Recapping the Weekends

I know a lot of times the stories you read on here are probably

all "you had to be there type moments" but I think (hope?) that you'll

indulge me some more as I recount the last two weekends.

 

It all began two weeks ago on Papa Rob and I's

fifth wedding anniversary! First of all - can you believe

it's been five years??!! The longest shortest years of my life.

Anyway, we invited my parents and sister over for a

a barbeque and I broke out the selfie stick.

Because I was a one woman party planning committee,

I made sure we had all the good stuff -

cheddy brats (as my mom likes to say),

deviled eggs, macaroni salad, chips, and

brownies with icing.

 Afterward we all went to the park.

This particular park is super close by and

Max had us running races all over the place

and then would get consequently pissed

when he did not "win".

 

Then on Sunday, I forced us (Max and I) on my sister again.

How you ask?  Oh, I just suggested we

accompany her to the grocery store.

She should be a saint.

She let Max dictate where to

put all the groceries (even if it meant smashing her

bread) and she even bought me a bagel at Panera!

 

 

Literally, I will do anything to get out of the house

sometimes. Call me up - we are really fun to

go grocery shopping with.

 

We left my sister's and I dropped Max off

to hang with Papa Rob while I got a gel manicure.

When I returned home, we proceeded to get out

every piece of toddler outdoor yard equipment.

First came the slide and then of course the

pool.  This led to putting on a bathing suit.

 

 

 

 Then he found the bag with all the sand toys and

pool toys...and in the pool they went.

There was barely room for him to stand up.

 Just slightly out of the picture are the

picnic table (with umbrella), sand table,

tee ball set, and part of a swing set.

Do we know how to have a good time or what??

 

 When we were all finished with the pool,

Max helped me water all the plants.

He was such a good helper!  He filled up the

buckets and would run over to the plants

and give them a "little drink".

 

We capped off the Sunday with happy hour, grilling out

and one tired kid. No complaints here though.

 

This (past) weekend, our family hair stylist

mentioned that she might be bringing her family to the zoo.

So, in order to stay her favorite client, Max and I rushed

over to leave her some free admission tickets :)

Of course, we couldn't leave without having

a little fun ourselves!

We hit up both the train ride and the pony ride

in North America. At first, Max said he was scared of

the train when he saw it, conceded to give it a try.

The ponies he needed no convincing for.

I was such a proud Mama watching him

hop on that pony!

 

 We also visited all of the best playgrounds....

Max calls the (below) one - the letter playground.

It has all the words for what animals need in a habitat.

Food, Water, Shelter, and Space.

Max LOVES to climb on the words and jump

off the ends. Not pictured was the Polar Playground...which

I think might be his new favorite.

 

 Saturday evening, my mom ended up giving me her

ticket to the Garth Brooks show. She was originally

supposed to go with Stacy. You may recall that I saw

him in Cleveland back in October....  He is really such

an amazing performer. I jumped at the chance to see him again.

(And since I was the one who purchased their tickets in

the first place...it worked out well :)

 The craziest thing happened when we got there.

Stacy and I had just got off the escalator (on our way to

our nose bleed seats....300 level...) A man approached

us and explained that he worked for Garth.

He asked first if "it was just the two of us".

We responded "yes". Then, he offered us two

floor level seats.  THREE ROWS FROM THE STAGE.

He explained that Garth usually "comps" several seats in

each of the rows upfront. But, we were totally skeptical.

The whole time we kept going "is this real life?"

"Are we about to get punked?". But, we made our

way down and the usher didn't laugh in our face when

we showed him the tickets.

And then we got to enjoy about three hours of one of the

best musical performances I have ever seen. Seriously.

It was just the best.  He played every single hit. And there

were many. He even brought out his wife Trisha Yearwod.

Stacy made legitimate eye contact with her (we were that close).

I mean, would you look how freaking close we were?? He was

practically sweating on me.

 

All that partying hard on Saturday night - didn't 

slow us down on Sunday.

We were out in the yard by 10:00 on Sunday morning.

Again, we hauled out all the yard toys....

focusing mainly on the sand box this time.

Auntie Stacy and Penny also stopped by.

Penny was loving running around in the backyard.

And doing some light sunbathing. Max

was loving having someone else to boss around.

He likes to hit the ball and then tell you to run after

it and fetch it. He does get irritated when it

doesn't go as far as he wants it to.

