"My New Red and Yellow Bike"

During the beautiful warm weather last week, Adrian figured out how to ride his bike! (With training wheels.) He has been trying since he got his bike in August. He would get so mad trying to push those pedals and I would get frustrated pushing him around on it. Finally, one day he just started pedaling! He was so excited, it's so awesome to see him succeed at something that he has been working so hard at.

He occasionally rides his bike with the neighbor boy who is 5 who also just learned to ride a bike--without training wheels. The neighbor (we'll call him "N") would zip up and own the alley and Adrian would roll down the slight incline outside the garage, turn around, push his bike back up, climb on, roll down. Repeat. The very first time they played (after my garage sale when we happened to be near enough, long enough for them to get chatting), N would give Adrian a little nudge to get him going. I bet he'll be pumped to see that Adrian can actually pedal his bike now.

Good-bye Summer

The garage sale was a success. Not a shout it from the rooftops, raging success, but hey, if I can make money off of stuff that was destined for the thrift store anyways, I call it a success. I planned to use the money to redecorate the entry/laundry room and buy a few clothes for Adrian who is in dire need. I have money for both. Yay!
Now the fun part starts: prepping the entry for paint. That was sarcasm. I should have started a long time ago. I'm hoping to be able to paint within a week, but judging by all the paint I have to scrape off the windows, it might be longer than that. [insert very sad face.] The previous owners took great care of the house for the most part but their painting skills leave something to be desired. Anyways, I decided I won't even buy paint until the room is totally ready to paint, taped up and all. That way I won't have the huge disappointment of my "quick" stairs project...the brand new paintbrushes are still sitting on top of the fridge, unopened.

Today I'm just trying to catch up with all that was neglected in the 4 days of planning/running a sale.

Like posting pictures of our camping weekend, a week late.

Adrian was so excited to get a Tonka Truck from Grandma and Grandpa L for his birthday. This trip may have been a lot different without it. He played with it the entire weekend and was covered in dirt all day, every day. Despite the unexplained puke (singular) on the way there and the couple accidents we dealt with over the weekend, he was a great.

And Isaac was perfect. What a happy camper!

Our car was so full I didn't think we would be able to bring any kind of stroller, but luckily I remembered the umbrella stroller at the last minute and it just fit--in fact, on the way home it was tied to the bike rack. I wasn't sure how he would do in it and if he was even big enough but it worked perfectly.

Adrian loved pushing him around and running back and forth between the 2 campsites.
Check out those toes!

There were some really great hiking trails at the campground. The guys fished for a good part of the weekend and Adrian got to go too. The girls plus Isaac went on a hike one afternoon. It was gorgeous. Another day Jeff and I ran these same trails together, it was so fun that I decided we need more running dates, there are TONS of running/mountain bike trails in our area. Plus, I never would have ran 4 miles by myself!

After 2.5 miles of walking, we were met with this scene:

I'm sure people say this throughout the country, but we live in a really beautiful state.

Jeff also got a birthday present from his mom and dad. It took me a while to catch on, but all it took was this one piece for him to figure out what was in the box. As you can see, he is thrilled. We both are actually.

If you have talked to Jeff anytime in the last 6 months you know exactly what he's into obsessed with right now.

I think we're both still a bit blown away that they gave him a beehive! That's only 1 of the 5 boxes. It came in kit form and he assembled the entire thing as soon as we got home. I'm not even sure if the rest of the car was unloaded. And somehow we did manage to fit it in the car (disassembled in the box).

We also hit the beach a few times, of course. The weather was perfect and so was the water. We spent a good deal of time searching for Petoskey Stones.

Isaac found the sand. It's so fun to watch him discovering new things!

Note to self: Take pictures of more than my own little family.

The only cloud hanging over the trip was my in-laws oldest dog, Toby, getting sick. He's an old dog and after our hike he started coughing/gagging a lot. My poor mother-in-law felt like she had a newborn again with the sleepless nights that weekend. We weren't sure if he would make it through the those few days, but he did.

This was our first year going to the Petoskey State Park. We usually go to Traverse City but decided to switch it up this year. I think everyone agreed that it was a nice park and we'll go again next year. It should be a completely different experience with a newly walking toddler...we'll see how that goes. ;)

With that, summer is officially over, but I'm still holding out for a couple more hot days.

Breakfast Chat

As we were eating our breakfast this morning Adrian told me, "These eggs are yummy! Thank-you!" And then a few minutes later, "These eggs are yummy! Thank-you!" -pause- "I said it again!" And then a moment later, "These are the best eggs I ever had!" They were good omelets, I sauteed onions then added chopped fresh spinach and chopped tomoatoes, some minced garlic, and a sprinkle of dried basil. A little feta cheese on top doesn't hurt either. Delish! Of course Adrian likes to wreck all eggs with ketchup but whatev.

