Collage Day

I woke up today, and took one look outside and knew that today would be a lounging about at home day.  The sky was gray, and while rain has been in the forecast, it has been dry so far.  It seemed like a perfect day to tackle something off our 80 things to do this summer list.  I mentally went through the list, and make a collage was the winner. 

The girls and I flipped through a few magazines and found images we thought would work and I set to cutting them out.  While I was cutting, I remembered that when I was a kid my grandma would occasionally mail my sister and I cut out images from magazines.  I don’t have any memory of what we did with them, but I do remember being excited when they arrived.

We hit a bit of a snag when I realized that we didn’t have any glue in the house…  Luckily, I found some craft glue for a Christmas craft in the laundry room, and was able to make that work.  India has already selected her cutouts, and had a story to go along with them.  Hadley was more interested in rubbing glue on her fingers. 

We didn’t collage for long, but I think that the girls enjoyed it and we will do it again as I am sure we have not seen our last gray day this summer.

What crafts do you remember from childhood?

Berry picking

First thing off our 80 things to do this summer list.

80 things to do this summer

A few weeks back my pinterest page was full of people pinning things to do this summer lists.  So I decided to create my own.  I had thought I would get 100 things, but I ended up with 80.  My goal is for us to complete them all, and attempt to blog about some of them!

Food

S'Mores

Banana split

Make rootbeer floats

Milkshake

Waffle window

Smoothies

Backwards dinner

Make lemonade

Kids plan dinner

Breakfast for dinner

Food carts

Make popsicles Home

Dance Party

Make moon sand

Memory game

Play Wii

Play Olympics

Blow bubbles

Finger paint

Game night

Movie night/day

Bbq w/friends

Make bead necklace

Have a tea party

Paint rocks

Make a bird feeder

Make paper airplanes

Scrapbook of the summer

Learn new jokes

Make playdough

Garden party with friends

Make a collage

Origami

Ice cream truck

Craft day Outdoors Scavenger Hunt Cloud watching Bird watching Picnic Fireworks Parade Fly kites Breakfast picnic Outings Ride a train Botanical Garden Amusement Park Visit cousins Road trip Explore new city Garage sale Visit museum Story time Beach Zoo Fishing Swimming Go to the movies Concert Splash park Visit a farm Farmer's market Visit grandparents New playground Tour fire station Pick berries Go to OMSI Visit dad at work Picnic with dad Frozen yogurt Family bike ride Take a boat ride Hiking Street fair Kids race Lunch time concert Go to a festival Baseball game Ladybug walk Summer reading program Ride a carousel

Spring in the city

Even though it is pouring out right now, Portland in May has been awesome.  We hit almost 88 on Mother's Day, and the sprinkler and pool were used more than once.  

Using the new sandbox that daddy built

Swinging along

Notice that her ice cream matches her shirt?

Ice cream at the zoo

Her favorite hat, even for running errands

We are hoping she can take the training wheels off later in the year

Tree climbing at the rhoddy garden

Loving the spring weather

Running my 2nd half marathon (in the blue)

Is spring here to stay?

Singer/song writer?

I was in the kitchen washing dishes when I heard India get out her guitar. A few minutes later, I heard this song.


I love you Hadley
I love you Hadley 
You are the sweetest baby 
You are the sweetest baby me, mommy and daddy ever had 
You are the sweetest baby 

I thought about trying to sneak in and record her singing on my phone, but by the time I grabbed it for this crappy picture she was done singing.

 
 

India's eye appointment-so so news.

Day of eye surgery, just 5 months old.

Since India’s eye surgery back in February 2008 and getting her glasses in February 2009, we have been making a visit to the ophthalmologist’s office every 6 months, and every time we hear the same thing.  Her eyes are doing what they are supposed when she wears her glasses.  I expected to hear the same thing today, but sadly, this was not the case.  Her left eye is starting to get what is called Dissociated Vertical Deviation (DVD).  From http://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/44  “DVD is a condition in which one eye drifts upward. The eye may drift upward only occasionally or be deviated almost constantly. The amount of drifting may even vary during the course of the day. Often, DVD is only seen in one eye by a parent, while testing by an ophthalmologist may reveal the problem is actually present in both eyes.”  She is making up for this by leaning her head to the right.  Jeff and I never noticed this until they pointed it out to us today.  It is just a slight lean, but enough that it is totally obvious to me now.  


