Ha

This is the longest I have ever gone without posting. I was toying with the idea of quitting blogging. But then I realize that I need this space. I need a place to ramble on about my kids and post pictures of our fun adventures and vent about my worries and stresses. I'm back, my friends.

I'll have to do a random bullet point post to do a quick catch up.

• We did our first 'real' family vacation in September. With another family, we rented a house on the cape for a long weekend. It was wonderful. We usually use our vacation time to visit family or stay home and do projects, and this trip made it apparent that we need to get away more often. The kids had a BLAST and it was a perfect weekend.
• I turned 38 on September 18th... and had a perfect day. I took the day off work, was woken up by two sweet kids that were VERY excited to give me presents, I spent the morning at a spa and the afternoon shopping. Alone. And then shared the evening with friends and had cake.
• The fall has gotten us back into the swing of things - school is back to normal, and the kids have started new activities. Cam is old enough for town soccer and Aaron is coaching. Maggie is taking dance class (which I swore she would never do, but she is LOVING it).
• One of the reasons I swore we wouldn't do dance is just because it's only taught during the week when I'm working. But I have a friend with 3 girls around Maggie's age, and she was willing to take Maggie. Now it's Maggie special thing, and she LOVES it.
• We've also started up at church again (we are Unitarian Universalists, and we really don't have formal church in the summer) and both Cam and Maggie have joined the Children's Choir. Maggie was all in Day 1, Cam took more convincing and still isn't 100% sure he wants to sing in front of the whole church. But the woman in charge is smart - she gives out cupcakes at the end of practice. After a couple of weeks of watching Maggie get a cupcake while he didn't.... all of a sudden Cam was interested in singing.
• I ran the Craft Table at our annual church fair again and it was a big success. It's a lot of work, but I'm glad that it's taken off. In year's past, the craft table barely made $200. The past 2 years, we've got it over $1000.
• I have of course already figured out the plan for the kids birthday parties and ordered invites. Cam wanted to have a small party at the house. So Aaron is planning a whole Ninja Training day with his very best buddies at our house - which will be the Saturday after his actual birthday. I usually invite a few neighbors over on his actual birthday for pizza dinner. I realized that we now are friends with so many neighbors - that if I only invite the people within walking distance, it's 13 kids plus their parents. So I got the genius idea to call the nearby McDonald's (they have a playspace) and see if they still do birthday parties. I know to an adult it sounds lame - but to a 5 year old? Heaven! I still remember going to a McDonald's birthday party when I was a kid. I loved it.Turns out not only do they do parties, but they give you 'minimal decorations, a cake, 8 Happy Meals and a little gift bag" for a VERY reasonable price! 
• So yes, Cam is basically having two birthday parties. Whatever. I think it's awesome.
• And Maggie will be having a petting zoo and a pony for her party. Which will blow her mind.
• We went to a birthday party this weekend at the most amazing place. It was for my niece, and it was an hour drive - but WOW. Only downfall was that they had a game where you can win betta fish. And guess who won? Both my kids! Yippee. So I had to go and spend $100 to get fish tanks for the free fish. But I'm fine with it. I feel like fish are a right of passage to some degree.

OK - that is about everything I have to share that I can in quick blurbs. I promise to post more regularly! 

Party Girl

I'm the girl that gets people together. I plan parties, play dates, and love it when people drop by. I love to see people having fun, I love to have big groups of friends together, and I'm always scheduling the next party. It started before we had kids - Aaron and I would have weekend BBQs 'just because' and at least 2 times a week would have friends over for dinner. Now that we have kids, things need to be a bit more organized AND the get togethers tend to be more hectic. But I love it.

It's been a stressful month for no more reason than I personally felt stressed over small things... so when Labor Day weekend was approaching, I had nothing planned. Not really like me. But then, we started getting invitations. People I've randomly invited to a BBQ, a birthday party, our block party, our Halloween party - they are all having get togethers this weekend, and we are invited. To 4 parties over three days.

I think this is awesome for many reasons. First, I honestly think that people are a lot more 'me' focused. When I was a kid, I feel like it was much more often that we would be at an impromptu dinner or movie night or BBQ than we see now. People are too busy or too scheduled or just to wrapped up in themselves to just have time to socialize like we used to. So when people invite us over - I feel like they are reaching out of the 'norm' and their 'shell', and it makes me happy. Last weekend, when Aaron was away, we were asked to dinner at a friends house - I thought I was being smart when I promised that we would stay until it was bed time for the kids at that house. Turns out it was movie night and they were planning on staying up until at least 9 watching Epic. I looked at the parents, and was like - do you play cards?! And we sat down, I taught them my favorite card game (pounce) and we had a wonderful night!

