Weekend Wrap Up

Friday, we snagged Ry from school then headed home to make a plan (and add a coat of paint to my chalk board).

picked up Ry

We decided to eat at a restaurant called i.talia but once we got there it wasn't what we were feeling, we graciously bowed out (ran like we were skipping out on a check) and headed downtown for some Thai food at Nari. It's always fun eating there and playing eye spy with Ryder, the food is so good. I mean SO GOOD. Eat there. I love food. Brandon got curry and Ryder and I shared Thai Fried Rice. mmmm.

Food art @ Nari

Saturday, Brandon spent the day working at an open house so I spent the day cleaning and doing Ryder stuff (ninja turtles and being chased around the house with a cross bow, thanks again Auntie Jojo and Uncle Joe!). We even got a mid afternoon visit from some awesome friends Jill & Lenny dropping off some sweet hand me downs from their munchkin Barron to our little Baby, I am so excited to try the Baby Bullet! If only they came out ready to eat real food and had teeth I'd be in business, I'm not sure how long I can freeze food though. Too soon, so hard but it's too soon.

I also finished my chalk board for above Baby's crib/ photo prop.

Finished Chalk Board HERE

When Brandon was home finally we were all starving and Baby screamed out for burgers & onion rings, what!? They kid knows what he likes, I wonder if I can put that in the Baby Bullet? Maybe not... anyway, Norma's is delicious and just down the road from us in Lacey. 

I was so exhausted by this time and after finding out FAO Schwarz closed their Seattle location I was over the idea of going to Seattle, we went home and REEEEEEELAXED.

Sunday was...

COOKIE DAY! 

You know I've been looking for thumbprints everywhere and this is not nearly what I thought I'd be doing but I gave it a go because Brandon said Almond extract sounded interesting and good.. I personally thought they were TOO SWEET but the flavor was delicious. 

You can find the recipe on my Pinterest HERE. I know what you're thinking, they can't be the same there's no glaze, no I didn't glaze them after tasting because they were SO SWEET ALREADY.

All of the ingredients

 After chilling

fill with jam add sugar on top 

Baked and now cooling 

Ready to take some to Da.

Da is the most amazing and special woman in our lives to date. She is Brandon's grandma affectionately named Da by Ryder (and she just loves it). Da is sneaking up on 89 years old and just found out she will be moving to an assisted living facility and is taking it as best as can be expected. She is such a social butterfly I know she'll just love it once she gets into the swing of things and of course she'll have all of her doting grandchildren visiting often! We are taking these delicious cookies to her tonight to give her some cheer and sweets, Da has quite the sweet tooth! :)

DIY Chalk Board Wood Slice

I saw my super crafty friend Jill make one of these and I was dying to get my hands on one so I asked her how hard it would be and got some info from her and it didn't feel as hard so I gave it a go! Like I said, she's super crafty and I was pretty worried I'm so glad I tried it though! Even better was if I messed up the whole project didn't cost more than $15, and I wouldn't have to re-purchase paint just the wood.

Here are the super simple instructions:

Step One:

purchased products (wood slice, chalk board paint)

Step Two

apply first coat

Step Three:

apply second coat

Step Four:

apply third coat

Step Five:

condition by rubbing chalk all over board and allowing to set.

Step Six:

use a dry cloth to wipe chalk off
(this is really messy and I ended up doing it over my sink)

Step Seven

dry wiping done

Step Eight:

slightly wet cloth , allow to dry

Step Ten:

ready to decorate

There you have it! Your very own wood slice chalk board. I'm really excited to hang this over Baby's crib but I'm also considering buying other color chalk paint and doing this for Christmas gifts (perhaps another one for our kitchen or front door).

Ry's BIRTHDAY Weekend Wrap Up!

This weekend was NUTS! Ok, only like 4 hours of complete craziness but it was pretty crazy.

Friday was spent prepping food for Ry's party and making the last of the decorations. I think this post will mostly be photos.

I made these adorable gift boxes I found HERE. 

Once Finished and filled with chocolate gold coins and a sticker mustache they were ready to go!

I made your average vegetable tray and printed up my own food sings, I think made it even cuter. 

I bought a ton of sliced Tillamook at the grocery store and used a star cookie cutter to make Star Power Cheese for the crackers. 

