five fact friday

one | This week the weather was amazing so we headed out to Annie's Playground with some friends.  It's kind of a sad place - it's a playground in memory of a little girl who was killed by a drunk driver, but it's also a huge and really fun park.  On the way Jilly realized that we were going to Annie's Playground with our friend Ani and we were listening to the Annie soundtrack on the way- what a fun coincidence!

two | The first thing we did after getting the keys to our house was paint the front room my favorite paint color, Stonington Grey.  But when it was all freshly painted it was very apparent that the trim was an off-white which had looked fine with the previous wall color but didn't go so well with our new grey.  It bugged me a lot, but I had too much else to do and tried to ignore it.  This week I couldn't ignore it anymore and on a whim I started taping and painting.  It's been sloooooow going since I only really get to paint for a couple hours (maybe) every day during Mattie's nap while I'm also trying to keep Jilly occupied.  It's probably the most inefficient way to paint a room, but I'm up for the challenge and desperate to de-old lady our house.  I'm about halfway done and loving the white.

^ I still have to paint the crown molding so you can really see the difference the white makes on the windowsill/molding. 

three |  I went running a few times while in CA but took a little break the past few weeks during our move-in (how long can I use that as an excuse?  forever?  great.)  But this week I've been trying to get back to it and one night one of our new (elderly) neighbors stopped me and said "I just wanted to tell you that you're good for the neighborhood ecosystem, keep running honey."  Love friendly neighbors with some friendly encouragement.

four |  We all came down with a cold this week, which is a cruel thing in the middle of summer.  We spent most of the day yesterday laying low and wiping our noses over and over and over and over.  Mattie woke up much earlier than usual from her nap sobbing so I brought her to my room to lay next to me and a few minutes later she was right back to sleep.

five |  When Bryan got home from work on Thursday we were ready to get out and have some fun so we all took a glug of Tylenol and were off to the Howard County Fair.  We ate delicious (expensive) food, rode some fun rides (the Ferris Wheel was the favorite) and saw lots of animals.  There were one week old baby bunnies that we got to pet and they were the cutest little things ever.  Jilly fell asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot and Mattie held out the whole ride home but went right to sleep as soon as we got home; kids crashing every night may be my favorite part of summer.

The fun don't stop

I am seriously in love with this summer and kind of hope it will never end.  This past weekend was full of fun.  On Friday afternoon a good friend from home got married so my whole family met at the temple (well, whole family except for Bryan, who had to work.)  It was so fun to all be together, if just for a few hours.  And my girls loved seeing a real-life princess in her wedding dress.  Their new favorite game to play is "Wedding"- nicest dresses and bouquets required (thankfully I have a few fake flowers lying around that have gotten a lot of use.)

On Saturday Bryan got up with the early birds then at 7:30 there were two little faces in front of me saying "Daddy left to go running, can we go outside please??"  Jilly informed me that it was chilly out and sweaters were required (oh, 70 degrees, how we had missed you!)  The girls rode scooters til Bryan came home and we had breakfast.  

Later in the day after lots of work on our house we went to Bryan's company's summer party.  Last year it was at someone's house with a potluck lunch but this year they really stepped up their game and had it at an awesome swim park.  We had lunch and a contest (that Bryan's team one) and then a couple prize drawings (one of which Jilly won, which was really fun) and then we got to play.  There were 4 pools, diving boards, slides, a splash pad, a playground, and a pond with paddle boats.  It was seriously so fun and we didn't want to leave.  Mattie kept saying "one more time little slide" allll the way home.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that one of my favorite parts of Sunday is getting my girls all dressed up.  Jilly let me braid her hair this week and when her teacher asked if she had a new hair style she said "I don't know."  I had to teach her what a hair style was. :)  Mattie left the house wearing these funny neon anklets and ballet slippers.  In the car I sneaked her church shoes on and hid the ballet slippers, but forgot about the anklets and laughed when I picked her up from nursery and she still had them on.

Later we skyped with Bryan's mom and Mattie showed Nana all her bumps that needed band-aids.  We tried to show her that those bumps were her ankle bones and we all have them, but she just ended up kissing all of Jilly's "bumps."  This girl is a nut.  We also went on a walk through Oregon Ridge Park to see the chickens and the gardens and enjoy the amazing weather.  

Maybe this year August will last forever, pretty please?!?!

five on friday

Last summer we were new to Baltimore and didn't know all it offered and, even worse, we didn't really have any friends.  But this summer we're determined to enjoy all the activities the Charm City has to offer, and we're having a fantastic time.

