Life Lately via iPhone

Hello! April has been a crazy up and down month in terms of weather and also schedule-wise. Does it ever slow down? Haha, no. A lot has been going on and it's been tough to find time to post the fun stuff! That being said, here's some of my favorite pics from my phone from the last half of March/first half of April.

A few notable happenings: We celebrated Joe's birthday with homemade cake, some small gifts, and of course, a trip to Kyoto (in Eagan, not Japan). Also, while I was in Chicago a couple weeks ago, I got to visit sweet baby Evelyn and got a couple pics with her. The girls and I have been enjoying play dates, cozy time at home when the weather hasn't been good or my motivation level hasn't been high, and also solid outdoors time.

As you can see, we have been enjoying the weather this week as much as possible, averaging about two playgrounds a day, plus another activity, and then just hanging out in our yard. This spring weather has not arrived a moment too soon. It's amazing how good it feels inhale the fresh air and feel the springtime sunshine (and wrestling resistant kids into jackets and hats!).

Even if you're feeling like things are crazy too, I hope all of this fresh air and sunshine is helping you to also feel energized and refreshed and ready to tackle life. I'm also hoping my next post won't be quite so far away! ; )

Inching closer to spring!

Hi, all! We are inching closer to springtime and that's what continues to inspire me to get out of bed and join the world every day. That and lots of fun upcoming events (like Cece's dance recital this weekend!). Here are a few other phone-captured things we have been up to lately.

I've mentioned this before, but I still feel like a substantial amount of my time is being spent trapped beneath a sleeping baby (or at least a fiercely snuggling one). I should probably stop referring to Rosie as a baby since she will be two next month. (WHOA.) The snuggles sure make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it sure is hard to get motivated to,like, pack up the kids in the 10 degree weather and head to the gym when you can just be all cozy on the sofa .

Can't resist throwing in a shot of my V-Day mani. Over the top or just enough?

Last week, I joined Cece for her Valentine's Day party at school last week. So fun! The parent helpers and myself assisted in games, treats, and card creation. It was a solid morning!

Instead of doing Valentine's Day cards, we melted all of Cece's old and broken crayons into 24 multi-colored hearts and passed those out to her classmates (complete with complicated ribbons and wrapping per request of Cece.) I'm so glad we did this as it now has emptied that container of old crayons that was bothering me since no one wanted to use them!

We've been back to Good Times Park a bit lately too for the indoor fun of it all. (Always best to go not on the weekends.) We were joined by the Olsons this morning and the girls (as usual) loved bouncing, building, playing, spinning, and sliding with their cousins.

So... now that these are all posted here, I can make some more room on my phone again! Whoop whoop. Almost springtime, everyone! Hang in there! 

Greetings from February!

Hi, all! Look how happy we are that we survived January!  (You know, just to be in the middle of a big old blizzard now.) BUT we aren't letting all this crazy weather get us down. It's Thursday, but I feel like we are still coming off a great weekend. Joe did not have to work THE WHOLE WEEKEND! He took the girls to the gym on Saturday and I was able to get a lot of cleaning done. We ran some errands and had a pizza and movie night, which in my opinion, are the best kinds of nights.  (We watched How to Train Your Dragon 2... I totally cried.) 

On Sunday, we continued errand running (Menards! Wahoo!) Joe did have a lunch meeting and then a gym visit planned, so I took the girls to Wood Lake Nature Center since the weather was gorgeous (40 degrees! Could have worn flip flops). We even "hiked" around outside for a little bit. Cece is a pretty cute wilderness explorer if I do say so myself.

And look who came by all the way from Chicago Sunday night just to bring cheesecake and read some bedtime stories? The girls were so happy to see Grandma.

Since the weekend ended, Cece has been back to school and it's back to business as usual around here. (Grocery shopping, bringing in the car to be fixed AGAIN, and then getting a root canal done today... the glamorous life.) We haven't had a good romp in the snow yet, but I did introduce Rosie to shaving cream while I was desperate to get the dishes done one day and that went over well.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but Rosie has been aggressively demanding requesting snuggles a lot lately, and I literally always give in. She pronounces it "NUGGLES!" and spreads her blanket on my shoulder so we can properly cozy up. I'm pretty sure my productivity around the house has decreased about 75%. And I don't care, because I love snuggles too.

