Eli's first day of school

I know I'm really, really late on posting this, but I just found the pictures from Eli's first day of preschool.  This did occur in August, but I'd still like to have them up here! 
Eli was so excited to start school.  For weeks, before it actually started, he'd ask me if he got to go to school that day.  So, on the first day, he was ecstatic!  We packed his backpack with extra clothes and such, took the first day of school pictures, and left for school.

This is a total daddy face!  Isn't he cute? 

We headed downstairs to his classroom.  (It's only been a couple of months, and he's walking down the stairs like an old pro now.)  He gave me big hugs and kisses.  Then told me to leave...  I'm so proud of my big, independent boy!  We'd been talking for a long time about the first day (and how I'd leave him there to play then come back for him), and he was ready!

We like the Noah mural.  This picture cracks me up every time I see it!  He looks like a little Ark Cruiseline tour guide.  Love it!

He had a great first day!  Eli still loves school.  He loves learning, making things, and playing with the other kids.  It's so good for him! 

Lingering thought of the day: I am so very thankful that I get to stay home and take care of my babies all day.  I LOVE it.  I'm living my dream!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 2)

Cake and presents!  Cake and presents!  Everybody loves cake and presents!

Anyway...now that I've gotten that nonsense out of my system, let's talk more party talk.  I made Eli's cake.  Eh, it's ok.  One of these days, I'm going to get around to taking a class.  For now, this will suffice.  So, I made the cake Friday and frosted it Friday night.  I thought I'd get a leg up and be extra ready and stress free pre-party Saturday.  It was finished.  Then we woke up Saturday morning.  There were about two minutes when I was out of the kitchen, and the birthday boy made his move.  There was a track.  There were cars.  There was sugary goodness.  I'm not sure why I expected him to be able to resist.  He didn't.

Yep, he took the cars and drove them all over his cake.  They'd torn through the track (literally).  As I walked into the kitchen, they were spinning out in the infield.  I'm not gonna lie.  I kinda flipped.  In hindsight, I should've just put a car upside down in the infield and another with it's front end stuck in the road.  Eli likes the crash scenes in Cars.  He probably would've loved it.  However, that idea didn't come until I'd fixed the frosting.  Thankfully, I had kept the leftover frosting & Oreo crumbles.  All of the pictures that follow are of the second go around of frosting.

The cake consisted of four 8" square cakes.  To try to give a little variety, I made four different types of cake.  They were:  white, strawberry, funfetti, and chocolate.  It shocked my socks off, but almost every child asked for white cake.  I did not anticipate that.

Eli has been singing "Happy Birthday" for weeks, months, years... That may be a slight exaggeration, but he sings it all the time.  He sang it all morning in anticipation for the party.  But when everybody sang it to him, he looked a little surprised by it all.  He picked out his candle himself.  He really wanted a number candle.

After cake and playing at the stations, the kids migrated outside to play.  I didn't want to drag them all back in for presents, and it was gorgeous outside.  SO...the presents moved outside. 

Eli's friends (and their parents!) were so sweet!  We really enjoyed having them all over to play.  Eli was so excited about them all coming over, and we had a lot of fun.  We had the party a little early for his daddy's schedule.  It was the weekend that worked best this month.  I can't believe our little man is going to be three already.  How did that happen?  He's a big boy now.  He is so very, very precious to me.  I love being blessed with him every single day. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I have a teensy little spider who lives in one corner of my shower.  Her name is Tess.  I'm going to go read for fun now. 

Thanks, Kim, for taking all of the awesome birthday pictures for me!  I appreciate it very much!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 1)

Eli's third birthday party with friends was held at our house today.  It was great fun.  However, I have a few confessions to make. 
Confession #1--I get a little obsessed.  I plan.  I try to make everything play into a theme.  I decorate.  I write out lists...and then other sub-lists of things to accomplish.  It's my thing.  I LOVE to plan parties.
Confession #2--I hate party games.  Seriously.  I know it's wrong, but I truly do loathe them.  It doesn't matter if it's a party for kids, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  I do not like them and will do my very best to avoid them.  However, my inner teacher can't necessarily just roll with free play either.  That's what led to stations...

