weekending

Posted in familyness, i dig music, Kiddie Hangouts, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

exhaustingly good amounts of fun time this past weekend. weekend bits:

1. new bird feeder project 2. selfie before the en vogue show 3 & 4. the terribly anticlimactic show that was somehow still tons of fun and i would go again in a heartbeat 5. tried el camino for the first time. thank goodness for healthy, cheap tacos. and i mean CHEAP. 6 & 7. year of the buffalo in-store at vinyl frontier. Mike arranged his first in store and i have to say, he picked a mighty fine band {biased!}. 8. darla worked her magic and made fast friends with the band. they gifted her a copy of their ep and a guitar pick. it’s been our soundtrack in the car ever since. you should check it out. NOW. 9. finished the weekend with a valentine-crafting & pizza party at our friends’.

weekend also included but not pictured: a karaoke session at mickey’s, sunday brunch with lady friends, darla’s introduction to star wars, and cousin hang-time at our place. all normal things like gym, grocery and housecleaning fit in where they could…or not.

i love busy weekends full of life. keep them coming.

28Jan2013

party

Posted in familyness, Kiddie Hangouts, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

yesterday was a reminder of how lucky we are to have such great friends and family. a small group helped us celebrate darla’s birthday. a large group helped us celebrate from afar by sending messages and well wishes, gifts & cards. thanks to you all.

here’s just a bit of our donut + coffee + cupcake decorating party. it took hardly any time to set up, even less to clean up and we listened to the first lady of country while we tore down. i’m never doing another veggie tray again. it’s coffee and donut birthday parties from here on out. until darla’s old enough to roller skate, that is. then….ohhhh then…let’s just say there will be some roller rink parties in our future.

8Nov2012

climbing & dangling

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, Momma Needs a minute..., parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

i walked over to darla on the playground today. she turned to look at me with a beaming smile and said “i’m playing with the big kids.” in actuality she was getting step-by-step instructions on how to jump from and climb on the outside of the play structure from a big kid. she had a grand time playing with them for about a half-an-hour.

soooo this means she is going to have all new tricks tomorrow and the ten minutes of peace i had this afternoon were effectively rendered pointless. i’ll most likely find her hanging from the shower curtain rod in the morning. whatevs.

24Oct2012

birthday buddies

Posted in advantageous adventures, Kiddie Hangouts, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

i’m sure everyone remembers that we love to hit up pumpkin patches with these folks. we got to spend yesterday celebrating the birthday of our very best buddy and my favorite little guy at schacht’s family farm. can you believe how big these kids have grown?

patch

these last two are my favorites. they were hissing like snakes and then laughing at how they amused themselves. these kiddos have their own inside jokes now. we’re slowly approaching the age when parents will be outsiders. i’m ok with that. especially if it means their bond will grow stronger. they’ve acted a bit more like twins in the past, but lately there’s been a whole lot of love.

happy 4th birthday burkeybuns! we love you.

15Oct2012

we knew you were coming so we baked a cake

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, kiddie-do, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

on friday we all waited anxiously for our new nephew -newphew- to make his appearance in the world. to celebrate, i helped big sis and big cousin bake a birthday cake for our newest member of the family. lots of spatula licking ensued:

and there’s the finished product. big sis got to pick out the cake mix, frosting and all the trimmings. i really enjoyed involving the girls this way and reminding them of another benefit of new siblings/cousins – another day of the year that you get to eat cake.

30Sep2012

ridez

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

i don’t know if you know this but we take darla to a lot of fairs. A LOT. she’s met more carnies than a ummm person who meets a lot of carnies.

well, anyway, i took darla to a carnival yesterday. more on that event later but i wanted to share some photos from our buzzker visit at the beginning of the month. see here’s my thought process: carnivals + left coast = buzzker visit memories:

lucky for us, we live right across the street from the park where the annual neighborhood carnival is held. we took the girls over for some fun when darla’s best friend, elsa, visited a few weeks back.

