KerryAndGabe.com

Something I’m thinking: We would have had a record turnout at games night yesterday, but we had to cancel due to Maddie throwing up in the middle of the night. It turns out that two of her friends also were throwing up this weekend, so I think we were smart to cancel. It does sound like a mild bug. By the morning, Maddie was normal and has been for the rest of the weekend.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we’ll have a good turn out in two weeks with the rescheduled games night.

Something happening around the house: I think we would be in better shape if we had had games night. We would have had to at least tidy up the toys before people arrived. Of course, the toys would be all over the place afterward, so maybe it’s about the same.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Last Olympian. I started and finished Ready Player One, and I LOVED it. It was a fun read with all sorts of geeky 80s references. Good stuff. I started on Peter and Wendy, one of the selections for February’s book club. I thought I would enjoy it more. At least it is short. It shouldn’t take me long to finish. I’m on the waiting list for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for kindle at the library. I hope that I will get it soon since it is the other February selection.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s reading The Fall of Hyperion and plans to read Ready Player One next since I’ve been telling him over and over that he needs to read it!

Something I’m watching: We are enjoying Alcatraz.

Something I’m creating: I’ve been working on Cullen’s 2-year letter. It’s taking me a while to put together all the words from my notes that I made on his birthday. I need to finish it so I can get back to writing about the cruise. At this rate, I’ll have trouble finishing the trip reports before our next cruise.

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): She had another ballet class (I think that we have 6 sessions with this set). She didn’t listen to the teacher very well this time. Instead, she goofed off with her friend. I went to tell her that she needed to listen to her instructor, and she said, “But Sofie isn’t listening!” Oh boy. That stuff starts so early, doesn’t it? She had a stomach bug that caused her to throw up in the middle of the night Friday night, but she was fine the rest of the weekend. I hope that is all we will see of the bug and the rest of us stay healthy.

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a little party for Cullen at school. He requested cupcakes and rocket ship goldfish. While we were at the party, Cullen pointed at Gabe and said, “Daddy! You’re not going anywhere!” I still love how Cullen talks with pauses between every syllable. Also now sometimes he sings random lyrics about what he’s doing. I love his little songs!!

Something I learned: Good things.

Something I’m looking forward to: A couple years ago, I painted a piggy bank for Maddie. I’m planning to paint one for Cullen this week! We also have a small joint party with mostly family next Saturday to celebrate both birthdays.

Something captured: At Cullen’s classroom party. We didn’t get too many good photos – he was too busy talking about the rocket ships.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: My sweet TWO year old boy!

Something I’m thinking: Happy birthday to Cullen!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that this week passes quickly.

Something I’m reading: I didn’t read too much this week, but I’m still reading The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson series.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished The Sea of Monsters (the 2nd book of the Percy Jackson series). He’s now reading The Fall of Hyperion.

Something I’m watching: We recorded Alcatraz, but we haven’t watched it yet. If we don’t watch it soon, we’re going to run the risk of it being too overwhelming once the recordings start piling up.

Something I’m playing: We played a little of the Hinterlands Dominion expansion. I think I might have played a little Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Something I’m creating: Hopefully, I’ll create a few more blog posts this week.

Something tasty: Mmmm, we ate at Brigs for Cullen’s special birthday breakfast this morning, and I had gingerbread pancakes. Yum!

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): It turns out that Maddie was unable to avoid the stomach bug, though it appears that it didn’t hit her too hard. Thank goodness. The last thing you want is a preschooler with a stomach bug. It sounds like she mostly had a fun day at home with Daddy. She and Daddy baked Cullen’s birthday cake together today. She also mostly iced it herself and did all the sprinkles. She loves helping in the kitchen. She’s been cooking a lot in her play kitchen, too. She’s gotten into building forts out of their Anywhere chairs and blankets. For whatever reason, she calls it the “jail.”

