A rock hit his windshield on his way home last Friday and not only created a divot but also a 5″ crack. By the time we called USAA that evening the crack had grown to about 10″. By the time it was scheduled to get fixed today, it was halfway across the windshield.
The bad thing? It was estimated at $1000.
The good thing? We had a $250 deductible.
The bad thing? We had a $250 deductible.
The good thing? They come to you to fix it. 🙂
As we headed off for Owen’s Lego build, we tried two selfies. Sometimes they’re awesome, sometimes they’re just okay. Today was just okay. 🙂
Katie was so excited to be waiting for him. As soon as she saw him she was yelling “Owen!! Owen!! OWEN!!”
He did say hi to her…
And then he saw daddy and bypassed her without a second thought. 🙂
Katie had wanted to put on her matching shirt for him (if you recall, she had her ballerina skirt on this morning).
After the Lego build, it was off to Red Robin for dinner!
Daddy came home early today and that usually means some shenanigans.
For a special treat, I decided to make a Tres Leches cake for Tom’s cake—I’d never made one before but it didn’t seem too hard and it was a Pioneer Woman recipe so you know it’s fairly easy and should be delicious. I’m talking from scratch here, people. Like whipping egg whites and making my own whipped cream. I set the cake timer for the minimum stated time…and it was obviously too long and the edges were burnt. GRRR. I always set the timer for 10 minutes EARLIER than the minimum just in case but not today. I trimmed them off and hoped for the best.
One of Tom’s favorite meals is sloppy joes so that was an easy dinner as well—and they were delicious. After dinner I got out the cake and poor Tom lit his own candle. 🙂
And then I excitedly tried the cake and MEH—it was nothing special. I think the cake was just too dry from being overcooked and I had only put the suggested two cups of liquid into the cake when I should have tried for more because of it being overcooked. Oh well. Tom liked it and the kids loved it but now I want to make it again and try for better!
So then we were clearing off the table and loading the dishwasher…when suddenly Tom trips and I see something flying through the air. WHAT THE…?! Turns out, it was sloppy joes. Yes, sloppy joe meat was all over the place. Tom’s flip flop caught on the edge of the gel floor mat and he tripped. The dishwasher door was fully open so he was violently trying not to fall into that so while trying to catch himself, he slammed his hand down on the kitchen island/stove…RIGHT on the spoon that was still in the sloppy joes on the stove…which sent sloppy joes catapulting across the kitchen and then, as Owen noticed minutes later…on the ceiling as well! Keep in mind we have like 10′ ceilings in the kitchen.
Maggie cleaned up all the chunks off the floor and I wiped up after her while Tom got out the ladder and wiped down the ceiling. Then it was a matter of looking around and discovering all the tomato sauce speckles all over the place…on the cake, on the stove, on the refrigerator, on the wall… Hoo boy. I’m sure we’ll be discovering them for days to come.
Of course, I posted about it on Facebook…and I love our friends:
So we got that cleaned up and then it was time for the kids to Skype with Uncle Rob (which had been temporarily postponed to clean up the mess). Well, Owen asked if they could put on their Halloween costumes to show Uncle Rob. GRRR. A simple request, right? Except they’d both been asking me ALL DAMN DAY to wear their costumes and I had already told them at least four times that I’d let them wear them before Halloween…just not today. So of course I was annoyed but agreed. Well, Katie had taken hers off like a kid does so it was completely inside out. She knows how to fix it, but she didn’t want to. I was still busy in the kitchen so was talking her through it—but it wasn’t good enough for her. She actually had it about 95% of the way fixed when she started stomping her feet at me. That’s never the answer, so she got a warning that she would be going to bed if she continued. She continued. So she got taken up to bed and she was a HOT MESS. (She really needed an early night—she hadn’t caught up from the late night when we had friends over for dinner plus being at the pool for three hours…)
So…HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM! Burnt and dry cake, a kitchen mess, and a tantrumy toddler. What better way to celebrate, right? :heart:
After a summer hiatus, we had a back-to-school/Tom’s birthday Saturday Night Dinner!
Waiting for guests to arrive:
Putting together the new picnic table at the last minute:
Our guests!
Putting away the table:
Putting the kids to bed:
Anyone recognize where this is? Yep, the two-story foyer in North Carolina.
Grannie Lin and Papa sent these anniversary/birthday PJs—just in time! Love them!
While I was getting ready in the bathroom after showering:
Katie: Mooom! Come try to find me! I’m under the covers! On your side!
Tom scared Katie when he walked in the door and was telling us about it when Katie interjected: And he scared my life!
This is what we saw after Katie’s bath: Mama! Just look at them!
We only went twice this summer—and today was the only time Owen got to go! Where did this summer go?! (Oh yeah, I was lazy and just always took them to our pool instead of driving a 45-minute round trip.) And Tom was home early today so he went with us! Unfortunately it was a bit chilly and the kids were cold after about a half hour.
This came up in my throwback app as being 15 years ago. Well, technically it’s not exactly 15 as his graduation was May 2001 but it’s close enough—especially considering that I happened to have an almost identical photo taken today!
We convinced Tom to take the day off work to come play with us!! We were there right when they opened, so I tried to take a bunch of pictures quick before the background was overrun with people!