Lastly, here are some beautiful flowers that Joe and Cece picked up for me last week. They cheer me up every time I look at them!

That's all for now, folks! 

The 12 Dates of Christmas (Part II)

What a holiday season it has been! I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas (and I REALLY can't believe my shopping is done and holiday cards are out.) Below is the second half of my alleged
"12 Dates of Christmas."

Date #7: Christmas Tree Shopping! Ok, so we actually have a perfectly sized artificial tree at home. But still, the girls and I still had fun perusing trees, purchasing  a nice big wreath, and then having an excuse to make some fancy hot chocolate at home (since we had spent all of 12 minutes in the cold.). Later that day, I attended the Exultate holiday concert (but I won't consider that a Christmas date since I went by myself.) Still, I look forward to it every holiday season. It was a beautiful concert and a wonderful musical experience.

Date #8: Cookie Baking Date! With Azure's help, we made a LOT of cookies last week. We distributed them to Cece's dance teachers, the childcare providers at the gym, our mail carrier. and the garbage man. I'm extremely proud that we didn't eat them all ourselves. And I'm very proud of Rosie for not bopping Cece on the head with that rolling pin.

Date #9: Lady Date! Our monthly lady date was a small one, but a good one. One snowy romantic evening last week, Emily and I went to Bonfire on Grand Avenue. It was fantastic. We chatted and caught up with each other, shared food, and enjoyed the falling snow outside. Can't wait to get the next ladies night on the books!

Date #10: Bestie Palooza! Sarah and Will hiked all they way from Chicago to pay our little old selves a visit this past weekend. We stayed BUSY! There was a trip to Good Times Park, a play date with other littles,  a maternity photo shoot, dinner out with kids (Chipotle), dinner without kids (Crave. Thank you Joe for watching the kids!) We also attempted to play in the snow and succeeded in eating all of the yummy food while catching up. Thank you so much for visiting us!

Date #11: Children's Museum at the MOA. I'm thrilled that there's another Children's Museum location where I can use my membership card (and is extremely close to our house!) They have a very cool storybook exhibit there right now which Cece keeps talking about returning to.

Date #12: Look at Christmas Lights! The girls and I managed a drive through our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. I had wanted to do this with Christmas tunes and hot chocolate. Christmas tunes we had, however, we had just been at the gym, so they happily settled for protein shakes as their beverage instead of hot chocolate and were plenty content. For a whole 20 minutes ; )

Well, as you can see, it's Christmas Eve and I'm off to bed so that Santa has a chance to get here. I wish you joy and peace as well as fun and good food with family and friends tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

The 12 Dates of Christmas (Part I)

Last year, a few bloggers that I follow were writing their versions of the  "12 Dates of Christmas." Many were actually going on 12 Christmas-themed dates with their significant other during December and taking magazine-quality pics to include in their posts. I think it would be seriously impressive if Joe and I were able to manage 12 dates in one calendar year!

However,  I really like this idea, so I've definitely expanded the definition of "date" to include play dates, lady dates, and basically any family outing or times with friends this month. (Just you watch. I'm really stretching with some of these ; ) 

Date #1 : Family sushi dinner! Ok, there's nothing remotely Christmas-y about this, but it was still a great time. If you haven't noticed by now, Joe and I have basically traded in our 10-year obsession with Chipotle for an obsession with Kyoto. Whenever I'm not up to cooking... we kind of always end up here and now the kids really like fried rice.

Date #2: Meeting Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton! I don't think this qualifies as a date really by any means... more like a lifelong dream come true! He was in town promoting Nationals next month and I heard he was making appearance in a couple of northwest suburbs. And I kind of dragged the girls with me to meet him. Honestly, Cece was way more pumped about meeting Snowplow Sam. I, however, couldn't stop smiling and was as starstruck as a girl gets and wanted to tell him my whole life story and all about my mediocre skating career, but that didn't happen. Instead, I told him about Cece's upcoming dance recital and he got down to her level and wished her good luck. Heart melted. he's just as nice in real life as he is on TV. I'm so glad we got this opportunity!

Date # 3: Cece's winter dance recital! (Do we know how to embrace arts and culture or what?) This was previously posted on the blog, but it deserves another mention as it was adorable. (And the pizza after-party at the Olsons wasn't shabby either.)