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a big day for the birthday boy! We started at Brigs where he helped himself to handfuls of my pancake. He just reached over and tore off sections of it over and over. I guess we should have gotten him the gingerbread pancake instead of the plain one! He thoroughly enjoyed his breakfast with scrambled eggs, fruit, pancakes (both plain and my gingerbread), turkey sausage, and milk. We then headed to Target where he was allowed to pick out any toy he wanted (well, we would have steered him away from something expensive!). He did very well with the concept of picking out one thing at a time and then “trading” it for something more desirable. He started out with a cowboy rubber duck and ended up with a Duplo Firehouse set. We were happy with his choice! In between, he held an apple shaped pillow, a Minnie Mouse pillow, a set of toddler cars, a LOUD Lightning McQueen toy that talked and raced when you shook it, and a Mater spy truck that did something but we weren’t able to figure out what. The process was entertaining! We stayed out of the decision making process for the most part and just let him ask for the things he wanted. We also picked up some Space shapes goldfish and had a snack in the car on the way to get his haircut. He sat very still and the stylist was surprised at how good he was during the cut. For dinner tonight, he had some of his favorites: pasta, strawberries, broccoli/cauliflower, and garlic bread. Of course, we had cake. This week, he really has made progress with his one-to-one correlation when counting. He has demonstrated accurately counting objects up to 8 (and I think 10 once). Sometimes when the items are all together (rather than distinctly apart) he does the thing where he just points and counts out numbers, but for the most part he really seems to be getting it. He does especially well with 4 or less items. Earlier this week, one of his teachers told us that he declared that “Aiden can’t eat milk and egg.” I’m surprised he’s picked up on his classmate’s allergy! I guess he’s heard the teachers talk about it enough times. He also used air quotes for the first time. His teacher said that Cullen said his diaper was “messy” (and used air quotes when saying this). Cullen then looked at me and said, “I pooped. It was ‘messy’” and used air quotes appropriately. Ha! I’m so proud.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I booked TWO trips to Disney! Woohoo!

Something I’m looking forward to: Lots of stuff going on this week. I’m mostly looking forward to getting through the week, book club, and games night!

Something random: Well, I thought I had found my Favorite Thing of 2012, but I might have to reconsider. On Saturday, I took a bubble bath with my kindle double bagged in ziploc bags (admittedly, one bag is probably sufficient). It was fabulous! Best use of a ziplog baggie EVER.

Something captured: The birthday boy!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

In late October, we went to Sofie’s birthday party at Marbles. We had not been to Marbles since Maddie was little, so we were excited to explore the museum a bit after celebrating Sofie’s birthday.

The birthday girl!

Yay! Cupcakes!

Icing is yummy.

Everyone has a different method.

Clare’s method was a messy one.

Cullen tried to steal Sofie’s presents.

He looks like such a big boy here. He was trying out cars on the ramp.

Daddy helped the kids build a house out of giant blocks.

Cullen took a doggie for a walk. It was quite a drag for the dog.

Considering that I’m usually the one hanging out with Cullen while Gabe is with Maddie, we almost always end up with more photos of Cullen. This second child should have no complaints about their photo coverage! Cullen loved playing with the farm animal figures.

We had a fun morning!

For Gabe’s birthday, I decided that he needed a cake. I wanted to make something different, so I arrived at the rainbow cake! I have had friends make similar cakes previously, and I stumbled upon some instructions when looking for an interesting cake for Gabe’s birthday.

So, I made a mess of the kitchen and separated the batter into 6 bowls, one for each color. If I had looked up Ann’s posts, I probably would have reversed the colors for the 2nd layer.

Once the tedious part is done (dying the batter), it’s easy to create. You just pour each color in one at a time. They won’t mix together, and they just spread out in rings. Next time, I think I would use more of the first color since it spreads so thin (and a little less of the next color, etc).

I could tell when I took it out of the oven that it was going to be great! I couldn’t wait to level the top to see how bright the colors were inside. Unfortunately, I didn’t have to wait. When I tried to flip over the pan, it slipped and I lost the cake. I was so sad! The 9″ layer was destroyed (the 6″ layer survived).

I had used French Vanilla cake mix, and it was quite tasty! The colors were so vibrant. I loved how pretty it looked!

