Bewitched makeup with a friend!
Category Archives: Friends
It’s Friday night and we’re living the dream.
Drinks on the couch under comfy blankies — not getting drunk but having fun.
Wine tasting with Kim!
Teen boys at dinner
Owen wanted to go to Portillos with his friends. We sat across the room from them but close enough we could keep an eye on them. This is what they looked like the whole time.
Amazing Christmas ornament craft!
I’m so excited about the Christmas ornament project I finally finished today (with moral support from Anna)!
INSPIRATION PHOTO:
I wanted to do this because we have soooo many ornaments that we don’t always get to use but I miss seeing. And I didn’t want a wreath because I had lots of big ornaments that wouldn’t have fit well around a wreath. (I used a deep mirrored tray.)
So the ornaments range from things I grew up with on my parent’s tree to handmade ornaments from both grandmas to mementos from family and vacations to favorite TV shows and hobbies and favorite things…and more!
I am soooo thrilled with how it turned out!
Introducing…Ivy!
We had a list of about 12 names we were considering, but Ivy won by process of elimination! (Some of the last to get eliminated were Sissy, Sadie, and Ruby.)
And of course Anna and David came over to meet her! Olive couldn’t get enough of her.
And as soon as Ivy got up… Olive took her place!
BrickFest was a dud.
We’ve been to a BrickFest before in Virginia and it was AMAZING. So we were excited to go again… Except this one was a complete dud compared to that. Super SUPER disappointing.
There were basically NO displays—the previous one had city blocks, automation (think roller coaster), big things, little things, selfie stations…
This one had some giant creations:
and a very small area of smaller creations like this:
but that was about it. Most of it was lame (for older kids) stuff like “make and race a Lego car”
or “create a glow in the dark Lego” (which Owen did to at least do something).
The kids also did one square of a bigger design—which we would never see.
But man did the store and checkout lines take up a ton of space (conservatively 1/4 of the venue):
This was the best part for me—a local artist who did lilacs. I’m going to need that ASAP.
What was even more disappointing is that we were supposed to go with Anna and family—but long story short they got there after us and got stuck in a huge line and then we discovered it sucked so they just gave up and never made it in.
After we got home I decided to look up the last one we went to…and discovered it wasn’t BrickFest, but was BrickFair. UGHHHHH.
The 12 Challenge
I really got back into reading this year after about 20 years of NOT reading. (I aimed for 12 on the #goodreadschallenge2022 and am likely finishing with 80!)
I very much enjoyed reading my friend suggestions when I did The Trevor Project fundraiser this year so when I saw this challenge come across my timeline I knew I wanted to do it in the new year!
I took the first 12 books listed by 12 different people in the comments. I can’t wait to get started! #goodreadschallenge2023
Napping with her new favorite toy.
Olive finally giving Anna some serious cuddles.
Christmas dinner!
Anna and family went home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning but came back for Christmas dinner! Tom had wanted to smoke a prime rib…
It was delicious.
Margaritas in Golden Girls
Anna gave all the moms Golden Girls glasses. I randomly got Dorothy and she got Blanche. We used then for a margarita recipe we’d been wanting to try.
You know I love a margarita but it was only meh:
Playing with makeup
Anna wanted to do our makeup together and then Katie wanted me to do hers…
She can stop growing up now.
Honey & Katie
Christmas at the Shanty
We were looking forward to great food at the Shanty Christmas party…but long story short we were idiots and didn’t realize that “passed plates” meant hors d’oeuvres and not family style so we were all bummed. The things we had were decent, but not worth the wait or the cost. At least we got to meet up with a friend of ours for a little bit.
Let Christmas begin!
Anna, David, and the kids came over to stay with us for a few days! The impetus was a huge storm that was supposedly coming (the kids’ last half day of school was preemptively cancelled because of it) but also because we generally spend a lot of time together so why not just stay in the same house?!
Of course, Anna brought one of Kai’s old sweaters for Olive… But he got dressed up as well.
Two sleepers.
Yes I’m wrapping gifts with an Olive on my lap.
She was whining to get up in my lap so… Yeah.
Botanical Gardens Lightscape
Admittedly I bitched a lot beforehand about Anna making us go to Lightscape (I’m turning into a major homebody as I get older!)…but it ended up to be super cool and I have apologized.
The doggo welcome!
Every. Single. Time.
If we’re holding Olive she becomes so frantic we literally cannot hold her. The sound of pawing and barking and yipping is deafening.
We usually let her free as soon as we get inside — and then shoo all three outside — but today we just let them do this.
Sangria & Buddy
I feel like I’m just gonna leave both of these here.
Pysanky lessons!
David wasn’t going to do it but then Evan didn’t want to finish his so David took it over! He did really well and it turned out cute!
Anna swore up and down she was going to suck at this but she did amazing with her very first egg! Now she can’t wait to do some more!
You know she’s really tired when she lays somewhere like this!
Career exploration at the Shedd Aquarium
After some initial super frustrating snafus with actually getting everyone INTO the aquarium, the three boys (and three parents) took a “deep dive into the day of an aquarist—the animal care staff that work with animals ranging from fishes to reptiles to birds—and learned more about this profession.” They all seemed to have fun!
Trick or Treating
Owen didn’t decide until the day before that he wanted to go trick or treating so his choice of costumes was limited… I didn’t even get a picture of Katie because so much was going on.
Olive loved everyone! She would wait patiently and wouldn’t bark or go crazy.
But she loved the attention.
Of course, Katie refused to wear her wig at the last minute, so Tom put it on instead. It looked epic.
And he and Anna made a cute couple.
This is what dogsitting looks like.
Anna and David went to New York so we got their two dogs—Olive’s bestie, Honey, and Kai. Unfortunately you can’t hear Kai barking like an asshole at everything—we had to keep the front door shut or he barked like a madman at every little thing. He even nosed the side curtains out of the way in order to look and bark. And all his barking made both other dogs bark. Good times! At least Olive was kept busy playing with Honey… Honey is so good with her.
She’s so cute when she sleeps.
Resting Besties
We took Olive when we went over for dinner and of course they all go apeshit bananas for a long time…but then they do eventually settle down.
Ope!
Our foursome went to Charlie Berens tonight and he was hilarious. If you are from the Midwest and haven’t seen him, you’re missing out! Stop what you’re doing and go watch some of his videos on YouTube (and you can get merch here).
She does sit with Anna sometimes.
