Presley Grace

Saturday morning I got up and got busy! Our house was a mess since I really hadn't been home (and awake) for 3 nights. We cleaned, organized, picked up her birthday cake and got ready for her birthday party at noon! And she was actually helpful in doing all of this too, I think she was a bit excited. She just wanted to have some friends over to the house and have a 'game party'. Makes it easier and cheaper for us!

These girls played so well for the first 45 minutes that we didn't really see them! We had a couple games we were going to play...Pin the horn on the unicorn, totally worth the $12 I spent on it!

And the saran wrap game...filled with little toys, some $2 bills and some candy. This was fun and took them a while to do!

We did pizza and cake and ice cream,

Since she wanted a 'game' party, her cake looked similar to the game Twister!

She still does not love it when we sing happy birthday to her, she tried really hard NOT to smile!

And we got a group picture before opening presents!

Boston wasn't really sure he wanted to be with the 'girls' at this party, eventually he is going to stop coming and we can't blame him!

After the party was over Piper and I headed to Fox Brewery for a going away party for our family friend Andrea. She is going to New Zealand to study for 6 months!!! I don't know how Susie is coping with this! Having your baby gone for 6 months and in New Zealand?! UGH. But Andrea is amazing and always kicks ass and enjoys every adventure to the fullest so I know she will have the time of her life (and maybe learn something too! :)

 

My dad built a pyramid out of the candy on the table, Piper wanted her picture with it of course.

We left there and met Steve, Presley and cousin Ava at Applebee's (Presley's choice for her birthday dinner). Cousin Ava had to miss Presley's party b/c of basketball but she joined us afterwards to spend the night! These two play so well and there are so many laughs and giggles when they are together!

I accidentally said something about Presley's birthday and the waitress heard it....they came out singing with ice cream! I didn't know they did that at Applebee's and Presley was SO embarrassed about it! OOPS! Oh well, she survived! ;) (we are pretty sure this is why she didn't choose Texas Roadhouse for her dinner, b/c she didn't want to sit in the saddle and such!)

We got back home and these girls just played and played and played!

And then decided to roll over their shirts to look like bikini tops (you know, like us girls did when we were younger?!) then tried to play volleyball with a balloon.

They finally calmed down after 10 pm. Christie came to pick up Ava about 11:30 and then we didn't do much that afternoon but clean up and get ready for the Super Bowl. Presley and I spent some time laying in our bed, her on the ipad and me getting caught up on a couple DVR'd shows, it was nice just to lay and cuddle with my 9 year old!

About 4:30 our neighbors from down the street came over to watch the Super Bowl, they have 3 little girls and they all play really well together so it was nice!
The decided to use the gymnastics mat as a sled and slid down the stairs over and over again! They loved it and no one got hurt!

 Bellamy sat on my lap for bit, see how happy she is about it?! :)

Going to work Monday was a complete drag. I hate my job right now. Hate it. Some of it stems from the fact that we are still learning this new job.  So I don't know what I'm doing, there is minimal work, minimal flexibility and for the first time in 14 years I got denied a PTO day b/c there was already ONE other person who had it off?! Did I mention that there is minimal work for us to do?! It really sucks. I'm hoping I can either find a new job or that this one gets better in the next couple months.

Birthday week

This is always a busy week for me and the family with 3 of our birthdays within 5 days of each other. Tuesday Presley had gymnastics and we still hadn't heard about what they wanted to do with Piper since they messed up her class scheduling. But they decided to move her up into the big gym, where you are supposed to be 6 yrs old....so naturally we knew she would be the smallest person in her class. And when Steve took her Wednesday night, she was! But he said that she did really well! I think she is going to really like this class and learn a lot! 

 

I was able to do dinner with my friend Colleen on Wednesday! We have a tradition of going to Rock Bottom for dinner a couple times a year and now they are closing the restaurant for good, so we needed to have one last hurrah there!

Then Thursday night we met my family out at Gilroy's for my mom's, mine and Presley's family birthday dinner. After dinner, we headed back to my parents house for cake and presents! It was a quick family gathering but it was nice since we hadn't really seen everyone since Christmas....which is kind of long for us!