Here are just a few of the decorations (my faves).  It took each picture about ten minutes to load.  Mercy knows, I'm not a lady of great patience.  Therefore, there will only be a skimming.

The front door (on the way in) had a "Start your engines" sign.  This one, on the back of that one, is what was seen when leaving.

Here's Eli's birthday banner. It's kinda hard to read, but who doesn't need a challenge, right?  Ok, so I should've made the red more prominent than the blue.  Oh, well!

Here begin the stations:

This was the coloring station.  They had little Cars coloring sheets and crayons in a Cars bucket.  We love this IKEA table.  It was all of $7.00.  Eli plays and eats on it.  He uses it for pretty much everything.  Back to the point...

This station was for driving Cars cars.  Eli and I worked really hard on this one night.  We took a cheapy shower curtain, a Sharpie, and joined creative forces and went to town!  Drawing a town...  Anyway, it was fun to make and fun for them to play with.  Had it not been for Eli's help, there wouldn't have been a whale or shark in the river.  I love his imagination!  Side note:  The red blob on the far right was the puzzle table (Cars, of course) and it was the leading favorite spot of sippy cup drop zone.  Whatever works!

This was a station for Chuck & Friends.  They drove all over the place.  The train table's set up next to it for some railway fun.  We have lots of things that go in our house!

BUT my very favorite station of them all was the drive-in  movie.  We had Cars 2 as the feature presentation.  We set up a concession stand with movie candy, popcorn, and Cars juice boxes.  The popcorn is from the local movie theatre.  I called a few days in advance to ask about buying whatever leftovers they had from Friday night for the party on Saturday.  They told me when to come in and gave it to me for free.  We filled 32 popcorn boxes and still had a full trash bag full.  I was totally amazed, not only by the amount, but by the free-ness of it all.  That was really, really nice!

Their cars were office paper boxes that were spray painted.  Then they had eye windshields, license plates, and tires put on them.  This idea was a Pinterest steal (as was the shower curtain road).  I do love Pinterest. I think the kids enjoyed this station quite a bit!  I'd recommend it for rainy day fun!

Tomorrow, I'll focus on cake and presents.

Lingering thought of the day:  Captain Crunch is ripping the flesh from my mouth.  I should probably never eat it again.  I'm giving it up.  That is, until I forget in a year or two, eat it again, and repeat this whole monstrously painful thing.

Lingering thought of the day #2:  I haven't blogged since April.  I've missed it quite a bit.  However, I've lost my touch in that time, so go easy on me.  Ok?

UK Partay

On Saturday, we went to a UK partay at a friend's house. It was great fun, even if the outcome of the game wasn't quite what we were hoping it would be.  That morning, we ran to the mall to pick up a few things.  UK t-shirts were included on the list of items to buy.  It was easy to find shirts for Scott, Eli, and me.  However, it was a bit trickier for little bit.  Everything was just a little...well, blah.  SO, while the rest of the fam took an afternoon nap, it gave me the opportunity to create this outfit:

I was pretty excited.  All of it was made of materials, basic pieces, and supplies I already had on hand.  Yay for freebies!  It was my first tutu and first applique. 

Here's our fam all decked out:

Kate borrowed a beanbag chair.

While Eli borrowed a massive hand...I think it's also worth noting that Eli got to pick out his own shirt.  He had two choices.  He did a pretty good job.

Eli stayed up and played through the game.  He had a blast.  Kate was a little more sleepy, but the girl even sleeps with flair.  How funny is this pose?

Lingering thought of the day:  Last night my little ones decided to wake up in alternating shifts through the night.  The problem is that I got cocky.  I started telling people they were sleeping through the night, and I was well rested.  They overheard me and decided it was time to put a plan into action.  Maybe, just maybe, after the sleep strike last night, me little ones will decide to take mercy on Mama tonight...

Smores Pie Experiment

The other day, my Scott was watching the Food Network.  I'm not sure what he was watching, but Guy was making a smores pizza...on a pizza crust.  I wasn't entirely pumped about smores on crust, but it got the old wheels a turning.  I decided that instead of a pizza, he should just make a pie with graham cracker crust.   It sounded good, so I had to experiment.

