poolside

Old friends, new friends, storytime, lunch out, poolside...and that's just Friday's fun :)

happy weekend

Russell Recommends

Moms-to-be and moms of younger babies often get overwhelmed by all the baby stuff out there today.

Here are Russell's recommendations to your children (and subsequently, my must-haves for moms).

Russell recommends: "Throw some of your snack on the floor so you can eat it later!"

My must-have: Mat from One Step Ahead (saves our hardwoods!)

(coming from eating off the floor - gross I know - call this a "true mom confession" ;))

Russell recommends: "Zoom your toy car around! This is one of my favorite toys!"

My must-have: this car was from the Dollar Tree - and he LOVES it! Why spend more?

Russell recommends: "When you're done drinking, just throw your sippy cup!"

My must-have: Sippy straps, again from One Step Ahead. Saves sippies and sanity.

(this picture is a couple months old, and not the best picture, but you can see the strap.)

Those are just a few of our favorite things! It's so nice to have some of life's little conveniences!

Bag Lady

If you have a DSLR, chances are good that you like to take pictures. Therefore, I'm also guessing that you like to take your camera with you all over the place to take those pictures. And, you probably don't want to break that nice, expensive camera by just tossing it in with your keys, child's toys, snacks, etc.

You need a camera bag, my friend!

I have a thing for bags. I have been drooling over these for quite a while:

www.epiphaniebags.com

www.kellymoorebag.com

But instead of spending $150, I found this:

Super cute, right? Yes, it's a regular purse from Target, but you can buy (or if you're crafty, make) padding for the inside.

Here's the best part:

So even with the padding, it's way cheaper than one of those camera bags - and just as pretty, I think!

Target has purses on sale now - this one was half off - so even if you don't need a bag for your DSLR, maybe you need a new fall pocketbook? I'm just sayin'! :)

When grandparents come into town

on an ordinary Friday afternoon, what do you do?

If you are Russell, you play with your Paw Paw

You listen to stories being told totally ignore the adults telling boring stories ;)



Your not-long-enough arms reach for Dog



And you marvel at the way grandparents make you feel like the most special boy alive



And you just might become a little mischievous...and end up looking like you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar...



...or the beer cooler, as the case may be. (obviously he did not partake; please don't call CPS on us!)

All in all, a wonderful day to be a little boy. Or a grandparent. Or, of course, a parent.

Cruisin' Right Along

I think I've mentioned before that Russell is cruising. He doesn't do so often - I think he knows that crawling gets him places faster - and when he does, he acts like it's just no big deal :)

Here is a short video of him cruising and then typing on his laptop!

Pierogy Casserole

Casseroles are a must in our household. Frugal, lots of leftovers, easy = sign me up, please!

I know some people don't like them, and no, they are certainly not gourmet. But this pierogy casserole is not your run-of-the-mill, cream-of-something-soup-and-noodles casserole. Which is why, even though it's stolen/adapted from my friend Elizabeth's blog, I am posting it here too. I make it probably twice a month.

pierogy casserole

1 box pierogies

1 jar marinara sauce

1 green bell pepper

1 onion

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

1-2 cups of Cheddar cheese

1) Chop your pepper and onion:

2) Layer your casserole: Pierogies first, then vegetables, then chicken, then sauce. Sprinkle cheese on top.

3) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

4) Enjoy!

Tonight was Russell's first time eating this casserole:

he liked it! and so do we (obviously!)

(I linked this recipe to Tasty Tuesday - the blog author sings at our church :))

Splashin' Around

Oh, how Russell enjoyed the cool waters of the community pool on our hot and sunny Thursday! A good hour and a half was spent there, watching the big kids, bear-crawling around the graded water line, feeling the sprays of water and laughing with delight. What a lovely antidote to our shut-in sick week :)

(pics with cell phone.)

Working with Daddy

Jason loves his job (mostly); therefore, Russell and I love his job (mostly).

