What a waste!

I read somewhere that we wear 25% of our clothes 80% of the time. I believe it! I feel like I wear the same few things over and over again even though I have a closet-full of clothes. What a waste to keep buying more and more clothes and then never wear them. I saw a tip that you should turn all your hangers backwards and them turn them around as you wear each item. Then after a year, purge all the pieces you haven't worn. I am trying it. Hopefully it will make me wear more of my stuff so I can turn a hanger around and keep the item. Either way, it should help. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wordle

Seems like these are popping up everywhere right now and who am I to not jump on the bandwagon? I love that Emma and Henry are the main focal points!
Get your own here

Harvest Festival

Every fall, our little town has a harvest festival that is always so much fun! We were very excited to take the kids and figured they would have a great time. Despite all our good intentions, this was just not our day...

We put Emma and Henry in the double stroller and set off. Emma's knee has been bothering her so we thought riding in the stroller would make it so much easier for her. Well, Emma wanted to walk. Since Emma wanted to walk, Henry wanted to walk. So Emma limped along, Henry ran for two seconds and then said, "uppie, uppie" and wanted to be carried, then wanted to got down, then wanted to have "uppie, uppie", and so on, and so on... Emma got in and out of the stroller, Henry got carried, then walked...it took us a looong time to get downtown. As it was lunch time when we finally got the the festival, we decided the first thing to do was to get something to eat. After being asked what they wanted to eat, Henry decided on pizza (with a little helpful suggesting from me) and Emma "didn't know" (surprise, surprise). We quickly found a little spot of grass to sit on and Dan went to get food. Dan and I are both trying very hard to eat as healthy as possible but I have to say that at a festival like this, it is completely impossible to have a healthy meal. We ended up with gyros (hey - at least there was some lettuce and a few tomoto pieces on there!) The kids got pizza, which Henry inhaled, and Emma ate none of. Whenever Henry is not strapped down at mealtimes, he just runs around. He'll get a bite of food, run around while he is chewing, and come back for another bite. This is pretty funny but in a crowded place like we were in, it is very difficult to keep track of little Henry! After eating nothing, Emma wanted a cookie. When Emma wants something and she is tired, hungry or just in a bad mood, she gets very loud and very whiny. This was the situation here. As the tough disciplining parents we are, we of course got Henry and Emma a cookie each. Then it was time to look around at the festival. Well, this was not easy! Again, neither child wanted to ride in the stroller (so glad we brought it to the extremely crowded downtown streets). Both wanted to be carried by Dan...we were quite a sight...me pushing an empty (huge) double stroller, Dan carrying one child with the other at his legs, begging to be picked up. We decided to go home! On our way out, Emma spotted a balloon salesman and politely (hehe) asked to have a balloon. Dan bought her a beautiful pink balloon and was in the process of tying to Emma's wrist when somehow it got loose and blew away. Oh, the horror! Emma was inconsolable! We walked as fast as we could toward home, weaving in and out among the crowds with one or two kids crying/whining/yelling the whole time. The last stall of the Harvet Festival was selling produce so we stopped and bought some yummy fruits and berries. I even got a picture where everything looks just idyllic! Dan and I were completely exhausted by the time we got home (as were Emma and Henry). Being parents can be so stressful.

Of course we wouldn't have it any other way!

Friday's Bounty

Fridays are farm pick-up days. I love to unpack the produce and put it all away - sound strange? It's sort of like Christmas to me, wondering what is in the box this week. It is definitely a challenge to use it all up before it goes bad but the benefits of trying to live up to that challenge are endless! First and foremost, we eat more vegetables than we ever would without our CSA (community supported agriculture) produce. The vegetables are all organic - love that! We are also supporting a local farm that doesn't have to ship their produce hundreds (or thousands) of miles. I feel so good about my weekly box of vegetables (and the occasional fruit). It is good for my family and good for our planet!

I love close-ups!

Monkeying around

Henry is never still. He is always running or climbing. He must be the typical little boy and he couldn't be more lovable! While the weather is still nice we are spending as much time as possible outside where Henry can run around to his heart's content and use up some of his ample energy. What are we going to do when we are stuck indoors most of the winter??

Oh, how I love this little man!

...and yes, he just had a snack - the evidence is still around his mouth!

What to do on a rainy day?

Lot's of Play-Doh projects

Indoor picnic


Put up new wall decoration
in dining room


Curl up with a good book and a cup of Chai

(When the kids are napping of course)

Not a bad weekend.....

Henry is in Heaven

We went to the local fire station for a tour and a talk about fire safety. Even though Henry kept calling the fire trucks "trains", he was in heaven! He was the youngest child there but you wouldn't have known it by the way he was climbing up in the trucks and running around exploring everything. He was adorable! The fireman kept using the word "cool" to describe things so pretty soon Henry was saying it too. Everything was "cool"!


Henry must have really liked the red color on all the fire trucks because when we got home he decided to do this to the walls:

Road trip

Our yummy loot


Today I was feeling particularly brave so I took the kids on a road trip to the pride of my homeland: IKEA! Mind you, IKEA is a two hour drive away so I was worried about doing this all by myself with both kids in tow. I had a very important errand at IKEA...I wanted to pick up some Swedish style crawfish. I even called yesterday to make sure they had them in stock so I wouldn't drive two hours just to find out they didn't have any. I was told that yes, they did have plenty of crawfish. Great! I was excited and loaded the kids up with everything I thought we might need on our little adventure. The first set back happened just as I was getting on the highway...I realized I had forgotten Henry's stroller... What could I do but turn around, go back to the house and pick it up. Now we were on our way. The kids and I had a great time... at least at first. We had lunch (meatballs of course), shopped a little and headed to the check out. Henry had by this time had his fill of IKEA and was standing up, waving his arms, in the stroller...somehow the stroller fell over on top of Emma...screaming kids....Mamma sweating....please let's just get the crawfish and get out of here! We walk over to the freezer section - no crawfish anywhere! They apparently haven't had crawfish for a month now. Grrr! So I buy a couple of bags of shrimp instead and we head for home. The drive home took 3 hours instead of the normal 2. But you know, all in all it was a very successful day. We had some fun, did something different and brought home a bunch of stuff that surely we NEED! Oh and in case you were wondering, the kids are both fine, despite the horrible stroller accident. My kids are tough!

Emma is a school girl!

Today was Emma's first day of "real" preschool! We had kind of a rough morning with Emma crying and continuously asking me to stay with her at school. I tried to explain (as I have been doing for the past few weeks trying to get her prepared) that school is only for kids and not for mommies but she didn't want to hear it. At least I managed to get a few pics of a happy Emma before we left the house. At school she was a little scared and cried a bit but I could tell she was also really excited and ready for her day. When I picked her up (a very short two hours later) she had the biggest smile on her face and couldn't wait to tell me all about her first day. The highlights according to Emma were playing outside and having a snack (2 crackers and juice - but not apple juice) Emma also made a cut-out hand with a kiss on it just for me - how sweet is that!? I have to mention that Mamma was a little sad herself to see her baby go off to school....at least it is only two mornings a week...

Starting Fresh

I hope this blogging thing doesn't go as badly as my attempts at keeping a diary when I was 14. I have four of five of them with about three entries in each...I was never able to stick with it.