My next trip to the grocery store, I bought:  a pre-made graham cracker pie crust, Hershey bars, marshmallow creme, and chocolate chips.  I started by layering the chocolate on the graham.

Then I added the mallow.  This just needs to be lobbed on.  It will smooth itself out as it rests for a few minutes.

Then I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave, put them in a baggie, trimmed a corner, and squeezed.  I then baked the pie at 350 degrees for an undetermined amount of time.  It was just until it felt right...

I pulled the pie out, turned on the broiler, put it back in, let the mallow turn golden brown (It is smores pie, afterall!), pulled it out, cut it, and ate it.

In hindsight, there are a couple of things I would do differently.
 #1--I would let it cool for a few minutes before cutting.  Marshmallow is a goopy monster, especially when melty hot.  This leads to runny pie pieces and unpretty presentation.
 #2--I would make my own thicker crust OR add a layer of graham crackers within the layer of marshmallow creme.  The goop was a little overpowering and more graham was needed.  If adding graham, why not add a little more chocolate too?  There's no such thing as too much chocolate!

This was the fastest and easiest dessert of all time.  I will be trying it again in the near future!

Lingering thought of the day:  I LOVE that my street is lined in flowering trees.  They are gorgeous.  However, I do not look forward to them smelling like rotten fish, and they will.  Why is it that I decided to write about my stinky fish tree in a cooking post?  Doesn't that just whet your appetite?  Goodness gracious...

Chunk N Chiez

My kiddos and I went on a play date last week to Chuck E. Cheese.  Eli loved it.  Kate was indifferent, but I think she liked all of the noises, lights, and such.  She was sitting in her Baby Bjorn, so she won't be pictured.  It's really tricky to get a picture of a little one who's strapped to me without being in the picture myself...  Anyway, it was a really fun trip.

Eli was rather fond of the Dino Dash.  There were two buttons:  run and jump.  He played well and thought it was really funny when the dino tripped over the stump...

Then he sat in the monster truck, which he was really excited about...until he was up on it.

As this child eats, breathes, and lives all that is Cars, the race car game was an obvious hit.  However, as he is two, it was a little tricky for him to reach the pedals or the steering wheel.  He liked it anyway.

Who doesn't like Ski Ball?  He was SO excited every time the ball went all the way up the slope and would "disappear."

This is the ABC version of Whack a Mole.  It was quite fun.

Bob the Builder took Eli for a ride on his backhoe...about five times.

Train + Barney = Really Cool

This was a really fun social outing.  It was the perfect rainy day play place.  Eli's been asking to go back to "Chunk N Chiez" at least once a day.  He has leftover tokens.  I don't see why not...

Lingering thought of the day:  Today I hemmed a bridesmaid's dress for a friend.  It was unexpectedly therapeutic.  I love to sit and have girl talk.  I love to sew.  That made for a really relaxing, yet productive, afternoon.

Mmmmmm, bread!

Today I will share with you one of the greatest frugal practices of all time.  Obviously, I will not be short winded about it...  Anyway, I LOVE to cook, and I love to acquire new recipes, cookbooks, and the likes.  However, to buy all of the cookbooks I want would be ridiculously expensive--not an option.  So I discovered (many moons ago) that if I check them out at the public library, before buying, I can weed some out of my want list AND acquire new recipes at the same time. 

Here's my rule.  If there are fewer than ten recipes in a particular cookbook that I simply can't live without, I copy them down onto index cards and file them into my recipe box.  If there are more than ten, I must buy the book.  Of course the book can only be purchased after looking for it in about thirty-five places and finding the most affordable copy possible--usually Amazon. 

Now that I've conquered every freezer cookbook known to man, I'm now moving onto bread, soup, and salad cookbooks.  I go on tangents, then I move on...but that's a whole different matter.  The newest recipe I've tried is out of Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club.  It's a recipe for french bread; I'm not going to share it, as I don't have permission from them.  BUT it is worth trying.  Here are my pictures:

It was delicious!  I'll have to make it again.  Here's the hugest flipper known to man.  Yes, I know that's not the technical term, but those aren't nearly as much fun as making up one's own. 