So, I didn’t know what to do. I was so disappointed! We ended up finding a box of yellow cake mix in the pantry. I wasn’t sure if the rainbow colors would work with the yellow cake mix, but I had to give it a try! Worst case, we’d have a tasty cake that doesn’t look quite as pretty.

I used both 6″ layers and made a tiered cake covered in chocolate icing and decorated with M&Ms.

Maddie added the colorful sprinkles.

The colorful candles were cute, too!

The birthday boy!

Pretty!!! It turned out well after all! The colors turned out just fine with the yellow cake! You can tell (maybe not from these photos here) that the white cake is a better choice for the colors, but the yellow worked, too.

I loved how it turned out!!!

Maddie liked it so much that she organized a dance party with Jason. Ha!

For my birthday (in mid-September), I requested that Gabe agree to go bowling…for the first time ever! It was one of my goals to get him to do it, and he’s been very resistant to the idea. I had in him a trap, though…he couldn’t turn down birthday bowling!

I thought that I would ease him into the bowling thing by going to a fancy bowling place, Sparians Bowling Boutique and Bistro. We were joined by Melissa, Jason, and my sister (my brother-in-law couldn’t make it at the last minute). The evening started with me side swiping the babysitter’s car. Not good. We arrived at the place around 7pm.

They don’t take reservations for dinner or lanes, so we had to wait a little bit to get seated for dinner and were told they wouldn’t have lanes available for at least two hours. My sister was running a little late from work, so we were fine to wait a little bit.

The menu looked tasty, and the four of us went ahead and ordered since Kristin wasn’t sure how long she would be. There was a bit of confusion as I think they changed waitstaff about 5 minutes after we were seated. The new waiter was clueless. He said something about this being only his third day, and that he didn’t receive much training at this establishment. He obviously didn’t know the menu at all, forgot our orders and came back to ask about it twice, and ended up bringing the wrong food after all. We had to get our own drinks from the bar a couple of times. We asked for several things (extra plates, refills, salad that we didn’t receive, etc) that we never got from him. The service was just awful. We waited forever to track down the waiter and get our check when we were ready to bowl. When the manager asked us how everything was, we told him we were less than happy with our waiter. Apparently, the manager had only been there for a few days as well. We were not impressed by the dinner service, to say the least.

Some of the food was tasty, and other parts were mediocre. I’m glad we had one of those coupon book coupons. I wouldn’t likely eat there again, based on our experience. The best part about the meal was that we happened to be there for a trivia night. They came around with index cards and pens and asked us if we wanted to play trivia, so we said, “of course!” (though we had no idea what it was). We didn’t win, but we weren’t the worst. The slow service was bearable with the entertainment of the trivia game.

They texted us to let us know that the lane was ready before we were finished with dinner, so we had them put us back on the list. We all headed to the lanes after we finished the trivia game and dinner, and it was already much later than we had anticipated. I think it was close to 10pm before we started our first of two games.

None of us had been bowling in quite some time (and Gabe had never been), so it took us a while to get our bearings. We had a shaky start.

We still had a fun night out!

We celebrated all of our birthdays with Melissa and Jason this year. We had some trouble on the lanes as our lane attendant was a little odd. At some point after Melissa had a string of bad frames, he asked Melissa if she would like bumpers for her turn. She had just bowled 8 in that frame, so we were a bit baffled by his timing and rudeness. We couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious. He also observed us at times and made suggestions about what we were doing wrong. I guess he was just trying to be helpful, but it really came off the wrong way. We get it dude. We suck at bowling! It’s ok, though. We’re just here to have fun.

I’m glad that my sister was able to join us after a rough day at work!

Kristin points out her strike on the scoreboard!

At some point, we had a lot of trouble on our lane. The pins kept getting knocked over before we would start bowling, and then they wouldn’t be counted correctly. Sometimes the machine would accidentally drop the pins when clearing in mid-frame. Once it threw the pins down the lane towards us. We had so many issues, and they weren’t very attentive in addressing them. We finally requested a new lane (at this point, the lanes weren’t too crowded). The new lane behaved much better, but all of us were getting tired and had lost our bowling mojo (not that we really had it to begin with).

