Summer Recap

Well, folks... the time is here.  Time to go back to school.  Yes, tomorrow.  (I know, you just probably yelled out a loud, "WHAT??"  I feel the same way.)

So, I'd like to recap my summer for you... mainly to help me feel productive.  Looking back, I feel like I had a wonderful summer.  I think I put too much stress on myself to get things done while entertaining/teaching my two little ones... only to realize that they just want to run, play, and laugh.  And they can do that anywhere, as long as they are together.  I'm also proud of myself, because I really tried to become Susie Homemaker... I had dinner ready when Stephen got home, I had the house mostly cleaned/tidied, I ran errands and did laundry and the kids survived. 

This is all especially good because, I won't sugarcoat it... I have been utterly EXHAUSTED!

OK, here's our summer 2012 recap:

• Set up the baby's nursery.

• Set up and organized Taylor's big girl room (including painting the walls, buying the comforter, bed skirt, etc., decorating the room, getting bed rails for her big girl bed, and starting to move things over).

• Organized all my crafts (which were in the drawers in Taylor's new room) and sorted them into containers.  Sweet hubby built some shelves in the garage to keep them on.

• Went to the mountain house twice.

• Went to south GA once.
• Went to Florida once... for a day!

• Visited lots of local places, like the aquarium, Chuck E. Cheese, Loganville toddler park, pools, bouncy places, and the Yellow River Game Ranch.

• I have read 6.5 books since Memorial Day (for all of you who know me, that is really something!)
• I tried out a bunch of new recipes- both dinners and desserts.  Some I liked, some I didn't.  Lots of them were either casseroles or crock pot dishes (in hopes to find easy things we liked that I could cook while I'm back at work!).  I'm glad I tried out some new stuff.  I actually made homemade lasagna (I'm usually too lazy and buy Stouffers!) and it was really good!

Blueberry cobbler, made from scratch!

Pralines... didn't look quite as good as the ones I've had, but they had the same great taste!

• Sold tons of baby clothes on eBay.
• Did a bunch of crafts.

Making ice cream- it actually tasted good!

Crafts from a neighborhood playdate.

• Did a mondo-cleaning of our house.  (Though you definitely can't tell anymore :(  )
• Bought a new car.

• Booked Sydney's birthday party.  This year, I'm due right around her b-day, so we're hiring out.
• Ended the summer with 3/4 the family getting the stomach bug!  Boo!  (I am the sole survivor... KNOCK ON WOOD.  Must be those prenatal vitamins.)
• Even managed to do some work here and there, preparing for the upcoming school year.

SO sad to say summer is over, but I am about to start my 8th year of teaching (hard to believe!), and I know it will be good to be back in a routine.  And, this year, I don't have a classroom to decorate and get ready!  How weird is that?

Bye, bye summer... see you next year!

What we've been up to...

Being cute.

Getting big.  (29 weeks!)

Decorating.  You like?

Stayin' cool.

Partying it up.

This girl ain't scared.

My little daredevil.

Cheese!

Trading Spaces

As my summer is quickly approaching its end, I'm trying to make sure I have Taylor's "big girl" room and Parker's nursery ready.  At least, as much as possible.

My dilemma was, with Taylor's new room, that we didn't want to have to repaint it.  It was this dark greenish/brown color, and I completely dreaded the thought of painting that room again (how many coats would it take??).  I tried my best to match a comforter to the wall color, but I just couldn't wrap my head around how to accessorize a room with such a strong, dark, non-girly wall color.

This is what it looked like before:

Bleh.

So, we sucked it up.  Yep.  We painted it.  And to my surprise (!!!), the paint + primer that we used only required one coat!  What what??? 

It's funny, now knowing that we painted the walls, I could've picked any comforter out there and gone with any wall color.  But, since the comforter was already washed and on the bed, I don't think Kohl's would allow me to return it.  I'm kind of glad that we are using this comforter, because it requires me to think about colors I don't really use around the house.  If you know me, you know that blue seems to win around my house, and this comforter had more greens/purples/browns in it.

So, we picked purple for the wall color!  It's called Dusty Lavender, and it's definitely purple, but also quite soothing.  And definitely girly.  It helped all the little accessories I purchased/made for the room flow much better.