He has decided not to take my advice on 

"practice makes perfect".

 Field of dreams right here folks.

  Auntie Stacy and Penny left (though not after

a scuffle between Penny and Pecan)...and Max and I

headed to the park for a picnic lunch. We needed

to give daddy some time to put the finishing touches

on the swing set.

 

 By the time Max got up from his nap - the swing set was finished!

Sidenote: we purchased the swing set used on a Facebook

selling wall. We were able to borrow a vehicle from work

to transport it back to our house. Papa Rob has been

working really hard since last weekend on reassembling it

and getting it level in our (very) sloped backyard.

 Max loves it...in particular the rock climbing wall

and slide. We've been calling it his "clubhouse".

 Look at that sly grin! What a goof!

 

So, in conclusion - our weekends have been

very full and fun! Just the way I like them.

With a healthy dose of visits to Auntie Stacy's house

and park visits thrown in. :)

Speaking of - here's a little video clip of

Max and Stacy on a slide at the park!

p.s. We got Chipotle last night for dinner (with Stacy)

and Max insisted on taking the cup in his room last night

(in case he got thirsty). Tonight, he proclaimed that he

flushed the straw down the toilet (while I was getting his

bath ready). Ugh..... boys!

xoxo

Max, Mama, and Papa - April 2016

Can't believe I've been keeping up with this project for almost a year!

What fun to look back over the year and see our favorites.

This month has brought evening adventures at the park,

lots of swinging in the front yard,

time with Mema and Pops, silly faces on Snapchat,

popsicles and ice cream, weekend visits with Auntie Stacy,

and a growing collection of mini Thomas trains.

 

Here is what Mama, Max (35 months), and Papa were into during April 2016.

(From left to right - Papa, Max, and Mama)

 

DRINKING:// Mich Ultra, Water, and High Brew Coffee

*The Mich Ultra is leftover from our house guests!

*I cannot recommend this cold brew enough (it's in the

refrigerated section at Kroger)

EATING:// Cliff Builders protein bars, mini chocolate donuts, and Talenti ice cream

*Rob seems to still be trying to eat healthy (ish)

*Max loves these little donuts found in the bread aisle of

your local grocery

*This ice cream is everything. It seems to be

made of natural ingredients (rarely more than five of them)

and of course I only eat it in small treat like increments

GROWING:// his dad skills, finger nails in constant need of clipping, pansies

*We purchased a new to us swing set for Max and Rob

has been using his free time to set it back up.

(it will still need to be power washed and stained....but

we're not afraid of al little hard work for a good deal)

*I swear Max's finger nails grow at hyper speed...

he's also not a fan of "hang nails"

*I've kept three pots of pansies alive!!

LOVING:// our new deck umbrella, paw patrol band aids, gel manicures

*we got this new lime green patio umbrella last weekend

*Max has been known to wear a band aid on every finger with

no real injury to cover

*Gel manicures forever and ever

PLAYING:// with the laser pointer for Pecan, Easter eggs, and on my one second a day app

*Rob is the only one who regularly plays with Pecan still

and it does really seem to tire her out and make her less annoying

*Max is still loving to hunt Easter eggs

*I'm obsessed with this app - check out my creations on instagram 

READING:// the Costco mailer, all the Maisy books, A Remarkable Kindness

*Rob will never let me throw these mailers away until

he reads them cover to cover

*I think we have every Maisy book out from the library.

She's a little mouse that does very regular toddler/preschool things

(i.e swim, go to the movies, visit a farm etc) and Max loves them.

*I really liked my book for the month

WATCHING:// Star Trek Voyager, Mater's Tall Tales, and Catastrophe

*We have Amazon Prime now....so I have more show options!

WEARING:// his box knife and keys, swimsuits, and garden gloves

*Rob carries both of these to work everyday

*We've been swimming a bit!

*My new gardening gloves...they are so amazing!

 

Only one more month until Macho Max turns 3!

xoxo 

Park Hangs and Deep Thoughts

After a weekend full of snow and a couple days of rain – 

yesterday it finally felt like spring. In honor of the glorious sunshine, 

Max and I went to the park after dinner. 

It was a short trip because bedtime loomed around the corner…but 

it was wonderful just to have the ability to run 

over to the park and burn off some energy.