And some days, we like to visit him and see what exactly he does all day.

Russell helps Daddy with his important work:

Like lounging in the comfy executive chair ;)

In all seriousness, we know and appreciate all of Jason's hard work for us. And I think Russell appreciates all of the doting attention from the women who work in the office!

Craft Day

We've been sequestered from our friends since Russell is sick :( Not bad - just a little cold - but I'm sure no one else wants it!

So what do you do when you've read every book (several times), been to the park, run every errand, played with every toy...and it's only 3 pm?

Why, you try some crafts!

I've never really done any crafts with Russell before, so this was an experiment.

Craft #1: Stickers

Maybe it would be fun to put some stickers on a piece of paper and call it art?

Here's Russell trying desperately to get a sticker off of his hand:



And about a minute later, he shows me what he thinks of the whole thing by throwing Fuzzy over it:



Well, that took up a whole 3 minutes.

Craft #2:

Homemade play-doh. I knew this was risky since he puts everything in his mouth, which is why we did the homemade kind (safe to eat). Flour, salt, vegetable oil, and food coloring = not appetizing, but not toxic either.



He stuck his hand in the bowl and squished it for a minute - a good start, I thought! But before I could stop him, a BIG handful went straight in the mouth - and then, this face:



Still makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Needless to say, that was the end of play-doh play time. Also the end of crafts for the day. Woo-hoo, 15 minutes down...3 hours to go until Daddy gets home.


We did, however, find something else to do:

--took up over 1 hour of our time

--he was smiling, laughing, and talking the whole time

--free!

--got us out of the house

I will post about that soon ;)

Deck-warming Party

We went to a housewarming party this evening.

But with the gorgeous weather, we all pretty much just warmed the deck instead of the house ;)

Correction: the babies' second choice of activity was being outside - their first, of course, was chasing the dog (of whom I did not get a picture).



Beth prepared some great food for us,



which her hubby Brian grilled - Jason always calls Brian the "grillmaster" and per usual, his burgers lived up to that name!

the grass is always greener on the other side of the glass door (or something like that)

Lucky Russell got to stay up a little later tonight; lucky parents got to enjoy fun company. A perfect summer Saturday!

Can minivans ever be cool?

Recently, Jason and I have been talking about getting a minivan (not in the next couple months, more like in the next couple years). They have everything going for them, except for the obvious fact that they are so uncool.

But then again, this video is hilarious - maybe we can be like this?

Of course, we're probably kidding ourselves by thinking we're still cool anyway - but I guess that's another post. Funny video.

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy's Business Trip

Normally, I am not very excited when Jason has a business trip. I'm not really a fan of sleeping by myself, in the dark, in our humongous bed. Not to mention the general sense that something's missing when my husband's not around.

So we jumped at the chance to join him on his trip this time!

Even better, we got to stay with Paw Paw and Kacki!

Thankfully, it wasn't all-work-no-play for Jason, as he, Kacki, Russell, and I got some quality time at the local park:

And this trip was made so much sweeter by the opportunity to get together with Uncle Jon and Aunt Kelly...

...and Great-Aunt Nancy and Great-Uncle Bart. They all just adore Russell and it shows.







God knew what He was doing when he gave us these zany, fun-loving, sweet people for our family. We could not be more blessed.

Lily's Birthday Party!

This is the last of our string of parties - for now, anyway. Russell has a very busy social calendar!

Lily is such a special friend to Russell. They met at 1 and 2 days old in the hospital, since they were born just 12 hours apart (on different days).

Sweet butterfly cake...



...which Lily was none too sure about.



Sure, good daddies capture the moment, but Justin's skills impressed us all!



My two handsome guys enjoying the party:



I may have more pictures of Eliza than I do of my own child. Can't resist that gorgeous red hair.



A silly, happy, newly-one-year-old Lily:



Celebrating toddlerhood in style! Thanks for the fun time, Lily, Justin, and Sarah!