Spring BreaK!

 

 

 

I wrote this a week ago and totally spaced posting it... 

Spring break is sadly over. The week was a great balance of rest, activity and family time. I think that the kids had a fantastic break. Meli really enjoys having Colin home with her. Now she has to adjust to him being back at school. We tried to keep with our daily routine, but threw in some little extras to make it an exciting week. The vacation did have a not so thrilling start: Colin was sick the Thursday before the break. So he got an early start. Poor guy. He was sick first, then Meli and then Will. I was the only who seemed to escape it. Thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been. Thank God for strong immune systems. It was kind of weird, each of them chose one symptom to have and they were all different.

After everyone was better we were able to enjoy a few days of nice, sunny weather.  The rest was rain, but that can be fun too. Colin is learning to ride without his training wheels. It is kind of a hard lesson for him. He is so logical that his mind is the only thing keeping him from doing it. He will get it soon!  Meli is doing very well on her bike.

 

My mom and I took the kids to see Paddington Bear. It was Meli's first time (not counting as an infant) to a theatre. She did such a good job! It was cute seeing her in her booster seat being a big kid. They had a blast playing in the arcade area. Meli got first place in the car race three times! I am not sure how she did it, because she drives like Grammie and mama! It was all over the place, but somehow controlled. Her abilities with videogames is very impressive for her age. Colin was the same way. Just crazy.

My sweet guy

Future racecar driver

Meli was freaking out about seeing the Cinderella poster. My little girlie-girl. I think I know what movie we will be seeing next. She was concerned that she did not have her crown on.

Cinderella

During the week, we also went on a picnic. The kids loved packing a lunch to take. Meli mostly played with the flowers. She is obsessed with them. I am constantly preventing her from picking flowers (that should not be picked).

 

 

Daisy

Princess Mae

Picking daisies

My little babies

~ Love, Hugs &; Kisses ~ The B Family

Happy (Official) First Day of Spring!

We celebrated the first day of spring with rain yesterday. Thankfully, today was beautiful, so we took the kids on a hike. Meli was not in the hiking mood, so I carried her on my shoulders for most of the time.

Colin was our little leader on the trail. 

The sun was not out yet, but it was still very pretty. The moss was such a beautiful green!

My hiking buddy! Such a beautiful time with my little family. 

            ~ Love, Hugs &; Kisses ~ 

                       The B Family

Working Out with Elsa

I have come up with a new workout regime that has me using the weights and treadmill in our garage...so Meli has been joining me out there. She keeps it interesting and entertaining! This is my first week and I am sore all over!!

I let Meli choose the music. She was tired of my stations. I was not thrilled with her choice of Disney Princesses. Frozen and Rapunzel specifically. Surprisingly, it was fairly motivating! Probably helped that I know the words to most of the songs, so I can distract myself by singing.

This was my view during my treadmill run. I was so jealous!

Velorossa Design

When we first moved back to Oregon and were living in Cottage Grove, we met some amazing people who make beautiful lights and furniture. The company is called Velorossa Design. We just adore their family. The pieces of art they create is just amazing. Check them out at http://www.velorossa.com/.

 

 

 

 

Below is a picture of our grandfather clock they made. I just love this piece. It is so neat to have an original piece of work.

 

This is the top half of our standing light. The centerpiece is an antique French thermometer. I love old lanterns, so this is perfect for me. We also have a little desk lamp.

An Irish Feast for St. Patrick's Day

"May the blessings of each day be the blessings you need most." - An Irish Blessing

 

 

I hope everyone (Irish or not) had a wonderful day celebrating everything Irish! This is one of our families' favorite holidays, so we tend to go all out for the celebration. This year was no exception. In the picture above you can see that we did not go all crazy with green, but I did have a green sweatshirt on earlier. Plus, I am wearing green earrings, green bracelets, and my awesome green gnome socks. Yes, I wore those with my high heels so that everyone could see my cool socks. The kids in Colin's class thought they were amazing! I am still cool! Haha...