Now, let me take a moment to tell you why this is so ironic; a few days ago I made the same exact omelet. I thought it was delicious and ate it right up. Adrian on the other hand, took two bites and told me, "I'm full, I don't want anymore." I was okay with that. Generally when he does that, he'll come back five minutes later exclaiming his absolute starvation and I present him with the rejected food (especially if it's something he has willingly eaten before, in this case he had). Sure enough, complained of hunger so I told him to eat his omelet. We happened to have an poolside invite that day so I was running around trying to get the house in order and get ready to go. While I was upstairs he said something funny about me throwing something of his away and I asked if he had thrown his omelet away...sure enough.

So, these are the best eggs you ever ate, huh?

Sweet Baby

Little Man is 5 months! I am just blown away by how much faster time flies with the second kid. And I'm guessing it doesn't slow down anytime soon.

He is still just as happy as ever, my perfect little chubbers. Everyone always asks, is he always that happy? and yes, he really is. Sometimes I feel guilty because he is just that good, he's totally content to roll all over and kick on the floor all day long and I get so busy with everything else in my day that I probably don't take enough time to just snuggle him up. And I should because he is just growing so darn fast.

He loves to stick out his tongue, I think he's trying to blow a raspberry, but hasn't been successful yet. He found his thumb about a week ago and he loves it. I think it's the cutest thing and sometimes he just gets so into it like sucking his thumb is the very best thing in the entire world. Mostly it's his left hand but sometimes it's his right and it's not uncommon to find him sucking both thumbs at once.

He's grabbing things pretty successfully now and I sometimes find him sucking on Adrian's Duplos that are always all over the floor. He's still a pretty good sleeper (although I blame my coffee habit for his stopping sleeping through the night) he soothes himself to sleep most of the time. At night, when I notice that he's getting tired, I lay him in in crib as we're getting ready for bed and he'll roll around and every once in a while he pops his head up and gives us a big grin. Before I know it, he's sounds asleep.

A little update on the baby wrap, he still loves it and so do I. I don't carry him around in it quite so much these days because he really loves to move around, but I still use it for hiking or grocery shopping when Jeff isn't with me to carry the 1 ton car seat. He still likes his legs all tucked up inside although I occasionally let them hang out if it's too hot. (To answer the question about yardage from the baby wrap post, you could probably get away with 2 1/2 yards of fabric. 2 yards might be just a tad short. Sorry I didn't reply 3 months ago!)

I feel like we're adjusting quite well to life with 2 kids. Although we didn't choose this age gap, I think it helps that Adrian is old enough to have some independence. And also, like I said, Isaac is a perfect baby.

Tomato, Tomahto

I kind of want to write an entire blog post about tomatoes. We went to the Marquette farmer's market again on Saturday. Jeff was working so this time it was just me and the kiddos and we got there towards the end. It had been raining off and on and all of the vendors were packing up even though there was still a half hour to go. Wimps. Anyways, when we went the week before we tried this AMAZING cherry tomatoes from one stand and brought a pint home with us which we quickly devoured like candy and on our chicken salad.

I asked what kind of tomato they were because they were so good, but the guy wasn't sure which one they were. He had 2 different varieties of these orangey-yellow cherry tomatoes and you could only tell them apart by taste. He told me to come back the following week and he would have both kinds (they were mixed together that week since he didn't have a ton of each yet) so I would be able to try them and figure out which was which. Oh my gosh you guys, I seriously can't get over these tomatoes. I like tomatoes but I don't generally like to eat them plain. I cannot wait to grow them next year just so I can snatch them off the plant and snack on them. Yum!

Anyways, I went back to his stand yesterday and he didn't have any. Not just because we were late, but he hadn't brought any at all. Instead, he had some bigger--but still smallish--tomato varieties. They were $2.50 for a pint and he had about 2 and a half pints left. He gave the rest to me for $2.50. This was the reason I wanted to go late in the first place. ;) These other varieties were every bit as good. In fact:

Jeff looked at me like I was crazy as he drizzled peanut butter onto his frozen strawberries.

Have you been to the farmer's market lately? I was pretty disappointed to hear that there are only a couple more weeks to get the local produce when we just started going.

A Happy Birthday Weekend

We had a Happy Birthday weekend in this house. Jeff and Adrian both celebrate their birthday on the 11th. I had plans to have a houseful for a party but so many people ended up being out of town so it was a pretty small gathering in the end. We had fun nonetheless and visited with a couple we haven't seen in a while. No pictures of the guests because I am so awkward and I feel silly asking for permission to post pics. Please tell me I'm not alone. (And feel free to to tell me that I can, nudge, nudge.) ;) I actually completely forgot to take a picture of all the kids together, silly me.

