Daddy and Owen went to pick up the cupcake cake and the pizza before the party!
We surprised the kids with a bounce house borrowed from friends!
Owen testing out the Frozen stick-on earrings!
Everyone had a good time and the bounce house was a success!! I’m losing my mind, though—I didn’t take a picture of the decorated table OR the food table! 🙂
Friends of ours came to spend the night on their way to their OBX vacation…so we took the kids to the pool. I only snapped a few pics because we were busy visiting!
The kids got to make their own fruit skewers at playgroup today!
We’re still doing our approximately monthly dinners—and tonight was #4! We had two sets of friends on their second appearance…and one newbie couple (neighbors)! It was a bit crazy as the kids outnumbered the adults (just barely) but it was fun as usual!
Owen went to a super cool birthday party today! This is how he came home:
That’s not how he left the house. 🙂
Turns out the kids all went on a quest! And the mom posted pictures of the whole thing later on Facebook (which I appreciated because we weren’t at the party—it was Owen’s first party alone!).
Waiting to joust and retrieve hanging rings!
Owen said they did catapults “but not real ones!” This is what he meant:
Retrieving their swords from the stone!
Hunting for treasure!
Slaying a dragon!
He had a great time and came home with a box of treasure—colorful necklaces, gold rings, and chocolate coins!—which Katie loved, too! It was an amazingly well-planned and executed party and I am so glad he got to go!
Old friends you’ve left behind can get relocated close by!
After we left Jacksonville in 2008, our good friends Tom and Karen went their own way. We got sent back to Jacksonville in 2011 and they followed us back in 2012…and have now followed us here! 🙂
It’s hard to believe we’ve been friends since 2003! Time sure flies!
A t-ball mom that I’ve come to know (and really like) invited me to her GNO at a local wine shop. I met a bunch of new ladies, had some delicious food, and had a good time! This was the picture the host had taken with her camera. My friend, Kate, is the blonde to my left.
One of Owen’s friends from t-ball (the coach’s son—the family that we’ve grown to know) broke his arm last weekend. So Owen came home from school today with this picture he drew for him. 🙂
As soon as we got there, Katie and her friend were two peas in a pod. (They know each other from t-ball games.)
Half of the kids:
We met some more great people, the kids all got along (who doesn’t love a bounce house?!), and the food was amazing! The kids stayed awake until we got home after 10 and even though they looked tired they didn’t want to go to bed!
Today we went to a friend’s BBQ (t-ball/40th birthday party)—they have a super awesome house with a great deck and huge back yard. So I spent the afternoon listening to dance 80s music with a cool breeze blowing while I sat in the shade. The kids all played happily. I drank some wine and ate some good food (the grilling meat smelled divine). I got to visit with friends…and relax. In short, I was in heaven. The kids had a ball, too, playing with all the other kids, running around the yard, playing on the playset, playing air hockey in the basement, and snacking on chips and cake! 🙂
Katie loves her some Emily. 🙂
I finally remembered to take a picture of our group at dinner. Tonight we had my good friend Ruth (and her daughter Emily) who came down from Maryland, Frank and Beth (and their two girls) who have attended before, and a t-ball mom Kate (and her daughter) that I befriended recently (unfortunately, her husband had to stay home with their three boys because their behavior had been lacking).
Owen was at our table because we had extra seats and the kids table was filled with four girls. 🙂
Of course, it had started storming terribly at the exact moment Tom needed to be out grilling, but I had the foresight to have him put up our old umbrella so he didn’t get completely soaked. 🙂
We all had an amazing time with lots of laughs and can’t wait to do it again!!
And the best thing? TRADING CARDS! (We won’t be doing them every year, but for his first year? You bet! We got to fill in the position so we asked what he wanted and he picked catcher!)
Owen was so excited to show me his project from art class—I had to stop him from trying to unroll it as we walked home!
Do all moms love their kids’ artwork as much as I do? Or maybe I’m just super excited drew something not video game related. 🙂
Facebook friends saw something else.
