Gabe: 2Y2M & 2Y3M

I guess it was bound to happen, I finally missed a month of Gabe updates. Woops. Pretty sure he won't be mad at me. I'll just slip him a freeze pop and we'll be cool. 

 

Man, Gap is killing it this year with the elbow patches... 

So here we are, Gabe, you're a little over two. And man, you are a funny little dude.  The things that you come up with crack us up. You've got stories to tell us, dreams to tell us about, the day's activities to run through...your dad and I constantly shoot each other looks like, is this kid for real?  

We are constantly amazed how articulate and smart you are. Of course, every parent says this but watching someone go from drooling infant to functioning child is surreal. You've got your opinions and you definitely let us know them. Usually it's with the phrases "Like it!, No like it!" while shaking your head no.  Of course, on the other end, when you're happy, you let us know it. You're all smiles and hugs and incessant giggles for days. It's running jumps and hugs and dancing and playing your air guitar (which is quite possibly the cutest thing ever).

You're still avoiding most foods like the plague but we're just trucking along, hoping that the day you grow out of this phase is coming soon. We've added things like cereal and bagels to your diet and you're really into them. Obviously the nutritional value is slim but hey, if it fills you up and keeps you going, I'm all for it. Also, you are your mother's child. Mama loves a bagel and some cereal.

You don't have a ton of interest in potty training yet (not that I have plans of over-sharing that on the internet, so don't let that stop you) so we're just hanging out in dipes, waiting for the sign. No biggie.

You're obsessed with cars, trucks and construction equipment. And that's pretty much it. You spend a lot of time, with your matchbox cars lined up on the coffee table and couch, with your head down sideways, rolling the cars along. Or laying on the floor, driving your cars. For some reason, this is one of my most favorite things to watch.

You've got the basics covered: numbers, letters, shapes, colors, matching, sorting and man, just so much more. You're soaking up everything at all times. You see one thing, then days later you're talking about it. It's pretty awesome.

And just some stuff I always want to remember:   

You call your pants "mips" and it's caught on around here. It's now a universal nickname. Hey mips!

When someone hands you something, it's always "thank you welcome'.

In restaurants, as soon as a waitress appears, you say"Gunnets! Emonade!" (Nuggets & Lemonade)

Love you buddy!

Mama

 

Ombre Felt Trees Tutorial

In going with my ( admittedly slightly depressing) but totes comfy and cozy Scandi Christmas, I give you an idea that I'm pretty sure I came up with on my own, Ombre Felt Scalloped Trees. Like, I didn't see it anywhere and copy it. I'm not saying this exact project hasn't been done before because, really, who are we kidding, these type of things are everywhere, but I had an original idea! This is cause for celebration!

 

Supplies Needed:

Tree Shaped Cardboard Cones from your craft store

Various colors of Felt

Scissors

Hot Glue

This is an imperfect sort of tree and I embrace uneven scallops and gaps. Just turn that portion to face the wall, right? Felt is my fabric of choice this winter so prepare to be bombarded by that wooly goodness. All up in your face wooly goodness.

Dare to DIY: Dare to Entertain

If you've been around awhile, you prob remember me linking up to exactly one blog link party year after year and my friends, that time has come. This year, Kim from NewlyWoodwards is teaming up with a few other ladies and although I skipped last week's turkey day themed shindig, I'm all in this week. Because duh, this week is Dare to Entertain. And if that means I can set a table, then damn it, I'm doing it. 

Each year, I change it up and decorate based on how many people I'm having for Christmas Eve dinner and whatever decorating whim I'm on that year. Last year was fancy and formal turquoise and lime and the year before was comfy and cozy sweater wrapped everything. I already clued you in on this year's theme, so I give you my Scandi-Shabby Christmas Table.

I started off by stamping some plain white napkins with a pencil eraser courtesy of my own stamped napkin tutorial. (Sorry this place is link city today!) I added some mini faux boxwood garland wreaths that I made. I found the mini garland on etsy.

Then I "suggested" John go out to our recently downed tree, courtesy of Sandy, and slice me up a couple a nice lookin logs. Then I "suggested" he drill some holes in them to fit the squat little taper candles I found at the Dollar Tree. FYI, when they're called Emergency candles, they are a lot cheaper...6 for a buck!

Turned out pretty cute eh?

Have you noticed that I forgot something when setting my table? That's right, my knives were dirty so they were all in the dishwasher. Use your imagination. Or pretend we'll be eating very tender meat.

 I threw a quick black kraft paper runner down the middle and called it a Scandi day.

 

See that boxwood wreath up there? Made that ish. Tutorial coming atcha in a few days.

Way to go John. Seriously.

So I dunno, it's definitely not my normal thing. It might actually be a little sparse for my taste. And we're gonna need to pump up the twinkly light/glitter factor. But that's why I tried it out today, took pics, then took it right back down. I've now got a month or so make some magic.

Do you think John would go for me dumping a pound of glitter on those logs? No? Me neither.

An Imperfect Sunday

Some of my favorite Coloradans made their way East these past couple weeks for an epic Griswoldesque road trip to see family. As soon as I heard they were making a pit stop in the DC area, I forced Emily to come hang out with me. She is one of my most favorite blogger-turn-real life friends and after meeting her in Chicago in April, I needed another fix. Plus, I wanted to meet her new baby girl and have Gabe and Thomas, who are future frat brothers, get their first meeting over with.

