Dulles Air and Space

One of my favorite places to take the boys is the Dulles Air and Space Museum.  On weekdays it's very empty and a great place to go with kids because they can kind of roam free. And everyone is impressed by the big airplanes!

Watching Finley and Margaret play together is always interesting.  They can push each others' buttons like no other, but they love each other dearly too. And Margaret is a good role model for posing for pictures...

Aside from Finley's newfound love of wandering too far away from me, we had a really good time. Both the boys love seeing all the planes and getting to walk around. And we love outings with our special friends!

Bedtime

Bedtime is one of my favorite times around here.  Sol is here to help wrangle the boys and they get extra silly and sweet. Braden loves bath time. He'd sit there for days and days. Most of time he pours water over a head and pretty much waterboards himself. And his curls are extra bouncy after baths...



Finley has to be forced into bathtime, but likes it once he is there. He especially likes helping "wash" Braden.  Finley's favorite part is reading before bed--current favorite is the Bible. Loves it.



They're just sweet. Even though the lighting couldn't be worse at bedtime, I couldn't resist trying to capture some of these moments. Braden posing in the doorway and the boys pretending their heater is a train.

Some Friday Thoughts.

1.  I've been really bad about taking pictures lately. Blame it on the lack of daylight, my lack of energy... but I just can't blog the boys without a picture, so I haven't been.

2.  I do have a running list of really funny things they say that I'll post someday.

3.  I have not posted the last two monthly pictures because I can't get those boys to sit still. The end of an era... for about 5 months, then we'll start again!

4.  Can we talk about Downton? Have we reached the point where we can talk about the spoiler-y things? Would you like to join my "Boycott Dan Stevens" club? How dare he leave us like that.

5.  Officially, I think I love Ben and Leslie more than Mary and Matthew. Have you seen a sweeter couple? Vic and I agree--if you don't love each other and like each other like Ben and Leslie, you need to do something.

6.  I've sometimes been blogging over here at our somewhat functioning RV Parties blog. Vic might blog too. Ask her nicely.

7.  Braden hugs me when I pick him up.

8.  I also haven't taken a single picture of this poor baby bump. I tend to have reverse body image problems when I'm pregnant and think that I'm not showing when everyone around me totally knows that I am.

9.  I've started using a program called Antisocial on the old lappy that you can set to block websites that suck your time away--I've occasionally been setting it to block Twitter, FB and Yahoo at night when I'm trying to get work done and keep looking for something to read and distract me.  You can use it free for awhile.  It's pretty much just some built in self-control. Which leads me to my question for you...

10.  Really important question: what tabs are always open on your browser? I really want to know. Always open for me: Gmail, Google Reader. Sometimes open: Etsy shop, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest.  The rest of the tabs function as a TO-DO list--currently I have my shopping cart at Children's Place, and article about pregnancy strength training, my shopping cart for ordering felt, and a Google Doc about the boys' birthday parties.

So really tell me, what tabs are open on your browser? I'm highly interested.

TEN

Ten years ago, this chap and I went on our first real date. I think it involved Quizno's and a movie. Quizno's was the quickest way to my heart in my college days.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, ten years, and the rare opportunity of having overnight childcare, I booked a surprise trip to Boston for Sol and I to get away for a night without kids. I'm sure you can guess what happened. Boston had an epic snowstorm--big enough to cancel my flights and hotel reservation. Luckily, canceling meant I got all my money back, so we made the much shorter trip into DC and ate a nice dinner and got to sleep in a room where there were no children needing us to take them to the bathroom or feed them. It was glorious.

Thanks to Sol for still loving me after ten years, and to Maya for watching our boys and letting them wear you out. Literally. And thanks to DC for coincidentally having restaurant week so we could eat delicious meals on the cheap. YAY!

Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day, fools! I mean, friends. I love you, friends.



I thought I'd take some sweet pictures of the boys for Valentine's Day--I put them in their red "I choo-choo-choose Mommy" shirts and we were ready.  I stole this idea from one of my favorite blogs, although I swapped red trains for racecars. These first two pictures are him legitmately trying to smile.



And then I sang a song about poop and he laughed. Ah, to be three.



And taking pictures of the boys together went exactly as well as you'd think. Not well. They both were more interested in a cup or puzzle piece.







So Happy Valentine's Day. What makes me extra happy today is that I don't have to make cute Pinterest-y treats for any little class--man that gives me anxiety. Some days I'm pretty sure it would have been easier to be a mom in the pre-Pin world where store bought Valentine's are the norm.

And if you are in the mood to love something today--go over to our FB page and enter to win a free plate!

Bright Balloon Party!

RV Parties has been busy... and I finally got to throw a party for a little girl! You better believe there was some pink. :)  My pal Kate has two little girls the same ages as the boys--and she kindly let me invade her house and fill it with balloons and crepe paper.  I accidentally set the bar a little high for the rest of the parties...

My goal for the party was to create something FUN for Abby that she'd immediately recognize--and what little kiddo doesn't love balloons!  I decided to use traditional birthday decorations--balloons and crepe paper--and put a modern and creative spin on them.

