Museum of Art Birthday Dinner

My birthday , my moms birthday and a very good friends birthday are all within 2 weeks of each other so we decided to go out to dinner this year to celebrate. We chose a very cool restaurant in the Museum of Art. The food is awesome, as is the atmosphere. After our wonderful dinner we walked around the museum for an hour checking out the galleries. It was a wonderful place to go with wonderful company. I took a few pictures (with my phone) of some of our favorite exhibits. 

 Upside down Mona Lisa- Cool

 Upside down Mona Lisa through a glass ball making it look upright- Cooler

 The fact that the whole thing was made out of different colored spools of thread- Mind Blown

 Can you see the two heads that are not the same :) ?

This lovely large man was hung from the ceiling- this camera angle is what he looked like when you walked under him and looked directly up.

Quick Updates on the Kids

Audrey's language is really coming along her newest thing is that she can say "I love you"... melts your heart. Her favorite words are Giggle, Juice and Bath and of course Dad.
She has learned how to play the little sister card. If she takes something and then cries it is usually assumed that Ryan started it and he gets in trouble and she gets the toy.... smart little girl but I am on to her games.

Ryan is starting a new school at the end of this month which will be an interesting transition. I think he will actually like it a lot it's just the change that might be a bit hard on him.
He has started wanting to know why things are the way they are and he remembers things forever which is both good and bad. He asked about names recently and I said "people call dad either Dad or Don" now he calls his dad Don and when asked why he said "Mom said you are called both so I am going to call you Don."  He has also decided thanks to his dad that his favorite band is 311 and he isn't just saying it, he can tell you when the music comes on the radio.

I'll update again soon, just wanted to give you a little sneak peak.

Welcome 2012

 Don and I spent New Years Eve playing our new Kinect. It was quite the workout and a lot of fun. After a night of games (and going to bed soon after midnight) we felt pretty good when we woke up which was good because we headed out early for my moms house for a New Years brunch.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years!

I have to confess I have no resolutions this year.  I have a great family, wonderful friends and I think after a lot of trial and error I am starting to get this parenting thing down (at least until it all changes tomorrow), I even weigh what I want to weigh (maybe I will lower my BMI a bit).  If I could change anything maor it would be to have a little more sleep in our house and a little more time to spend alone with my hubby (my brother's Christmas present puts us closer to this goal). We already have a lot of fun things planned for the new year, I'm looking forward to it! Hope all you out there are having a great night! 

Last Playdate of the Year

We are very lucky that we have a great group of friends. The kids have grown up together and so they get along really well and us parents have each other to lean on. Today we all got together for a laid back playdate, a perfect day for a perfect playdate. 

Presents Presents Everywhere

When preparing for Christmas I was told by more then one member of my family that I was going to get really great presents. Nothing could have prepared me for how great and thoughtful the gifts I received ended up being.  I am very lucky to have my family with me and that they got me such wonderful things. Everyone (except Audrey who is still sick) had a great time, especially Ryan who took over opening presents for everyone. Merry Christmas All! 

 Extra frustration packaging- it was like they did it on purpose

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! We have my mom and brother over helping us celebrate. Our tradition is that our big meal is Christmas eve dinner- since we are all worn out by Christmas day dinner. Today I made Chicken Cordon Bleu with Fingerling Potatoes and broccoli and Key Lime Pie for dessert (my brothers favorite). It was a success which is good because it was my first time making the chicken and the pie. 

We watched lots of Christmas movies and had a relaxing afternoon. Unfortunately Audrey is really sick- threw up 3x and has a high fever but she was glad to have the company here to give her lots of extra attention. Hopefully she feels a little better tomorrow so she is able to enjoy her gifts. 

Now that the kids are in bed we are going to watch some more movies and hang out before the craziness of Christmas presents hit tomorrow. 

Like Mother Like Son

My mom commented on how funny Ryan's face was in the picture on the hayride. I knew it was a familiar face and then it dawned on me where I had seen it before... Like mother like son apparently! 

Christmas Light Hayride

Last night Ryan and I with a few of our friends went to a farm where they have a tractor pulled hayride touring a their HUGE lights display. They have everything from a nativity scene to houses and carnival rides made out of lights. It was chilly but I think that that added to the Christmas atmosphere. We were lucky enough to have gotten there early and had almost no wait to get on the ride, by the time we left I would say the wait was about 2 hours (which would not have worked for anyone in our group). This is one of our last official activities  out before Christmas and I'm really glad we were able to do it and especially with our friends that were able to come. 

Office Christmas Party

Don and I went to his office Christmas party last night. We were lucky enough to have a wonderful babysitter (thank you Amy) and were able to get dressed up and have a whole night out. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed putting faces with the names from the stories Don has been telling me.

 It feels like it's been years since we had an excuse to really dress up and do non-parent things, it's probably something we should do more often because really it made me feel like a whole new person. Luckily it's my birthday next month so we have another night out planned.