We did leave the girls there to spend the night so that we could go to the High Life for their Groundhog's day celebration at 6 the next morning! :)

And we did get up way too early. I woke up at 3:45 and never fell back asleep and Amy was dropped off at my house at 5! Then we picked up Sarah on our way out of the neighborhood and headed downtown....we were there at 5:30 and there was a line, a long line! Needless to say, it was cold during our wait outside and we didn't get a table inside once the doors opened but it all worked out!

 

We left High Life about 12:30 and walked over to Fuzzy's Tacos for some lunch.

That afternoon I did nothing! I went home and took a nap, woke up for a bit when the kids got home and basically just laid around all evening and night! Happy Birthday to me! :)

Weekend Update

I'm going to need to be more creative in some of my posts, this seems to be the only thing I ever talk about anymore.

Our week was more of the same. I took Presley to gymnastics on Tuesday. I was able to get a good seat to watch her the whole time (ALL 90 minutes). I love watching her and so many times she turns to find me to make sure I'm watching, it's so cute.

Wednesday we went to El Mariachi for dinner b/c we hadn't been there in over 2 weeks!

Thursday Steve took Piper to gymnastics. That is when we found out that there was a misunderstanding of some sort and she really wasn't registered for this Thursday class? Even though this is the 3rd week in a row she had been there?! The teacher and desk lady were trying to get it figured out and the teacher Miss Sarah had Piper do a couple extra skills at the end of class. She told Steve that she really needs to move up a class so they would send us an email this week to figure it out?! Um okay, so we'll just wait and see what they say!

Friday Steve and I went to The Nadas album release party at Wooly's. It was fun as always, we saw some people we knew. And we got to witness a proposal on stage! It was so sweet and worked out great! What a great surprise for her!

Of course we made a pit stop at The Boathouse on the way home. We didn't get home until after 12:30 which is really too late for us! I feel bad for Lexis our babysitter, she was at work at 6:30 Friday morning and then was at our house until 12:30! Long day for her!

Saturday Steve got up about 9 to take my car in for an oil change and then go to a poker tournament that he was playing in.
The girls and I hung out for a while and then got ready to run some errands. We hit up the Dollar Tree for some stuff for Presley's birthday party this weekend and then went to watch Mary's basketball game! It was fun being able to see her play, they have a good physical team and they won! After that we headed to Target. It was too stressful. It is being remodeled and everything is in a different place, you can't fit 2 carts down some of the aisles. We quickly got the 10 things on our list and got the heck out of there! I couldn't handle it!
The girls wouldn't stop fighting on the way home so they both went to their rooms when we got home and I enjoyed 30 mins of quiet time! yay me! Steve got 12th our of 43 people in the poker tournament but unfortunately that doesn't pay out. :) The rest of the night we just hung out, Steve made a great salmon dinner and I fell asleep on the couch before the girls were in bed! Oops!

Sunday morning we must have all been really tired. Steve and I slept until 9 and we had to wake Piper up at 10! This Sunday was a lot like last Sunday! We didn't leave the house but I got a lot more done! I put 7 loads of laundry away, cleaned and dusted our bedroom, did dishes, worked out, watched most of a movie while the girls played for 3 hours (that is right.....THREE hours) by themselves without fighting! It was crazy and awesome!

I know this next weekend and weekend won't be nearly as boring so I'm glad we were able to enjoy this time at home!

Back to Reality

Last week was more back to normal after vacation. Presley had gymnastics on Tuesday, we met my parents out for dinner on Wednesday b/c they were leaving for Texas on Thursday and wanted to see the girls before they left. Thursday Piper had gymnastics and then Friday night they had Collins birthday party at Pump It Up. We decided to drop the girls off at the party and then Steve and I went and got a quick dinner! They had fun for sure! Happy Birthday Collins!

After the party I dropped off the kids and Steve at home and then I went over to a friends for a couple drinks. My friend Sarah was at Jamie's house who lives not that far from me. I've known both of them for years and this just worked out nicely for me to hang out with both of them in one night! It was fun catching up!

