Summer Vacay Dailies- 3 weeks down

Saturday June 21

Rose Festival Saturday was full of excitement and family.  Jerod's parents made it up so that his mom, Deb, could do the 5K in the morning, and then they hung out with my siblings and the kids and me the rest of the day.  My little brother and my sister-in-law made it up, too!  The kids were thoroughly exhausted having sat through the 5K, a parade, two baseball games, and Cailyn went up to the carnival rides for the first time.  Do not be silly- she wanted nothing to do with the actual rides (and I don't blame her- have you watched those things jerk when they start up?!), but she was very interested in the foods that were available and settled on sno-cones...hers and mine!  We capped the night off with fireworks and my youngest brothers stayed at the house with the sleeping kiddos while the adults went up town for the street dance.  It's the one night a year that Jerod and I stay out until the bar closes- not to drink excessively, just to catch up with everyone and have some fun outside of the bar in our basement. 

 Sunday June 23

I'm not gonna lie- we did SQUAT.  We felt fine the next day after all the previous night's fun, but it was the exhaustion that got us.  We slept in as late as the kids would let us, which I think was until about 9, watched 1 star movies on cable, played, and went shopping in Ames.  The Yellow Sale was happening and I have a weakness for B&BW's anti-bacterial soaps, and I had a coupon for 40% my entire purchase at the Gap outlet.  Psh!  You know I'm not turning that down!  So I bought a very teacher-esque denim chambray dress and a couple things for my babes.  LOVE that place!

 Monday June 23

Ames day #1 of the week!  I brought the double stroller and while Jerod donated plasma I walked the kids on the part of the awesome paths they have in Ames.  You can go about anywhere in town on those things!  We stopped at a park and then went to Hobby Lobby where I found that lovely cork board, but wasn't willing to spend $40 on it.  I'm pretty sure I can replicate it for much less, so I took a picture for inspiration.  After Jerod picked us up we had lunch at Panchero's where, for me, it's never about the tortilla and ALL about the queso and chips! 

 Tuesday June 24

I found Mega M&M's- they are seriously the size of a nickel!  I've been using a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, too, that makes giant cookies, so I figured it was only fitting to use the Mega M&M's in that recipe.  I can't tell you how much I love these cookies- there are no words.  Try them out for yourself here.  These are not low-cal cookies, so I tried to balance out my indulgence by doing a little workout before we took off for baseball.  Cailyn pet a puppy she had just met that night on her own!  Small victories folks, small victories.

Wednesday June 25

On our baseball-free night we thought it only fair to finally hit up a softball game.  The above gems were also at the game and were happy to play with Cailyn and Colby, which is always very much appreciated.  I love my kids, but it's always nice to get to watch a game that I attend and not have to run around all night tracking foul balls. 

 Thursday June 26

Cailyn found my pink heels from my college days.  I'm not sure why I still have them around or how on earth I was ever able to stay out all night in them!  The home game was rescheduled to Tama because of rain, so instead of tagging along we went grocery shopping, which was looooong overdue!  The evening was topped off with bath time, which is a fan favorite around these parts- especially for me, because then they are so much easier to put to bed.  :)

 Friday June 27

'Nuff said.  Thanks to Jamie, Jenna, and Brody for helping me fill up my flat since Cailyn is still learning how to pick berries efficiently!

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Summer Vacay Dailies - Week Two

 Saturday June 14

A nothing day.  A day when we had Jerod to ourselves- no practice, no games, just us.  We celebrate by doing a whole lot of nothing.  Our gems love wands.  Colby thinks they taste great and Cailyn thinks she can say spells that make Colby walk- let's hope not.  This mom could wait a little longer before hitting that milestone!

 Sunday June 15

We celebrated Father's Day by making monkey bread for breakfast and getting some household work done.  The front door needed repainted after being scratched by wreaths, keys, and bags and such.  I am still in love with the orange door- and I'm going to paint the back door the same color...someday.  Our garage improvements are going slowly, but we're ready to paint the back section so that we can put in the first shelving units and get the tubs out of the middle, hence, giving us space to finish the rest.

 Monday June 16

Cailyn has been asking when her birthday is and when she is going back to the sitter's, so I made her a linear picture calendar, like the ones I use with my students in preschool.  It's been very helpful for her to see how we have lots of "No Kristin" days and when there's baseball games, or special stuff to do.  She loves crossing off days!  Crummy weather held off long enough to get in a varsity double header against East Marshall, and Colby had pancakes for the first time!  He's in love. :)

Tuesday June 17

More baseball and the discovery of Jerod's new nemesis: Mr. Rabbit.  This little guy has dig up three or four little patches in our lawn that are quite unsightly.  Let us know if you have any suggestions for keep rabbits away, besides the obvious running outside chasing it and screaming like a whack-o.  The latter is obviously the easiest, however, we'd like to maintain our dignity in this small town.

