Five and Fabulous

Well, that was a fast week! Whoosh! But, it was a good one. My family made it to Chicago to celebrate Lainey and her amazing five years--and thank goodness all four came, because we hosted a drop-off party for nine of Lainey's preschool friends. Mark and I never would have survived alone!

It may have been chaotic, but the party was a big success! It was a beautiful day, the bouncy house was a hit, and no one got a concussion while whacking the piñata. (There were a few close calls though.) Lainey loved her Lion King cake, but refused to let us sing to her. Other than that moment, she was totally in her element being the center of attention. I thought she did a very nice job of making sure our two little neighbor girls got introduced to everyone from school and felt included. Such a big girl!

After her party, we presented her with her present from us...for the FOURTH year in a row, Lainey got a new set of wheels! She was soooo excited!  Now we just need to squeeze in time to let her practice riding it and get those training wheels off! 

                           Hit it, girl!

             Flanked by her besties

          She'll be two-wheelin any day

On Sunday, we finished off Dad's birthday bucket list with a brunch cruise on Lake Michigan. The weather wasn't looking too promising, but we ended up with sun and the perfect breeze. (Until we got off and it was ridiculously hot and humid.) The kids had fun and even got to visit the Captain's room. Check out Captain Lainey below!

After the cruise, Lainey got to be showered in gifts AGAIN by her grandparents and uncles and we treated everyone to some Smoque BBQ--which was really a treat for me, because a) it's awesome b)  I didn't have to cook--win-win! 

We had to say goodbye to everyone Sunday night and early Monday morning (Lainey's actual birthday) and that made the birthday girl pretty sad, but she bounced back when presented with her birthday crown at school. We kept things pretty simple that night. I made up a scavenger hunt with rhyming clues leading to two small Zootopia dolls (I mean she has to have something on her actual birthday, right?), and stuck some candles in a leftover piece birthday cake. She permitted singing that time. 

And that was a wrap on celebrating Lainey's first five years--until tomorrow that is, when we celebrate with the Brandi crew; we're in the car right now being asked every two minutes if we're there yet. No, Elaine. No, we are NOT almost there yet. You'll be the first person we tell--I promise!

Happy Birthday anyway, my little love!

The 35th Anniversary of my 2nd Birthday

I've been a little blog deliquent lately. I could make excuses like "we've been so busy" or "I've been enjoying the great summer weather," which are true, but the honest answer is I've been binge watching Scandal on Netflix and it takes every spare moment of my life. I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed either. This show is fantastic! The good news is I've finally made it to Season 5, so my addiction will soon be ending--until September and Season 6.

Since we last met, yours truly had a special day creep up on her. On Monday, I turned a grand 37! The day kicked off with Lainey throwing a tantrum, because I wasn't throwing her a party on my birthday like I did last year. So, not a great opener, but things quickly picked-up from there. I pampered myself with an afternoon at the spa complete with massage, facial, mani, and pedi. Despite my itch for Olivia Pope and her badass speeches, I turned off all electronics for the afternoon and just basked in the glory of quiet and meeeeee!!! Lovely.

That night we had a quiet celebration at home with cupcakes (or as quiet celebration as you can have with a three-year-old and soon-to-be five-year-old). Lainey picked out my candle--hence the title of this post. It was perfect.

Here's to another 37 and beyond!!!

That's a Wrap, Pre-K!

Lainey had her Pre-K graduation on Friday. Of all the kids, she had the biggest smile and most excitement. She rocked her part in "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"--no fingers-in-the-mouth shyness this year. She stood tall and proud! We may need to work on the right way to sit in a dress though...

Congratulations, Laineybug! We're proud of you and look forward to seeing you in Kindergarten in the fall.

Enjoy the pictures and the video!

She's a Star!

Getting her Diploma

Proud Parents

Besties

Hard Copy Memories

Part of the reason I try to be so diligent with this blog, other than to satisfy the craving of my massive following of nearly a dozen readers, is to keep a record of our family's major (and not so major) events and milestones. But, what happens in ten years when Blogger is defunct, and we're all communicating through tiny microchips in our brains? How will I get to such fine memories like A Walk to Remember or Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay? Enter Blog2Print. With a few key strokes, I customized a printed book of all my blog posts through 2015. I love it! They lay out the entire thing for you based on your choices. My one gripe is the photo captions don't stay with the pictures. They either just end up at the bottom of the post or sometimes randomly end up in between paragraphs. But, it's a small glitch that I'm happy to accept to have a printed and bound book of everything.

Another keepsake success is a completed photo book of our 2015 photos! At Thanksgiving, I started a project of curating of all our electronic images. After years of just doing a massive upload every so often, we are left with THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of images, most of which aren't good (like when we hold the button down and take 50 snaps, hoping we get ONE half-way decent shot with both kids looking, and maybe even smiling, at the camera). I've made my way through 2015 and 2014 and am being disciplined about uploading and cleaning up photos from both Mark's and  my camera each month this year. Pretty proud of that progress, but the next step of getting them into some sort of album was proving too much.

Shutterfly's Make My Book to the rescue! You can upload up to 800 images, and a design consultant will lay out a book for you for a $9.99 service fee. Hubbawhaa??? Um, YES, please and thank you. You can choose to use all your photos or have the consultant curate them for you and pick the best of similar shots.  You get to proof  the book before you buy and can add and rearrange pictures. I just got the book today and I love it! (HINT: Shutterfly is always running crazy  promos, so if you think you want to try this, keep an eye out. I got this book for 50% off). I can't wait to order my 2014 book!

