Category Archives: Full of Awesome

Birthday Interview Prep

It’s May 1st and you know what that means!

Oh you don’t? Well, it means Little Miss Rylee will be turning 5 years old in 17 more days.

FIVE years old.

ONE WHOLE HAND!

This is a big deal, folks.

Back when Rylee was two, I started a “birthday interview” tradition that has been really fun to look back on and see how she’s changed over the years. I have a list of “standard questions” that remain constant and then I always open it up for suggestions. So, this is your chance…if you’ve got any questions you’d like to ask Rylee, leave me a comment here and I’ll include it in her 5 year interview.

And, for funsies, here’s links to her previous interviews. Seriously…her voice at her two year interview kills me dead.

Ry’s 2 year interview.

Three Years. An Interview.

4 Years. Her Interview.

This is something I hope my crazy girl lets me do for years to come!

{And oh yes you better believe I will be doing the same thing with Reese!}

Hard things for my almost 5 year old

4 Replies

Holy crap you guys…what the heck is going on this week!? It’s been one thing after another. It’s been one hard thing after another.

The other night I was with Rylee in our bathroom getting her ready for bed when I topic of her impending birthday came up. Five is a big deal, folks. {side note: how is it possible that my little monster is going to be five!?}

Well anyway, she’s been talking about her 5th birthday plans since…well since before her 4th birthday was over, actually, but a lot more lately. For a while she was stuck on the idea of having a Dora the Explorer birthday complete with going on an adventure in our backyard. Tell you what, the planning possibilities with that kind of birthday theme are endless but, maybe Dora is a little too “young” for a 5 year old?

Then more recently she’s been really into Angry Birds so I suggested maybe having an angry birds style party instead. We could even make a big life size course and let her and her friends throw stuff at it to try and kill the pigs, or whatever. Throw in some food, a piñata and boom. Done. She was totally down with that idea.

So, there we are, talking more about the different ideas and I realize she thinks she’s getting BOTH parties and not choosing one theme. So I clarified that she had to choose one. A Dora party or an Angry Bird party.

Oh my gosh, I may have well just kicked a puppy. Her head fell, her posture drooped and she got the saddest looks her face. She kept making these troubled noises and big heavy sighs. Pretty sure I had crushed her spirit. I finally asked her what was wrong and in the saddest, most distraught voice you can even imagine she said…

“I just can’t decided between and Angry Birds party and a Dora party.”

In light of this weeks events I couldn’t help but smile a little. I kissed her forehead and gave her a big, warm hug and said, ” I love you so much. We’ll figure it out.”

I am so glad that is the worst she is worried about right now.

Where Nothing Means Everything.

5 Replies

It’s hard to believe that it’s already Wednesday. It’s also hard to believe that almost a week ago now I was waiting to board a plane for an adventure I surely never thought would ever become a reality.

Hands down, last weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. I met up with three other women, lovingly known as The Thread, for a kid-free weekend. A weekend long girls night out. A weekend filled with no plans other than to do absolutely nothing.

That nothing? Meant everything to me and is now a memory that I will hold close to my heart forever.

Alicia // Me // Brandy // Brandee

Alicia, as per the usual, said everything I was thinking and in a way far better than I could have myself.

So, first, check out a few of my favorite photos from the weekend, then go read her post…because if copyrights and plagiarism weren’t a thing, I’d totally just copy and past her words right here.

First Annual Egg Hunt

4 Replies

So one night a couple of months ago, Andy & I were lying in bed and he said, “you know what would be fun?”

Then I told him I was too tired.

Then I laughed and laughed, because sometimes I’m witty.

Anyway, he told me he thought it’d be fun to host a big Easter Egg hunt for all of our friends and their kids. Emphasis being on, “our friends”. He wanted to put on an egg hunt for adults. I was game.

So an evite went out, plastic eggs & goodies were procured.

All in all, we stuffed and hid around 500 eggs…just over 150-ish eggs for the adults filled with scratch-it tickets, candy and other stuff like seed packets and fishing lures. All the rest were for the kiddos filled with candy, change and various goodies like temporary tattoos and stamps.

Andy zoned off an area around the play structure for the kids, complete with traffic cones and twine. Then he & Rylee hid all the adult eggs back in the trees. I stayed at the play structure with the kids when the adults went on their “hunt” so I didn’t get any photos, WOMP.

We had 12-14 kiddos and about the same number of adults that came out. We kept lunch simple with a build your own sandwich bar. We spread out some blankets and all the kiddos picnicked outside before the big egg hunt.

The weather was gorgeous and we’re pretty sure everyone had a good time.

We can’t wait to do it again next year!

Oooh Life

2 Replies

I almost started out this post by saying that this last weekend was just what I needed. Then I remembered that’s pretty much how I started my post about my New Year’s weekend. Is it really possible to have two weekends in a row that are that good? Am I tempting fate by putting that out in the internet-world? Does that mean that this weekend will just downright suck? Perhaps.

This weekend we tackled part of our new year’s resolution of revamping our laundry room/pantry space. Then that morphed into tackling Ry’s closet and our office/play room the next day. We also hit up costco. Andy went shooting with a buddy. And the girls and I spent some much needed time playing outside. In the SUN! Slowly but surely our house is getting into order. I sense this weekend will be another busy one with organizing and purging. I need to finish the office area. We’re getting rid of the GIANT desk that is used for nothing more than to stack papers on top of. I seriously can’t wait!

I’m eyeball deep in tradeshow prep at work. This is our first major tradeshow as a company so this week/two beforehand is extra important for me and my Type-A self. So, please excuse the photo dump…that’s pretty much all I’ve got the time for at the moment. One day I may return to some sort of real blogging.

Someone has been practicing her sitting up skills…she was doing pretty well on Saturday and was making herself belly laugh every time she realized she was sitting on her own.

Rylee was super into the shelving project. The checker at the home improvement store let her scan everything with the handheld scanner. Then she helped Andy with all the leveling and stud finding…legit doing it by herself. Andy was having a blast doing the project with her. It was the sweetest thing to sit back and watch.

Safety first, friends!

The mostly finished product! Horray for smarter use of space! {Boo for how much that shelving stuff costs! Holy crap}

Her closet has been like straight out of the movies, if you open it you’re not sure if you’ll be taken out by a toy avalanche. Don’t tell Rylee, but while she wasn’t looking I started throwing stuff away.

Go ahead and file this under heart-melting moments. Rylee is such an amazing big sister. Seriously almost makes me cry. {Side note: WHEN DID I BECOME SUCH A SAP!?!?}

Our front yard. Amazing day.

MUD PIES! What’s hilarious is how Ry is still, 3 days later, so shocked I let her play in the mud. What she doesn’t realize is that this was so me when I was her age. I LOVED playing in the mud when I was little. She was building a robin’s nest, by the way.

I think we’re finally starting to get the hang of the work/fun balance thing. At least I hope we are.

Our little family of four is settling quite nicely into itself. I love them. So much.

Somewhere In The Middle

Mostly Average Accounts of the World's Okayest Mom.