I learned a big lesson the first time I made this bread.  Don't kill the yeast.  I couldn't figure out why it didn't work the first time.  Then I chatted it out with a pal who is one of my go-to gals for all that is domestic.  If your warm water reaches the point of hot, it'll kill the yeast.  That's bad.  Don't kill your yeast.  If you do, you'll be out about two hours and still won't have bread.  Now that, my friends, is a bummer. 

I couldn't resist showing you these chubby little cheeks.  Are they not the cutest little things ever?

Lingering thought of the day:  If I play outside with my little ones like I did today, I'll be down thirty pounds by the end of the week...I'm a dreamer, but we did have fun in the sun!

Stolen Content

I stole this from another blogger.  And now I want you to steal it from me.

GO!

A. Age: Twenty-Seven

B. Bed size: KING.

C. Chore you dislike: I HATE taking out the trash.  I'm also not fond of general tidying.  I am ok with deep cleaning, scrubbing, and other "real cleaning," I just don't like to tidy.  It's a shame though, because that makes me a "messy."

D. Dogs: I just gave a pug away and don't care to have another pet until my children are potty trained, feeding themselves, and sleeping through the night.  I do, however, prefer them to cats.

E. Essential start to your day: chai tea, baby snuggles x2, big stretch, figure out a game plan for the day

F. Favorite color: There are many categories for this.  My favorite color to wear is blue.  When asked, it's pink.  On a wall, it's gray.  So on and so forth... 
G. Gold or silver: Gold.

H. Height: 5' 2 1/4"

I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano, saxophone, recorder...the term played should be used quite loosely here. :)
J. Job title: Stay At Home Mama

K. Kids: Eli (2), Kate (2 months)
L. Live: everyday to the fullest OR Lexington, KY

M. Mom’s name: Mom, Mama, Noni
N. Nicknames: Stac, Staci Beth, Staci Bug, toots, butt face, da sweetness
O. Overnight hospital stays: Oh mercy, there have been a few.  I stayed a few nights when I duked it out with a vehicle and lost.  I stayed another couple of nights when I had Eli.  Then another couple nights were spent when I had Kate. 
P. Pet peeves: I have many.  Cars without blinkers, snarky customer service representatives, $680 electric bills, copy cats...anyone catching the irony in the last one (as this is stolen)?
Q. Quote from a movie: "Your brain's the one with the shell on it."

S. Siblings: two little brothers, though neither of them are little

T. Time you wake up: whenever my little alarm clocks wake up
U. Underwear:  I keep them in the top drawer of my dresser and under my pants.
V. Vegetables you don’t like: peppers, onion, avacado

W. What makes you run late: traffic, laundry that isn't dry, losing track of time
X. X-rays you’ve had: teeth and various lower body x-rays after being clobbered by a moving vehicle
Y. Yummy food you make: I LOVE to cook, and most of it turns out well. 
Z. Zoo animal favorites: Somalian wild ass, penguins, sea lions

Playin' in da dirt

If one were to ask Eli what we did today, he'd tell them, "Played in da dirt."  This is true.  We did play in the dirt today, and we had fun.  But there was more to it than that--we started our garden today.  Katelyn and I decided awhile back that we were going to have a garden this summer, an organic garden.  Today we did our first round of prep work.  These seeds came in the mail today.  The rest are on back order.

Some of these seeds went into starter packs to make baby plants to put in the ground.  Fortunately, Katelyn has a green thumb, because I am a plant murderer.  I am, however, going to give it my best go to help keep these little puppies healthy and flourishing...  They are currently residing at Katelyn's house.  Each little seed heaved a sigh of relief at this thought.

This garden is going to be fabulous on many levels, but I'm really excited about the learning experience that Eli will have.  It will be so neat for him to get a basic knowledge about how plants grow, where veggies come from, and whatever other little lessons may come from this.  We will see.

Eli helped Miss Katelyn break up the soil.  He was a bit hesitant at first, but with a little encouragement he jumped on it.  Quite literally, actually.

Then the soil had to be spread into the little starter pots.

