Valentine's Day Party take 1

We had Isabel's Valentine's Day fun today at preschool.  There really wasn't a set party time.  I just sent her with her Valentines (she was a rock star and personally addressed them all this morning) and strawberries for the fondue.  I took some pictures.

And here are a couple of pictures of my ankle this morning.  Just because I want sympathy.

Right is the jacked up one.

I'm taking donations to get a pedicure.  Hahahaha.  I found that way more funny than I should have.  Probably because a pedicure is about item 495939494 on my list of things right now.

Tonight I'm off the Bunko.  I had coffee with a girlfriend I hadn't talked with in a long time today.  It was so nice to catch up.  She has been such a great friend to me for the past 7 years.  We met at my very first playgroup with Vivian in Austin where she introduced herself and was so kind and welcoming.  Anyway, said friend is going too so we're carpooling.

Brian's Bday, July 4th weekend

I swear I already wrote this post, but I can't find it.  Ah well.  Let's start with Brian's birthday.  It was on a Tuesday.  Fun day of the week, no?  So Isabel and Logan decided that he needed to have a soccer birthday party. So I bought a Wilton soccer cake pan and went to work.  It was by far the easiest Wilton cake ever.  It took about 30 minutes from start to finish.  Black and white icing?  Yes please!  Easy peasy.  I made sea scallops with an avacado/wasabi sauce and roasted asparagus to start.  It was amazing.  SO  good.  Took bad diver scallops are so expensive or I would have bought 10 lbs!  But they are expensive, so we had 4 scallops each.  I also made shrimp/tomato risotto.  It was a new recipe.  Not as great as I've had, but still pretty good.  The recipe didn't call for shallots, only a white onion.  So strange.  Shallots are definitely essential to risotto.

The kids had to add sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Wednesday Brian's office closed early, so we headed to Houston around 3pm.  We got to Houston and Tank immediately decided he needed to get sick.  He was peeing out of his butt every 20 minutes pretty much the entire 4 days we were there.  I think everyone really thought we were going to have to say goodbye to Tank (he is very very very old), but I took him to the vet on Monday and she gave us an antibiotic and sent us on our way.  The antibiotic is like a miracle pill.  Tank was better the next day.  I've gotten in the habit of letting him out multiple times an hour and yesterday he refused to go out.  He's like "please don't make me go out in 19394 degree weather AGAIN.  I'm fine people."  Yay!

So Thursday we got up and went to the 4th of July parade.  A ton of people and a surprisingly long parade.  It was about an hour and a half long!  I think we all had fun.  Lots of candy thrown out and fans passed around.  After some swimming Lila and crew and another family friend couple came over for some delicious brisket Grandma cooked and other good food.  Yum!  Lila, Jennifer and Greg went swimming with us.  She's practicing for the ProAm surfing competition.  (Is that real?  It sounds legit, right?)

Making pancakes.

Parade fun.

Lunch al fresco

We stayed up late and saw the top half of fireworks.  Pesky new construction got in the way of the view.  The kids didn't seem to care or notice, so it was all good.

Back rub from Grandpa.

Waiting for fireworks.

Friday my Mom and I went to a few stores.  There is a kid's resale shop right by there house that is amazing.  I love going there and finding bargains.  We have the same store in Austin, but it's about a 30 minute drive for me.  The kids tried on their wedding attire that Grandma made.  SO SO cute!  They are all going to look great!

Fargo had a long weekend.  It's tough being so pretty.

Saturday we went to the Dynamos soccer game.  It was a lot of fun and we got a bonus fireworks display after the game!

Sunday we headed back after a little swimming.  It rained on us a little.  Such a nice downpour.  We don't get many of those in Austin.  We had to stop for Tank, but still managed to make it back in 3 hours.  Not bad!

We had a great weekend!

My princesses!

Keeping Tank busy at the Vet's office.

I'm such a sucker for holiday clothes!

Why do they have to be SO cute!  I see all of these Facebook sales and some of the stuff is adorable.  I'm a sucker for Thanksgiving/Christmas stuff.  Add some smocking and I just about hit the 'buy' button.  To my delight Isabel's favorite clothes are her smocked bishop dresses and anything with a tutu.  She HAD to wear her Hello Kitty Halloween outfit today.  It was adorable.  She even found some (of my) Halloween socks to match.  She tells me every day that Halloween is 'tomorrow.'

But yes, I am a sucker for holiday/smocked stuff.  The smocked pumpkin pant set I saw today was so tempting.  But then I looked over at the counter where at least $300 worth of medication is sitting and come back to reality.  Even before our recent visit to the hospital I put myself on a no internet shopping rule.

Sometimes I wish I was a millionare, but then I look over at Isabel and think of how lucky I am that she's ok and that we have enough money to cover things like emergency care, doctor's visits, medicine and food and don't think twice when a certain medicine is 2x's as expensive, but has fewer cardiac side effects.  Our pediatrician's office takes medicaid patients and also caters to the well off Tarrytown folk, which I think is great.  I've heard from people who use medicaid (mostly foster parents who's foster kids are only covered through medicaid) who have said it is so hard to find quality doctors that will accept medicaid.  I wish all parents could take their kids into the doctor's office or ER and not have to worry about how they're going to buy food or diapers for the next week.

Edited to add:  FYI, we are NOT the well-off Tarrytown folk mentioned in this post.  :)  Just wanted to clarify.

So it looks like we'll be replacing the carpet in Isabel's room sooner rather than later.  We've been planning on doing it for a while, but now it needs to happen.  With cold/flu season coming up we just have to get the carpet out and some solid flooring in.  Anyone want to come help us?!  We'll pay you in food/beer/kid smiles/screams or all of the above.

First Day of School and Labor Day

ARRRRGGGGG!!!!! I have written this post two freaking times and both times it was deleted. The first time it was my own stupid fault, but the last time it just disappeared. I'll do an abbreviated version one.more.time.

I just realized after I finally got this post published that the pictures are all out of order, unlabeled and generally screwed up. I'll try to remember to fix it later.

Logan and Isabel both had their first week of preschool last week. Long story short, Isabel did fantastic and so did Logan. Logan just went for 2 hours the first day and then the full 4.5 hours on Thursday. No accidents!!!!

Today Logan had a tough day. He cried a lot at drop off and Ms. Frankie, his teacher, said he was pretty unhappy today and had an especially tough time with transitions. He didn't have any accidents though, so gold star for him. When he got home he was super grumpy and wouldn't let me leave his sight. I had to go to the bathroom holding him. Fun! No really FUN! When Brian got home he freaked out and started hysterically crying when Brian tried to take him upstairs to play so that I could finish dinner. Awesome!

Izzy is sick. She has another fever and is generally just not feeling good. :-( Poor thing. She had a pretty good day, but I could definitely tell when her tylenol started to wear off and her fever came back. Poor thing. I really hope she's better tomorrow. We did have a fun day today hanging out just the two of us for the first time since Logan was born. I think she got a kick out of our time together and was really trying to make the most of it even though she was feeling crappy. I learned all about her Spanish songs and her friends at school and how she really misses her friends that aren't in her class anymore. Too cute.

Labor Day we headed over to Houston to hit the beach. Isabel and Logan both loved it. Logan REALLY loved the water. We did some shopping (thanks Grandma and Grandpa) and tried on Isabel's Halloween costume. She is the cutest Glinda the Good Witch ever! Grandma really really outdid herself this year. It is amazing. Really. I want one.