Gabe even enjoyed himself! He said that he wouldn’t mind going bowling again sometime. See? It wasn’t so bad after all.

Next time, we won’t go to Sparians. The idea is great, but the implementation left something to be desired. It was something different to do, but next time we’ll just go to a regular bowling alley. Sparians has such potential to be a great time. Based on our experience, I can’t really recommend it. We had fun despite the fender bender, bad service, rude attendants, lane mishaps, and mostly terrible scores. The company made up for all of it! Happy birthday to me!

I decided at the last minute that I was going to take a vacation day and go shopping at the outlet mall yesterday for my birthday. I knew I had to get my license renewed, so I figured I can do that and then drive to the outlet mall which is about 45 minutes away. My mission was to find something pretty for myself. I mean you only turn 35 once, right?

So, I wanted a new purse. My first stop was the Coach factory outlet where I did indeed find myself something pretty at a bargain price! My friend Shannon took me into the Coach retail store the other day. I loved some of the purses, but I did not love the prices. I think I’m more of an outlet gal!

Gabe picked out a new purse for me. Maddie bought me a new, small wallet. Cullen decided on a small, flashy wristlet that I can use on the cruise to carry the small camera and new tiny wallet in the evenings (since he has recently claimed my other wristlet that I use for such cases). Happy birthday to me!

Of course, they were not there for my shopping spree. I was free to spend as much time as I wanted in the Coach store as well as several other stores. I didn’t have to worry about my husband boring of my indecision. I didn’t have to chase around kids or worry about impending meltdowns. It was awesome. I even managed to score a few bargains on clothes for the kids (which is a weakness of mine) as well as a new pair of boots for Cullen (he has been jealous of Maddie’s new boots).

I think perhaps I should take vacation and go shopping on my birthday every year! Mission accomplished!

Something that makes me happy: Gathering to play board games with friends.

Something I’m thinking: I did think about what I was doing and how I felt 10 years ago (Facebook and the media do not want you to forget it, not that I would anyway).

Something happening around the house: We had a pre-TBGT games night on Saturday. Fun times! I think the kiddos had a good time, too, as evidenced by almost every toy in the house getting some play time.

Something I’m reading: I decided to stop reading Four Corners of the Sky. It was ok, but it wasn’t riveting. I decided to move onto A Great and Terrible Beauty, which is this month’s book club selection. Unfortunately, it seems that several club members have read it and did not care for it. I don’t mind it so far, but I haven’t gotten too far.

Something Gabe is reading: Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis.

Something I’m watching: Football, football, and football…not exactly by choice.

Something I’m playing: Saturday, I had the chance to play 7 Wonders, Macao, and Notre Dame.

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): We are working on her not being so upset about things that people say to her. Lately, her brother has been taunting and teasing her about things. She wants to be first every time we do anything, like get seated at the dinner table. She has to get into her seat before Cullen gets into his high chair. We usually let her because Cullen just doesn’t care that much at the moment. But then Cullen will say, “I first” and look at her like he’s waiting to see her reaction. She gets very upset and whines, “CULLEN SAYS HE WAS FIRST BUT I WAS FIRST!!!” We’re having a hard time getting through to her that it doesn’t matter what Cullen says. She had a similar issue with a classmate who told her that she can’t count this week. She decided that since repeatedly telling her friend that she CAN count was ineffective, that biting might be a better approach. This is the 2nd time that we have had a biting incident (same victim). We had a big talk about all the things that we can do other than biting to solve her issues. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. Maddie was working on her penmanship this afternoon. She did a pretty good job of writing all of our names (she had to ask us how “Kerry,” “Gabe,” and “Cullen” were spelled, but she did great!). I’m so proud of her!