 

Being that we hadn’t been to this particular park in some months, 

I was surprised that Max basically didn’t need my help 

with really anything except the monkey bars. He was running all over, 

sliding down the slides, crawling through tunnels, and climbing up 

the tallest ladders.  He only wanted me to slide down the slide next to him ONE time.

 

 

Last year at the park, he needed a lot of assurance that 

we would be at the bottom waiting for him…especially on 

those bigger twisty slides. And I would hold my hands out and 

say “come on down, I’m here”.  I didn’t think about it then – 

the impact of those words. “I’m here.”  

I’m here not just to catch you…but to tuck you in. 

  And, help you on the potty. And kiss all your boo boo’s. 

And tug your jammies over your head at night. 

And play trains and push the swing and on and on.  

 

 

It’s funny how being a parent can make you so introspective. 

It's safe to say I never had a clue how much 

my parents were there. Sadly, until recently, I probably didn’t 

appreciate it as much either. But, man – all the driving me to school, 

helping with band uniforms, paying for flute lessons, 

dress shopping, and you know, basically everything that formed 

me into the responsible person I am today. 

It’s a lot. I totally get that now. My brain basically never shuts off. 

(Please tell me you’ve seen that meme comparing a 

woman’s brain to a computer with 100 tabs open?)

 Maybe the best promise I can make to Max is that if he falls – 

or rather when he falls – for as long as he’ll let me, 

I’ll still be at the bottom. Still giving it my all. 

Still loving him. Still believing in him.

xoxo 

Where Have We Been?

Gosh, I did such a good job keeping up with the blog

in March (10 posts is some kind of record for me) and then 

I sort of disappeared!  It was for good reason of course...

we had some house guests all the way from Arizona!

Mema and Pops were here to visit with Max

and also to close on their new home. They decided

to purchase a second, smaller home here in Columbus

to escape the Arizona heat in the summer, and because they 

have a lot of love for Ohio :) sidenote: it's snowing here...on April 9th, 

so what'd not to love? grrr...

They arrived late last Friday and then on Saturday we met up 

with some other family members...and Max's cousin - Pax!

Pax is a newly minted 6 month old and cute, cute, CUTE!

Can you see his little jeans?  Babies in denim kills me every time. 

Also, I think Papa Rob's hotness count goes up times

like a billion when I see him with a baby. 

He remarked later about how light Pax felt when holding

him...and I was like um...well, Pax is about 15 pounds 

versus Max's 35 so there's that. 

  

(Max desperately wanted to hold Pax and when we 

finally were able to make that happen....I did not 

get any pictures, but rest assured he had a huge, 

huge, smile. It was adorable). 

The rest our weekend consisted of me making it to the gym (I bought

a ten class pass!), meeting up with Auntie Stacy for a bit, 

puzzles and more puzzles, and grilling out on Sunday night!

All the while Mema and Pops shopped around for 

home furnishings and such. 

For consistency purposes, we sent Max to "school"

for a good majority of the week.  Also, Mema and Pops

had to close on their house, clean, and basically

set up the new place!

(At the library with gal pal Addie!)

 

In the evenings we all reconvened for dinner and 

fun!  Max is obsessed with these mini Thomas

trains....so he's all about hauling those out.

You can find them at Target and you buy 

them in three packs or in "mystery" bags. 

The mystery bag only has one in it and you

don't actually know which one you are 

purchasing. He and Pops invited a new

train toss game too and Mema added the "score"

motion with our hands at the end. 

He was more than happy

to show off his big boy bed and favorite stories too. 

 

 

On Wednesday, we took dinner over to the

new place....Max wanted "nuggies" and the 

rest of us ate at Panera. We celebrated picnic 

style because they were waiting on furniture

and such to be delivered. Max made himself

right at home....racing his cars all over the floor

and inquiring as to when the pool would be open. 

 

Other fun things that happened....this new

light that you can put in your tub.  It floats

around and makes it seem like you might

be having a rave in your bathroom

(especially when the light is on the 

"blink" setting...which happens to be Max's favorite). 

He also likes to "read" to us at night now...

which are of course stories he has 

memorized.  But, it's pretty cute. 

  

Finally, unrelated to all the cute Max pictures...but possibly

still fun, is SNAPCHAT! They have serioulsy upped 

their game with all the fun filters and stuff you can add

to your pictures. So, we should probably be friends 

on there. I'm sending out some real gems. :)

have a great weekend!

xoxo