Wednesday, May 28, 2014

catch the moment 365: week twenty-one

Here's a super quick look at our week/long Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy!!

Linking up with Mindi at Simply Stavish, Stephanie and Behind the Camera and Dreaming, and Sarah at Nurse Loves Farmer for week 21 of Catch the Moment 365.  Still rocking my DSLR for every photo taken this year!!

141/365: May 21st.  My quick, fleeting, pretty unsuccessful attempt to get a cool shot during a thunderstorm before I ran out the door to meet some friends for dinner.

142/365: May 22nd. We could pretend he was just really sad about the last day of school. Or I could tell you the honest truth and say he was actually pissed because I threatened him with some arbitrary make-believe punishment if he refused to let me take his picture.  Hmmph. So there.  Guess he showed me who's boss.

143/365: May 23rd. We went to Tennessee for Memorial weekend and stopped to eat on the way down. The boys both wanted some junk out of a little machine. The meal was oddly delicious and quick for a sit-down restaurant. The service was over the top fantastic. They asked for a birthstone bear key chain. I explained that it was highly unlikely that they would get the right one but they didn't care. And then they got their own, in the right order and everything (Dex is holding Theo's here).  Twilight zone much? It was so weird.  Just one of those extraordinary ordinary moments that made me smile so much. We decided the machine was magical.

144/365: May 24th. Feeding the ducks (and geese) at the duck pond in Knoxville. 

145/365: May 25th. What kind of houseguests would we be if we didn't make ourselves at home? 
Read: "make a mess like we do at home."

146/365: May 26th. Memorial Day. We went to a park near my mom's before we went to lunch and headed back to Indiana.  I thought some little spider was quite talented. 

147/365: May 27th. Back home and back to our routine.  Chicken on the grill for dinner made the yummiest sandwiches on Tuesday night and the best salad for lunch on Tuesday!  Grilling -- one of my favorite things about summer for sure. 

So that's our week, in a nutshell. I will probably post separately about Memorial Day weekend one night this week. Hope you had a good holiday weekend and that you were able to enjoy it with someone you love.  What's your favorite photo this week?  I kind of like Day 146 (spider web) for something different and Day 143 for that magical moment with those dumb little bear key chains. :)

xo,
~C~

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

catch the moment 365: week twenty

Woo! Twenty weeks into this project and still having fun getting to know the people in the Facebook support group for Catch the Moment 365.  Last Thursday (5/15) I went to an Intermediate Photography class at the local library and now I just really want to take something more official.  During the class, I was messing with the many modes and settings on my camera and finally figured out how to change the aperture. Obviously I hadn't tried very hard before, but adjusting my f-stop and using my new 50 mm 1.8 lens has changed my photos. I'm having a lot of fun playing around but the new lens is really hard to get used to since it doesn't zoom in or out at all.

Linking up again this week with the lovely ladies hosting the project - Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie.

Here we go ...

134/365: May 14th. Finished cupcake picks for Dexter's birthday party. (see party post for more).

135/365: May 15th. There's just something so calming about those rows and rows of unread books. And also overwhelming. I recently have had the desire to get my hands on real, physical books. As someone who hasn't read regularly since long before she had children, I didn't even know where to start. Genre? Author? After my photography class, I walked upstairs to peruse and left empty-handed. Anyone got suggestions for quick, fun, interesting reads to get my feet wet again?

136/365: May 16th. Niko.

137/365: May 17th. Birthday party day.

138/365: May 18th. One of my favorite nature shots so far this year. Or ever. This is now my screensaver for my laptop.

139/365: May 19th. Water gun fight in the driveway before dinner. That look on Dexter's face, oh boy.

140/365: May 20th. Out to dinner. It was late and getting dark and it was cute that Dexter just HAD to take that monkey into the restaurant. I needed a pic and this was the best one I got.

I like this week of pics, but if I had to choose just one, it would definitely be day 138. Dandelions at dusk. Which one do you like best? 

xo,
~C~

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Dexter's Batman birthday week

Dexter's birthday week was quite the rollercoaster with many ups and downs.

It started on Mother's Day when Dex had a low fever all day. He laid around when his temp crept up but would be running around like a madman an hour after taking medicine.