 

Colin and Meli put together a trap for the leprechaun on Monday night. Sadly, once again - it failed. The sweet leprechaun, Aengus, left the kids a note. He also turned things in our fridge green and left a trail of candy around the house to see what else was turned green. The kids thought it was hilarious that he changed our toilet water green! He also left a little surprise for them at the end of the candy trail.

Colin thought he would enjoy pennies for his pot of gold

I volunteered in Colin's classroom to help out with an art project. (He had stayed home to recover from an upset stomach the day before.) They have been learning about 6 different penguins this term. Colin has become obsessed with penguin facts. He wants to go to where they live and clean their water. He is very sad that humans are on their list of predators. In class, they made life size penguins out of paper. Colin wanted to do the Emperor penguin, but I took home supplies for Little Blue (it is a lot smaller and will last longer at the house). I will post pictures after Colin and Meli finish it today after school.

 

 

I was very excited to cook dinner for the holiday. On the menu was Guinness Stew, Champ, and Traditional Irish Soda bread. Plus, Guinness or whiskey to drink!

 

Here is the recipe for Champ. It is a traditional potato dish in Ireland. The idea is it looks like a pot (or bowl) of gold (the gold is the butter). This was definitely our cheat meal. So worth it though. Traditionally, you leave the champ under a bush for the fairies.

http://homeiswheretheboatis.net/2013/03/11/if-you-see-a-fairy-ring-and-a-winner/ 

 

I also made soda bread, which ended up being super easy and delicious!

http://www.letsdishrecipes.com/2013/03/traditional-irish-soda-bread.html#sthash.GEO28DbX.qjtu 

 

 

My fave!

We were able to share the holiday with friends. I love having friends that we match up with so nicely. Colin is best friends with Jack (same age) and Meli is best friends with Annie (a year older). It makes it that much more enjoyable!

I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe holiday!

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go." - An Irish Blessing

 

                                                           ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

                                                                    The B Family

This & that

The last few weeks have been super busy, but a lot of fun. We had an old friend and his partner (from our Barnes & Noble days) come stay with us for a weekend. It was such a blast! I loved catching up on the last 8+ years and just drinking and celebrating lifelong friendships. It was nice talking with someone who knew us before we were a couple. I love hearing other people's perspective on different parts of our journey. So many people saw the potential of us being a couple before it even crossed our minds. We probably owe our relationship to our friends that have a knack for matchmaking. LOL!

We were introduced to a new card game from another set of friends, Cards Against Humanity...I seriously love it!!! Probably because it fits my somewhat disturbing sense of humor, but it is fantastic! Very similar to Apples to Apples, which we play quite a bit. Just more of an "adult" version.

With the beautiful weather (not today), we have been spending so much time outside. I apparently have allergies now. I lived in the Pacific Northwest without having them...I am back for 2 years and here they are. Thankfully, it only seems to be a certain tree that bothers me and only during the flower blooming stage. About 2 weeks. Unfortunately, the trees are all over our neighborhood. Yucky. It is horrible, but I am thankful for it not being a whole summer thing.

An Early Spring

"Winter is an etching, Spring a watercolor, Summer an oil painting, and Autumn a mosaic of them all". - Stanley Horowitz

Spring appears to be coming early this year. Our beautiful weather had me thinking about the different seasons. I love a place that you can have all four seasons. That is why I would most likely not like living somewhere that is warm year round. I can see the appeal, but I think it would eventually irritate me. I like to experience it all. I came upon the quote above and just loved the connection to different art mediums. Each season is vastly different and beautiful in their own way.  Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons.  The beginning and ending (or maybe fading is a better word) of nature. Fall is where nature can showcase the last of its beauty (its final offering) and Spring allows for it to show the start again (hope).

 

This early Spring came at a good time. It has provided some much needed inspiration and motivation. I am so uplifted and excited for the future!

 

Will and I have been focusing on some hobbies. He is getting into blacksmithing and paper mache. He is working on a dragon (paper mache) for the kids now. It is amazing! I will post pictures soon. I love that he is doing this. His dad is an artist and loved doing paper mache projects when Will was younger.

