June 2017

This isn’t *quite* where I left off, but it’s close and there’s always a lot going on so here goes.

June 2017 was a typical for us – nutty. It’s always filled with camp, swim team, birthdays, our anniversary and prepping for vacation. It’s jam packed, flies by and is always a ton of (hot) fun.

This is pretty much where we were if we weren’t in someone else’s pool….Also, you’ve never seen anyone happier than PW when Sylvia the Swan finally flew away in a monsoon.

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Case in point:

Also it was clearly the year of enormous floats.

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This sweet little lady turned 8. EIGHT! This one really threw me for a loop. The slippery slope to 10. And then she’s driving. And off to college. I tell both of them at night, I squish their head and their feet so they stop growing so fast.

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And in true Wand style, you get two parties; one on your actual birthday with family with a cake of your choice; this year she went for my triple yellow cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in taste! (Also it was like 110 degrees and even in ac, butter melts so)….

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…and one insane party with all your friends.

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I don’t know why she’s mad, but those eyes kill me.

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Someone else celebrated 35 years (😲)

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And we had friends celebrate birthdays in June too – including Abby who turned 8 right after B. Her amazing mom channeled her love of Target into a theme. And Target happily hosted it!! It was so much fun.

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There was a lot of camp too. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous following these two in every day. Not pictured; the stupid amount of crap from the snack bar that they ate and I allowed because they must have burned off thousands of calories each day. Or because I’m lazy. Either way, they had a ball.

*Do you see Auggie’s little ankle bracelet? And all 24 of Baylor’s? This was the summer that B really got into making bracelets – like the kind you do with the #4 knot over and over. Needless to say, the nostalgia was awesome and we tied bracelets until our eyes crossed and fingers bled.

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And for our annual trip to Montana, we decided that splitting up with me flying with the kids while Peter drove with Mac was really not all that much easier. It was expensive and took almost the same amount of time. So we decided to ALL drive to MT! I have to say, it actually went much better than anticipated. The kids were awesome and we made it in two days. No one puked, we didn’t kill each other or lose anything out of the back of the truck – overall, it was a success! The return trip however…well that’s a post for July.

There is also a 75 pound dog in this picture. He’s laying on the floor with about 2 feet total to his name. And he does it like the saint he is.

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Aaaahh. The payoff of 18 hours and 1,100 miles of driving:

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Rockin’ and Rollin’ 2016

When you live near the Rock and Roll Marathon route, you can either try to get around the marathon, run it, or find away to enjoy it! We chose the last option and joined our friends, the B Family, for their annual water station. They are literally on the route so they are blocked in – which is a great excuse to hand out water and turn it into a party.

We rode our bikes over to their house and realized that this was a well oiled machine. Tables with cups and a system for filling and then refilling the water jugs was in place. Not to mention a great spread of breakfast and bloody marys for the volunteers. It wasn’t long until the first few runners came by, then the big waves came. It was so neat seeing the various kinds of runners – everyone was working hard. The sweetest thing was that so many runners not only slowed down, but some stopped to take the water from the kids and thank them for being there to cheer and hydrate. It was so cute to see the excitement on the kids faces.

Cutest helpers ever

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The waiting

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Someone has to drink the champs and bloodies

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Working hard!

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Towards the end, the kids handed out little candies too. It was a very sought after position

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Congratulations to everyone that ran! And thank you to all the runners who took time to say thank you, you made a lot of little kids very happy!

October Babies

Just like June in our house, October is crazy! Not only is our social calendar packed, we get to celebrate Peter and Auggie’s birthdays. And because they are back to back (literally) it’s a little nutty trying to get it all in.

We celebrated Peter being older than me (we’re the same age for about 4 months a year) again with his favorite Funfetti cake and dinner out. We sat at Steak 44, studied the menu and strategized on who would order what so that we would get the full spectrum of the steak house’s offerings. Shrimp cocktail, ribeye steak, onion strings, creamed spinach, crab legs and chocolate chip bread pudding were all absolutely delicious! A birthday celebration to remember.

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We planned a Fireman themed party for Auggie the following day to celebrate this guy – the big 3!

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The kiddos got to cover their fire helmets with stickers. Then they raced outside to an emergency – chalk flames that they got to put out with squirt guns. It was a huge hit! The remnants of the chalk flames are going to require a little more elbow grease to get off though. Peter pointed out AFTER I had drawn all over the wall –  “maybe you should have tested it to make sure it will come off”. Yes, that would have been smart. Now we’ll just pick a paint color faster…IMG_8961

And what good party doesn’t have a fire truck pinata?? And when the little guys can’t get it open, you bring in the softball team.

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The struggle to blow out the candles is real, my friends.

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I love this picture. He was absolutely perfect for the party. Honestly, a parent couldn’t ask for more – he was happy, excited, friendly – he was having an amazing time! But hold him back from his ice cream cake? Sh*t gets real, real quick.

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Happy birthday my October men. I can’t wait to celebrate 100 more with each of you!