1. ready to ride 2. big girls riding the big slide 3. the lamest carnival ride ever 4. seriously the lamest but they both loved it 5. gerbilz 6. father + daughter barrel spin 7. i asked her to stand next to buckey and this is what i got.

we really miss you friends! we’re so thankful our gals got to spend two days together riding that bath tub ride. seriously? what was the attraction there? they rode it like 5 times!

10Jul2012

FredFest 2012

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

the inaugural FredFest was a big success. a good time was had by all. most importantly, we already started brainstorming for FredFest 2013.

look for your invite in a little less than a year…

Happy 36th birthday!

31May2012

and back again

Posted in i dig music, Kiddie Hangouts, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

and now we’ve been having a few (somewhat) relaxing days getting adjusted back to real life. mike is taking classes in florida for the week so darla and i have spent the majority of our time by the pool.

or on the bike.

or biking to the pool.

you get the picture.

darla was very excited about her floaties. she put them on and immediately exclaimed “everybody wearing floaties is cool!” complete with thumbs-up arm motion. she was equally excited that the pool has spongebob popsicles. she adopted some spongebob-like facial expressions while eating:

timing is everything in photography, i guess. i’m going to be in trouble for that one someday.

upon returning from the pool darla received some mail from grandma and grandpa wright

i got to jig in some flannel last night to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

the flannel would have been a great idea except LC moved the show indoors. so then flannel became a sweaty idea. but i didn’t care. Carly and i grooved and shook our hair anyway.

after the show “Mr. Sharpe” was outside getting mobbed. I tried to get him to bless my bike but as previously mentioned, he was in a mob.

also, that giant balloon lamp WAS NOT filled with candy or glitter.

sigh.

22May2012

recovery

Posted in i dig music, Kiddie Hangouts, Travels by ElaineMarie

it takes a few days to recover from these weekends away, don’t it?

we drove on to athens on friday before heading to camp, then it was all nelsonville, all the time.

the weekend was a fine display of music. sunday was my favorite day, mostly because darla actually settled down for a nap on me so i was able to sit peacefully in the shade and listen but also because Dawes and M. Ward put on pretty excellent sets. Shovels & Rope were there and i’d say they won the hearts of just about everyone in attendance. I have a feeling i won’t be able to catch them in a venue as small as Rumba again.

i really love this festival. the people behind the curtain had a vision and i’m 100% a converted member of their church. darla spent hours in the kids’ tents and walked away with a handmade canjo, bluesband harmonica, tutu and she got to participate in a parade. i think the true aim of the festival is to make it a family and community event.

this is an excellent way to weed out all the douchey people we often come across at other festivals. no one is there to be seen in their wild, spandex hipster outfit. everyone is just there to have a good time. and be free.

as family friendly as it was, it was still A LOT of work to merge the wants and desires of a 3 year old with a camping, music festival weekend. DO NOT attempt this unless you are willing to weather tantrums, breakdowns, whining, crying and spasms of craziness. Oh, your kid might get a little upset as well.

still…

i’m ready to buy our tickets for next year.

17May2012

cousinz day

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts by ElaineMarie

we got to hang with our favorite niece all morning!

first the flash helped me make pancakes with an attitude

then cousinfriend joined and they all chowed on the most delicious pancakes to ever grace anyone’s lips while i ran around making said pancakes.

the we loaded up on the bikes and hit the trail

found a playground

and headed back home where girlies had an imaginary picnic. sounds pretty nice, huh? well, it was. thanks for being such an agreeable reader!

i wasn’t going to include this last pic b/c it’s pretty blurry but i did to see if anyone else caught on to how many outfit changes darla did this morning. and these were only the ones i caught on camera. i think there were 2 other variations in there.

so, we had a pretty rad day, all day. i like to look back at these posts to be reminded that our non-conventional lifestyle and schedule is completely worth it. we’re afforded so much freedom, flexibility and time to spend just like this.

hanging out together, with the people we love, searching for adventure.

momjeanz

Category Archives: Kiddie Hangouts