Saturday Morning Snuggles

Dancing The Night Away

On Sunday night Kevin and Reese spent a fun evening together.  They started their date night with a pizza dinner and then headed over to a daddy/daughter dance organized by the Girl Scouts.   They had such a fun night together.  I was a little jealous that I had to miss out on it. 

Kevin knew I was sad to miss out so he kept me posted with photos and updates.  This is one of the videos he sent to me.  It brought me to tears.  So sweet!



Reese and Natalie approached the DJ at the beginning of the night and asked if they could perform the song they wrote the night before.  He told them they could do it at the end of the night.  So just before everyone left, he called them to the middle of the floor, gave them the mic, and they sang their little hearts out.  Kevin said that the crowd went wild and Reese was thrilled! 

You're A Sunset In My Eye

Reese had her friend, Natalie, sleep over this past weekend.  The girls were down in the basement and we heard them singing their little hearts out.  I asked Kevin if he recognized the song and he said that he didn't.  We assumed that they were practicing a song they learned at school for their upcoming musical. 

About an hour later they came barreling up the stairs, so excited.  They announced that they had written a song and wanted to sing it.  What came next was SO impressive!


Maybe it's just because I'm a proud mother but I am just so impressed that two 7 year old girls wrote this song and perfected the melody in an hour.  I love it!

Mardi Gras Party

This year marked the 8th time we have thrown a Mardi Gras party.  We were really nervous going into it having invited somewhere around 80 people.  I know, it's obnoxious.....but we felt like we should invite everyone who had shown up in years past and our circle of friends continues to grow so the guest list has grown as well.  We ended up with about 45-50 people here including our out of town guests; Meilina, Eddie (who decided the week before to fly out), and Josh (who bought his ticket on a whim the day before!). 

We started with this:

And transformed our basement into this:

Of course we had all of the essentials needed to bring New Orleans to Naperville:

We spent ALL day cooking.  On the menu: king cake, crab cakes, chicken cakes, shrimp & grits, muffalettas, blackened catfish poboys, boiled shrimp, sausage, red beans & rice, and pasta jambalaya.

The food got rave reviews (phew!) and I believe them because almost everything was gone at the end of the night.  We had so much fun with everyone....that is, once we were finally able to sit down and take it all in.

 

Despite a successful party and a good time, I think that was the last one for a while.  It was just way too much work and has gotten too big.  Meilina and I were both up early and had everything cleaned up and packed away before lunchtime.  The thought of digging it all up again, even a year from now, just isn't appealing at all.  Maybe we'll go to New Orleans for the real thing instead. 

Our Bests

Reese and I both had big reasons to be excited a couple of weeks ago.  Our best friends were on their way into town.  Meilina and I were able to see each other just over a year ago but for Reese and Emma more than 2 and a half years had passed.  The visit was long overdue. 

With our Mardi Gras party on the horizon, we spent the first couple of days working our butts off.  I would have never pulled it all off without Meilina's help.  The girls had an absolute blast together.  Reese was in Heaven for the six days they were here. 

 And obviously Talan fell in love with her, too

The kids got into the spirit of Mardi Gras along with the rest of us!

Unfortunately, our time together flew by and before we knew it the girls were headed to the airport and back to Seattle.  Reese and I spent the days following their departure in tears.  It was really, really tough to see them go.  Reese took this picture of herself and sent it, along with a text message, to Emma.  It read "I can't stop crying.  I miss you so much.  Love, Reese":

Before they left, Reese pulled Kevin and I aside and said "If you tell me that you're going to keep us apart for another two years, I'm not going to let her get on the plane".  We promised it wouldn't be that long and have already started our search for reasonable airfare so that we can make the trip. 

"Everyone has a 'best friend' during each phase of life - only a precious few have the same one"

Good Thing Sushi is Soft

Last week Reese had an appliance installed in her mouth to help expand her jaw and to break her of her thumb sucking habit. 

The poor thing has been in pain since then.  They warned us that it would take a few weeks to get used to it but it I still feel awful.  She's been a trooper and realizes that it's for the best.  She's still working to get used to it so for now she's got a little lisp and is having a lot of trouble with food.  For now I've stocked up on soft foods to get her through the hard days. 

Good thing sushi is soft because that's what we had for our special Valentine's Day dinner last night.  They were able to wrap her rolls in a soy paper and make them bite sized so she was thrilled. 

And today she has something new to be thrilled about....her best friend, Emma, is coming into town from Seattle.  Along with her is her mom, Meilina, so we'll both have our bests in town for the next few days.  Last week we found out that Eddie will be flying in from Florida as well.  We'll have a house full of friends and we could not be more excited. 