Chocolate mustaches were easy to do, but TIME CONSUMING! I found the mold at my local craft store and melting chocolate. I wrapped them all because I figured people would want to take them with rather than eat them then and there. I was right. They were tempting me last night but apparently my dog thought he would save me the trouble and eat them all himself. He's fine. Ryder's crushed.

I bought cheese balls at the store and printed the name tag for them.

I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes when they were all pretty up on the stand at the party,
but here are the 1 UP and Power Up cupcakes we had made. 

I printed off letters from MS Word  and cut them out with an exacto knife, also found a brick pattern and used that as the background, then your average Mario and Luigi for the middle. The Hands on Children's Museum made me use painters tape hence the blue. :/ BOOOO!

$6 spent on balloons. We bought 6 balloons and used electrical tape for the eyes. Thank you pinterest!

My sweet husband had a blast snapping pics while I was still running around like mad getting things ready. Who am I kidding? Things were done and I was still running around like mad, 7 months pregnant and birthday party was EXHAUSTING!

We found time towards the end we found time for a quick family picture. I can't believe our baby boy is 4 and about to be a big brother! 

After the party Ryder was so ready to play! Off he went.

We played everything!

I may have needed a rest after the party, the dentist chair is so comfortable. 

This is probably one of my favorite places for imaginary play in our area. It's amazing!

After all was said and done, or I guess I mean after I said I was done, we headed home and even got to take an extra special present home... Ryder's cousin! :)

It was exhausting and fun, the venue was fun but an hour and a half feels so rushed for a party. You have to really get into the food, cake, gifts and let them go. I had brought Super Mario Coloring sheets I found online and printed myself to the party for kids to entertain themselves. I knew it would be hard but it worked out so perfectly, we jumped into cake then presents then had 15 minutes for clean up and to shove everyone out the door. My amazing friend Chana & Gentry helped with set up and clean up and I was so fortunate to have ANOTHER awesome friend Alana take some pictures for me! It was an overall success.

Oh and while trying to figure out what to wear I tried on every dress I own and...

No, this dress did not make it out of the house on my body... that would be as ridiculous as wearing the wonder woman costume out.



This is me wearing it however pre-pregnancy last summer at a friends wedding. The Bride is in the middle, as if you couldn't tell. GORGEOUS GENTRY!

Weekend Wrap Up!!

Friday I took this picture that made me feel like a BAM (badass mama) and that was nice because so often in pregnancy you find yourself feeling awkward or not very cool. That might be because of the stretchmarks or outgrowing all your super sweet clothes and having to wear jeans that stretch and have a tummy panel or it could be because most companies want you to spend hundreds of dollars on side ruched shirts and tunics so you can feel like an even more massive person than you already are.

 Well I felt cool and like I knew it, the angry face helps the cool effect by the way. Give it a try, I'll wait. See?

While Brandon ran out to get something for dinner Ryder was pretending a box was a car and wanted me to make a wheel for it so while I was turning a paper plate into a steering wheel somehow the next thing I knew I was painting headlights, wheels, a license plate and a lightening bold on the side then I attached the steering wheel that I now realize should have been cut out a little better so he could put his hand in it. whatever, he loved it. Still does, and I used it to help me carry laundry up to the bedrooms on Sunday! DOUBLE WHAMMY!

Saturday morning we had our usual, I'm sure you can guess PUMPKIN PANCAKES!!! YES YES YES YES! I dont think I'll ever get sick of them (actually in one of the photos below you can see that I snuck TWO more boxes in our shopping cart at Trader Joe's!

Any ways, I need someone to knock me off the pumpkin bandwagon here really quick. We were invited to celebrate the 4th birthday of a very special friend of ours, Amora! Her birthday was in the mid afternoon and Ryder had refused to eat all morning (I KNOW, BLASPHEMY! HE SKIPPED PUMPKIN PANCAKES AND DIDN'T EVEN THINK TWICE ABOUT THE PUMPKIN GOODNESS HE WAS MISSING!) and maybe that should have been my first clue something was wrong. I mean he goes on eating strikes fine but he didn't even care he wouldn't get cake! *_* Clearly we're not related in any way even though he only likes frosting while I like whole shabang. Well I finally got him to force down this grilled cheese sandwich (Dad picked out Swiss cheese? What was he thinking.) he ate about half fine but then he was over it. 