Happy Birthday Auggie!

I can’t believe that this guy is already TWO. The saying goes that the days are long and the years are short and that couldn’t be more true with this guy. It feels like yesterday that I was dropping B at school and heading to the hospital.

We celebrated the birthday boy with a fra-mly party with a construction theme and I have to say, it came out pretty awesome. I think the birthday boy wasn’t the only one who had fun!

Who knew blue prints made such cute and easy table cloths.

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Fun party favors

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Ready to par-tay!

IMG_7866CHEEEESSSEEEEE!

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His home made cake didn’t turn out too shabby

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It’s too bad they don’t look like us….

IMG_7895Happy birthday Auggie boy! You are such a crack up and bring so much happiness to our lives. Please stop growing so fast!

Party Time. Excellent.

I don’t remember the last big blow out birthday party I had…24? 27? Don’t get me wrong. There have been parties and really nice parties. But I think I was over due for a need-to-look-at-my-camera-because-I-can’t-remember-how-we-got-to-the-Rusty-Spur kind of shin dig.

And PW? He did not disappoint. My lovely hubby sent out an evite and within two hours of it going out, 90% had responded “yes”. I was feeling the love. The festivities were held at Old Town Whisky bar at the Saguaro Hotel. Being summer and all, we had the whole place to ourselves. There was a delicious taco bar (hello pulled pork and mahi mahi fish tacos!!) and the margaritas were boozy and cold.

Our friends came in droves. Old friends, new friends, family and a few friends we met that night! It was the perfect way to ring in 32. And of course, the lovely Stephanie was Freeze Frame for the evening. So a big thank you to her for documenting the night’s shenanigans!

I love all the colors.

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Someone had on their tall shoes….

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All our lovely guests!

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These three? Are trouble. Actually, that’s too tame of a word…

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IMG_6751 IMG_6754Oh! Is it time for solo pictures amongst groups of people?? Fantastic!

IMG_6740Everyone enjoyed the delicious tacos

IMG_6744The night progressed to the ever fun, ever crowded, ever dangerous (for lots of reasons) Rusty Spur Saloon. Home to the one and only time I was kicked out of a bar (for pinning a dollar bill to a caribu’s nose…long story. I was let back in) and many, many other stories never to be written down. The pictures…well there were a lot. And all of them were incriminating which means they won’t be posted here. However there is a taste of the last hour of the evening…

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IMG_6901IMG_6851Thank you to all our friends who came to celebrate! It meant the world to me and I can’t think of a better way to jump into the next year than with great people like you to call my friends!

Hand Over the Camera


When we were kids, my dad snapped pictures of everything and anything we did. He had a great camera and always had it handy. So I guess it’s safe to say I come by my need to document life via photos, naturally.

I invested in a Cannon Rebel T3 last summer after exensive research. I needed something that was fast, easy to use, small and didn’t cost us Baylor’s college fund. I realized that in order not to break the bank, I’d have to ditch the small requirement. I settled on the T3 because it wasn’t enormous and it got great reviews for newbies like me.

I snap pictures all the time with it – which means I’m never in the pictures. PW will take over periodically, but then there’s never a picture of the three of us. So this past weekend for Baylor’s party, I grabbed a friend that I knew took great pictures and asked them to snap a few shots of the important moments so that I could actually be present and enjoy. And the result? Awesome. The pictures are beautiful because they’re done with someone else’s eye so the light is a little different, the zoom is a little closer, everything is just different enough that it’s fantastic. And the best part is that I get to help blow out the candles on the cake, eat it and have the picture to remember it for a lifetime.

So next time you are busy snapping away, hand over the camera and see what happens. At the very least, you’ll be able to prove you were actually there!

Case in point? I love the flowers in the front of this pic.

I love catching me mid song and B’s sweet smile!

Happy Birthday Baylor!

Phew, what a weekend! We spent the entire weekend celebrating Baylor and the amazing fact that she is now three years old!

The festivities kicked off with some presents from mom and dad – Dr. Barbie, Hello Kitty everything and pancakes for breakfast. The morning quickly ran into her party for her buddies. PW and I are suckers for backyard shin digs – when we remodeled our house, the phrase “oh, that would be so awesome for a party” came up many, many times. Therefore we spent the last few weeks planning the best splash party any kid without a pool could ever ask for. I started a Pinterest board and had a blast collecting ideas. The best one though was the Kid Car Wash. Peter was pumped for a new hands on project and his creation was amazing. There was also our (ghetto) water slide that consisted of a small pool at the bottom of the swing set slide. Add in some big buckets of water (which turned out to be a hit all on their own), some water balloons and giant squirt guns and we had a hit on our hands!

Sunday afternoon was the family get together which consisted of actual family and also our close friends who we consider family. It was so nice to catch up with all of them, eat Baylor’s favorite food – quesadillas and open presents. All in all, it was amazing and totally exhausting – everything a birthday should be!

Pancakes and Dr.Barbie

Either craftyness is contagious, or PW’s been holding out on me. I showed him this free printable website and he nixed it as being too much work – then surprised us with this Saturday morning!

