This Little House

This little house is our first house. We have had quite a love/hate relationship with this house but it will be strange to see a "For Sale" sign go up on our front lawn on Monday. We are moving to Phoenix. Every time I say or write that, my stomach drops a little bit.

We have been wanting more space for awhile now but I did not imagine that when we finally moved, it would be so far away. We are excited for the adventure of exploring a new place as a family and we are excited to be close to some good friends but we are sad to be leaving our neighborhood, our friends here, and most of all, our families.

One of those mothers

I never understood why some mothers let their sons' hair grow so long that they began to look like a girl.

I think I may have become one of them. I love Timmy's corkscrew curls and I don't know if they will come back after his first haircut. We've had a few humid days and his hair is really out of control...but I love it.

Surprise!

Tim and Rusty have been planning a surprise birthday party for Diane for several months and it all came together this weekend. Diane admitted to having an inkling that something was up but she did not expect to see so many friends, colleagues, classmates and family members from out of town as were waiting for her when she opened the door.

After the shock of the surprise began to wear off, we all settled in for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Cate got reacquainted with her cousins (second cousins? first cousins once removed? I never know that answer) Claire and Nicole. She was shy at first, but once she got her plate of fried ravioli, she told me that she wanted to take her "lunch" to the big girl table. That worked out great for me because I was busy trying to make sure that Timmy didn't pull the tablecloths off of the tables and start a fire with all of the tea candles.

Having Claire and Nicole there to play with Cate and Timmy was awesome. They played and ran around chasing balloons and I actually got to eat my dinner. It was great. Claire mediated the balloon sharing amongst the little kids and everyone was happy.

We had a great time and Cate and Timmy were little party animals. They finally fell asleep around 11 and have been making up for it at nap time every day since then. Happy Birthday, Nana!

Finally

Finally we have some Spring weather and finally our little house's facelift is just about complete.

The weather was so nice this weekend that I couldn't get Timmy to come inside and eat lunch. When I tried to take his vest off, he pushed his arms tightly to his side and said,"no, no no!" while shaking his head. So, I made a few peanut butter sandwiches, stuck them in plastic bags and let the kids run around outside with them. We would normally hang out in the back of the house but there is siding and materials everywhere, so we sat on the front step.

After naps, we went to watch Pop umpire a baseball game and then got some Mexican food for dinner. Let's hope that the warm weather is here to stay!

Sleepover

Ok, so we're not ready for a sleepover but at least Timmy can finally sit on Cate's bed with us while we read books before nap time. He used to just climb around and drive us crazy but now he loves to look at books and will actually sit still to talk about them.

This bed was actually the scene of quite a bit of drama this morning. Cate was awake, but still just lying in bed. All of a sudden she started shrieking. I knew by the tone of the shriek that she was really scared so I went running to her room. She was yelling, "There's 'someping' in my bed!" I got her out and found a GIANT bee just walking around in her sheets. I'm not sure where a huge bee comes from at this time of year, but both Cate and the dog were crying while I tried to kill it with a recent issue of "Real Simple". It was a feisty bee. I tried to explain to her that in the future, if there is a bug in her bed, she is allowed to get out on her own.

Who is that Guy?

The outside of our house is getting a much needed facelift. There have been lots of guys, trucks and tools around lately and Timmy is loving it. When our new front door was being put in, he just kept repeating, "Who is that guy?" When he wakes up from his nap it's, "Where's the guy?"

The guy who did the front door has a red pickup truck and trailer and Cate and Timmy were fascinated. We have been reading lots of books about trucks lately and Cate asked if his truck was an 18 wheeler. Nope, not quite.

When the work started at 7am yesterday, Cate and Timmy were woken up by all of the noise. They sat at the bay window for a long time and I finally brought them their little red table from the playroom and some banana bread so that they wouldn't miss any of the action. It is funny to see Cate's reaction as the house makeover progresses. We had the roof done a week ago and every time we pull up to the house she says, "Look at our new roof, Mama. It's so nice, isn't it?" We should have pictures of the new and improved exterior by this weekend!

A Field Trip

We finally decided to visit the Kohl Children's Museum. I have heard so much about how cute it is and how many things there are for little ones to do. It is a really nice museum but on the day that we went, it was SO crowded. We were melting. Cate and Timmy, who were both a bit under the weather, only lasted about 90 minutes. It was good to do something different and try it out but they still seem kind of little for a lot of the exhibits.

There was block building...

New textures to explore...

Cute babies to point at...

Baby chicks!

and Cate's favorite...the grocery store.

We had to wait in line for 8 minutes for our turn in the "store". 8 minutes is a long time with a tired, hot 18 month old. Once they got inside, though, it was worth it. Cate and Mimi gathered tons of groceries in their cart and Cate even got to take a turn checking people out behind the cash register. Timmy was content to throw all of the ball shaped produce into his cart.

It was wild, but we had a good time.