 

We have been spending so much time outside the past few weeks. The kids are helping me with my garden again. Right now I have broccoli, purple cauliflower, and cabbage growing. I am anxious to get my next phase of veggies in. I will probably do majority of the ones I planted last year, plus a few new ones. Our yard is already landscaped, but there are still a few changes I would like to make this year. To make it more me. We are also looking at adding a deck.

 

Will and I have been getting into a lot of outdoor activities/hobbies...makes me want to move a further out. There are very pretty surrounding areas.  Plus, I have been wanting chickens and other farm animals for some time now. We have lots of friends who have them  in the city. I guess for that we do not need to move out, but the peaceful aspect sounds so intriguing. Our house is not even 2 years old...and I love it. I also love not having a fixer-upper. Those can be fun, but we had our fair share of that with our house in DC. Now I am enjoying having everything new. So maybe when we are older. Right now, it is very beneficial being within walking distance to most things and the kids are near their school and friends.

 

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! We are excited to have house guest for the next few days. We get to spend some time with one of our good friends from our Barnes & Noble days.

A Turn with Colin

 

Colin's turn!! I cannot believe our little guy is 7, working his way towards 8. OMG, seriously! Colin is in first grade and doing a great job. His biggest struggle is focusing (he is very distractible) and not talking too much. That is a big one.  I love that Colin is reading so well. It is easy to forget how difficult that can be. Especially with all of the broken rules in the English language. He started in Kindergarten, but has improved so much this year. He is doing such a good job! Proud mama.

 

We are getting ready for the next sports season. Just need to decide: soccer or baseball.

 

 

 

Colin reading to Meli. The Piggie and Gerald books are their favorite. The books are very cute. Will and I read these together. I get to be Piggie and Will is Gerald. The kids really love us doing it together.

 

Colin is such a good big brother.

 

My first dress!!!

I finished sewing my first dress for Meli! I am so proud of it. Excuse the pictures. Meli was not cooperating with me. The pattern used was New Look (Simplicity) 6202.

My mom was teaching me at each step. There was some difficult parts, but not too bad overall.

Next up is pajamas for everyone, a skirt and dress for Meli, and a Maxi dress (or skirt) for me!

 

 

Catching up with Meli

 

Oh, Meli. What to say about this sweet, feisty little girl. She is approaching her 4th birthday, but all of the sudden has started some of the traits you would expect of a new 3 year old. Such the bother. Seriously! She has definitely been more challenging behavioral-wise then Colin (at each age), but she has not been horrible (especially from watching other kids and hearing stories)...but she is a strong-willed child (I should say girl) and that can be trying at times. So these new little tantrums or meltdowns are so not expected and far from cool. Hopefully, this phase is short-lived.

She likes to put her hair up for bath time now. Afterwards, she likes to take it down and see how crazy it looks. "Mama, I have crazy hair now".  Adorable.

 

Meli has joined the world of videogames and loves them!! She is actually pretty good. I did not expect her to catch on so quickly. She loves playing Colin's Skylander game, Disney Infinity (Rapunzel - of course), Mario, and Epic Mickey. Her playing time is during my workout, which has made a big difference.

 

 

She loves to count and sing the ABC song. Her version anyway. We still go to MiMi's  school twice and week. We will probably look at preschool here soon. I have heard about a very good one that is 4 times a week for 4 year olds.

 

I want to start her in ballet or some other dance class, but I want to wait a little longer. Right now, she is going through a no dress or skirt phase. She wants "clothes" which are pants and a shirt. She still loves dressing up in her princess dresses. Especially, when her friend Annie is here. They are just too cute together. Both tough girlie-girls. They dance and play princesses. Then turn around and play fighting with the boys (Colin and Jack - her brother).

 

Annie had a spa birthday party that Meli went to. She had such a good time getting pampered.

We have been having some late nights the past few months. The B kids do not do well with that. They need their sleep and even though they complain at times, they like their 7:30 bed time. With lack of sleep they both get grumpy. Plus, Meli gets mean and Colin gets whiney (sensitive). So not a good combination.

 

Even though we are dealing with some behavioral issues, she is such a fun and happy kid. One that we adore so much!