Date # 4: Daughter date to the Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul! There is a cool new Medieval exhibit there, but the girls' favorite activities always seem to be the ones that include splashing around in water. 

Date #5: Night out at Cece's preschool Christmas program! I love that her school does this. Being one of the big kids this year, she got to shake some jingle bells in addition to showing off her singing skills. We attended a little Christmas cookie reception afterwards and I think that was Rosie's favorite part.

Date # 6: Dinner at Barrio in Edina. And it was a real date; I wore a dress and lipstick and we got a babysitter and everything. We ordered too many tapas (or at least I did) , had some uninterrupted conversations, dessert, and didn't have to do any dishes afterwards. The only downside to this date was that Joe decided that he loves Tres Leches cake and wants me to learn how to bake it. (HA!)  It was quite an indulgent date, and you bet I made it to Zumba this morning to work off all those tacos.

___

The following pics have nothing to do with the "12 Dates of Christmas." They are just some more fun shots from my phone, including my holiday manicures (wahoo, Jamberry!), some cute Christmasy pics of our house, a mall outing with Rosie (we got lucky and got to listen to some holiday music!), and lots of cozy snuggle time and story-reading. Winter is sure the best time for snuggling. Cuddling in the summer just makes people hot and crabby in the I've found...

I know your December is probably crazy busy, but I hope you've had some moments of calm and coziness in between all of the festivities!

Stay tuned for part II of the 12 Dates of Christmas!

Apple Orchard Field Trip 2015

This week, Cece and I boarded a big yellow school bus with her teachers and classmates and had a delightful morning at Minnetonka Orchards.

I took very similar photos with my phone as last year! Kind of fun to compare though. We did not pick apples, but we did go on a hayride, listened to a short lecture about apples and cross pollination, snacked on some Haralsons and apple cider doughnuts, and then had some play time.

Can we go back next year even if Cece isn't in preschool anymore? Just askin' ; )

Have a GREAT weekend!

September Highlights

The past few weeks have me convinced that September just might be my favorite month of the year. Even if it's not my birthday month.To me, it felt like experiencing fall and summer at the same time. The beginning of the month had days so warm that the girls were still in bathing suits hitting up the splash pad. Even as the end of September drew near, it was still totally comfortable to still wear a summer dress, just with a good scarf or light jacket. And no one looks at you sideways if you order a pumpkin-flavored beverage. The tops of trees are just kissed with enough color to indicate that the coolness of October is on it's way. 

I could ramble on and romanticize fall forever, but instead, I'm just going to post some photos from my phone.

 

Splash pad in September. Love it!

It's also perfect playground weather! The slides are no longer fire hot, but it's not so cold that everyone's fingers are freezing. As you can see, Rosie really like to swing with no hands while leaning backwards with her eyes close. She tells me it's an adrenaline rush like no other.

We're still growing food in our backyard. Everything that has come out of our garden is totally crazy looking. But it's still fun to harvest all of these weirdos. (P.S. Like my temporary flower tattoo? It was in a birthday party goodie bag, haha. Cece thinks I should get one for real.)

 On a play date with Jack and Penny last month. PAR-TAY! (Alhtough you can't see Jack or Penny...)

Here we are dropping off Cece at her first day of school. She was bounding through the halls with excitement. Can she always be this enthusiastic about school? Please?

 And then here we are on a family sushi date. By the way, I realize that this is NOT proper chopsticks etiquette. BUT it's better than having members of your party crying in a restaurant. So we pick our battles.

After being told to hold hands all summer, they (sometimes) do it all on their own!

When I get to have a night out, Joe's evenings with the girls look like this. And then I don't want to leave the house. I just want to stay and party too.

Did I mention we also attended a Magical Creatures party hosted by our dear friend, Azure? Fun for all ages!  As you can see, we were so excited to attend, we were the first to arrive. (I suppose we live kind of close...) We left with a dragon egg filled with a prize after having a lot of sumptuous appetizers and desserts. Great party! Throw another one, guys!

Did I mention the season of snuggling has begun? It has. And I don't want to ever forget how much I love having a cozy Rosie wrapped up in my lap with her baby blankie.

And one last photo of Rosie in a tutu dress just because she's such a cutie.

Onward to October! I have a feeling it's going to be great.