Something Cullen is doing (19 months old): As I mentioned in Maddie’s summary, he has started intentionally taunting Maddie. It’s amazing how early that this sort of thing starts. Oh my goodness. His favorite taunt right now is to say that he was first at the table (when he was not), just to watch and see how Maddie reacts. He’ll look at her and say, “I first!” and gets this little grin as he waits for her reaction. Today, Maddie hadn’t had a snack yet and Cullen had a snack cup with goldfish. She said, “I want a snack!” and Cullen imitated her (“I want a snack”) and waved his snack cup near her. I think he’s been doing forms of this for weeks, but I’m just now realizing he’s doing a lot of this stuff on purpose. He’s also picked up on the taunt, “Ha ha a boo-boo” from Maddie, and I have seen him with a toy that she wants saying “ha ha a boo-boo” while he carries it around the living room. This reminds me of when my sister used to tease me and say that she was older than me since her birthday was in February and mine was in September. When we were really little, somehow this really got to me. I wonder when Cullen is going to figure out that one (since his birthday is in January and Maddie’s is in February). I predict that it will drive Maddie crazy when he does. Cullen is a sweet boy, and he’s very into his Mommy right now. He doesn’t like to be separated from me. It’s sweet, but it breaks my heart when I have to leave him at daycare or like tonight when I went to dinner with a girlfriend.

Something I am struggling with: I want to buy a new purse, and I’m trying to decide which one (and how much I want to spend). I know. My life is rough. Happy birthday to me!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m making Gabe go bowling for the first time ever. Can you believe he’s never been bowling? That’s what I asked of him for my birthday. He was tricked! He couldn’t say no!

Something I learned: I reacquainted myself with the fact that I do not like Moon Dough nor will I be buying any for the kids ever again. We bought a small pack of it for Maddie at some point. It does work really well in the special molds, but it’s awful, awful stuff. It crumbles like crazy and gets EVERYWHERE. We’ll stick to Play Doh, thanks!

Something I’m looking forward to: My birthday, making Gabe go bowling, and That Board Gaming Thing! I am so excited about 4 days of board gaming! Woohoo!!! Gabe and I are taking off work on Thursday and Friday so that we can both play while the kids are in daycare. It’s going to be great. We’re taking turns the rest of the time (and my sister is even going to babysit for us one night).

Something captured: We took Maddie to lunch at the cafe on Friday, and she was very excited!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

I decided that I wanted to continue doing the letters every 3 months for Maddie. I still feel like so much happens in that time period, and I just want to keep it all documented for her (and for me!). I hope to put letters to Maddie into books for her along with other keepsakes, photos, and milestones. I only need to write one letter this month, since I’m doing Cullen’s every 3 months now, but I still can’t manage to get it written on time! I’ve had this one mostly written for a couple of weeks…but I just now found the time to add the photos. (more…)

I posted this video to YouTube a while back, but I forgot to link it onto the blog. It’s just a little video from Maddie’s birthday party at the museum. Click on the original post to see the embedded video.

We had Maddie’s birthday party at the Museum of Life and Science. For the first time, Maddie was pretty specific about who she wanted to invite. She was excited about most of her classmates being able to attend the party! It was a little overwhelming as we had 15 kids running around. Most of the kids were right around Maddie’s age with only a couple younger and just one older than 3. The hour that we had in the party room went by very fast.

Dylan and Maddie had fun running around in circles around Cullen and dancing to the music.

Cullen thought it was hilarious.

He was a sweet boy throughout his sister’s celebration.

Some of the girls hadn’t seen each other in months, and they were clearly excited. They danced and ran around and played ring-around-the-rosie.

The stools were a feature of the party.

Need to plan a party for a bunch of 3-year olds? Just make sure you have a big table with paper and crayons and enough stools for everyone.

Oh, and don’t forget the cake. Kristin helped Maddie blow out the candle since her birthday is the day after Maddie’s.

After our hour in the party room, we went outside to explore the museum. Despite it being February, we had perfect weather for exploring the outdoor exhibits.

Maddie played on the drums with some of her buddies.

Ponies make excellent hats.

Daddy looks cute with our new, adorable diaper bag.

The girls had so much fun together. They were very cute as they ran around the museum grounds.

Our family had a wonderful day celebrating our special 3-year old girl! Happy birthday, Maddie!