A jumping morning!

We were there a few minutes early and were able to skip the line because I’d bought tickets a few days earlier…so we had to wait a few minutes for the floor to open.

2015-03-01kids001

Look! BLOCKS!

2015-03-01kids002

2015-03-01kids003

Can you find Katie?

2015-03-01kids004

2015-03-01kids005

2015-03-01kids006

2015-03-01kids007

2015-03-01kids008

And mere seconds later after I stopped recording…some kids pushed it over and I got this shot:

2015-03-01kids009

2015-03-01kids010

I love the “flying” shots!

2015-03-01kids011

2015-03-01kids012

Meanwhile, in the non-toddler dodgeball section…our poser. 🙂

2015-03-01kids013

Our inaugural Saturday Night Spaghetti!

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:

Spaghetti Dinner - Photograph by Carina Romano
Spaghetti Dinner – Photograph by Carina Romano
[Photograph: Carina Romano]

facebookspaghettiinvite

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:

kids table

And this one was snapped by a guest (everyone liked the aquarium but the girls loved it!):

girls at fish tank

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:

2015-02-28 22.08.44

Kidisms 5

Katie: Mama! You have crazy hair! Up there on your head!

(null)

Me: Katie, can you fit in Maggie’s crate?
Katie: Of course!!

(null)

While watching photos on the TV…
Me: Oh! That’s Owee.
Katie: No, that’s me.
Me/Tom: No, that’s Owen!
Katie: Oh that’s right!

Owen let Maggie out to go potty.
Owen: Maggie’s tail is a door.
Me: What?
Owen: Her tail is like a door. It opens when she poops.
Me: 😐

Watching “The Wizard of Oz” for the first time with the kids.
When it turned to color:

Katie: “OOH! BEAUTIFUL!”
And when the munchkins came out:
“Ooh! Babies!”
🙂

Owen was shopping with Tom and there were Girl Scouts selling cookies outside the grocery store.
Owen: Ahhhh! Cookies!
Tom: Yes, but we don’t need any.
Owen: No, we don’t, but it’s nice they have them out.

Snow day snowman!

Today marked the SEVENTH snow day this year (and the fourth in two weeks). Tom had a 2-hour delay but actually ended up working from home.  Thankfully the kids weren’t ready to go outside until quite late in the morning. I think the major excitement of snow has worn off—though they still like it and want to go out and play in it, it’s not the very first thing they want to do!

Owen was pretending he was a ninja with his new scarf. He actually made me pull it up higher over his face. 🙂



The first thing I noticed was it was actually on the warm side—so I had a good feeling about the snow quality. One quick swipe of the snow on the car and yep—perfect snowman snow!! Time to make their very first snowman!!

The kids were excited…but weren’t much help. 🙂 Owen helped pack snow and find sticks and Katie wandered around. 

It’s been probably 25-30 years since I made a snowman. It was hard with such a small yard and because we didn’t have that much snow—and what we had was on top of icy stuff—so it was a lot of scraping from all over. We could’ve tried the backyard but there’s a much higher chance of buried dog poop back there!

The kids LOVED him!







Then it was off to the backyard for more snow after they trampled everything in the front (it doesn’t take long). 



But it was really wet and actually turning slushy so we went inside. 

Owen LOVES his scarf…and looks quite dapper if I do say so myself. 🙂



Frozen birthday party

Katie with the birthday girl (turning 3). Costumes were welcomed!

(null)

Katie was introduced to plastic shoes…at a house with all wood floors. EEK!

(null)

All I could see was a sprained ankle in her future.

(null)

My ankles hurt just watching this.

And then another (mismatched) pair!

(null)

But she LOVED them! I just hope she forgets about these and continues to love her real ballerina slippers and “ballerina” crocs. 🙂

Katie peed on the potty!

We haven’t officially started potty training yet, but every now and again we will ask Katie if she wants to pee or poop on the potty. Sometimes she wants to but nothing happens and other times she wants nothing to do with any of it.

But tonight when Tom asked her she said yes! And then actually proceeded to tinkle!

We all made a big deal about it and she got to pick a toy from the toy bin! I think Owen was most excited, getting out the toy selection and picking her toy—until we told him she got to pick her own toy! To his credit, he was still excited for her!

She picked those growing capsule animals:

(null)

(null)

(null)

Of course I’m not expecting anything to come of this. Owen did the same thing and then it was another two years (!) before he was actually potty trained.

Snow day…with daddy!

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!

2015-02-17snowday01

2015-02-17snowday02

Maggie thought she wanted to go outside with us…but of course she can’t stand the cold and snow. Even with a sweater. 🙂

2015-02-17snowday03

2015-02-17snowday04

2015-02-17snowday05

2015-02-17snowday06

2015-02-17snowday07

2015-02-17snowday08

2015-02-17snowday09

2015-02-17snowday10

2015-02-17snowday11

2015-02-17snowday12

2015-02-17snowday13

2015-02-17snowday14

Getting buried by daddy!

2015-02-17snowday15

2015-02-17snowday16

2015-02-17snowday17

2015-02-17snowday18

The neighbor girl came out while her dad was shoveling. Owen said he liked her after about 13 seconds. 🙂

2015-02-17snowday19

Owen’s turn to get buried by daddy!

2015-02-17snowday20

Racing to the top of the hill!

2015-02-17snowday21

Ten pictures snapped in 10 seconds and not one with Katie looking at me!

2015-02-17snowday22

2015-02-17snowday23

Sledding in the back yard (from the neighbor’s yard to ours)!

2015-02-17snowday24

2015-02-17snowday25

2015-02-17snowday26

2015-02-17snowday27

2015-02-17snowday28

2015-02-17snowday29

After almost two hours outside? Hot cocoa!

2015-02-17snowday30