A day in Portland with Daddy

Peter had veterans day off, we still had a zoo membership and free admission to the Children's museum.  So, we put those three things together and had a fabulous family day.  Normally I go to the zoo with friends or by myself during the week so it was such a treat to have Daddy join us.  And the boys were ecstatic that he was coming too.

We left in the morning, spent the morning at the zoo, ate lunch there, then pushed through what is normally nap time and headed across the street to the children's museum.  Fun was had by all.  And I do mean all.  There was approximately 50 million people at the zoo that day.  The parking lot was a nightmare.  I was sweating and annoyed before even walking into the zoo.  But only for a few minutes, ha!

The boys fell asleep instantly in the car but since it was nearly 6pm we couldn't let them sleep, so they napped for 20 minutes before we hit a Fuddruckers for dinner.  Yum!  I was sooo exhausted that night, but it was a day that makes me smile when I remember it.

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Movie Morning

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I get so caught up in what I need to do that I forget about who really needs me.  So I'm trying to make a more conscious effort in this area of my mothering and when I do, I can see its fruitfulness.  My boys are less likely to act out in an attempt to get my attention, and actually play better and longer independently after their need for my attention has been met.

So, one morning I decided to just throw our normal routine off and speak Benjamin's love language.  And one of his love languages is movies and popcorn.

So I told Benjamin to grab a pillow, I threw blankets on the living room floor, and told the boys to have a seat.  We were going to have a movie morning.

Benjamin looked at me, just bewildered.  He said, 'But Mom, it's not even night time.  We have only been awake a little bit.'

I looked at his confusion and said, 'I know sweetie, I just thought we'd have a fun movie morning together.  No distractions, just us, and Robin Hood.  How's that sound?'

My sweet routine loving Benjamin thought for a minute, then jumped up and down and was delighted.  'Movie morning, movie morning!'

I was pretty sure I was Mom of the Year that morning.

And it was confirmed when I made us popcorn.  They were so excited to have that treat.  In the morning.  With Mommy sitting between them, watching a fun movie and dancing together on the couch when our favorite song comes on.

It was such a fun morning with my boys and reminded me to just throw routine out the window sometimes, forget about the laundry, and just enjoy the pure joy that these little moments can bring my boys.

Life is good.

Trick or Treat 2013

Halloween was really fun with the boys this year.  Benjamin totally understood the concept of trick or treating and was really excited to be Iron Man.  He went back and forth between which super hero he wanted to be and we ended up with Iron Man (because we borrowed costumes from my sisters daycare!)

Jonah was a cute little dinosaur.  Again, because he looked adorable and he agreed to wear it and we borrowed it from the daycare.

We trick or treated with our friends in their neighborhood.  Our small group gets together and passes out tracks and hot chocolate to the trick or treaters....there are always hundreds of people so we stay really busy.  So I took the boys around and they had a blast.  Benjamin said trick or treat and said thank you for all his candy.  Jonah would say twik or tweet and would say thanks mama to every person who gave him candy.  It was pretty cute.

The weather this year was really good especially considering its raining most years.  We went to about 20ish houses then headed back to help with the hot chocolate and let the boys devour their loot....or at least 1 piece of it.

It was a fun night with our friends and family!

And the boys were a weee bit wired when they were getting ready for bed that night! :-)

9th Anniversary Getaway

I feel like I'm never going to catch up to 'current day' blogging and will always be posting things from a month ago, but hopefully that will resolve itself soon.

This post will have so many (way too many) pictures from our trip, but I can't help it, it was a blast.  Peter and I were able to sneak away for almost 8 days for a relaxing, carefree, and just plain fun time reconnecting.  We had airline miles to use and thought it would be fun to head to the East Coast to explore some areas of our country that I hadn't seen, and stay at a few fun B&B's along the way.  So we did, and it was amazing.  We visited Raleigh, NC to see his Grandma and Aunt and Uncle.  Then we drove to Hendersonville, NC outside of Asheville right along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few nights.  Then we headed to Charleston, SC which I fell in love with.  We drove to Hilton Head and Savannah, GA when our sailboat adventure was canceled last minute.  Then we drove to Myrtle Beach, SC for the last few nights.  Mopeds, restaurants, mystery theaters, Magnolia Plantation, beaches, Pirate show, hikes in the Smoky Mts, Friendlys ice cream, downtown Savannah at night......and so much more.

Oh goodness, we sure did eat some food.  We always plan our vacations around food (the only way to go in my opinion!).  And we explored fun cities, drove a lot (1,300 miles on our rental car), relaxed, laughed, held hands, slept in, and really enjoyed a week of time with no responsibilities.  I missed our boys like crazy.  And I cried like a baby when I had to leave them.  But a week of no diapers, dishes, bedtimes, etc was so refreshing.  Being able to just enjoy time with my best friend without distractions was really recharging.

So here's 35,784 pictures of our trip, give or take a few....

We had great weather, wonderful accommodations and a week full of beautiful memories together.  9 years together, and it gets better and better every year!  We were so grateful for the time away, time together, and for the life we are able to come home to.  God is so good!

Random thoughts this morning

It is cold today.  I finally switched us over to our green down comforter rather than our brick red lightweight blanket.  And it's cozy.  The double bonus is that our room suddenly feels like its been redesigned which is fun.

So this morning I'm sitting in my bed with a cup of coffee and just decided to write down a few thoughts  Benjamin is awake.  He came to my room at 7:31.  Which is good because we got him one of those "Ok to wake" alarm clocks where the lights turns green at a specified time where he is allowed to get up.  And since that time was set for 7:30, he obeyed.  Which means no early morning consequence for him, and now he is happily playing in his room until Jonah wakes up.  He did have to show me the surprise outside (frost) which he told me is snow (its not).  But it is cold today.

It is amazing to me how Benjamin wakes up early most every morning despite what time he goes to bed.  Last night it was nearly 10 before his head hit the pillow because we were at our home group, this particular time meeting at our friends house up the mountain.  The boys loved the drive 'with the huge trees and potential bears and cougars' and we loved the fellowship.  Talking about God's trustworthiness, our doubts and suspicions and imperfections.  Yet always coming back to God's trustworthiness because He is truth.  The odd balance of convicting yet encouraging which is one of the key blessings of a small group community digesting God's Word, I think.

Jonah on the other hand is still sleeping.  Jonah has my distaste for mornings.  Despite Benjamin's best efforts, I still sleep deepest in the early morning and would love to keep the covers to my head until the early hours had passed us by.  But, the coffee with peppermint mocha creamer ease the sting a bit and having a moment to write this morning is sort of refreshing.

Last night my Mom woke us up at nearly 1 in the morning.  She did this because a police officer had woke her up by knocking on the door.  He told her we needed to come look at our van.  Gulp, those words sound great.  She had to come wake us up and then the officer told us our van door was open and we needed to see if it had been riffled through.  Thankfully, it hadn't.  The doors are automatic and more than likely in Peter's effort to take the recycles out to the curb late last night, the button on his keys was pushed to open the door.  It's happened before and I'm sure it won't be the last.  The added bonus from our middle of the night awakening was not being able to fall back asleep for an hour, because that's just how I am.  But still grateful this morning for an untouched van.  And sorry that Mom had to be woken up as well.

Benjamin is now beside me in bed because he needs milk.  Shocker.  His blood is probably white from the amount of milk he drinks.  But I love my 3 year old, soon to be 4 year old, munchkin and taking care of his needs first is worth it every time I have to reheat my lukewarm coffee.

Happy Thursday!