Parties, Parties, and More Parties

I have had an incredibly busy month.  A friend of a friend contacted me a month ago and asked me if I'd be interested in planning a 40th birthday party for her husband.  Uh, heck yes!  Planning parties is one of my favorite things.  When she offered to pay me I couldn't have been more excited.  So in addition to planning Talan's birthday party and our upcoming Mardi Gras party I took on this job as well.  I spent most of last week prepping for the big day.  It was all desserts.  I'm not a huge fan of baking but I gave it my best.

On Friday I went over with my loads and loads of food and started setting up.  She was really, really pleased with the end result and said that the guests raved about the food.  I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity to do this and hope it's a trend.  Here's a few photos of the set up:

Aside from the cookie cake I did it all myself.  He's a big Michigan State fan so I planned around the school colors, green and white.  I had the guests send me quotes and did a "Top 40 Things We Love About Jason" display in various places (helps keep people moving through the house), had a picture made and guests signed the border, and set up a Jack Daniel's bar because that's his drink of choice. 

I got rave reviews so I'm really excited.  And the following day I worked on cake pops for a close friend of mine.  Her daughter loves a show called Monster High so with a little research I was able to come up with cake pops that matched her theme.  And again, I got paid for them!  Loving it.

And I'm officially exhausted.  Too bad being that I have a HUGE party to host in three days.  Red Bull please!

Open Hizzy

Last week was open house at Reese's school.  It's always funny to me to see how Reese acts as though we've never been to the school before when we go to these functions.  "Mom, Dad, this is the library", "Oh, and here's the lunchroom".....the same lunchroom I was at earlier that same day to drop off her lunch.  The reason being she had an expander installed in her mouth to prevent her from sucking her thumb and to reshape her jaw.  It's causing her a lot of pain and she wasn't able to eat much of anything after they put it in.  I brought her smoothies and soup on Thursday and Friday so that she'd have something in her system. 

The kids are always really excited about showing off their hard work.  We had fun admiring everything

I was super impressed by her PowerPoint presentation on penguins.  Talan was, too:

Her self portrait:

And one with her teacher, Mrs. Eischen:

I spent most of yesterday working on homemade Valentine's for the kids to bring to school this week.  I'm so addicted to Pinterest.  I've found a ton of great and easy ideas - everything from food to crafts to home improvement to fashion.  Loving it.  The schools won't allow candy anymore (boo!) so I had to be a little creative.  We went with pencils and homemade bookmarks instead:

So much fun!

3 Year Stats

I took Talan in for his 3 year well check yesterday.  It's a good thing we went in because it turns out he has a double ear infection.  I just took him in last Friday because he's been sick off and on for two months now and they sent us home with the usual "it's just a cold" diagnosis.  I'm glad he's finally on some antibiotics and will be able to fight whatever has had a hold on him.

I was shocked to find out that he has grown just short of FIVE inches this year.  Insanity.  He's gained just three pounds over the course of the year but that was exactly what she expected.  Here are his stats:
2012 - 27 pounds, 38 inches
2011 - 24 pounds, 33.25 inches
2010 - 17 pounds, 28.5 inches

I told Talan that when you turn three years old, diapers go away.  So, on Monday morning we started the dreaded potty training.  Fortunately I had my parents here to help out on day one.  He only had one small accident (didn't even soak through his underwear) on the way to the bathroom.  Yesterday I was concerned because I knew we'd be in the car for an hour and a half when we had to take my parents to the airport.  Even so, he stayed dry.  The only accident he had yesterday wasn't really an accident.  He isn't a fan of pooping on the toilet so instead he pooped in his underwear.  Cleaning that up was an absolute blast.  Loved every minute.  Today he has been in underwear all day....including the 4 hours he was at school....and hasn't had a single accident!  I'm really, really pleasantly surprised at how easy this has been so far.  I guess he was just ready. 

Here are a couple of cute videos from his birthday party:
Singing happy birthday


Opening his gift from Grandma & Granddad


They know the way to his heart.....cheeseburgers!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Talan!

Last night I just had to take a picture of my sweet little man.....that last one before he would turn three.

When I had him tucked into bed I went to work on decorating so that he could wake up to birthday fun.

I couldn't wait to see his sweet little face the next morning.  I love my sleep but I was up very early in anticipation of greeting him at his door and walking him down the stairs.  He didn't disappoint with his animated reactions to everything.

After a birthday donut breakfast it was already time to start getting ready for his birthday party.  He has been talking about this day for over a month now.  We arrived at Bounce Town and I got to work setting everything up.

The guests began to arrive and the kids had a blast in the bouncy houses.

Next up was pizza, cake, and gifts.

He had such a fantastic day thanks to all of his great friends who showed up and helped him to celebrate it.  Happy third birthday to you, Talan August.  We love you so much!