Wednesday June 18

What's better than playing at the library park?  Having an impromptu playdate with your good friends there!  I was so busy chatting it up with our friend, Jamie, that I forgot to take pictures of the kids playing together!  The rose garden was had it's final manicure before the Rose Festival weekend began on Thursday night.  Wednesday evening we took in a middle school game- it was so weird to have Jerod on the same side of the fence as us, but we loved it.

Thursday June 19

When it rained, it poured- off and on, off and on.  Baseball was cancelled, so we decided to burn off some steam by visiting McDonald's and playing on the play place.  (Ew, yuck, gross me out- but necessary given the level of energy my daughter had this day- bath night followed for sure!)  Thursday evening Cailyn and I went to our first- and probably last for awhile- Rose Queen pageant.  It was definitely an experience, but it took a long time.  I forgot to take pictures, but the girls were adorably beautiful in their gowns.  I have to give them credit because I would have never had the gumption to compete in such a thing.

Friday June 20

My friend, Mandi, invited us to go swimming with her and her uber-chubby, super adorable son.  Cailyn loves the water, so she was game immediately.  We had a blast playing in the kiddie pool at the country club, I love that they have a swing set right in the pool area so you can take a break from swimming for a bit if you'd like.  After chicken strips, fries, cheese balls, and margaritas we'd called it a day, but I'm so thankful that she thought to invite us.  Friday night our babysitter's daughter was crowned Rose Queen and we dined on Backyard BBQ grub of ribs, leg of lamb, and chili.  I love Rose Festival!

 More pics from the our Rose Festival weekend coming in the next post!  Enjoy your week!

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Summer Vacay Dailies are BACK!

It's that time of year again, when the sun shines, the temps sky rocket, we're traveling central Iowa for baseball games, and I'm desperately reminding myself to take pictures!  That's right folks, welcome back to Brown family summer vacation daily pics!

I wish I could say that we have some amazing vacation planned to somewhere exotic, but the truth is we'll be hanging out in the state of I-O-W-A until we make a short trip to Omaha for a visit to the zoo and to visit grandparents and friends.  None-the-less, we have some of our own kind of fun planned that should keep us pretty busy these next 9 weeks (1 down already, sniff sniff).  Without further ado...

Saturday June 7

The morning was spent becoming reacquainted with my kitchen sink...and ALL of the dishes that it had accumulated while I had finished my last week of school.  The evening saw me playing bartender to some friends.  I'm not an alcoholic by any means, but I was definitely thankful to be done pumping so that I could have two drinks in a row without worrying about waiting hours until all the alcohol had metabolized from my body before I could pump again!  And I just had to show you our favorite jammies of Colby's, a nice blast from the past- I can't believe TMNT is still so popular.

Sunday June 8

On Sunday Dad called and said that he was taking a load out to Michigan and was heading that way on Highway 20, he wondered if we'd like to meet up with him.  Of course, if I can get us together with family, I will always do it, so we drove about an hour North to Holland, IA and had an early dinner with him at a truck stop there.  The kids got to climb around in his rig after we ate.  Cailyn wasn't so sure about it at first, but Colby was all about it!

Monday June 9

Monday, Cailyn watched  Beauty and the Beast for the first time, it's one of my favorite Disney movies but it can get a little scary so I hadn't wanted to show it to her until I thought she was ready.  She loved it!  My mom had to drop off my sister and a coupe other high school students at UNI for  student council leadership retreat thing-y, and then came down to hang out and stay with us for the evening- which, true to our weekly schedule in June, was spent at a baseball game.  The boys played a double header in Reinbeck.  The field there is right next to a swimming pool and a park, which was a perfect way to let little gal run off some steam.  I loved they had some old school equipment, like a manual carousel and one of those HUGE twisty slides.  I went down it with her, but, I'm not gonna lie, I thought I was going to throw up climbing to the top- it was so high!

Tuesday June 10

My dad was supposed to be back in Sioux City by Tuesday, but through some mix-up he ended up having to find another load to take back to the opposite side of the state (he only gets paid for driving if he has a load, so they line up ways for him to transport something to one place and then bring something else back).  He was taking the load to Omaha, but couldn't drop it off until 7am on Wednesday morning, so he stayed with us for the night.  There was a JV double header at home on Tuesday, and Cailyn loved having Papa Mark around to buy here whatever she wanted from the concession stand.

Wednesday June 11

Exactly one month from Cailyn's birthday, and I decided we probably better get ready to send out party invitations.  We're inviting her friends from daycare for a splash party and lunch, so we're going with a mermaid and pirate theme.  I also finally attached hooks to the wall in her room so that we have a place for wet towels and her backpack and such.  When I wasn't busy with those things, we were outside on the slip and slide- which I suck at.  I am to terrified to let my body fall down.  I dropped down to my knees a couple of times and I think it bruised me up a little bit, plus the water was really cold!  Mamba didn't care for the water temperature either, he usually loves the water, but I think it just wasn't that comfortable for him.  Cailyn, however, loved it and I had to carry her inside.