This is not long after he had eaten and I thought the face had to do with the fact that he had not slept. Apparently this was my foreshadow to Sunday. We used plenty of hand sanitizer and plenty of playing. He loves going in the big climbing toy and all the bounce house mazes! It's really fun having such a big and responsible kid because I trust him to go play and make his way back to me often enough to check in. Love this guy!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I came across something labeled Pumpkin Bread & Muffin mix swooped it up fast and now I will probably be making those some time this week. I just haven't decided if I'm going to make mini bread loafs or muffins. Either way I may need some little drizzle to go over the top, cream cheese frosting type of thing? Pumpkin Roll filling perhaps? 

After driving to 3 different grocery stores in one night to make the most amazing half anniversary dinner (I'm only calling it that because it was close to our half anniversary and because it was so amazing it had to be an occasion but Brandon said it was just because) ever! Ryder and I resorted to playing and being the least bit helpful as we could.

We got a little bubbly at the store, and please don't judge us but we did finish the bottle, we were celebrating after all! We only get a little crazy like this once and a while.

I was the official side maker while Brandon cooked the meat, and only caught one of the steaks (his) on fire momentarily. It was, however, long enough for our whole house to fill with a ridiculous amount of smoke. Pregnancy brain must have been in full force because I brought a fan down to help clear it out and it fell and without thinking I went to grab it (near the blades) and Brandon saved my life hand and unplugged it before I could move it. SILLY ME! Once we finally sat down to devour our amazing dinner we were full faster than we could imagine and ready to watch The Great Gatsby! We get pretty crazy on the weekends!!! I thought Ryder was feeling a little warm but Brandon assured me he felt fine and always runs a little warm anyhow.

Sunday was like a zombie apocalypse in my house, okay that's a little over dramatic. Brandon and I were up at the crack of dawn 8:00 am and cleaning the house while Ryder relaxed on the couch. We rushed around cleaning before Ry and I were supposed to take him to his open house, we had another celebration for a gorgeous little One year old named Khaleesi! We were so looking forward to going, until I finally sat my rear down on the couch to catch my breath and felt Ryder BURNING UP. Awesome, a fever. The thermometer confirmed it we were sitting at 101*  and before I knew it we shot up to 103.5* fast. Couch and snuggles it was. I let our good friends know we wouldn't be at the party, sent Brandon to the store for sick day essentials and settled in for a long day of catering to my almost 4 year old (who has been known to get a little bossy).

With that face, he could probably get away with ANYTHING!!! Brandon was gone until dinner time, and I was exhausted by the time he got home. I was so looking forward to the tap out so I could get a shower in and finish up chores (maybe paint my nails) but as soon as he walked in the door I could see the look on his face, he was sick. My heart sank and I knew it was the end of my weekend; dinner made, family fed, resting and being pumped up with vitamins and homemade elixirs (thanks to Brandon's coworker). Ryder started feeling better closer to bed time and Brandon was only getting worse, but not going up to bed it made for some tense moments of Ryder ready to play and Daddy ready to sleep. Don't worry everyone survived, Brandon even ended up doing Ryder's bedtime routine while I fixed up the kitchen. 

This pregnancy has made me into such a nester but I have the hardest time closing my eyes for bed. I am exhausted but unable to sleep.

During Ryder's nap I managed to get a chalkboard update in and I can never seem to get a straight picture of this thing but it'll do. 

HALLOWEEN IS NEAR: EAT, DRINK & BE SCARY!!!!

xoxo Catch Ya Later!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday was nice and quiet and spent relaxing on the couch watching part of Life of Pi, Ryder is seriously entranced by the movie it is so neat to watch how excited it makes him and Brandon and I really enjoy it too. We had to pick up the U-haul at opening so we cut the movie short and went to bed about 1/2 way through, it was a total shame because Ryder's favorite part (in my opinion) has to be when the island glows before they escape.

Saturday morning we helped Brandon's Mom move and I was basically useless aside from directing with my hernia I'm not really able to lift much. I was quickly put on pillow duty with Ryder, who I think may have carried heavier things than I did. -_- Soon after we were finished we had to drop Brandon off at his football game and Ryder and I went home for a SUPER necessary nap, his last time in his toddler bed in Mommy and Daddy's room! He took it like a champ. Of course I set me alarm and woke up on time to text Brandon to see how late the game was running... oh you know just 40 MINUTES! So I did some cleaning and waited to wake up Ryder until the last possible minute.

Ry in the moving truck, he was SO excited!