Jeff started car-pooling last week [jumps for joy] so I have a car on the weekends that he works. This will be the first time in a long time that I will actually make it into church on those weekends. So nice. On Friday I was able to run all over town buying stuff for our little party. It took for.ev.er with the kids by myself. When I got home I had to fly around making cakes and cleaning and making a fun little banner for the porch.

I don't bake. When it comes to cooking, I can tweek a recipe or completely wing it. Baking on the other hand, I follow the recipe word for word and it's still mediocre at best. So the cakes were good but not great but boy, this frosting was the bomb. I wanted to freeze it and eat it like ice cream. I won't even tell you what's in it because I'm still trying to forgot. (Yes, that picture of the cake is in my living room, we have very little natural light in the kitchen, unfortunately.)

We gave Adrian Duplos for a birthday gift and he is loving them. He keeps talking about playing with his "Dupwo Wegos." Now I just need to find more thrift shopping/garage saling to add to his stash.

On Sunday, we hiked up Sugarloaf with some other friends and then grilled supper at our house. Love that we can do that now! We actually just picked up a cheap charcoal grill since I haven't found one otherwise. Can't wait to use that every day.

It kind of felt like my birthday this weekend. So fun to have friends visit our new home!

Gigi's Camp

We got back from the camp last Tuesday and Adrian is still asking to go back to "Gigi's camp." (We call Jeff's grandma Gigi to distinguish between all the grandma's. He's a lucky kid to know so many.)

We went thrift shopping while we were there, my mother-in-law and I were the last thrifters, with Adrian and Isaac in tow. Adrian was following Grandma around Keweenaw Consignment and talking as loud as can be, I could hear him all over the store. Every once in a while I would hear, "Where's my mom?" and the other customers probably nearly died when they saw what appeared to be a 14-year-old pipe up, "I'm right here, honey." I found a handful of vintage treasures including these really cool pillowcases that I saw on someone's blog. I just searched around and I can't figure out where I saw it, but anyways, I had no intention of seeking it out and then bam, there it was. I love when that happens! I'll have to do a thrifting post one day to share some of my latest finds.

We stopped at the grocery store to get drinks to go with the pizza we had for lunch and Auntie Jenna bought a mustache that she put on Adrian but it happened so quick that I wasn't able to get a face shot.

Of Adrian, tthat is.

This is my sister-in-law, Katie. I'm going to be honest here, she's winning the Favorite Auntie Contest. Adrian adores her.

Jeff and his dad went fishing a few times just a few miles off shore. They caught this lake trout and Paul grilled it up minutes after they returned. It doesn't get much fresher than that!

We were following along with the Olympics while we were at the camp, but now that we're home I feel like we're missing out because we don't have cable. I thought we might be able to see it on the local news (??) but we can't get that chanel to come in. Anyways, here's Isaac feeling inspired while watching gymnastics.

He makes it look too easy.

I had intentions of running a few times while we were there but I only ended up going out once with Jeff. The waves were pretty big so at some narrower places on the beach it felt like we were playing Mario and trying to stay out of the lava. It made the run a lot more interesting that's for sure.

We also had a night of smores, hobo pies (with nutella, strawberries and bananas on french bread, try it!) and fireworks. My camera battery was long dead by then so I missed out on all the photo ops.

It was a nice relaxing trip besides the way too much laundry caused by a certain someone who had accidents at night due to certain someones feeding him too much watermelon. Oops. Hopefully everything goes well when we camp in a few weeks.

3 Weeks Ago

I never did post pictures from downstate. For anyone interested. ;)

On one of the hot, hot evenings, Granny Molly was knitting away on a dishcloth or something and it soon turned into a group finger-knitting craze.Even her boyfriend Paul decided to try it out.

Actually, now that I think about it, he was the one that started it all.

My mother-in-law planned a surprise 50th birthday party for my father-in-law. The guys took him fishing that day to get him out of the house and that morning the girls went to a bridal shower for Jeff's aunt, Kathy.

There are about 15 paper plate fans missing from this picture. It was in the 90's and no. air. In fact, when we first arrived, the power was out so we didn't even have fans. The chocolate covered strawberries were good even if they were melting.

Luckily, it cooled down for the party that afternoon. And it was a total surprise! I love when that happens, it's so much more fun with the surprise is a success.

There was food stashed in Katie's closet and at one point, at my mom and dad's. Jeff's dad was on his way home from work and was planning to pull something out of the downstairs freezer to cook for dinner. No one was home so Jeff had to run over and pull the pork out of the freezer before he got home. Whew. It all worked out in the end. Maybe a little too well...their neighbor is an awesome baker/cook and offered to make cupcakes for the party. I'm avoiding wheat and I had 2. And I wanted another. They were amazing!

In other news, Adrian learned to swim with arm floaties. (Water wings? are we the only one that call them floaties?)

And Isaac couldn't figure out what was tickling his neck.

Little Schemer

So sweet, going to give me a kiss.

Scheming to lick me. Stinker.