Also - each of the parties we are going to this weekend are all with different groups of friends, so I'm going to get to hang out with a bunch of people I like and rarely get to see. My final party observation? I feel like sometimes, people just don't do get togethers because they seem like a lot of work. And honestly? Sending an invite out to a party is really putting yourself out there! Insecurities abound - what if no one shows up? What if they get here and they don't like my house/food/kids/dog?!  What if no one has fun?

So, whenever I get invited to a party (if possible, of course) we go. And we always have fun.

But it means that I'm going to 4 parties where I have to supply a side dish! Thankfully, my CSA is overproducing the most delicious Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes. (side note - if you only have space for one tomato plant in your yard - it should be this one. Most. Perfect. Tomato.) I'm pretty sure that I have eaten about a 1/2 a pound of these suckers a day since they started producing.... and I'm often turning them into a real lunch by just cutting them in half and mixing them up with chickpeas, goat cheese, balsamic vinegar and basil. So I thought, if I added some orzo to that - it would be an amazing pasta salad! I'll report back if it's a success (it had better be - I'm going to make like 10 pounds of it, lol).

Catch up

I haven't posted in ages. I'm mostly a bit overwhelmed with drama. Not even major drama. Just wishing that the people in my family were less dramatic about everything. When I tell the stories to people, it doesn't even seem all that bad - but it's the constant, nagging drama that has built up to drive me nuts.

BUT.

In between drama sessions with various family members - we've continued to have a great summer.

• The kids LOVED the drive in movie. Maggie continues to say 'Momma! Remember? That one time? When we saw the movie on the BIG screen (insert big arm gesture here) UNDER THE STARS?
• We also had some amazing weather in Nantucket - and got to spend a lot of time on the beach. Cam, who used to be afraid of the water - was having a blast being tossed around in the waves! Aaron even taught him how to boogie board.
• I made a whole plan to swim at another pool with some friends, only to find out - the first time we met to swim, that they are ALSO closed for two weeks for maintenance. I figured, OK, I'll just swim once a week on Saturday's (at a different pool) and what do you think I then find out? Yup. That pool is also closed for two weeks. So I'm into a new plan with a guy at work who does triathlons. We are going to swim at a local lake during lunch and just smell like pond water for the afternoon.
• In other swimming news, I won my age group in a race this weekend. It happens to be the New England Masters Long Distance Swimming Championship, so I'm a champion. You may prefer to call me Her Supreme Swimness. I'll answer to either.
• Aaron is away for along weekend with his friends, so I had a lot of fun with the gang. They came with me to the swim race (along with Suzanne) and we had a fun day with a nice picnic. Sunday, Cam spent the day with a friend at Davis Farmland and Maggie and I got some one on one time at the local 4H fair.
• But two kids, alone, even with a lot of help is a lot of work! Hats off to you that do it a heck of a lot more than I do.

Friday Night Leftovers

• Maggie has had a week of sickness - I feel so bad for her. She had the stomach issues late last week, and then the cold, which then triggered an ear infection. Although she's finally on the mend now.
• We had plans to go to the Bolton Fair on Thursday - we have made it a tradition to go the opening night. We go and buy bands for the kids to let them go on as many rides as they want, but a lot of the other things aren't open yet. Since Maggie was still complaining of an earache, and there was a 50% chance of rain, so we decided to go on Saturday instead. It will be a lot more crowded, but more things to see. And thankfully, the weather looks like it'll be beautiful.
• Sunday we are headed to the cabin, as my mom is going to watch the kids while I work on Monday/Tuesday.
• I looked and found out that the drive in theater near my mom is playing Planes this weekend! So I'm going to brave the potential disaster of the kids staying up super late, and take them to their first drive in movie! I'm even going to take Aaron's truck instead of my car, so we can do it all out - by backing the truck up, throwing in folding chairs, blankets and citronella candles. I'm excited. And nervous.
• I'm also a little nervous about having my mom watch the kids Mon/Tuesday as there was a lot of drama last visit.
• The pool that my swim team uses closes down for a month starting this weekend. I'm still totally on track for swimming 200 miles by the end of the year, but it's so much less fun to swim alone. I'm at 120 miles. I love swimming, but I think if I didn't have my 200 mile goal, it would be so easy to slack off without my teammates to be accountable to.
• I've already started planning the kids birthday parties. Only 3 months ahead of time.
• Oh! And I also started doing bento boxes for the kids. Super fun, and surprisingly easy! I'm excited to hear if the kids eat everything I made them today. I did a 'normal' lunch (grapes, sandwiches, a hard boiled egg, and a bag of gummies), but I made them using super cute cutters, and then packed them in a fun new lunch box. Then added cute little food picks. I'm hoping this will lead to more lunch getting eaten, and getting away from some of the reliance we started having on using lunchables (bows head in shame).

Random

So many random things this week.

Maggie recovered really quickly from that stomach bug, but now has a cold. Which means sometime in the not so distant future, I will also have a cold. Blech. We took a trip to the zoo and also found a local, public swimming pool! Free! Totally free, you don't have to prove that you live in the town it's in - and even free parking. I'm happy.