The Amazing Kid Car Wash – complete with bubble machine. Even the parents were considering a run.

Splash down!

Serious squirt guns.

When buckets become fun…

It’s official when the candles are blown out.

Momma and her girl.

Ready to blow out the candles, again.

Finally a picture of the three of us!

Eating her cake in her new “doll” high chair. Thankfully Grandma thought ahead and bought a sturdy one!

Bear was so tired, his butt didn’t make it all the way into bed.

Crafternoon

Whew, we had a whirlwind weekend! Dad’s Pancake Breakfast at school, Zoe’s second birthday party and a lovely crafty get together with the ladies – or crafternoon. And that was just Saturday! More to come on the other events, but first, the crafting.

A friend from college and fellow Alpha Phi, Stephanie, hosted what she called Crafternoon. It was a small gathering with cocktails, snacks and 3 hours of uninterupted crafting time. It was, in a word, heaven. And something I would like to repeat often.

Once the supplies were out, I’m not sure we made eye contact until Teri got out the camera:

Because B  is always loosing hair clips, I’ve now stocked up on them until at least April…

Our lovely host Stephanie and Teri

Andrea and Kristin

Kristin and Moi

Thank you Teri for all the great pics!

Baby What??

In anticipation of my sister Ali’s baby shower this past weekend, I tried to find some baby shower game ideas that were a little outside of the box. And by that I mean something that was not annoying like that damn game where you put the clothes pin on your shirt and ever time you say “baby” someone gets to take your clothes pin. The last shower I was at where we played that game, a fellow guest literally started pinching me after she took all my pins. It almost got ugly.

I found the usually stuff like “Guess Mommy’s Tummy Size”…boring, and potentially a loaded game if Mommy is a little larger than she thinks she is. “Baby Item Word Scramble”…yawn. “Finish the Baby Rhyme”…blah blah blah.

As I dug deeper, I found some really messed up baby games. Such as:

“Pin the Sperm on the Egg”. I’m not kidding.

“Dirty Diaper” – I thought this was only in the movies – you melt candy bars into a diaper and make people guess what the candy bar is by smelling it. There are no words for describing the level of nastiness of that one.

“My Water Broke!” – guests are given drinks with ice cubes containing plastic babies. When your ice-cube melts setting the baby free, the guests shouts that their water broke and they win a prize. I actually kind of like this idea because I don’t really have to participate, but it needs a new name.

“Bobbing for Nipples” – again, not a joke. Just like bobbing for apples but you use bottle nipples. Lovely.

We ended up using a variation of a game we played at Ali’s wedding shower – she gets asked a series of questions and then has to eat something when she answers wrong. Pregnancy themed food was pickles and ice cream – ice cream if she was right and pickles if she was wrong.  I only tortured her a little with questions like “how many feet does the average toddler crawl in a day?” and “who is the celebrity whose daughter is named Sadie Grace?”.

All in all, it was a lovely shower and Ali got lots of great gifts – I was running around like a crazy woman so I didn’t get any pictures, but Ali’s sister-in-law did so more to come!

New Year’s with Old Friends

We spent new year’s eve with one of my best friends, Beth (Marengo) Meyers and her always hysterical hubby Grant. They hosted a fantastic get together at their house where we ate, drank and played games until the wee hours of the night.

Beth slaved all day (or many days I’m sure) to create a tablescape that was second to none – not only were the appetizers delicious, they were beautifully presented. Shrimp salad in martini glasses, pulled pork sliders with slaw and a pickle on top with little toothpicks, beef crudities, antipasta platter, dips, chips, homemade pizzels, cheese cake bites and the list goes on and on! It was delicious too. She comes by it naturally, but it does seem a little unfair that she has that much talent 😉

Around 10, we started Celebrity. A game my step siblings introduced us to a few years ago and we’ve been obsessed ever since. PW and I have taught many a group of friends how to play, only to pass on the obsession  and fierce competition. We played boys verses girls and of course, the girls wiped the floor with the boys – despite rampant attempts to cheat on the guys side. Next came catch phrase and with a few doosies like “storm is brewing” and “au revoir” the girls were again triumphant. The new catch phrase came from Grant as he repeatedly declared the games “bullshit”.

PW and I enjoyed a lovely munchkin free night in B&G’s cozy casita and awoke to fresh baked cinnamon rolls, coffee, eggs and tasty leftovers from the night before. PW’s mom Marilyn, brought Bay over and she joined us for some breakfast and then it was home for everyone to catch a nap. Which is one of the standard favorite parts of a weekend for me.

We spent the afternoon packing up Christmas and enjoying the EIGHTY DEGREES outside by opening all the doors. The breeze was blowing and there was a tangible feeling of 2011 leaving and 2012 blowing into its place. We had some the saddest moments of my life loosing Mame and Travis T. Dog, but we had some really wonderful times too. Here’s to hoping that the breeze is warm and there is smooth sailing for 2012!