ONE | Hammerman Beach is my new favorite place on the planet.  It's not actually a beach, but a beachy spot on the bay- the water is warm and shallow, the sand is perfect, and it's only 30 minutes from home.  We went with a big group last week then when a friend asked if we wanted to go again this week the immediate and correct response was YES!  If I get my way, we'll go at least once a week for the rest of summer.

TWO | The girls completed their summer reading charts which earned us free cupcakes and free personal pizzas (we have yet to redeem the latter and I'm looking forward to it more than the girls.)

THREE | There's a fun splash pad in the Inner Harbor that we visited this week.  Jilly and her friend Bennett are the cutest little pair, and we're suspicious that he's the reason behind her recent interest in lip gloss.  We couldn't choose a better match for her, but are definitely not ready for the boy crazy phase- yikes!

FOUR |  Eventually we'll get a swing set in our backyard, but until then we are so lucky to have a park at the end of our street.  The girls get their playground fix and Bryan gets to practice his ninja moves.

FIVE | We've heard a lot about Prigel Creamery and finally made it out last weekend.  The ice cream is made on site and is delicious.  We sat out on the grass admiring the lovely view and enjoying our treat while listening to semi-decent live music; it was a nearly perfect night.

All this summer fun can be exhausting ;)

Into the Woods

Someone in our family got a wee bit stressed out last week with all the unpacking.  It felt like everything was a disaster and she felt lots of pressure (all self-inflicted) to make it look perfect RIGHT NOW and there were two little people that were not overly helpful with the process.  On Thursday night that person (who will remain nameless) had a little meltdown and actually looked exactly like this:

Realizing that an intervention was necessary, Bryan declared that we were going camping.  He had Friday off but had to go in for a few hours in the morning to finish some projects.  I got us all packed up (a little grudgingly, I'll be honest) then we were on the road by 11.  We stopped at Wendy's for the girls to have their first frosty's and for me to get 2 large DP's (a happy accident/miscommunication that definitely added to my general happiness/pleasantness.)  As we drove west through the greenest green hills (a Marylander would call them mountains, but Bryan wasn't buying it) I started to relax- it was so beautiful.

We arrived, set up our campsite, then had to coax the girls out of the tent for some exploring.  We went for a walk along the Potomac, threw rocks in the water, and Bryan fished for a bit.  We saw a mama and baby deer which was one of the highlights of the trip.  It was beautiful but veryveryvery hot + humid.

Back at the campsite we were hungry, but it was way too hot to start a fire and cook our hotdogs so we ate snacks, read books, and played with a ball for a while.  Finally at 8 the sun started to go down and we built a fire, ate dinner and made s'mores then got the girls ready for bed.  Jilly fell asleep quickly but Mattie held out for a long time.  We could hear her singing for a while and occasionally she would call out "Daddy, I in da tent!"  Eventually she fell asleep and by the time Bryan and I went to bed it was blessedly cold.  We didn't sleep much because it was a crowded tent and SO loud out there in the woods (crickets, cicadas, frogs, etc.) and I was constantly covering the girls up with blankets.   

The girls were up with the sun and we were all not in our most pleasant moods thanks to the late night and not sleeping very well.  We had brought our dvd player so we convinced the girls to watch a movie in the tent for a while so we could sleep a little longer but eventually we gave up and got up for breakfast.  We had a spectacular breakfast of pop tarts + bananas + leftover hotdogs + eventually a few toasted marshmallows (campers of the year for sure.)  

Shortly after arriving on Friday Bryan said "we need to camp a lot more and toughen these girls up" (I have no doubt that I was included in the "these girls.")  Mattie would have a mini panic-attack every time she saw a moving creature, no matter how small.  But on Saturday morning the girls fell in love with a caterpillar and named him Tico so that's definite progress.  And Jilly was brave enough to walk across a little log over the stream.  We'll take what we can get.

After breakfast we packed everything up, went swimming at the campground pool and played on the playground then each got to choose an ice cream treat before heading home.  I'll be honest- it was nice to get away and fun to all be together for a day, but I'm not eager to camp again soon.  There was a lot of complaining (by all of us) and next time we'd probably A) try to go when it's not quite so hot and B) probably go with some friends to add a little more excitement/entertainment.  But, I'm glad we went and glad we have this memory.  As soon as we got home the girls asked me to set up their little tent in the playroom and they've been playing "camping" ever since so I'm glad to know we didn't traumatize them.