came running out, said he had a great day, said he didn’t get in trouble (yes, I asked), and asked for his brother. I reunited them in the parking lot and all was right in the world. 🙂
Upon our arrival home after the park and lunch, we noticed that the neighbor’s dumpster was being picked up by a dumpster truck, so of course we had to watch that before calling it a morning/afternoon and heading to naps and quiet time. You don’t see a dumpster truck every day 😉
It was a great first day!
Bryson’s first day is Thursday. I am expecting full cooperation and excitement. We shall see…
Cross Training
We have a fantastic trail system in our community. Finding a trail to bike or run is never, EVER a problem here. The state has been working hard on expanding our “rails to trails” system and we have a very cool one just 20 minutes from our house. We have said for years that we need to go and check it out.
Yesterday, my good friend, Emily, asked if I wanted to run it with her. I suggested we bike so that Hottie and the boys could come too. We prepped the bikes, got the kids loaded, picked up Emily with her bike, and drove 20 minutes to the trailhead. And it started to storm. Ha! So much for “no precip for 110 minutes.”
We went to dinner, left the bikes on the rack, put the car in the garage, and had Emily stay the night. We stayed up late and watched a hilariously bad movie… Just like old times!
Bryson woke up at 6:20 so we went for a 5.5 mile run while the house slept. Hottie went for a run when we got back because Matthew wasn’t up yet. Once he was home, Matthew was up and the boys were fed, so we headed out once again to the trailhead.
This time, nothing but sunshine!
I volunteered to tow the boys in the Burley for the first time ever. That was easy, until it wasn’t on the way back with an insane head wind… But it was fun! They did great and we were biking for a little over an hour and went 10.4 miles.
It was worth the wait. The trail was beautiful and the bridge was, well, FANTASTIC!!! It was breathtaking, actually!
And I finally got some cross training in!
It’s a Shit Show
Night one of the family trip, and my dad scheduled the big, fancy, 6-course restaurant for the night of arrival. In his defense, it’s the only night it’s open while we’re on property, but in my defense, I told him my 2 and 4 year old couldn’t handle a 2+ hour dinner.
No one cares what I say. So we went.
My boys were all over the dance floor and I was told by the staff they couldn’t go out there anymore. Ok. I get it. Fair enough. Then my dad told me to get Bryson under control once, then twice.
So I left with both boys. I told Hottie to stay so that we don’t hear about the money we wasted by leaving. He knew I was right, that was best. He went back to drink my wine and eat his dinner (my dad said they’d box mine up. Ummm… No thank you.)
The boys and I are in the suite, eating 5 star cookies for dinner. I told them it was a “fuck it dinner,” and they obliged. Ha! 😉 I even had Matthew say, “it’s a fuck it dinner!”
Honestly…. I think we’re the winners.
All tension gone. The fine clothing is hung back up, and we’re being real.
How’s that for getting my kids under control? 😉
Added bonus, this way of traveling and eating is totally keeping my calories in line. 6 course meal starting with pork belly (yuck!) or one cookie?
Wordless Wednesday – Boys and Sticks!
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Happy 4th Weekend!
We had a darn good weekend! Hottie had Friday off so we kicked off our Independence Day festivities a day early. The weather was perfect and the kids were on their best behavior (until they weren’t, but that was rare), so we really maximized the outdoor family time.
On Friday, Matthew had camp and Bryson had a strange rash, so Hottie dropped Bryson and me off at the pediatrician on his way to drop Matthew off at camp. I took the running stroller with me and dressed appropriately to just run home from there, but I felt guilty about ditching Hottie on his day off when I know he loves nothing more than getting a coffee together 😉 The doctor was super efficient for walk-in hours (grass mites – who knew?) and we were done before Hottie was back. We ran a bit while we waited for him to pick us up. We ended up getting drive-thru coffee and some donut holes for Bryson and then Hottie drove us to a trailhead and we ran home from there. Our community does an amazing job with linking up all suburban trail systems, so I was able to run 5 miles back to our house without having to cross busy street without an overpass or underground tunnel. It was a beautiful run!