We decided to meet halfway in Bel Air, Maryland. I picked it based on the fact that they had a cute little Main St. Sure, everything was closed on Sunday but that's because everyone was in the bar wearing purple football jerseys. Seriously. Everyone. 

Anywho, we decided to hit up a park so the boys could burn some energy and we could chit-chat. John loved finally meeting Em, after years of stalking her blog and turns out, her husband B is just as awesome as Emily. Not surprising really but it's always a bonus when blog husbands are just as happy to meet you.

So for the past 5 days Gabe had been nursing a cold and I had been giving him Benadryl to help with the nose-flow. I didn't think anything of it that morning but when Gabe was sluggish and slightly pissy when we first met them, I finally realized why. Sorry dude.

We took a walk down Main St in search of some food and found it here by this big horse. Kids love horses.

Since there's not much to do with kids in Bel Air when you don't know anything about the town, we headed back to Shamrock Park where the boys were fed and happy. Plus, you know, the drugs finally wore off. They spent the next two hours being adorable.

Good call on the beach ball, McKevitts.

Aside from a bit of "mine ball" from Gabe, the boys played awesomely together and plotted their future flip cup tourneys.

Meanwhile, Em and I decided on the boys' first pick college. We've decided to be Notre Dame moms. We can't wait to watch our sons, the ND football punter and kicker respectively, and drink out of flasks in the stands. Parents weekends will be legendary. I think that's why we are friends, besides both of us being snarktastic and witty (says someone?), our futures are aligned and we will meet again. But hopefully a bunch more times before these kids turn 18.

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I hope all of you (Americans) have a Happy Thanksgiving! If I had to pick one thing to be thankful for this week? Children's Benadryl hands down. And as always...you guys!

Bottle Pop's New Home + More Shopping!

So I'd been using a free website template for Bottle Pop's official website since I launched it. However, I was paying each month so that it would point directly to www.bottlepopparty.com instead of www.thisrandomwebsite.bottlepopparty.com. The latter doesn't exactly scream professional, am I right? So month after month would go by and I realized that I was tired of paying for a simple (read: boring) template that I wasn't thrilled with. Yet, I didn't have the $$$ to commit to a fancy pants web designer...yet.

So I decided to go back to basics and do what I know...a blog. I tried to remove all of the normal Blogger shenanigans and make it look as best I could with limited html and coding knowledge. So I'm happy with it, it's new and exciting and more importantly, not draining my wallet each month.So check it out and let me know what you think, if it does the job or if I should let the professionals handle it.

My other money making endeavor has been setting up a more permanent Shop My Closet blog sale page. You guys are so freaking awesome for supporting this blog through my blog sales and I know I always have ladies who are pissed they missed stuff, so I thought I'd keep an on-going one. The logo/link will be permanently hanging out on my sidebar so you can always check for new merch!  I'll add more as things sell out (if they do) and let you guys know if it's been updated. Hopefully this new method is more streamlined and cuts out the whole emailing to claim stuff thing. This method lets you buy through Shop Locket and pay through PayPal. Seems like a pretty sweet deal. And don't forget, all shipping costs have already been included in the prices!

Thanks again for all of your support in all of my hustling :) Or entrepreneurship. Whatever sounds classier.

Zoobilee Zoo!

This past weekend, we solidified our friendship with the neighbors by tagging along with them to the Philadelphia Zoo. It's been about 6 or 7 years since I had been there last and like most everything else, these things are better with a kid. Sure, not having to lug a ton of crap and deal with toddler tantrums has its perks but watching the eyes of a two year old widen upon his first polar bear sighting? Well that's some good stuff. 

The polar bears were settling in for a nap when we got there. Of course. I don't think I've ever seen them awake and swimming. Lazy s.o.b's.

Photobomb!

Unfortch for us, we visited the zoo on the absolute wrong day. Even though it was almost 70 degrees in November and not a cloud in the sky, a lot of the animals had been moved because of the hurricane and not returned. A lot of the normal attractions that the kids were so excited to take Gabe on, like the camel and horse rides, weren't open. The gigantic zoo balloon? Not flying today. Womp womp. Sorry kids.

These guys are cool though. And they were there...so there's that.

Gabe's first carousel ride! He talked a big game about getting on the crocodile but turns out, he hated it. We scampered over to the snake basket and took a ride.

There's a pretty awesome indoor playground exhibit thing for members of the zoo, which has a big treehouse, dinosaurs and their eggs, big tree trunks to slide through and honeycombs to climb on. The boys were in heeeeeaven.

Best good buddies.

On the way out, we hit up the primate house, which is probably my favorite part. I could hang out in there all day watching these guys. I'm fascinated by them but man, it makes me so sad. They look so sad being in there.

This guy sat in a window alcove looking forlorn. AND LIKE A FREAKING HUMAN. Can't deny that shizz.

So weird. But anyway, it was a fantastic day with some new(ish) buddies and it wore us all out. And on the walk to the exit, the giant turtles were humping each other. Can't get much better than that. 

Move it along kids, move it along...