 The good news is that her eyes want to work together, if they were not her left eye would be drifting around all the time not just occasionally.  The bad news is that she will more than likely need another surgery.  I had really hoped that she would never need another, so I am pretty sad to hear that it might still be an option.  We have to go back in and have her looked at again in three months and see if anything has changed, and possibly change her prescription, get a patch or schedule a surgery.


I know that there are so many worse things that could happen to your kid, but hearing your child will probably need surgery is still something, no parent wants to hear.  I will post more after our next appointment.    

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The Apple Picking Gang

I heard a couple of families at preschool talking about apple picking, and I realized that I have never picked apples.  I looked at the weather forecast and told Jeff I thought it would be a fun family event, and he agreed.  What I probably should have looked at was how far away the place was!  It took us about an hour and a half, which seems a little far for apples to me but I decided to look at it as an adventure instead.

When we got to the place, it was packed.  They were doing their yearly Edelweiss event.  If just seeing the word Edelweiss doesn’t get you singing the song from “Sound of Music” I don’t know what is wrong with you!

 

Most people seemed to be just getting apples out of bins, and I freaked out for a second thinking that maybe there wasn’t any u-picking going on.  While we roamed the orchard, we saw a hayride go by so we jumped on.  The ride made a stop to see a few animals that live on the orchard.  There was a giant steer and a 44-year old horse.  I had no idea horses lived that long. India feed the steer a pear, and I hoped that none of my family would have their eyes gouged out by its horn. 

We finally figured out the u-pick situation, and headed out to the orchard.  We ended up with 11 pounds of various apples for $11.  Pretty good deal in my mind.  Hadley doesn’t have a huge vocabulary at this point, but she did learn to say “apple” while walking the through the rows of apples. 

We had a great time, and I will add this on to our things to do again in fall list.  What must do fall things are on your list?

Hanging out with Hadley

30 day challenge, my take on it.

I was just reading a post on Activewomom.com about going coffee free for 30days, and I shuttered at the thought.  I love the smell of coffee, and I love drinking coffee.  However, for all the love of coffee I have, I drink less than two cups a day and rarely do I have coffee after lunchtime.  The article got me thinking of something that I could give up for 30 days, and the answer was nothing!  But it did get me thinking about what I could add to my life for 30 days and in turn become more of a way of life (hopefully).  I am not a glass half-full kind of a girl, but I thought it would be easier to focus on the positive for me.

Here is my list of things to add to my life.

• Run 3 times a week.
• Workout 5 times a week.
• Eat a fruit or vegetable at every meal.
• Have one healthy snack a day that is primarily a fruit or vegetable.
• Have a healthy meal for dinner 5 times a week. 
• And the tough one, drink 8 glasses of water. 
• Get up by 6:30 on the weekdays so I can add a half hour of stress free mornings to my life. 

This picture has nothing to do with the post, but it was to cute not to share.  

Anyone care to join me?

Fall TV is back

Another sign that fall is just around the corner; my DVR finally has more than one program to record!  That’s not quite true, but knowing that Breaking Bad (AMC) only has three more episodes this season is sad, so it will be nice to have to fillers until Mad Men (AMC) comes back in winter.  Oh, how I have missed Don Draper and crew; l have made sure to keep up drinking though in honor of the show.

Looking through my scheduled to be recorded shows, nothing is really calling my name but here is what my DVR is looking like for this week.