Thursday June 12

The Trojans hosted Grundy Center Thursday night, which was a nice reprieve from working on the garage.  We're insulating and finishing the walls before we put in some industrial-like deep metal shelving in the back to hold our million totes we have.  It's just taking forever.  I forgot how long this process is what with the insulation, the drywall, the taping, the mudding and sanding, yadda, yadda, yadda, so on and so forth, etc. Cailyn was doing to arm stretches with the bands the players left out, and one of her favorite parts of the night is anytime her Daddy comes off the field and she can see him.  I also have been going through closets and cleaning out clothes the kids no longer fit into, and I found the Dinosaur costume I bought for Colby that was waaaay too big for him at Halloween last year.  Well, it finally fits him now, ha!

Friday June 13

Friday I had a dentist appointment, so I took Cailyn with me to get her acquainted with what happens there, and Jerod took Colby to replenish our liquor shelf (classy, we know).  Then, JB donated plasma and I took the kids to the mall to play on the play place.  Which is about the only thing we did since somebody (whose name rhymes with Waylon) was being a turd and hiding under and in all of the clothes racks of the stores we went into.  Someday maybe I'll laugh about it, Friday was not that day.  We had the final game of the week at home against Aplington-Parkersburg, and it was such a close one, that the boys lost in an extra inning.  But, they played amazingly and Colby learned how to get food out of the snack bowl all by himself, so I'm going to count the night as a win!

See you next week!

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8 Months Chubby

Colby reaching the 8 month mile marker was an especially fabulous day because it was my last day of work for the 2013-14 school year!  As you can see from the above photo, he was clearly as excited as me- as judged by the routine "grab".  I can't believe that starts so early!

But besides his premature display of manliness, he is also becoming a skilled cruiser and will, occasionally, try to stand up without hanging on to other things, though he's not very successful at that quite yet.  He has also figured out how to open cupboards and drawers...augh!  Luckily, we store kid-safe stuff at his level and they're things that we can just toss back when it's time to clean up.  Like we have to do EVERY.  SINGLE. DAY.

Caught in the act!

He is also eating constantly, and usually wants whatever we're eating.  The nice thing, is that he's able to have so many more foods.  His favorites include: soft pieces of popcorn, mashed strawberries, and bananas.  And I think the only thing the boy likes more than food, is sleep.  So, it makes sense that the only other thing that he could love more, is to do both!

My little sister, Molly, graduated from high school last month and so we headed out to Sioux City for her grad party one weekend.  There were so many family members that I hadn't seen in forever, and I was excited for them to meet Colby. I can't believe another sibling has graduated!  That leaves 3 to go, and we'll have two of those in the next 2 years.

The graduate after Baccalaureate mass.

Colby and Aunt Kristen

Cailyn enjoying her first ever s'mores at a backyard bonfire at Papa and Grandma's house.

 The last week of May was the first week of West Marshal baseball games.  7 varsity games.  7!  That's a helluvalot of games in case you didn't know.  Jerod thought they had the most scheduled until talking to the East Marshall coach who informed him that they had 8 scheduled.  I imagine they were digging deep into the pitching arsenal by about the 5th one.

Two kids and two games makes for a long night.  Cailyn is so mobile, and thankfully there are other kids around for her to play with, but she's just-barely-almost 3, so I can't trust her to take care of herself safely quite yet.  I've had a lot of help though, recently.  Our friend, Leah, is at the games most nights and helps me tag team the two of them.  It's great practice for the mama-to-be.  :)

Colby gearing down for his nightly nap at a game.

The kids had a fun couple of days with their Grandma Deb and Great Grandpa Charlie.  Deb was finished with school a lot earlier than we were, and Grandpa's doctor thought it would be good for him to get away from the farm for a little while.  I'm always happy to have extra help, and this was a perfect way for Cailyn and Colby to get to know him a little better.

Cailyn has been up to her usual antics.  She is a sassy pants!  Timeout seems to be one of her favorite pastimes.  (I'm definitely kidding there.  She LOATHES time out, but has become very familiar with the corner by the front door none-the-less.)  There are always quirky things coming out of her mouth.  Read: we were eating lunch the other day and she was complaining that her pork chop was "too long salty" and that she didn't want to eat it- to which I told her that was all I was going to cook and it wasn't too salty, and then I hear, "Are you kidding me, mom?" and the look on her face was straight vinegar.  After I informed her that I was, in fact, not kidding her she replied with, "Ugh!"  Seriously.

Fortunately for her, she's our baby and we love her unconditionally, sometimes it's just a matter of starting again another day.  She also does sweet things, like ask for snuggles, shake her booty when she dances, and chase her brother because he squeals and loves it.

Prior to this picture she was putting her bottom right on top of the sprinkler, then she would dance and sing, "I peed my pants, I peed my pants, I peed my pants!" 

Sparklers at home when Papa and Grandma Wyant came up to visit.

I can only imagine the trouble these two will get into together as they get older.  Oh, the stories they will tell us someday, when it's been too long for us to get angry!

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