Suzanne, my children's favorite grown up, has been hanging out with the kids for the past two days. I love it that they love her. Because I love her. And she doesn't have kids, and it's great to share mine with her. They went to see Turbo yesterday (along with other adventures) and today are at the Museum of Science.

I'm starting to plan the kids birthday parties. Yes. 5 months in advance. But I'm looking to go a little smaller scale this year and hoping to save some money. So trying to schedule things that book up quickly (maybe have a pony come to our house for pony rides!) and find easy things to do at my house.

Smaller scale and money savings because we are considering a REAL vacation this year. At first we thought maybe Disney - but as we aren't planning on going more than once we are going to hold off until next year when Maggie is 5 and Cam is six. So we are thinking of a tropical vacation! In March! You people have no idea. Aaron is NOT a tropical vacation sort of guy, but his family is renting a house in Mexico for a full month, and has invited everyone to sign up for a week. The house is right on the beach, but also has a pool.

This week is the last week my swim team practices for a full month. The pool completely shuts down for about 6 weeks. So I'm trying to get a few women together to meet with me at a different pool so I don't loose my momentum. I've been swimming consistently for over14 months now! A month off seems insane.

The weather here has been completely amazing this week. Low humidity, cool nights... heaven.

This month's plan for child care has the kids out of daycare Monday/Tuesday (hence Suzanne hanging out with them yesterday and today). So this weekend, I'm headed up to my mother's on Sunday so she can watch the kids while I work remotely Monday and Tuesday. We will see how it goes. Things were a little rough last time she watched them - nothing bad with the kids, just that it was hard for her (and she won't admit it) and hard for me (because she is insanely negative).

Friday Night Leftovers

• This was quiet a week. It was the last week for a big part of my office. Many are relocating, and a few are taking the severance package. I'm assuming I'm headed the same way within the next year, but for now, I'm working in a very empty office. It's sad.
• But it meant that this week was filled with goodbyes and taking friends out to lunch. Blech.
• Also, my swim team practices were canceled all week due to an 'incident' in the pool. So I haven't gotten to work out this week - and it's made me tired! Which is pretty interesting, actually.
• Maggie's tummy has been out of sorts all week, and when she woke up this morning, she kept telling me she was going to throw up. Of course, I didn't believe her. Got everyone all set in the car and we were on our way to school - what do you think happened? Puke everywhere.
• She's been home with me sleeping all day. I had forgotten that she sleeps with her eyes open. It's creepy!
• Tonight I'm hosting another Lia Sophia party. I hope it's as much fun as the first one I had!
• Praying that Maggie feels better quickly so we aren't housebound all weekend.

Tye Dye Party

The tye dye party this weekend was a HUGE hit! Here are the kids VERY happily wearing a few of the finished products:

I want to share with everyone how we did it, because it went off really well, and was fun for everyone. It's a great summer party idea. I will say that most of my parties end up being super fun because I've got a great group of friends nearby with children in the same age group.

No matter what the party, I usually tell everyone that I am providing x (for this party it was Mai Tais for the grownups) and to please bring a snack/side dish to share. Since this party was also a tye-dye party, I asked for people to kick in to pay for the dye, and I offered to do a group buy for shirts and have people reimburse me. I found an awesome place to get tie dye here. They have group kits, so I used that as a starter and got a few more colors to add to the mix.

We had 19 kids, and everything went totally smoothly. Here are my tips:

• Mix the dye (and with kids this little, we only had the grown ups touch the dye.) and soak the shirts in the soda ash ahead of time.
• I had a table where the kids could do the tying (we used elastic bands) and only showed them 4 easy ways to tie (great tutorial here. I showed the spiral, the bulls eye, the fan and the little circles.). I didn't get all complicated.
• Aaron sat right next the table with the dyes - the kids would direct him which colors and where on the shirt to put it.
• The rest of the night, the kids ran around and just had a blast. We ended up ordering pizza and playing until we got rained out.
• I let the shirts sit for 24 hours and then had a friend help me rinse all the dye out (omg this took forever). Then we used the detergent that they included in the kit, and the shirts were done.
• I delivered them right away so the kids would still be excited about them, and I've been getting the cutest pictures all morning of everyone wearing the shirts!

For next time, I may change a few things:

• Have this party earlier in the summer, so the kids have longer to actually wear the shirts!
• Get more detergent, and send each family home with their own shirts to rinse. That was a bit too much work after also hosting the party.
• I would mix up about 50% less dye in the beginning. I ended up throwing a lot of mixed dye away because it loses it's potency after time.
• And I will buy orange instead of trying to mix it myself. It's my son's favorite color and I didn't really get a true orange myself.

Now to have an 'after-dye' party so we can get a picture of everyone wearing the shirts!