The Holidays

The holiday season has snuck up on us again! Gillian had a Thanksgiving program the other day at school, it was her first performance. She was super excited and more worried about saying hi to me, Scott or her Nana that she really didn't do much singing but she did wave a lot!

It was difficult to get a good shot, kids are fidgety these days. The little boy with his hand in his mouth is her boyfriend, Xavier, on Thanksgiving day he was the only thing Gillian was thankful for. After the presentation was over we had a Thanksgiving lunch together and then it was playtime and the excitement of mom and dad coming to school was over and we were no better than chopped liver. 

There will be another presentation for Christmas and I expect that it will be just as cute as this one!

Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween and it was something else. I received a call from daycare that Gillian had to leave because they thought she had Pink Eye and so for a large part of the day we thought our Halloween was cancelled. She spent the day with me at work watching movies and napping and fortunately the drops I'd been using worked like a charm and we were able to have some fun and get tons of candy! After work Gillian and I stopped by the restaurant to start our trick or treating there. As I was trying to get her to leave I asked her if she was ready to party, her response was "YES!! AND ROCK AND ROLL!!!" I'm sure those on Market Street who heard this want to give me the Mom of the Year Award, I'll keep an eye out for it in the mail. 

We headed over to our friends house for our Halloween party and trick or treating; they live on the best block for little kids. Once we all arrived we headed out to brave the cold and grab our goodies. Quick costume note: Gillian is a Butterfly Princess and decided not to wear a crown and couldn't wear her wings because it was too cold. Ainsleigh is just a kid taking candy because she refused to wear her Chicken costume, can't imagine why. 

Here is our whole crew of Superhero's, Witch's and Princess'.

I have learned that Halloween is not a single parent's job, both parents is a must. Gillian was running from house to house and Ainsleigh was waddling from house to house - not easy to keep up with. Here's the only shot of the two of them together. 

Ainsleigh had a great time and loved to trample the fallen leaves, she was so sweet and said "Thank You" to everyone.

Today I am worn out and have a Halloween "Hangover" and can honestly say I'm thankful that mess is over and let's move on to the next holiday!

Pumpkin Carving!

Before I go into the details of our lovely morning carving our pumpkin, I should first show you our collection of pumpkins:

This picture doesn't really show all of them but Ainsleigh's face was too cute that I had to add it. Here's a better shot of our personal patch.

It's a bit much, don't you think? I might save us money if I grow our own next year. Anywho, it was time to start digging into the pumpkin and the girls were super excited. We put Scott in charge as he's most proficient with yielding knives.

We let the girls have a try and scooping out the innerds - neither were fans. It must have been too slimy for them. We had Gillian pick out the face and she went for the standard Jack-O-Latern look, which made Daddy very happy. During this whole event Gillian kept telling us how much fun she was having and that this is the best Halloween ever! Kids are so darn cute!

The final result! Gillian added several flowers to the inside to pretty him up.

The excitement wasn't done just because the pumpkin was carved, we had to see it all lit up in it's glory! They were very excited to check it out and Ainsleigh kept trying to take out the lights, she wasn't very happy when I added them in. 

We finished the night off with Spiders for dinner. I was so excited about this because it was so darn cute and I thought for sure the girls would gobble them up, when I asked if they liked it, I got a resounding NO! Thanks a heap!

Now before you go telling me that I'm missing a set of legs on this little guy, I know, I know! There wasn't room, cute little fella, huh?

The Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we finally made it to the pumpkin patch. Gillian has been trying to get there for weeks! As we arrive we make a b-line for the port-o-potty; I don't need to be changing kids clothes this early in the game. We make it safe and sound and now it's time to pick some pumpkins! Gillian can hardly contain herself and she jumps around like a jumping bean and Ainsleigh doesn't really care too much.

We hop on the hay ride and off we go! As soon as we get to the pumpkin patch, guess who has to use the loo again. You guessed it! Gillian. No port-o-pottys out here so I had to wing it and found some bails of hay, she wasn't excited about going outside for the first time but it got the job done.