Tuesday

Glee (Fox)
New Girl (Fox)-I have mixed feelings on this show, but I like the lead Zooey Deschanel so I am giving it a try
Raising Hope (Fox)

Wednesday

Up All Night (NBC)-the pilot was funny, but it went from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. so the humor might change. Modern Family (ABC)

Thursday

Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo)
Community (NBC)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Project Runway (Lifetime)
Person of Interest (CBS)

What shows are you looking forward to returning or are excited to see for the first time?  Comment below.  

A quick video of the girls at the park

Didn't summer just start?

Even the though the calendar doesn’t say it is fall yet, school started this week and I made a pot of soup, so in my mind summer is officially over.  Or like my friend Chloe said, she had to switch to from white wine to red this week!  It seems like summer went by in the blink of the eye, so sad.  I would probably rank fall as my second favorite season after summer, I love the brisk mornings and warm afternoons, the wearing of boots and apple cider.  I try to forget that fall leads into a rainy and gray winter, which the last couple of years have been incredibly long.  I probably owe a post about the summer, and now that India is back in school, I will try to get to it. 

India did a few months of preschool after we moved to Portland earlier this year, but this week marked her first fall day of preschool.  She had some separation issues last year, but had a blast her first day.  After not wanting Hadley and me to go at first, once some play dough caught her attention, we were like chopped liver to her.  She didn’t want to come home after class and asked that night if she could go back the next day.  This is a far cry from the little girl that was hugging my legs last year begging me not to go. 

What a cutie!

I hope that fall brings lots of beautiful fall leaves and changes to wear my boots without them getting wet.  I tried on a pair of red pumps that I hadn’t worn in months, and my poor feet forgot how to even wear them!  I guess that it what just wearing flip-flops and sneakers will do to a person!

Suri's Burn Book

Looking for a fun snarky read?  Check out this blog Suri's Burn Book.

We did it!

I couldn’t have imagined a year ago that I would be able to say that I have run a half-marathon, but here I am a few days after and feeling great.  The whole running thing started last June when my stroller strides group started a running club.  You could train for a 5 or 10k, and even though the most I had ever run was a 5k, I decided to try for the 10k.  I remember at one point Hilary (the instructor) saying, “you aren’t going to try, you are going to do it.”  I ran the race with my friend Kelly in early September and we kind of joked about doing a half-marathon the next year.  We were having dinner with some friend’s right before we moved to Portland, and the husband and I were talking about running and on a whim decided to do the half.  Jeff later told me he would be interested as well.

I signed us up in November, and we started our training in spring.  The training called for 3-4 days of running, with a long run each Sunday.  With both of training we knew this would be a bit of a problem since we have the girls to think about.  I don’t know if we ever ran four days a week, and I probably missed a quarter of the long runs.  Jeff on the other hand did something to both of his ankles and essentially had to quit running in May.  He was determined to run the race though, even if we had to immediately go to the hospital and have his legs amputated! 

On our way to the starting line.

The day of the race, we had to get up around 4 a.m. and I was anything but excited to get out of bed.  I had been very nervous the day before (hell, pretty much anytime I thought about it) but when we got up, I felt okay.  We had moved up our estimated finish time to 2:10 and I felt that it was doable, as I had been pacing myself in training to run around a 9:55-minute mile. Even though Jeff and I were starting together, we agreed not to try to run it together as we were not at the same pace at this point.  I was pretty worried about Jeff, so when we saw each other at the water station at mile two I was pretty happy knowing that he had made it that far and timing wise wasn’t that far behind me.  Although I had seen a video of what the course was, I wasn’t expecting the hill at mile four to be so long or how steep the hill at mile nine would be.  I don’t like heights, and bridges freak me out, so I had been a little worried about the end of the race where you running on a overpass but what I hadn’t thought about was my hatred of driving through tunnels and now I had to run through one.  It was over a half-mile in the tunnel I believe, and there wasn’t a lot of air and it was very hot.  I was so excited to see the end, and definitely picked up the pace to get out of there! 

