Thanks Mommas

May 13, 2013Leave a comment

I thought about writing a post that called out some of my friends for the amazing things that they do and that I admire them for. After starting a draft, I found myself worrying that I might accidently insult someone. Like if someone wrote about me “she works hard and keeps her house and family pulled together!” my first thought would be that’s so nice! I love when my friends lie to me and my second would be wait, but I am a good mom to my kids too, right?! People think that part too, right?? So I decided I would write out the things that I’ve learned from my momma friends sans names. Because at the end of the day, the lesson is the important part so here goes:

~Laugh. Make simple things funny. Instead of responding with an honest answer all the time, give a funny answer once in awhile. Your kids have their whole lives to be serious. Make them laugh now while they still think you’re funny.

~Work it. Work hard at your job and then work hard at giving your kids your full attention.

~Be cautious. They’re little and sometimes delicate While it’s good for them to learn cause and effect (jumping off of the couch will hurt), it’s equally important to not let them learn the effect of their cause all the time.

~Give in. It’s ok to lose the battle BUT, lose graciously.

~Listen.

~Shut up. Don’t be quick to give the answer to their question. Let their imagination wander and ask them what they think the answer is and then be gentle when giving the real reason.

~Save the drama. You are not always going to win every day. Some days you’re just going to survive. Don’t dwell on the negative, look at the positive that happened in the day and then get ready to make the next day better.

~Rest. You are not a robot. It would be cooler if you were but since you’re not, let the laundry sit and you do the same.

~Be kind. Teach your kids that not everyone is as lucky as you are and that it is our duty to care for those around us.

~Don’t judge others. Mostly because we’ve all been that mom that is walking the SCREAMING kiddo into preschool while the baby is still in his jammies with a dirty diaper and blueberries on his face.

~Don’t judge yourself. Some days you’re the mom who got a shower AND both kids out the door. Some days you’re not. Both are ok.

~Laugh. A lot. Enjoy the simple things. Smile.

So thank you to all the lovely moms I get to call my friends. You are all an inspiration, whether you know it or not.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Home Grown Tomatoes

May 8, 2013May 7, 20131 Comment

My delicious Black Cherry tomato plant got whacked by the hard freeze in January. I had it covered, but apparently without a heater, a warm quilt was no match for the three day cold snap. I sadly watched the first morning of the freeze as all the leaves on our plants took on a purple tint – a sure sign they were done.

I couldn’t find another Black Cherry, but I did find a Sweet Millions and another cherry variety at my favorite nursery. I wish I had a time lapse camera because these things grew over night. In 8 weeks, they went from seedlings to producing handfuls of fruit! And they are good. Really good. Like I don’t get any inside because I eat them as I water plants good. And our strawberries are going bonkers – it’s a good time to be hungry in the yard.

Cherries

Sweet Millions not quite ready yet

I’m giving the roses credit for bringing the bees for the tomatoes

Delicious strawberries

Pancake Update

April 16, 2013Leave a comment

The Dad’s Pancake Breakfast couldn’t have turned out better! All the hard work and stress paid off 10 fold; we raised nearly $1000 for the school and the dads, grandpas, uncles and kiddos had a really fun morning together. Here are the highlights:

Stephanie’s ADORABLE centerpieces

Pin the Tie on the Daddy game

Make Your Own Tie

A happy recipient of Make Your Own Tie

These two were like a well oiled machine. They found every flat surface that could go on the stove and were flipping cakes at a rate of 20 every 2 minutes!

PW working hard manning the serving table. Please note that Auggie is eating a paper napkin.

Happy customers

For being at the school at 630 am and flipping pancakes, refilling toppings and doing whatever else needed to be done – we didn’t look too shabby!

A HUGE thank you to Ms. Stephanie D. I would work with you on any project, any time lady 🙂

Patio Living

March 22, 2013Leave a comment

Nine months of the year, our living space grows by several hundred square feet. We have a huge back patio and almost every room in our house has a door to the outside. This time of year they are rarely closed and life seems to just move outdoors. We eat dinner on the patio, play in the grass, pick lettuce to eat and even watch whatever game is on (I learned long ago that in March, there will be either basketball or baseball on our TV. Trying to change it is futile. So I joined) thanks to PW’s handy work converting an old armoire into an outdoor TV home. It was too pretty not to snap a few pictures this weekend.

In about a week, I’m going to have a whole bush full of these little beauties!

My new kumquat tree

I love the way lavender smells – this one under the kumquot looks distinctly Tuscan

The ocotillo loved all the rain. It’s finally getting it’s leaves back and it will have blooms in a few weeks

The prettiest thing in the yard…he was mid sentence when I snapped this one

Lettuce and herbs

Sprinkler time already!?

Boys of Summer

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013Leave a comment

We are a baseball family. We played baseball, watch baseball and hope that our kiddos like it as much as PW and I do. Peter stocked up on spring training tickets the first day they were available. We’ve been to I think 4 games already and have two more on the calendar. It is a lovely way to play hookie, get a tan and enjoy cold beer.

We decided to take just Baylor to a Rockies v Dodgers game and sit in the grass. We knew we wouldn’t see much of the game, but we wanted to have some big girl time with Bay. We got to Salt River Fields (my second favorite stadium) early, laid out a quilt and proceeded to eat until we were full. She got to get lemon aid from the vendor, hot dogs from the concession stands and Italian Ice in a baseball helmet. She and Peter scoured the stadium looking for Dinger, the Rockie’s mascot, and she had her glove ready to snag any foul ball that came our way. The weather was perfect. She was happy. It was a sun soaked memory in the making.