We picked Matthew up with Ji.mmy Joh.ns in the car waiting for him and headed to the park. The kids played, we stood and ate, and I got some super cute pictures of them in the covered bridge and along the creek. It was a great way to spend the morning before naps! Naps HAPPENED for 2+ hours so I mowed the lawn and Hottie washed our cars. We had our favorite dinner as a family (curry bison burgers which Bryson gobbled his up while Matthew ate leftover salmon from the night before) and then we went out for ice cream. Baths happened on time and Bryson was in bed by 8:20. Matthew and Hottie camped out in the backyard, leaving me to myself to make this AMAZING brussels sprout salad and this sparkler cake for the next day. I finally dyed cake batter, which I’ve never done before, and it was super cute. I did not take a single picture of my cake, but it looked just like the one below without the thin sliced strawberries on top. The layers were blue, red, and blue and I added fresh blueberries to the frosting between the bottom and middle layers, and fresh strawberries to the frosting between the middle and top layers. I’ll be making it again next year! I’ll be making the brussels sprouts salad again next week! After cooking, I sat in bed and spent some much needed alone-time while everyone slept – it was wonderful!
Saturday started EARLY… at 3:45 AM. HA! I woke to the sound of a door opening and a bunch of “Shhhh.. they’re sleeping.” It got too cold outside for the boys so they headed inside to sleep in Matthew’s bed together. CUTENESS! Bryson then woke up at 6:05 and snuggled into bed with me for his morning “Ogurt.” I gave the boys until 7:00 to wake up but no luck, so Bryson and I went for a nice 5 mile run. We arrived home about 5 minutes after the guys woke up so we all got ready together and headed for the parade. WHAT FUN THAT WAS! I was the official candy collector (of the candy that didn’t get picked by the kids = tootsie rolls) and Bryson was the official candy taster. We saw lots of politicians due to Iowa being the first state in the nation to vote in the primaries (ick) and a lot of fun trucks. Success! The candy was mostly mediocre and that reminds me I need to toss it out now that everyone’s asleep. HA!
We had lunch and then naps… well, Bryson had a nap. Matthew tried to sleep but couldn’t, so he got to help me finish prepping food for our dinner family playdate with some new friends. The cake was a hit (the twin boys kept tasting the frosting and put the cutest finger prints in the side of the cake – making it obvious that Landon is the lefty and Andrew is the righty!), we learned that children need to be taught not to hold their friends under water (I shudder when I think of all the times we’ve stepped out of the bathroom with the boys in the tub together – they don’t understand that dunking is not a good idea even if the other kid likes it), and Matthew had a really great time with one of the boys. Bryson kept to himself but came out of his shell when he got in the pool (clothes on) and hit it off with Landon who is more docile than Matthew and Andrew. HA!
We headed home to grab some things for fireworks and headed to the park by 8:30. This is when our day went from great to horrible in an instant. We got tickets for the bounce house and let both boys go in. We kept checking on them, keeping a close eye on the exit. I saw Matthew at one end so I headed back to the exit where I met up with Hottie who had just seen Bryson on the other end of the bounce house. Hottie asked where Matthew was, I said just on the other end, he looked, and… no Matthew. He was gone. I wasn’t too concerned at first – there’s no way he could have gotten far. Wrong. He was nowhere in sight. NOWHERE. Hottie took off to look for him as I loaded Bryson in the wagon and asked some moms to keep an eye out for him. As I panned the area over and over again, I started to panic. This hadn’t happened before – not like this. There was a sea of people and Matthew was not amongst any of them. When I realized that he was not in the section of the park that I was in, I looked for a city festival worker to help me. When he asked me what Matthew was wearing, I fell apart. I mean – I sobbed, started to hyperventilate, and then almost threw up. The guy called the police right away to help and I heard him put out the alert on the walkie talkie that a 4 year old boy named Matthew was missing. JESUS. He assured me that this had happened many times earlier in the day and that the kids are always found. I nodded, fighting back tears (I remember blinking back tears, trying to nod confidently, and biting my lower lip.. oh, the lower lip is my tell), but it was getting dark. This was different. He told me to come back to where we were after a bit of looking and he was off like a shot rounding people up to look for him. I decided to cross the road into the other part of the park (the bigger, scarier, too-close-to-the-road part of the park) when I heard Brian yelling for me. He had him. He had him in his arms. Matthew had slipped out of the bounce house, thought that WE were lost because we weren’t there, and decided to find us.
“I got out of the bounce house and you were lost. I went to find you because you were lost. I found another Mommy (this is what we’ve taught him to do – yay!) and said, “I can’t find my daddy, he’s lost. Do you know where he is? I need help.” She picked me up and held me until daddy came. She was nice. She had on green (correct) and was eating popcorn.”