I see a ninja turtle.
If that’s not a ninja turtle fighting a giant spider, I’ll be really disappointed.
So I told Owen people thought it was a ninja turtle—thinking he’d be thrilled because he likes ninja turtles—and he said incredulously “It’s a butterfly!” 🙂
Cheyenne and I try to get together at least once a week at either house. Since we have grass and a shade tree, today was here so the kids could play in the water table.
Surprisingly, it took a good half hour before this happened. (Notice the 4″ wood block under the right leg to level it.)
And then this happened.
Look at this cute little bundle! Isn’t he just so stinkin’ cute?! I get my fill of baby time with him…then he goes home with his mom. 🙂
And then the girls found some Frozen birthday party hats (and Cayenne is in Katie’s rain boots). 🙂
Cayenne forgot her flower barrette here so Katie was keeping it safe.
More hand-me-downs from a neighbor girl. I cannot tell you how much she loves dresses. 🙂
Let’s try again. 🙂
She had her ballerina on today, but a friend brought over some hand-me-down clothes…and as soon as Katie saw there was a skirt, she HAD to have it on.
A while later, she discovered the rest of the bag…and this dress which she then HAD to have on. This was her look as she watched me pull MORE DRESSES out of the bag. She’s definitely my girly girl. 🙂
Fun with daddy. 
The tunnel got dragged upstairs today. 🙂
We went to a friends’ house and went to their playground. Cayenne taught Katie how to “fly” on the swings. 🙂
So, of course I posted all about Owen’s issues and our new decision on a forum with some friends. I love the input I get—often things I’d never have thought of. They gave lots of advice—some things we’ve already tried and some things we just don’t want to do (mainly, let him make a bowl of cereal or a sandwich—himself—if he doesn’t like dinner). We don’t want to let him do that because then he’d just eat cereal or a PB&J every night. And we’re trying to get him to EXPAND his food choices.
The mom guilt part of me agrees that if he wants to make a sandwich he should be able to do that because it’s just food…and if HE makes it, at least I’m not…but the other part of me wants to be a hardass because I’m just SOOOOOO sick of it and dammit, he can eat what’s on the table or go hungry. Yes, I’ve literally reached that point. (All the years of the same issues over and over and over have hardened me a bit, I admit.) I mean, he managed to survive pre-k lunches not liking anything but obviously eating enough to not be hungry so why can’t he do that at home? Also, he’s not always going to be able to make a PB&J or grab cereal—if we’re out or at someone’s house, he needs to eat what’s given (not that it’s a terribly common event).
I just don’t know. Just when I think we’ve come up with our solution, someone else makes a point that changes our minds.
Oh, and to make matters more complicated, it’s also a possibility he could have some sensory processing issues. Sigh. His autism diagnosis has long been retracted, but the doc never did any type of food/texture testing, and I’m struggling to remember if we even answered any questions about it. At the time, we may have just thought he was still just young and being normal-kid-type picky and we were concentrating more on the other areas.
So of course if I pick the hardass route, we’ll likely find out he does have a sensory issue and then I’ll be wracked with mom guilt. But if we go the non-hardass route, we might never even know.
So in the next week I’ll be calling his pediatrician to see what we can get figured out. And in the meantime we’ll see how it goes.
Blurg.
Our second dinner went just as well as the first—even with a last-minute guest switch up! One family couldn’t come because of a sick kid, so we invited Owen’s coach and his family and they were excited to come! (They’ve recently moved here as well and understand how hard it is to make friends!)
Katie had a friend she knew and Owen made a new friend (only four years old but they got along great).
Here, Tom was rescuing Lambie from the kids’ table so she didn’t get dunked in spaghetti sauce. 🙂
I’ve been thinking about trying HelloFresh for months, so when a friend offered a free box ($60 value), I grabbed it!