I found so many cute types of crepe paper I didn't know what to do with it all!  I loved the impact this ruffled crepe paper looked behind the dessert table--so bright!  I wove plain crepe paper together for a pop of color on the white table cloth.  And the Italian Crepe Paper was a fun alternative to a table cloth--it really brightened the room!

We had so many delicious and adorable treats for the guests to munch on--chocolate covered popcorn, dipped marshmallows, gorgeous sugar cookies and Pop Rock cupcakes! We tried to keep the food "light" or "POP" related. (A little note on the cupcakes--the Pop Rocks can't be put on right before the party or they will all pop and melt!)  Our other favorite treats were Pop Tart Pops and Balloon Pops--both were big hits and tied in our party theme and colors well. Guests took home a bag of homemade gumdrops and some bubbles to pop later--as well as as many balloons as they could bear to take!

There was no shortage of balloons at the party--we loved the big balloons on either side of our dessert table and filled the ceiling with as many as we could! The balloon wreath was a great way to welcome guests to the party and set the tone for the event. And the crepe fringe was a fun way to string our polka dot balloons around the room!

 

We love setting a fun table for a party--just one more way to incorporate the theme! Our cookie artist did an AMAZING job of replicating the font from the invite and made this extra special cookie for the birthday girl. I just love so many aspects of our table--the cute paper balloon cut outs, darling wood cutlery in the chevron bags and the cute candy holder A!

We couldn't keep the fancy bow headband on the birthday girl--but the other party guests loved wearing them! The kids kept busy playing with small dart balloons and enjoying the balloon animals made by our resident balloon artist (the birthday girl's dad!) Such a fun theme for a kids birthday party--everyone had a blast.

We had a lot of help from a lot of great vendors! The party pack is available here--and there are lots of other great goodies available all over Etsy!

Party Styling and Printables - RV Parties

Photography - Peanut Butter and Jenny Photography
Birthday Girl Onesie - Best Birdies Designs

Ruffled Crepe Paper - Party Creative

Fringe Crepe Paper - Tadpoles and Teacups

Italian Rolls of Crepe Paper - Quality Italian Crepe

Marshmallows, Popcorn and Balloon Pops - Miss Lulu's Treats

Sugar Cookies - JJ Bakeshop

Balloon Wreath - Little Crafty Cottage (Free shipping through Feb using RV2013)

Polka Dot Balloon and Balloon Table Decor - Whimzey

Huge Balloons - Bon Fortune

Bow Headbands - Coco Rose Couture

Sprinkles, Chevron Bags, Forks/Spoons - The Bakers Confection

M&Ms and Books

I've struggled with actually getting my camera out to take pictures lately... maybe that's why I got this guy to smile at me a bit.



Or it could have been because I was letting him do an activity that involved M&Ms.  Real talk: it was probably the candy.



But how cute is he? Real cute, right? So speaking of photography, has anyone had any success doing a 365 project or something? I used to kind of scoff at those because I'm like "ALL I DO IS TAKE PICTURES OF MY KIDS" but I feel like it's been slow lately. Maybe because there's less daylight and it's cold? But I know I need to challenge myself--all six of these pictures are virtually the same--no change in composition or angle. Cute boy, but kind of boring. :)



And for Braden's half... this boy loves to read.  Mostly in Finley's bed. In his diaper.  Two nights ago, he read Goodnight Moon.



And last night he read That's Not My Truck.  We had the camera out because he was yelling I WANT A COOKIE in a really funny voice... but he got distracted by this book which turned out to be possibly cuter.  He's saying "that's not my truck, it's so bumpy" for every page. Also you get to hear his favorite noise--shrieking. We're working on it.

Jessi's Bachelorette Bash

Whew. I spent the weekend in (cold, snowy) Chicago celebrating my dear friend Jess. As she was quick to tell everyone, Courtney and I were her oldest friends at her bachelorette bash (by duration of friendship, not age.) We had a ton of fun--even if it was cold. I mean really cold.



It was such a joy to sleep in--even if it was partially because we were up to close to three every night.  It was an especially special shindig because half of the ladies present were pregnant--which may have kept things a little tamer than they would have been otherwise! It was so fun to have a legit excuse to sit at the bar and watch Jessi dance. Although I did dance once--because I told Courtney I'd give her $20 if she went and danced with a dude for 15 seconds, and then I got roped into it too. Totally worth it.



Jessi's KU friends had a really special pose that they tried to do for this picture... Ahoy? So I made Jess do this special pose with me so we could be cool too.  BSCers--we need a special pose.



I guess Courtney's too mature to be fun.



We braved the cold temperatures for a bit to walk down Michigan and enjoy some of the downtown beauty--I just love it there. Probably because I have many fond memories of running around town with my sorority sisters talking like pirates and running marathon through the streets.

And the cherry on the top of the weekend was spending Sunday afternoon with my sister, brother, almost sister Shelli (not pictured), and sister's boyfriend Dan (also not pictured).  And then the whip cream on top of the cherry was the fast flight back (as contrasted with the HORRIBLE LONG DELAYED disaster flight there) that landed during Beyonce's halftime performance.  It was a great trip filled with many of my favorite people. And now I need a nap.