I don’t think I’ve cried happy tears like I did last night – total relief! Seriously, at one point, I thought to myself, “he’s gone. GONE. He is GONE!” He asked if I was mad and of course I wasn’t. I then had to call off the search, thank everyone for their help, and go and meet this woman who picked up my kid and kept him safe for us until we found him. All of that was done through tears and nervous smiles. The festival guy said, “this is the 10th one today, and we’re still 100%. I know it’s scary, but it will happen again.” He was a rock – he was just the right person for me at that time. Amazingly, this all only lasted between 5 and 10 minutes. It felt like a lifetime.
With the drama behind us, we went “back to the car where we will wait for fireworks” (Hottie’s words). Hottie came prepared with a picnic blanket, camp chairs, bubble blowers, glow sticks, etc. so there was no shortage of things to do. Matthew stayed right next to one of us at all times – he had to be touching us at all times once we were back at the picnic blanket. We obliged, and quite happily. Fireworks started, they went on forever, Bryson and I packed up our stuff (he lost interest in the fireworks quickly), and we were out of there. The kids fell asleep on the way home and transferred into bed without a peep. Hottie and I sat up together, equally relieved and happy to be home with both boys safely in their beds, and watched a movie until 1:00 AM. It was… perfect!
Today, Sunday, was another beautiful day but I didn’t run. Instead, Hottie got up with Bryson 6:05 (AGAIN) and I went into Matthew’s room to sleep in with him – we got up at 8:00 (that is WAY late for me!). We tooled around the house, made breakfast hot dogs for the kids, and took a family shower before we went out for a late breakfast/brunch. Bryson fell asleep on the way home with his sunnies on his forehead and was tossed in the crib while Hottie and Matthew did some “house projects” together for a little bit (sanding and re-staining wood windows). At 1:50, I called it nap time and I crawled into bed with Matthew and slept with him until 4:15. It was …. wonderful. Hottie got more windows done while we all slept and then he made the boys’ favorite dinner, which Matthew thanked him for over and over and over again! We went out for ice cream (again) and then the boys had baths and went to bed. My first order of business was to order these disposable ID wrist bands and Road ID tags for the boys’ shoes. Done and done. And here I am, with a sleeping Hottie beside me and my laptop right where it belongs before heading off to bed myself.
Great weekend – even with the scare of our lives!
Happy 2 & 4!
Yesterday and today are all about birthdays! Matthew turned 4 yesterday at 11:54 AM as we ate lunch with Hottie, and Bryson turned 2 today at 8:03 as we decorated his cake!
These boys are full of spunk and energy and I think the next year is going to be exhausting! But I KNOW it’s going to be great!!!
Happy birthday, sweet (and naughty 😈) boys of mine! We love you both so very much!!!
Birthday Party 2015!
The party is over.
Whew!
It was a busy day starting with lawn and yard work at 7:00 sharp before a quick shower and errands. I love a freshly mowed lawn, especially for the kids to play in! Everything was tip top in the yard by 8:15 and I had 45 minutes to shower and dress before picking up cupcakes. Hottie fixed the shower heads so I took my time, enjoying his hard work to make my showers relaxing (rather than painful from too much pressure). I love my rare showers without kids in there with me. 😁
Hottie took the kids to the store for buns, and to just get them out of my hair so I could wrap everything up the way I wanted them. He knows me so well! The cupcakes were ready on time so I got home quickly to construct the cake.
Decorating the cake was, in a word, FUN! It turned out just as I wanted and I finished it right before the boys walked in. They loved it! And then they asked for their donuts. Ha!
We got all of the serving dishes out last night so we were really in a good place by 10:00. The cupcake toppers were on and the cupcakes were on their serving plates and platters, the cake was ready and safe from little fingers, and the banner and door sign were hung. We just needed the food to arrive.
10:30 came, and 10:30 went, and we had no food. No one was answering their phones so I was a bit panicked. Did I forget to verify the date on the quote? A quick check confirmed the date was correct. Whew! At 10:50, they called to say they were close. They arrived at 11:05. The party started at 11:00. But they were very efficient at setting it up and the food was ready by 11:10. Not bad considering the 35 minute delay!
Everyone but one family came, so we had 33 people including us. That’s small for us… Most of those people were family. It was a really good sized group. Manageable. The bounce house was setup out back, t-ball was ready in one part of the yard, basketballs were out by the court, and a water table was fresh and clean in the adult seating section. It was an outdoor haven for the kids. Inside, the kids played in the cool (I mean temperature!) basement and left the adults upstairs to eat and visit. Over half of the food was consumed and only two bottles of wine were drunk (and no beer… that surprised me).
