Things About Three

Although she promised me otherwise, Harper went ahead and turned three.  A Minnie Mouse party was in the works, until Doc McStuffins suddenly and swiftly took over our lives and we all knew that we had to make it happen.

After binge watching a few episodes, I think we came up with a pretty solid Doc Mcstuffins plan.

On the menu:

Chilly's Chili

Doc McStuffins Cornbread Muffins

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doc Away Salad

Lambie-nade

Kisses For Your Boo Boos

Bandaids For Your Ouchies

"Vitamins"

....and of course my new go to, a Costco cake.

Pregnancy > Motivation to make a cute party, so it was in no way the most extravagant party ever thrown, or even my favorite, but Harper was a happy camper, which is all that matters in the end.

My goal for my next party is to actually remember to take pictures of the people who came.  I failed big this year.  Rest assured, there were in fact people at Harper's party.

Harper's birthday was similarly low key.  Early morning presents, meeting up with dad for lunch at Chick Fil A, and melting my heart by turning down an offer to go to the children's museum so that she could go to to Boondocks when Holden was done with school instead.  And ice cream.  It was a good day for everyone.

And despite all my complaining about three year olds, it's going to be a great year.  I can feel it.  And I'm practicing my deep breathing skills.

Fall Y'all (Speed Round)

I know we still technically have tons of fall left, but in my universe anything worth talking about in November gets lumped in with Christmas, so fall ends with Halloween.

Maybe that's part of the reason fall seems to fly by.  In honor of the fastest season of the year, you get the fastest blog post of the year.

Some minor setbacks and a few big decisions we needed to make caused us to bare bones things a little bit, but the State Fair is definitely a never miss.

Holden's birthday party is also a given.  Plants Vs. Zombies was the theme this year, complete with a Garden Warfare salad bar, a Pinata Party and the most disgusting looking brain jello I have ever laid eyes on.

Holden must have known the theme for Fall this year was simple, because his actual birthday request was a lot of arcade games and boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner.  Done and done.

Reo and I snuck in a couple of days in Vegas.

Before we halfheartedly celebrated Halloween and the madness that accompanied it.

P.S.  Harper was Daniel Tiger.  Which is not easily recognizable, nor can she say very well, so it was interesting.  I'm about 99 percent sure that next year she will be full blown into the princess craze, so we went with the obscureness of it all.  

We also spent a whole lot of time just living life, which is pretty good these days.  

The Second First Day

Due to a series of unfortunate (for me, not so much Holden) events, here we are again with this first day of school craziness.

After I dropped Holden off for the first day of Kindergarten I thought "that wasn't so bad, first grade will be what really kills me."  Little did I know that first grade was just a few short weeks away.

Maybe it's a ripping off the Band-Aid kind of thing?   Because it hurts.  Big time.  

He loves it, of course.  Once he found out they have computer lab twice a week in first grade he was sold.  My kids live for screen time however they can get it.  

The upside is that Harper has still volunteered to stay two forever.

Second Child Syndrome

Harper gets a lot of attention.  She gets plenty of one on one time.  She gets tons of hugs and kisses and snuggles.  She does not get a lot of documentation.  I take pictures, sure.  But with two kids it seems like I can either enjoy the cute the things they say and do, or document the cute things they say and do, but rarely can I do both.  Probably because both my kids do and say so many cute things I just can't keep up anymore.

But, Harper is two and a half, which is pretty much the peak of cute.  And my general rule is that cute always deserves to be documented, no matter how infrequent.

So here's a snapshot of Harper at 2.5

Her Favorites:
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood TV show
Fruit Snacks
Pinkalicious Books
Playing in Holden's room while he is at school
Singing

She'll Pass On;
Sleeping In
Eating Vegetables
Riding in a shopping cart without snacks
Keeping her shoes on in the car

She's Funny:

My sister Hannah said-- "Harper, you're awesome!"  To which Harper replied "No, I'm Harper!"

She feels like her body is just a second set of clothes and will say things like
"Can I swim in my bum?"  or "I just want to wear my tummy"

When she wants something she'll say "You wanted to...?" and when she wants to be carried she asks "You carry you me?"

Whenever she sees the McDonalds logo she says "Hey!  There's Diet Coke!"

She still sleeps in a crib, potty training is not even on our radar and she loves to be swaddled up like a burrito, so she's still very much the baby of our family.

And she's a pretty cute one, too.

Photogenic

So, Holden notoriously does not give me his best work when I try to take a picture of him.  We've seen lots of evidence of that on this blog.

Professionally photographers typically have had better luck.  He's been known to ham it up big time in that department as seen here

and here

and of course here.

Either our lucky streak has ended or Holden was unimpressed with school pictures, because this photographer got more of the half smile/half grimace usually reserved for when mom's taking pictures.

At this rate I fear we are a mere couple of years away from a full out Chandler smile.

Good thing he's pretty much ridiculously adorable no matter what the expression.

The First First Day

We did it!  Holden is an official part of the public school system. 

Some of us had more reservations than others about this whole school nonsense (hint: it was me) and I literally have to talk myself down from driving by the school at recess just to get a peek at what he's doing.

  

But Holden hasn't shown one bit of hesitation and talks more about going mini golfing after school the first day than he does about school.

Harper was the only crier at first day drop off and as terrified as I am to have Holden out in the world without me, it is a big, exhausting job keeping that little brain occupied all day every day and I am ready for some help with it all.  

Plus, Harper has promised to stay two forever, so I'm set.  

A Midsummer's Night Blog

Summer is flying by, you guys.  And while we are literally running ourselves ragged trying to have the most fun possible (nothing like having a list to hold you accountable to having fun), I know I won't regret it come January.  

I won't regret going out as a family

to feed the ducks--

                 

or go to a baseball game--

And I also won't regret the times we stayed closer to home
having Lego building competitions--

or (semi-successfully) making taffy--

or getting our care package ready to send--

or even our half hearted attempt at a "science project."--

You know I never regret anything involving food
like our breakfast picnic--

or grilling pizza--

or various frozen treats--

 

(and yes, in case you were wondering, we are the mean parents that strongly encourage our kids to get the light colored snow cone flavors).

And I obviously never regret living in the water

at Lagoon-a-Beach--

 

or the Daybreak Pool--

No regrets on the 4th of July either

at the parade--

the candy aftermath--

barbeques galore--

and Holden's favorite, fireworks--

I do regret this lackluster attempt at a blog post, and I'm sure you are regretting reading it. What can I say, the siren song of Instagram makes blogging seem like a whole lot of effort all the sudden.  But rest assured, our Manning mini epic summer of awesome is coming along nicely, and mayyyybe the next update will be slightly more clever.

No promises.