Dinger. She is in love.

The crowd in the grass

Italian Ice in a batting helmet

Run For Their Lives

March 19, 20131 Comment

We have had the pleasure of befriending the B family over the last year. Baylor and Ella have been in the same class for the last two years and Olivia, Ella’s older cool sister, is one of Baylor’s favorite people. Gretchen and Mike are their hilarious mom and dad and two people that Peter and I are always excited to spend time with.

This past January marked the end of TWO YEARS of chemotherapy for Olivia. She had been fighting leukemia for almost half her life and so we were excited to participate in all of the celebratory runs, luncheons and parties. We ran on Team Olivia in the Children’s Cancer Network 5 and 10k a few weeks ago. It was a fantastic event – there were games, obstetrical courses and tons of free food and swag. We ran like crazy and had a ball and the kiddos did too. We were so excited to follow Olivia in the kid’s walk as this was the first time she would be doing so as a survivor.

I did not anticipate the kiddos cooperating so I told PW to run on and I would just get as far as the kids would allow. Apparently running in a large group was wildly entertaining because they were angels the entire time. We finished the 5k in 38 minutes…which when you’re pushing a jogger that weighs 75lbs (no joke, we added it up), isn’t too shabby!

Ready to run…errr, ride!

Auggie, Baylor, Ella, Olivia and Morgan

Buddies

Team Wand was snuggled and packing snacks

Stephanie, Morgan’s mom and one of my favorite people. She also ran the 10k in 50 minutes. She is a freak.

Team Olivia ready to run!

The girls (and Augg) ready for the survivor ~~walk~~ ride

The Happiest of Hours

February 22, 20131 Comment

We live in a one of those weird neighborhoods where we know (and like) almost everyone on our street. Not only that, but there are a ton of kids and they have a blast playing together. Another benefit is when you get a text from a neighbor at 8am that says “Does 345 work for wine/bikes?”. The answer is yes. Yes it does.

And this is what 4 moms and 9 kids having happy hour looks like:

Riding down the street

Controlled chaos

Bay giving J a ride

The girls and the babies

Happy mommas

Berkley keeping watch

Auggie and H baby wrestling

We stayed out until Peter pulled up – it was like your mom calling you home for dinner since he arrived with Julio G’s Mexican food!

Orngen Juice

February 21, 20131 Comment

That’d be “orange juice” in Baylor speak.

Between the sudden freezing temperatures and theiving neighbors (I asked a woman to stop picking our oranges one day and her response was “Oh, I didn’t think you were using them” and then walked off with an arm full. Who does that?!) we picked all of our oranges off our two trees. I hate doing it because it’s so much more fun to pick what you want and let the rest ripen on the tree. Arg.

Anyway, I got a new juicer that was easier for Baylor to use and we set out to juice about 75 oranges this morning. She gave up after about 20 but Auggie and I made it through the rest of the bags. Three pretty bottles of juice were our prize!

Tangelos

Chef Wand and her Sous Chef Augustus

Loving the new juicer

If being cute makes you a good cook, Auggie won the James Beard Award

The final (delicious) product

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2013Leave a comment

Or as Baylor says “Balentimes” Day.

When you’re 3 1/2, nothing says love and Balentimes like barnyard animals. I sent her to school today with 22 handmade valentines – almost all of them containing pig, horse and cow stickers. I didn’t realize what she was doing until she was a few in and then I thought they were cute! Only she could get away with putting pigs on valentines.

This is the one she made for me 🙂

Snow Day

February 8, 20131 Comment

When Peter and I lived in DC, we had no idea what we were doing when it came to freezing weather and snow. Having both grown up in AZ, we had never cleaned gutters (our desert homes didn’t even have gutters), removed hoses from the bibs before a freeze and we had no idea when you were supposed to put out salt (we actually thought you just threw it on top of the snow. That is not the case). Thankfully our landlords caught on and would let us know what to do. We also had a very nice neighbor that actually cleaned our gutters for us one fall. There was a language barrier so when we pantomimed asking to borrow his ladder, he just brought it over and got to work. We were never sure if he was being nice or if he thought we were too stupid to do the job ourselves. Our money was on the latter.

The last winter we were there, a HUGE storm was predicted – not unlike the one that is supposed to hit the Northeast today. We went to Target to stock up on supplies: salt, shovels, etc. except our cart also contained a lot of wine and a new sled. The storm hit over night and we woke up to a foot of snow. It was beautiful! We made coffee and snuggled back into bed to watch the news…only to have the power go out exactly 1 minute later. After waiting for a bit, we decided to go sledding. When we returned, still no power. We made breakfast on the grill off the deck and threw a bottle of champagne into the snow (see? our supplies were super important). We then bundled up, grabbed a dog to warm us up and read books. By 6pm there was still no power. And no heat. And no fireplace. We were woken up at 5am the next day to everything in our house coming back to life when the power came back on – we were bundled up like homeless people with both dogs under the covers.

So let this be a lesson to all you east coasters getting ready for the blizzard. Salt is all well and good, but make sure your sleds and wine supplies are stock piled too.

5pm Saturday

8am Sunday

There were steps under there somewhere

We were told icicles were bad news…I enjoyed every drop of them!

Abominable snow Travis!

We learned the hard way that the SUV should be the last one in. Trying to get the Audi over the ice berm created by the snow plow was challenging.

We couldn’t figure out where all the kids were…turns out they were waiting for the big dummies to shelp up and down the hill a few times and tamp down the snow.