The birthday song was sung at 12:05 (goal was noon) and the house was empty by 1:06 (goal was 1:00). The house was clean by 2:45 and the kids were napping by 3:00. And then I headed off to a friend’s son’s birthday… Because one party wasn’t enough for me. Ha!
The only pictures I took are here. We have some of the boys blowing out candles on the SLR, but they’re not that great. Ugh!
It was fun, but I’m glad it’s done!
Almost Ready!
My cakes are baked and leveled, my chocolate graham crackers are pulverized into “dirt,” my fondant decorations are hardening, my chocolate for the frosting is chopped, and my raspberries for the filling are thawing. I’m in a good place with this birthday party right now! I can’t construct my construction cake until the boys are in bed, for obvious reasons.
So now I focus on dinner… after I rest!
(I got distracted while writing Matthews name on the yellow “sign” so I made a new one. It was still drying, so I used the messed up one for the layout diagram.)
Party Re-Vamp
I’m exhausted. My kids hardly give me a moment of peace these days. If Bryson falls asleep to nap, Matthew fights his for an hour. By the time Matthew is asleep, I get about 20 minutes to myself before Bryson wakes up (too early). Today, Matthew fell right asleep and Bryson fought it and fought it, screaming and screaming, sending tension through my shoulders.
I just want to make their damn birthday cake, but by the time they’re both asleep, I’m only left 20 minutes and honestly, I’d rather just sit, dammit.
I had these grand (well, not really that grand) plans and now I’ve hired it all out. I’m not even kidding.
Food? Being catered. By the time we buy everything I need to cook what I want to cook, it costs the same. Then add in the time to prep and cook and my head was spinning. My favorite place is catering the party with chicken skewer pita sandwiches with Gyro sauce and veggies (build your own). They’re also bringing their amazing hummus (it’s ridiculous). Done.
Cake? I’m only making the top tier for them to blow out candles. I’ll be making white cake for their real birthdays on Wednesday and Thursday, so why make a whole other white cake now when I was always planning on having cupcakes in addition to the cake? Stupid. I don’t want a lot of cake left over like last year (really, I would like that, but my ass wouldn’t). So I will just be making the top chocolate part of this little masterpiece (?) and will put some little fondant signs on the sides, make some fondant cones, whatever. I can do those things late at night without making noise, and working with fondant relaxes me (isn’t that weird?). They will blow out their candles and they will like it. Then they will eat cupcakes (they don’t even like chocolate cake, but the digger can’t dig up white dirt!). I’ll be making the awesome raspberry chocolate cake I made for Hottie last year for his birthday. I’m ordering 4 dozen cupcakes for this party and the guests – we’ll keep the chocolate cake for us once candles are blown out. Done.
(After inserting that picture, I’m feeling guilty about not doing the whole damn cake. Hmmmm… we’ll see. No, we won’t see. I’m just doing the top tier, dammit!)
Party favors? Purchased as planned. They are cute, they smell good, and they sent them in the bigger bags I requested so I can add something to the bag. But what to add is the question. I don’t want to put any food in there because it will absorb the soap smell. I wasn’t thinking on that one. I may just leave them with just the soap and call it a day. Yes, that sounds good. Done.
Decorations? Purchased as planned! They arrived the other day and they are just perfect. I wanted these same decorations and theme last year for Matthew’s birthday but hopped on the Cur.ious Geor.ge theme because I knew he’d outgrow it by now (and he did), so I put this on the back burner. Good thing I did, because this theme is perfect for the two boys who play trucks and construction site all day long together. The banner, door hanging, and toppers look as great as, even better than, the photos. Done.
I am doing purchasing/hiring out just enough to make it look like I know what I’m doing. I do know what I’m doing, I’m just burned out beyond belief and don’t want to work on party supplies, cakes, and favors this year. I just don’t. I’d rather use my limited free time to sit at my computer and hammer out a few posts on my blog (loser!). I told Hottie today via text that I feel like a bad mom for not wanting to work on this. He said, “No need to feel terrible. They’ll love the party just the same.”
He’s right, they will love it no matter what, and Matthew keeps saying that he doesn’t even want a birthday, so who cares if he doesn’t love it!
All the Sun For You 