He woke without a fever on Monday but I kept him home because I wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he was okay. He was sluggish but okay throughout the day. I worked from home and at 4:30 I heard screaming and ran back to the bedroom where he was napping to find him in a puke puddle, crying.


I moved his mattress to the living room and covered all surfaces in preparation for the next round. Good thing.  Poor buddy puked 10 times between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.  Not a very happy way to turn 3.  Dexter got another sick day to stay home with mommy on his special day. 

Trying to play but not really feelin' it.

By mid-morning the pukefest had come to an end. He took a very long nap and by the time Theo and Ryan came home, he was acting a little more like himself.  It wasn't long before Theo saw the small pile of gifts wrapped in Batman paper in our bedroom and started prompting Dexter to ask us to open presents.  He cheered up and his energy started to come back. 


The turning point: Revelation of the Lego Set.


See that sparkle coming back?


No YOU'RE the best.

Hurrah to feeling better!



Took one bite. 

The rest of the work/school/daycare week went okay. Dex still was having some tummy troubles and didn't eat well all week but no more throwing up.  Some really FANTASTIC news that came from Dexter's birthday week is that we ditched diapers!!  He woke up on his 3rd birthday in a diaper but hasn't had one on since. Not at home anyway. I'm not sure his sitter is quite as ready to move on as the rest of us are. I'm giving him a good, solid week or two before I tell her that we are officially potty-trained, day and night. We are taking him to the bathroom every night before we go to bed (around midnight) and he's doing GREAT!!  He's very proud of himself and so are we!!  Gooooo Dex!

Friday I worked a short day and went to Sam's Club when I was done to buy party food. I was excited to go there and take my time strolling around without the kids before I picked them up from the sitter. Got up to the register only to discover that I didn't have my Mastercard debit card. The only place I use it is in the ATM machine and at Sam's because they don't accept Visa. So on one hand, I was not too worried knowing that I must have just left it in the bank's ATM the last time I got cash. On the other hand, I was devastated that I just wasted an hour or more of my precious, limited time and now I was going to have to grocery shop with crabby kids in tow. And embarrassed to boot.

I did end up getting everything I needed and Ryan and I stayed up until 1am getting everything prepared that we could do the night before. 



Party favor gifts.

The day of the party was stressful, as they always are. The weather was iffy. It kept getting super cloudy then would sprinkle. It looked like a tsunami could let loose any second but it never did. It stayed nice enough that we could have the party outside, which was the main thing I was worried about.  However, I set up the food in the garage. I don't know what your garage looks like in pictures, but there's just no way to make ours look cute, regardless of how many decorations we put up.  I barely took any pictures because I was busy prepping all day. By the time the party rolled around, I took a couple pictures of the ugly garage and more or less tossed my camera aside and sat down to enjoy some time with friends.




For food, we had the following
 - fresh sliced strawberries
 - GoGo Squeeze applesauce
 - this crock pot turkey (on pretzel buns with provolone and/or pepper jack cheese)
 - pretzels, cheese puff balls, and chips & salsa
 - lemonade & sweet tea
 - cupcakes that Ryan's mom made (Dexter asked for strawberry - they were amazing!)
 - homemade chocolate chip cookies
  




Stickers from Zazzle.com


Grown ups and big kids played things like corn hole and ladder ball outside while the little kids played on the small slide and on the riding toys in the driveway.  We ate and then Dexter passed out thank-you gifts to his friends before opening his presents. 






Don't ask me why, but we made Theo and Dexter mini-versions of the gift bags we gave all the other kids. Ryan and I panicked at the last minute, thinking it wouldn't be a very fun birthday party for the birthday boy if he was disappointed and confused about why everyone else got the same thing and he didn't. The full-blown version contained: 
  - foil pinwheels
  - bubbles
  - Batman cup
  - mini flashlight
  - mini M&Ms
  - pop rocks (only for the big kids)
  - Batman punch ball balloons





Without a doubt, you can bet Theo was right beside Dexter the whole time, checking out the new inventory. 






Not a bad day, all in all.

I hope Dexter enjoyed his third birthday festivities, even if his entire week wasn't as great as it could and should have been. I can't believe my baby is 3!

xo,
~C~