Now that we finally got that out of the way it was time to start enjoying the pumpkin patch. We searched, examined, tried out a few pumpkins. (Check out the nice Jersey Shore sweat suit Ainsleigh is rockin).

Gillian was kind enough to take some time out to pose for a picture with her friend Izzy, and she even smiled kinda.

The girls finally picked their pumpkins and found a special orange and white gourd for Daddy and we headed back home. Gillian was a tuckered pumpkin picker and crashed out on the way home. The girls had a wonderful time and Gillian has even said that this is the best Halloween ever!

Finally, adult time!

Scott and I recently went back to his old stomping grounds of Jacksonville, FL for a long overdue visit with some wonderful friends. Although, we love our friends I have to say the most exciting part about the whole weekend was the fact we were kid free. It's a great thing to sleep in, not have to wake up for a feeding at 3am, no high maintenance dogs to manage and it was as wonderful as we had dreamed it would be. There we so many great high points of that weekend that it's almost impossible to list but I'm going to give it my best shot. First we have a night out alone, and I mean really alone! No kids to wake up to, no having to be a parent the next day no matter how sleepy you are, amazing! It was great to catch up with friends and so fun to giggle at the fact that we all at once pull out the cell phones to show off our kids, my how times have changed. Next we went kayaking for a few hours, it wasn't exactly as we thought but it was still wonderful and beautiful.

We also went to a beautiful wedding and while I didn't get many pictures, it was a great time. The church was in St. Augustine and the reception was at TPC Sawgrass and what an amazing place that is, what a great way to check out how to Pro's live. Anyway, that's it for now!

And we're back!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I've done this last, can we say slacker?!?! Let's hope this go around I stick with it. Rather than try to catch up over the last year, I'm just going to do the last week or so.

Gillian is moving at the speed of light from dawn to dusk and pretty much wears me out each and every day. She's still a precious diva and has her first boyfriend, Conner, at daycare. She tells me they ballroom dance together and hold hands when they dance and as far as I can tell there's no kissing going on, whew! She was a bit distracted not too long ago by our friend Chris who came into town, Conner got put on the back burner quickly!

As for Ainsleigh, she's growing like a weed and getting new teeth in all the time. She's not a fan of the teething experience and I don't blame her, the poor thing gets fevers every night and it's quite obvious it's very painful for her. She's getting so tall and at 9 months is in 12 month clothes, it's kinda messing up my idea of not having to buy her clothes and just rely on Gillian's hand me downs! Lil A is so close to walking, it seems it's only a  matter of days before she'll take those first steps.

As for myself and Scott, we're just chugging along with everyday life. Scott's still running the restaurant and I'm at home with the girls. We leave soon on vacation to Jacksonville for some much needed time to catch up with some great friends.

Good Clean Fun!

I recently found out I am pregnant and so living gluten free isn't on the little one's meal plan. This will be my second and so far the one thing in common with both pregnancies is that I'm quite the picky eater. This is not normally true, I'm married to a chef so I really don't get the luxury of being picky but when pregnant it's hard to make it out of the grocery store without gagging at least once at something. The meat and seafood department is my biggest downfall. Good news is that fruits and vegetables are going down easy still and considering I just planted a huge vegetable and herb garden, that makes me very happy. At this point I'm just trying to come to grips with the fact that I will soon be the proud mother of a two year old and a newborn!

So tonight, I don't have a delicious recipe to share with you however, I do have a great laundry detergent recipe for you. I've been making my own laundry detergent for about a year now and it's very easy, costs me about $10 and lasts my family about 6 months. Besides the obvious fact that it's very cost effective it's soft enough for you to use on infant and baby clothes and lacks a lot of the chemicals in store bought detergent.

• 12 cups Borax
• 8 cups Baking Soda
• 8 cups Washing Soda
• 8 cups Bar soap (grated, 4 bars) 

Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub. Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load.

 

Possible bar soaps: Fels-Naptha, Ivory soap, Sunlight bar soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, and Zote

Hope you like it and I'd love to hear what you think about it!