I selected the Omnivore box and then selected the meals I wanted, opting against one of the suggested meals because I am not a big artichoke fan:
It’s refrigerated and shipped UPS—you pick what day it’s coming so you know for sure. I was very impressed upon opening the box—everything was superbly packaged and labeled (each meals’ ingredients are bagged together, minus the refrigerated proteins) inside an insulated bag. I was surprised they actually used frozen water bottles instead of dry ice (I tweeted them saying it was cool, and they replied that it was to reduce their carbon footprint) so we got four drinkable bottles of water as well! The three days’ worth of meals arrives in one box.
Once I actually started the meal prep, I was even more impressed—shrimp were peeled and deveined, garlic heads were peeled, everything was the exact amount required (except the red pepper flakes!), and the instructions were beautiful and detailed (I see why it’s as expensive as it is!). For us it’s above budget, but as a treat now and again to try new dishes it’s definitely worth it!
I discovered I like fresh oregano:
Spicy Shrimp ‘Fra Diavolo’Â with Garlic Crostini (download recipe):
It was quite good. It wasn’t something I’d likely make regularly but it was a nice change of pace. And I had been worried about portion size, but Tom and I had a full meal and even had some leftover!
If anyone is interested, using my personal code AV8W2E will get you $40 off your first box! (I also get a $20 discount on a future box.) I definitely recommend trying at least one box as it’s definitely worth it for $20. There are no minimum purchases, you can postpone up to three months of future deliveries, and you can cancel at any time. They also send you a reminder email on the last day of meal selection to make sure you have either picked the meals you want or paused that week’s delivery. Of course they’re hoping you will get sucked in, and I can easily see how that would happen—I only planned on getting this one box, but I find myself looking ahead at the upcoming recipes to see what’s being offered…and drooling. 🙂
I can’t wait to make the other two meals!!
We stopped to see our good friends in Atlanta. It was actually Bodi’s 6th birthday weekend, so they had a bounce house set up for the party the next day and the kids had fun in that! (It was also a Ninja Turtle-themed party, so that’s what the masks and weapons are for.)
But first, the boys about 4.5 years ago (November 2010):
And today…
Tom usually has birthday party duty but since he’s gone it fell to me. And of course I had to take Katie as well—so it was her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese.
Fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Of course it was Chuck E. Cheese so it was a little bit crazy but overall it wasn’t bad.
Katie’s skee ball style:
The Clifford ride it was super tame and she looked pretty bored…so the next one moved more and she quickly said “DONE. DONE!!”
Then it was time for lunch and the birthday show (Chuck E. Cheese comes out). Katie was EXCITED. She’s saying “CHUCK E. CHEEEEESE!” 🙂
Redeeming tickets!
And then it was time to head home. This is the toy Owen picked—a tiny blow up sword (which she said was his favorite thing about the whole day, LOL).
And a mustache tattoo he got in his gift bag:
And these were the cards we had printed! (I think these were the best deal of the whole place—one card for one token!)

Both kids had a great time!

Some background…
I love having friends over for dinner. I like making new friends. So when I read this article last year—
Friday Night Meatballs: How to Change Your Life With Pasta (if you have the time to read it, please do!)—it hit a nerve and I immediately knew it was something I wanted to attempt. I promised myself that I would schedule something after the holiday season had settled down. Well, then life happens, and I didn’t actually get to schedule it until the end of January, with the dinner to be mid-February.
I posted the following invitation on Facebook and hoped for some responses:
Imagine my surprise when the RSVP slots were filled in less than 24 hours!! And lots more people LOVED the idea and promised future participation! 🙂
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play nice and we had to postpone a week, but the original attendees were all still able to come! And everything went awesome! Six guests (plus kids) was just right. (This house is big, but for a dinner party, six guests is about the limit of dining space. I wish we had more room, or even a good place for another table!) Everyone got along and had a good time talking, the kids were all awesome (Owen had a new Lego buddy and Katie had a friend), and everyone stayed much later than I anticipated (they all left about 9:30). One couple said it was a great idea and they are thinking about starting something similar! Yay! During the event, I even stopped Tom and told him that I was very happy. He agreed it was a good night. 🙂 We both can’t wait to do it again!