I'm so excited to have these hard copy treasures in the house! There's just something about holding a book and turning pages that speaks to me and make the trips down memory lane a little richer. Happy lady right here!

I've got a fever...

And the only thing that can cure it is…another baby? Stop gasping, I am NOT pregnant. Buuut, while my family planning motto has always and steadfastly been “two and through,” last week I was suffering from an overwhelming and uncontrollable case of baby fever.

I don’t know if it was my recent Facetime chat with Steph and little AJ or seeing Katie pregnant and glowing or news that Joan just had her third—or maybe just my body saying I’m running out of time—but suddenly I had a primal need to add to our brood. It encompassed my every thought. I literally ached to be pregnant. I even started planning how we’d work out the childcare and jumped on the Babies R Us website to fill a cart with all the things we’d have to repurchase (since we have gotten rid of EVERYTHING). The total price did not phase me—baby, baby, baby!  

Mark did not share my enthusiasm and kept telling me I was out of my ever-loving mind.

I even enlisted the kids to help my campaign. Of course Nick wanted a little brother, and Lainey wanted a little sister. Lainey did finally aquiesce that a little brother would be okay "as long as he's chubby." Nick said the baby could sleep in his bed, and he would teach it to catch worms. Alas, Mark was not moved by this overdose of adorableness and stayed firm on his "no new baby" stance.

Finally, after three days of very disrupted sleep and some epic tantrums from the kids, it seems I’ve returned to my senses and settled back into my “two and through” frame of mind. Really, I have no idea what I was thinking. I must have experienced some sort of evolutionary, hormonal surge. Let's hope it doesn't repeat itself...

Mother's Day 2016

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Ohio for Katie's baby shower. It was my first solo trip to Ohio in a looong time. As an added bonus, Chris randomly decided to make a trip back to D-town, so we got some great sibling bonding time. I can't even remember the last time just the two of us hung out together. We rifled through boxes of old pictures and reminisced about our childhood and our mom. It was especially nice, given the proximity of Mother's Day and Mom's birthday. I'm pretty lucky to have such a great brother, whom I can also call a friend. Thanks for the time, Chris!

The shower was fabulous! I enjoyed a yummy brunch, while leisurely sipping Sangria with my main girl, Meredith. No errands to run, no to do list on my mind, no kids to rush back to...just time with some great ladies, celebrating one our nearest and dearest and her adorable, round belly and the little baby boy inside. Congrats, Katie! I'll be on a flight back this summer to snuggle that little guy in my arms. 

Topping off the festivities of the weekend was some QT with Amanda, whom I also have not enjoyed one-on-one time with in ages and ages. But, as it is with true friends, it was as if we lived right down the street and saw each other every day. Old friends are like a blanket for my soul--warm and comforting. 

And in what felt like a blink of the eyes, it was Sunday morning and time to catch my flight home. While I enjoyed my 48-hour break, I was anxious to get back to my little monsters.  And what a welcome they gave me--laughing and running to the door, Nick shouting, "Happy Birthday, Mama!" Oh, Nick! Although I'll give him a pass on his confusion, because for my Mother's Day gift, they kids made me a beautiful cake! It glittered brighter than a jewelers case with an array of colored sprinkles and gel frosting. I loved it! 

Thanks to Frank and Lonnie for making a visit and helping Mark with the kids and the swim lesson shuffle on Saturday. It's was much easier to relax and enjoy knowing Mark had some help on the homefront. 

It's hard to believe it was only a week ago! After the week I've had, I'm already looking forward to my next trip! Vegas, anyone?

What brunch would be complete without faux mustaches?

"Prom Picture" with the glowing mama-to-be

Best cake ever!

The Vagina Monologues 2: A Boy's Perspective

Spring is upon us. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing...so, it's about that time for the Brandi children to add a good dose of early sex education to the daycare curriculum. This time Nick is taking the lead in making sure all his classmates know that boys have penises and girls have vaginas—heavy emphasis on the vagina dialogue—girls have vaginas, he doesn't have a vagina, and vagina is just an all-around a fun word to say. As we followed another mom and her two boys out the door the other night, one of them turned to her and said, "Mom, what's a vagina?" Enjoy your dinner conversation tonight, Margaret. You're welcome! I also had an interesting trip to Target with him where he pointed to every woman we passed and said, "she has a vagina." One kind, older woman actually replied to him, "that's right dear. I do!,"then patted me on the arm and said if this is the most embarrassing thing he ever does to me, I'm lucky. 

So, just as we did with Lainey, we had a talk about how vagina is not a bad word, but it's a private word that he should just use at home with us. He accepted this pretty easily and as far as I know has laid off the vajayjay talk at school, and we've had no more public outbursts. BUT, it's really ramped up his usage at home. For the most part, he keeps it topical—when he's using the potty, he reminds me he doesn't have a vagina, but Lainey does. However, he'll also just randomly chant it over and over and tell me it's okay, because he's at home. Or he finds ways to casually drop it into conversation—"Hey Mom! Darth Vader doesn't have a vagina." Or he works it into fine bedtime literature—Mark was reading The Day the Crayons Came Home and got to the line about the Great Wall of China. Nick smirked and said, "You mean the Great Wall of Vaginas." He had us with that one; we couldn't hide our laughter. Because c'mon, that's pretty freakin' funny.

Overall, we're trying not to give it too much attention, hoping this phase will pass quickly, so we can start another awkward one—preferably one that doesn't involve talking about our its and bits.