I had read in my training book that mile nine should really be considered the half-way point, but that the excitement of reaching the finish line would carry your through the last few miles.  I can’t say that this happened for me.  It took everything I had at the last mile not to walk it in, but I knew that if I kept going I would meet my goal of 2:10, which is what I did.  My legs felt like jello, but I kept moving after the finish line so I wouldn’t cramp up.  My friend Kelly was already done and found me right after, and I was so proud of her for doing the race in under two hours.  We went to get our bags and wait for Jeff to cross the finish line.  We kept waiting and waiting, and finally I went to see if he was our other meet up spot in case I had missed him.  I was so happy when I saw him standing there.  He had come in 13 minutes after me, so I must have missed him while I was getting our things. 

Kelly and I after the race.

Here is what I have learned:

• I am a lot stronger that I thought I was.
• That it is important to stick with your training, and your plan.  I was running with a friend for a while during the race and I realized that I was running faster than I had trained for.  I had to wish her good luck and go back to my pace.
• Recovery is a lot quicker if you listen to your body.
• Even though there wasn’t anybody cheering me on, reading other people’s signs of encouragement would not only give me chills but kept me going.  Same thing could be said for any little girls I saw cheering on their mamas. 
• Seeing a lot of American flags and people wearing blue shirts in remembrance of fallen soldiers will bring a tear to my eye.

Jeff and I in the beer garden after the race. 

Jeff and I are both on board to do the race again next year, and our plan is to continue to keep a good running base in the “off season” and work towards finishing faster.  We are doing an 8k in August and I have a 10k scheduled for September, so running isn’t finished for the year by any means but the level of intensity has dropped off.  I go for my first post half run tonight and I am looking forward to it. 

Let’s talk “The Voice”

I haven’t blogged in forever, so a post about a TV show might seem a little odd but it is what it is.  When NBC started promoting the crap out of this show, I thought blah another American Idol, just what we need.  However, one afternoon the girls were napping, and I had a pile of laundry bigger than my SUV to fold so I watched the first show through on demand and really liked it.  Even when India woke up, we continued to watch it and dance.

I liked how they did blind auditions with the coaches (judges) having their back to the singer so that they would basis their decision based on their singing vs. their looks.  After that round was the battle round where two singers on the same team had to sing the same song together and the coach had to pick the best singer to move on to the next stage of the competition.  I can’t say I agreed with all the choices they made, but that’s fine. 

This week was the first “live” show, and of the four singers on each team, only two will move on to the next round.  The two teams to perform were Blake Shelton’s and Christina Aguilera’s.  I had thought that Adam Levine had the team to beat but I am not sure now.  I really liked the two videos below and really hope that these girls move on to the next round.  We ended up downloading Dia and Kenye’s version of this song (we already had The Fray version) and played them back to back.  We liked the remakes a lot more.  I like Xenia’s voice, but I feel bad for her since she is so shy.  I don’t see her ever performing in front of a large audience but I bet she would rock a small venue. 

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Several years ago, I had seen a VH1 show about Christina and thought she seemed okay, but on this show, she is just horrible.  Besides her very nasty outfits (they are all about two sizes to small), the input she gives has nothing to do with the singing.  I find her incredibly rude, and honestly, whenever she talks I kind of want to punch her in the face.  I don’t listen to country music, so I don’t know a Blake Sheldon song to save my life, but I really like him on this show.  You can tell he really cares about his team, and wants them all to do well.    

I am looking forward to next week’s show to see who moves on and to see the other judge’s performance.  Who are you looking forward to seeing or want to move on to the next round?  Comment below.  

Weekend fun!

We had a nice weekend, and the weather give us a glimpse of hope that spring might actually happen…

Friday-The girls and I started the weekend off with our typical Friday morning, Stroller Strides and music class.  Afterwards we spent the afternoon in the backyard enjoying the sunshine.  We toured Jeff’s new office and picked up our race packets for the next day downtown and headed to The Spaghetti Factory to carb up.

Saturday-Race day!  Jeff and I ran a 10k and India ran her first race and did awesome!  I beat my previous 10k time by almost three minutes, but missed by goal of under an hour (one hour even).  We quickly went home and got ready to throw my dad a surprise birthday party.  It went off without a hitch, although my dad did ended a little late as they were stuck in traffic.  He had no idea, and his first reaction was to walk right back out the door.

