march 22

another beautiful morning calls for more time outdoors.  today we hit two parks in one morning!  heather, stella, gavin and i met megan and the boys for some fun on the sandy playground.  it was our first time there, and gavin was thrilled!  all the kids had so much fun running around and playing.  when it was time to pick up brooke from school, we headed to beech acres for a picnic lunch with heather and stella and more play time.  can't beat the spring we are having!

march 21

today we got a big chunk of time with jackson (i picked him up from school) and a small chunk of time with joey and chase (when megan picked jackson up).  we had lunch and popsicles.  we played and had quiet time.  and then we played some more.  i have so much to be grateful for... time with my nephews is high on the list.

march 20

i love having the kids in school with their cousins.  it's such a blessing because it feels like we're together all the time, even though it's usually only for little chunks of time here and there.  like today, we stayed after school for 30 minutes to let the kids play on the school playground.  it made everyone happy, and then we were off to do our normal routine things like lunch, naps/quiet time...

march 19

everything is in bloom, and we are outdoors all. the. time.  it was so warm today that i sent brooke and gavin to school in shorts for the first time this year.  today the kids and i spent the late afternoon at the park soaking in all of the sunshine.

march 18

the weather we're having in march makes it feel like it's june!  it's been amazing.  such a contrast to spring in seattle, and i am enjoying every second of the sunshine!  it's such a welcome change for me.  today kevin and i slept in, ran some errands and went to brunch.  then i came home and decided that i couldn't look at our incredibly messy garage for one more day.  cleaning the garage was a great way to be productive while also enjoying the beautiful, warm weather.  by the time my mom brought the kids home, the garage was clean!  can i get an "amen?"  having the garage clean and organized makes me so unbelievably happy.  i love it when it feels AND looks like our life is in order :)  and speaking of getting our life in order... we're starting Clean tomorrow - our 3-week detox program that we did at this exact same time last year.  we vowed to make it an annual cleanse, and we're sticking to it.  (i even talked anastasia into doing it with us again!)  so tonight i asked kevin to take us to el coyote for dinner.  i can't think of anything i'd rather have as my "last" meal.  i even got to enjoy it outdoors with music playing in the company of my three favorite people in this whole world.  perfect.

march 17

st. patrick's day!   we headed into hyde park today for brunch and happened to run into antje, randall, randall's mom, lexi & kenzie in the square.  as luck would have it, they were also on their way to eat so we all ended up having a st. patrick's day brunch together at the echo.  any day that you end up at the echo is a good day, especially when it's with friends.

tonight we dropped the kids off with my mom and joined emily & patrick at their house in terrace park for patrick's birthday party.  it was a great night for it, and we enjoyed getting out for a bit.  we didn't stay out late so we're also going to enjoy a good night's sleep :)

march 16

on friday mornings jackson has karate and brooke has school, so megan, joey, chase, gavin and i often meet for a quick donut or bagel.  today it was panera.  gavin has been loving their cinnamon chip scones lately.  i don't blame him :)

march 15

thankfully the pain in my toe is slowly starting to subside, but it's hard for me to wear most of the shoes that i own.  today i had on flip-flops in the pouring rain.  not good.  i'm going to have to try my hunter boots to see if they bother my toe because we have a lot of rain in the forecast this week.  gavin loves it because he gets to use an umbrella.  the boy jumps at the chance to use an umbrella :)  so today we did.

march 14

it's been like summer around here this week, and it could not have been a more beautiful day to celebrate my wonderful husband's birthday.  the day was busy but went very smoothly.  we've had gavin on the b.r.a.t. diet, and he hasn't had any more vomiting since the one incident on monday night.  what a relief!  gavin's biggest complaint is that we won't let him drink any milk.  he doesn't like that at all :(  brooke's been wanting to have her own lemonade stand all week long, and today i finally had to step up and just let her do it.  naturally, brooke was ready to do it about an hour before kevin was due home, but i decided i was just going to have to make it work.  i had already made the lemonade earlier in the day, so we quickly grabbed some plastic cups and a bag of ice along with brooke's handmade sign for "fresh-squeezed lemonade - free!"  just as we were walking out the door, and i was trying to figure out how to get our "stand" down the street into the center of the neighborhood, my eyes landed on our wagon that we haven't used in ages.  bingo!  we piled everything in the wagon (including gavin), and brooke pulled it along to her final destination.  thankfully lots of neighborhood kids were out, and brooke gave away all the lemonade within 20 minutes or so.  what a success!  brooke even collected a few donations for her school fundraiser, which made her feel very proud.  we made it back home just in time for kevin's arrival and a quick phone call to urgent care to check on my x-ray results.  turns out i have a fractured toe.  unbelievable.  i have no idea how i fractured my toe.  with that bit of news, we moved the party outside and enjoyed the perfect weather and a nice birthday dinner.  after dinner we sang "happy birthday" and treated kevin to his favorite dessert - strawberry shortcake.  it was quite an eventful day!

march 13

i love my girl's sweet, delicate profile.  i want to remember it exactly like this.  brooke had a play date at lynn's house today while i went to urgent care to have my toe checked out.  it has been so painful, and i can't even put pressure on it when walking.  they did an x-ray, but i won't have the results until tomorrow.  thankfully they gave me an anti-inflammatory shot, and that should help a little until we find out what's wrong.

march 12

my poor baby.  lately gavin's been using all kinds of excuses to get out of eating dinner - my belly's not feeling well, i need a little rest, etc., etc.  so tonight when he started with the "my belly's not feeling well" we completely dismissed it.  i let him sit on my lap, and just as i got two forkfuls of food in his mouth, he threw up all over.  kevin and i were so shocked that for a few minutes we just sat there.  then we went into a calm, crisis mode.  it was the first time we've had one of the kids get sick at the dinner table, and it was the first time that one of the kids have been sick (in our own house) when both of us have been home.  hard to believe, but brooke always came down with stomach bugs when one of us was out of town.  so this time felt so much easier with two of us here to divide and conquer.  now we've just gotta worry about keeping the rest of the household healthy!  too bad for me that my big toe started hurting out of the blue tonight, and i can barely walk.  i have no idea what's wrong with it :(

march 11

part of the kids' fun at grandma and grandpa's this weekend was celebrating daddy's birthday.  they helped make a cake and decorate the house and were all ready to celebrate when we showed up in dayton today.  we had a great brunch followed by kaye's delicious pound cake and an early dinner of marion's pizza.  y-u-m.  most of all, it was nice just to relax and visit for the day and celebrate kevin.

march 10

it was a beautiful day in so many ways.  kevin and i dropped the kids of with ba kaye and bob bob late this morning, and then we had the entire day to ourselves.  it's so much fun just to do whatever our hearts desire, even if it's not all that important.  we went to ikea, the music store, golf galaxy and the mall.  then we headed to clifton and watched the michigan v. ohio state basketball game at adriatico's with carrie and christian rogiers.  michigan played terrible, but the pizza was amazing :)  the atmosphere and the company were pretty darn good, too.  after food and drinks round 1, we headed to ali's house to meet up with the rest of my book club and their spouses for food and drinks round 2.  we had indian food and birthday cake and lots of good conversation.  and the kids had a ball with grandma and grandpa :)