Owen wasn’t thrilled with stopping to get his picture taken!
I even went down the slide!
A Pokémon gym was right at the entrance, so Tom took Owen over to battle!
I didn’t have my camera with me when we were closer, so this is a quick pic from the other side of the park. I even went down the red slide! (I have to admit, I was actually a little nervous at the top—I haven’t been on a slide in a long time—but it was fun!) We never did get Katie to go on it, which is a bummer because I know she would have loved it! (As it was, I had to practically BRIBE her to go down the little blue slide above—she wanted NO part of it. But once she did it, she loved it!)
So we had a nice, relaxing day…and best of all, there were no poop incidents!!
They had a little 10-minute show for us at pickup. They had the girls bring in princess dresses to change into. 🙂
Our local friend Leslie gave us such a great recommendation for our anniversary dinner last year that we went back to her again. And she knocked it out of the park again with this kinda hole-in-the-wall Modern European/German place called Cosmopolitan Grill (Yelp). Unbeknownst to us when we decided to go there, they were recently voted “as one of 100 Best Bargain Restaurants by the Washingtonian Magazine as well as Young and Hungry’s 50 Best Restaurants by Washington City Paper.”
For the appetizer we had Ćevapčići With Ajvar and Onion (little sausages with a red pepper and garlic relish) and since we knew the portions were huge, we split the Stuffed Veal Schnitzel (Breaded veal schnitzel stuffed with cheese and spicy peppers, served with roasted potato). It was all very, very good and even though we split the dinner we still brought home leftovers!
Otherwise known as 15 years! FIFTEEN YEARS. It’s gone by in a flash and I can’t wait for more!
We go to the pool after picking Katie up at 1 and come home around 4 or 5.
Waiting out the pool break.
And then daddy surprised us!
We splurged on a Cirque experience for the whole family: KURIOS—Cabinet of Curiosities! We were worried because it was HOT AS HELL and the last tent experience (last summer) was awful—we were all hot and miserable and uncomfortable because the A/C and fans just didn’t cut it. So this year we prepped with special cooling towels and we took a cooler with drinks…and it ended up just fine—the A/C worked just fine and I was actually chilly. 🙂
The only kinda yucky thing was the seating—we had a decent view of the stage…until people sat in front of us. A smallish girl sat right in front of Katie and there was no way she could see anything. And then a guy about 100# overweight sat next to me so I was cramped. So I actually put Katie on my lap and scooted over to her seat so it was okay—but not great. Then we had to readjust after intermission because the family in front of us all changed seats!
But overall the kids loved it and they couldn’t even decide what their favorite parts were! For me, it was a little expensive for what it was…but then, Tom and I have seen a Cirque show before. But the kids were happy, and that’s what matters, right? 🙂
There was no traffic so we made it to Dulles in record time…which was good because at 9:30 there was already a line for the early 10:30 entrance! So I was a good mom and held our spot while Tom and the kids hunted Pokémon. 🙂
Then the ring thing happened so that put a bit of a damper on things for us. But we tried to forget about it because there was exactly nothing we could do about it at the moment.
So we looked at Legos. And wow, was it cool.
Rapunzel’s tower with mermaids swimming beneath!
Harry Potter’s Quidditch Field (both kids recognized it)!
One of my favorites:
This train had a camera on it. Check out the video feed toward the back!
The flying car from Harry Potter. Something like this was just on a random street scene, with maybe a Starbucks storefront and other random characters or cars. So it was fun to spy the things we knew.
I took these pics for Gramma Jean who saw this in real life. 🙂
The kids didn’t know these but we did! Iconic scenes from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory!
Of course there were lots of moving sets—trains and carousels and whatnot. But this was my favorite!
Then we did some quick shopping and we got Owen a Lego with his name on it.
And Tom got a marine. 🙂
By the time we were leaving it was really crowded and was a lot harder to look at the exhibits and it wasn’t nearly as fun…so I’m glad we were there early. The kids had a blast and spent almost the whole time saying “Come look at this! Look mom! Over here! OMIGOSH!” 🙂
This weekend was our ritual Tivo Patio Party (when there’s a new Star Trek movie) at a local friend’s house so with friends coming in from all over, we all went out for dinner Friday night. We never seem to take the amount of pictures we used to, so I made sure to at least snap one of us!
Tom took him out last night for some one-on-one time and Owen had his first battle…and won! He was SO excited!!
Our good friends Beth and Frank (and daughters Ainsley and Avery) are moving to Ohio after only two years here…so we had them over for one last dinner.
Two peas in a pod.
And in a chair. 🙂
He’ll want to drive the car.
It seems like everyone and their brother told us we HAD to stop and eat at Darrows in Mackinac City—but that it was often crazy busy with long wait times. So we decided to check it out on our way back to Grayling. There were open parking spots so we lucked out with barely a five-minute wait.
They’re known for their whitefish so Tom and I split a dinner and while it was quite good, I’m not sure it would be worth a long wait. That said, we saw the pies and cakes on the way out and both got a piece—Tom got pecan and I got a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. [We didn’t end up eating them until that night and HOLY HELL were they delicious!]