Running with Grandma

Practice round of "surprise"

Sunday-My sister hosted Easter brunch and an egg hunt for the little ones.  India really enjoyed and Hadley could have cared less, one-year-olds, what are you going to do?  India fell asleep in the car on the way home, so I quickly hid some eggs around the house.  She ended up just being freaked out about the whole thing.  She was still pretty groggy, so I don’t think she was able to really enjoy it.

Ari and India during the 1st round of the egg hunt

Has anyone ever thrown you a surprise party?  Or do you secretly hope someone will?

Pizza face

India was very excited when she got her Highlights High Five magazine a few months back and saw a recipe for “pizza faces”. We have had it a couple of times, and it is an easy and fun meal for toddlers to help out with.  Here is our version:

• 
  
• English muffins (1 per kid, and 1-2 for adults depending on hunger level) 
• Red pepper 
• Broccoli 
• Sliced olives 
• Spaghetti sauce (jarred or homemade) 
• Cheese (we use what we have on hand) 

Adult work 
1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Cut pepper into thin slices
3. Separate broccoli into little pieces
4. Split English muffins and place on a baking pan
5. Spread sauce over entire muffin (kids could do this, but it’s a little messy for India in my opinion)

Kid work 
1. Put cheese on muffin
2. Put eyes (olives) on
3. Put nose (broccoli) on
4. Put mouth (red pepper) on
5. Have an adult put them in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts
6. Enjoy!

I am trying to come up with how I could do this with fruits as more of a morning meal but haven't come up with all the ingredients yet.  Anyone have any ideas?  Comment below if you do.

Maybe the glass is just too small

As I am sure everyone has, there are days when I am just so annoyed and every little thing sets me off.  I can’t lie, this typically coincides with days that my three-year-old is being a handful.  You can only hear so many tantrums before you start to feel like having one yourself.  Or what about the days when you are already running late and frazzled and realize that you forgot this or that and now you are even more late.  It’s easy to think what a crappy day you are having and have a little pity party, I know I have attended more than one.  However, looking at the whole picture, I have to attempt I have it pretty good.

What you might be saying, is Erin being optimistic?  I am a self-proclaimed glass half empty kind of girl (I said this yesterday and a friend said “no” in a mocking tone).  Right now I know two different families that are going through such heartbreak that it makes my “bad days” look like a joke.  Family number one is dealing with a nasty tumor that is offering an average lifespan of 8 years.  I can’t imagine being given those numbers and this family has three little ones under four.  The second family has a little boy less than two weeks old who stopped breathing last week and has been in the hospital ever since.  He isn’t able to breathe on his own for long and there doesn’t look like there is much that can be done for him.  He doesn’t seem to be in pain and his family can hold him, but tears spring to my eyes just typing about him.  It makes my morning of children screaming because they just want me to spend time with them look like a walk in the park not the nightmare I had made it out to be in my head.  I guess all it takes is just a little change in perspective…

Half-marathon training week one

Yesterday ended our first week of half-marathon training and overall is just went okay.  I ended up with bad allergies the end of the week, and running did not seem like a great idea.

Sunday-3.5 miles at least I think that is about what I did.  The battery died on my Garmin, so I had to guess where I thought a quarter mile was at one point in the run.  I have since done the route and I would say it was pretty close.  B+

Wednesday-3 miles before coffee, yikes not something I would normally enjoy but actually it felt good to get my run in before the day started.  A

Thursday-4 miles didn’t happen.  I woke up with a sore throat, and a crazy bad headache.  F

Saturday-3 miles but it felt like 30.  Again, my head was hurting and my nose was all stuffed up.  I hadn’t even gone a mile and I was ready to quit.  I was able to do the whole thing, but didn’t enjoy it.  C-

Total miles run=9.5

I really want a pair of Nike Free Run shoes, has anyone tried them?