Even though it wasn’t BUSY or lots of work, we were both kept busy visiting and prepping and whatnot, so I didn’t take pictures! The only one I took was of the kids’ table:
And this one was snapped by a guest (everyone liked the aquarium but the girls loved it!):
I hope all future dinners go as smoothly as this one did! 🙂
And then, even though it was WAY past the kids’ bedtimes, we let them stay up to watch one TV show to let them calm down. And this happened:
Tom took Owen to a rescheduled-from-bad-weather-last-weekend birthday party today. They had a bounce house PLUS Owen got to break some more boards! He had a blast!
Katie with the birthday girl (turning 3). Costumes were welcomed!
Katie was introduced to plastic shoes…at a house with all wood floors. EEK!
All I could see was a sprained ankle in her future.
My ankles hurt just watching this.
And then another (mismatched) pair!
But she LOVED them! I just hope she forgets about these and continues to love her real ballerina slippers and “ballerina” crocs. 🙂
Only 184 pics of playing in the snow this morning. Narrowed down to 30. The best one? Before we got outside! Katie wasn’t much for looking at me today!
Maggie thought she wanted to go outside with us…but of course she can’t stand the cold and snow. Even with a sweater. 🙂
Getting buried by daddy!
The neighbor girl came out while her dad was shoveling. Owen said he liked her after about 13 seconds. 🙂
Owen’s turn to get buried by daddy!
Racing to the top of the hill!
Ten pictures snapped in 10 seconds and not one with Katie looking at me!
Sledding in the back yard (from the neighbor’s yard to ours)!
After almost two hours outside? Hot cocoa!
We generally skip celebrating Valentine’s Day, but sometimes we celebrate our day-we-started-dating day instead…which is today! Eighteen years!
We wanted to have dinner out with friends and tonight just happened to work best. They took us to a well-reviewed Korean place by their house. It has been freezing, hence my Eskimo-level parka!
The menu was huge and confusing for us inexperienced gringos. 🙂 We ended up ordering a “meal for two” (with lobster and a few types of bulgogi) that the waitress said would be enough for three, so we also ordered a noodle dish and a few sushi rolls. Then they brought (what we later learned were) the condiment dishes…and the cooking vessel…and we were quickly out of room on the table. And then they brought the noodles and sushi boat and the plate of raw bulgogi! We had plates stacked everywhere!
We weren’t sure what was in all the dishes—or how exactly we were supposed to use them—so we were all cautiously tasting bites of everything, laughing that everyone was probably laughing at us for eating stuff out of order. (For example, one of the platters was lettuce. And it looked like one of the dishes was a ginger-type dressing. We wondered if we were supposed to make a salad?) As it turned out, we were supposed to make lettuce wraps and all the little round dishes were things to put inside the wraps!
Cutting up the lobster:
Overall we had too much food—though we managed to eat it all of course! But it was all delicious and we were glad we got to try a wide variety!
Everyone slept through the night—WOOHOO!
Owen got up about his normal time (6:30) and let his friends sleep in. Katie slept in until about 7:15 and they got up about 7:30.
They played some Xbox while we were making breakfast.
Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, and hot chocolate. The boys ended up not liking the fried eggs, but couldn’t tell us what kind of eggs they liked! (See, it’s not just Owen who can’t answer simple questions.)
They got picked up around 10 and neither one really wanted to leave! I guess we did a good job!
Owen has already started planning his next sleepover saying he’s inviting six kids (and he wants it next weekend!). We had to tell him sleepovers were special things that only happened occasionally. Then he decided his next sleepover would be three girls (and he named them).
Sigh.
What have we created?!
But it was AWESOME seeing him interact with his friends. And just the fact he HAS friends makes us SO extremely happy. 🙂
Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.
The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.
Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂
Getting ready for cake!
Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!
Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!
Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.
Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.
The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.
The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.
At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂
Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.
The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).
Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.
About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!