Eli helped put the seeds in the holes.  He REALLY liked this part.  A happy dance followed each seed that he got to drop.  I failed to catch that on camera...sorry.

Off topic side note:  Eli picked out his outfit with very little guidance today.  He insisted on "ball clothes" and "boots."  This was the final product. 

I am so excited about having this garden this summer.  We are going to have so much fun and good food.  I cannot wait!  More will follow on this topic as we progress. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I would like to be a good southern woman.  Therefore, I must garden and wear a large hat while doing so.  There is a large hat on my "items to buy in the near future" list.  I'm kinda thinking of the Weezer look (think Steel Magnolias).

Inspiration BabyGap

The other day, I was roaming about BabyGap to see what there was to see.  I LOVE the clothes there.  Quite frankly, they tend to be fabulous.  I came across a piece that snagged my attention.  Here's as close as I could find online:

If memory serves, they also had this piece in shirt format.  Anyway, I liked the lacy look.  However, there were a few things about it that irked me:  the price ($26.95), the size of the lace, and the amount of lace used.  I found it all to be a bit of overkill.  But I really liked the overall concept.  SO I decided to try to make my own lacy creation.

I bought a basic t-shirt from Walmart and some lace from JoAnn Fabrics, grabbed my seam ripper, washed the shirt and lace (to prevent any shrinkage disasters), and started playing.

Here's the shirt before I got ahold of it:

Here's the final product:

It was so fun & easy!  I do believe this project took about 45 minutes.  It meets all of my criteria (to avoid overkill), has a fun lacy look, and was FUN to create.  Mission accomplished!

Lingering thought of the day:  I need to craft, sew, and play creatively far more often.  It's good for me.  Therefore, nap time is now a requirement of both children--at the same time for the same length of time (minimum 2 hours) every single day.  Ha!  I'm a dreamer and SO funny...  But I do love to get to partake in these creative endeavors.

Gnomeo & Juliet

A few weeks ago, the Eli man saw a preview for Gnomeo & Juliet.  He got all excited and told me he wanted to see the gnome movie.  I decided it was time for him to go to his first movie (other than the one he attended at one month, which doesn't count).  It FINALLY came to the movies last week, but I decided to go on Valentine's Day.  It is a classic romance, after all.  Kinda...

Anyway, for Eli's first real movie experience, I decided we needed to go all out.  So...I made shirts for the three of us (only three b/c Daddy was busy & wouldn't have gone for the matchy thing anyway):

I bought Eli a little gnome and gave it to him to take to the movie.

Of course, a photo shoot was in order.  My little snuggle bunnies wore their matching shirts.

Daddy Scott was home as we were heading out, so he took our picture at the door.

Eli was SO excited when we walked into the theater.  He said, "Oh Mommy, this is a HUGE movie!"  Then he climbed up into the seat.  We had to position him just right or the seat folded up with him in it...  Throughout the movie, I had to keep my leg across his seat to keep it held open.  The child LOVES popcorn!

Don't worry--these pictures were taken long before the movie started.  I do have great movie etiquette, if all else about me fails!  He was watching commercials here.  Even commercials are far more exciting on the big screen!

After the movie, Eli posed with the big poster.  He & the friend who came with him had a big modeling session here.  They were adorable--here and in the movie.  They chatted and chatted; they were so stinkin' cute.

Eli's first movie was a huge success!  He loved it.  And it was the most fun I've had at a movie in a long time.  It's so neat to see new things through the eyes of a child. 

Now I will unleash my inner English teacher:
I was pleasantly surprised by this version of Romeo & Juliet.  They followed the original far more closely than I thought possible in cartoon format.  I will not go into great detail to avoid giving too much away.    There were great vocabulary jokes throughout.  I loved it!  I'm not really unleashing me, but I felt something along those lines must be said.

Lingering thought of the day:  I LOVE my children...obviously.  Anyway, they never cease to amaze me.  I can take them both pretty much anywhere and expect it to go well.  They both just roll with whatever I may plan for each day.  We have to have a really, really off day to expect anything else.  This laidback, go with the flow disposition that they share makes my life so, well, easy.  They are both fabulous.  I am so, so very blessed to have them.