We'll get a different lamp, and I'm thinking about spraypainting the frames on the wall to be cream.  That will have to wait, though.  No motivation for that right now!

We have also bought the bed rails for her bed, but we're probably going to postpone moving her into this room until about August.  As much as it makes me sleep better at night knowing she's safe in her crib, Stephen pointed out tonight that she is just as likely to climb out of it any day... she is our little daredevil.

Ok, onto Parker's room!  We didn't have too much to do for his room.  Stephen painted over the beautiful mural my mom had done (sniff, sniff):

Before.

After. :(

I have gotten a few wall hangings and painted the letters for Parker to hang.  I got a bed skirt, and we'll continue to use the brown crib sheet, brown diaper table cover, and brown hamper.  I'm still keeping an eye out for more things to hang on the wall- but, I haven't had too much luck.  For now, I'm just keeping up things that I had in Taylor's room!

Some family friends got Parker the cool activity mat... it matches well! (plus, it helps entertain his sisters.)

My mom is going to try to transform the lampshade from Taylor's room into one that goes with Parker's room.  Here is what Taylor's was like:

Mom is going to try to take off the ruffle and add blue and/or green ribbon to the top and bottom.  We'll see how easy that is.  If not, we'll keep an eye out for other lampshades.

Those green pieces of art will be replaced, just not sure with what.

That is it for the rooms for now!  Even though Parker still has to cook for ~11 more weeks, it's nice to know that his room is basically ready for him.

Aquarium

Stephen took the day off this Thursday, and we four ventured to the Georgia Aquarium!  I've been there a few times already, but I must say that it was so much more enlightening with the girls.  I don't know if it's because we really got to make a big deal out of all the different sea animals, or the fact that we did all the extra fun stuff (dolphin show, 3D movie, etc), but it was a really good time.  Taylor normally naps from about 11:30-1, but we didn't leave until 1:30.  She did great- we ditched the stroller after the first area of the aquarium and she kept right up!  She definitely crashed within 2 minutes of us getting in the car.

Here are some pics from our day!

Typical... the girls fighting over daddy's attention.  (Mommy who?)

Chuck E. Cheese

We've had a pretty uneventful week, but I thought I'd write a little blog about taking the girls to Chuck E. Cheese the other day.  Stephen was in Dallas, and I knew I'd have the girls all day (and night) to myself, so I thought we'd go on a little adventure Tuesday morning. 

We got to Chuck E. Cheese right when it opened at 9 AM, and we had the whole place to ourselves!  We bought 40 tokens, which lasted right about an hour (which was great timing, because 3 camp groups came in at 10 AM).  Let me tell you, that was $10 very well spent.  The girls had a great time... Taylor didn't understand the concept of most games that weren't allowed to be riden on, but she had fun running around and looking at the lights.

Probably the only horse Sydney will come close to... ever!

She's not so sure...

We hit some bonus and won 80 tickets.

Sydney was quite excited.



Taylor was so worn out she took a 2 hour nap when we got home.  Plus, the toys they got from trading in their tickets kept them entertained a lot of the day.  And, we had a good time!  A win for everybody.

4th Weekend

We spent the weekend up at the mountain house, to celebrate the 4th of July!  This is a fun weekend when everyone and their brother (literally) come up to their family's cabins.  My whole family was there, including my brother and his fam from Nashville.  We enjoyed the lake, got some sun, read some books, enjoyed the picnic/squaredance, and had lots of family time.  Sydney and her cousin, Olivia (who turned 4 this past week) had a blast swimming together, playing dress up, running around the house, and being "best friends".  We got to celebrate Olivia's birthday this weekend with a fun b-day party!

I wasn't great about taking pictures this weekend, but here are a few that I took:

Taylor getting ready for some lake time.

Olivia putting ice down Grandmom's shirt... teehee... though she didn't really mind because it was HOT!

Sydney with Grandmom's glasses.  Such an intellectual.

Uncle Bill and Taylor.

Taylor checking out the squaredancing madness.

Me and Taylor. 

A relaxing morning walk... a view of the river.

It's so beautiful up there!