 

Saturday we didn't do much. I did one load of laundry, dusted, cleaned the floors but other than that. The girls were on their ipads for way too long, eventually I had to kick them off and tell them to go play. It was pretty nice outside, so they went out when Steve was taking down the Christmas lights. Presley got ready for her first sleepover at a friends house!  Her BFF, Leah can't come to her birthday party so they decided to have her over to make up for it!

We dropped her off about 4 and then the 3 of us went to dinner at Barntown Brewery in Waukee, it was really good! Then we spent the evening cuddling and watching movies with Miss Piper!

 

They dropped Presley off about 10:15 Sunday morning. They had a lot of fun! Angie (Leah's mom) printed off pictures and bought these cute little scrap books for them decorate!

They went ice skating, made slime, did some scrapbooking, had pizza and had a lot of fun!

 Matching jammies with their dolls!

 Pretending to sleep with their dolls for a photo op. So cute!

She spent a lot of time doing more scrapbooking that afternoon. So cute! I'm glad she likes being artsy!

I, on the other hand....did almost nothing Sunday. I watched hours of the Twilight marathon, in between organizing the coloring books and storage area. I played trash a couple times and mancala with Piper, read my book and didn't get out of my sweats!
I did ONE load of laundry all weekend. At one point I walked into my room to pick up the clothes that I had just thrown around all week.....and I turned around and walked back out b/c I just DID NOT want to do it! So I didn't! :)
It was nice having a super lazy weekend with no real plans but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in my house who could do that EVERY weekend. So next weekend, I will get dressed and maybe take my kids somewhere.....maybe.

Home Sweet Home

Sunday was our last day....we slept in and slowly got ready and packed. The shuttle was due to pick us up at 11:35 for our flight at 2:45. So we walked around, said goodbye to the Delaware people, had a couple drinks. It was actually chilly too! It was cloudy and windy and there was no one in the pool, so it was a good day for us to be leaving!

 

Our flights were all pretty good, we had to hustle in Chicago to make our next flight and it was snowing but really everything went pretty smooth! My dad picked us up about 9:30 and we stopped at McD's for some dinner at 10 and the girls didn't go to bed until about 11. Thankfully they slept in Monday morning!

Steve had to work Monday, but I didn't. So I spent the day unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, shoveling the driveway! (giving myself a pat on the back for that) and blogging! The girls stayed home with me and were actually pretty good, they watched some movies together and played on their ipads, Presley did her homework while Piper played dolls....which allowed me to get done all the stuff done that I did!

We did find some cool shells, the bigger ones we found on Isla, they had so many big cool rocks/shells that we had to limit was the girls could bring back! :)

Overall our vacation was great! We didn't turn on the hotel TV at all, the girls didn't play on their ipads until the flights home and they LOVE the water! We went almost every day without knowledge of what time it was! That is a vacation!

Some of the things I learned from this vacation....
- The Chicago airport sucks when coming back and going thru customs/security.
- Many people don't know where Iowa is or think it is only cornfields...I find this very annoying.
- It is super easy to spot douchebags at a pool and they are probably from the east coast too.
- People on cells phones on vacation are crazy.
- Many people tan before vacation so they don't get sunburn...you know what you could do instead? Wear sunscreen! That helps prevent sunburn! Really, I promise!

Day 4 - Photo Dump

Saturday, our last full day, sad face. We did another day at the pool. Again thankful the pool is heated b/c with the clouds and some wind this day the air was chilly if you were just sitting in a chair!

They had some guys get down coconuts and cut them open for people to have and drink real coconut water!

Presley was not impressed!

Steve and I are actually used to drinking coconut water, so we enjoyed the fresh, hydrating drink!

Piper and I sat in the sun, drinking and talking! :) She even took another nap on my lap this afternoon!

We had dinner at Marco Polo again and the girls really enjoyed my steak and Steve's halibut...more than their chicken nuggets and French fries! :)

Who doesn't wear their napkins to look like pirates at a nice dinner?!

And like every other night, we did dinner, went to the show and then spent some time in the lobby bar again. Football was on TV this night, there were a lot of people cheering on the Eagles!

Before the music started she just ran in circles. The music was actually really bad for our last night, but we enjoyed our last night either way.

Her souvenir, a little monkey thing that she named Daniella.