What We've Been Up To

School's been in for a couple weeks, and we are beginning to get into a routine. It breaks my heart everyday to wake up my sleeping babies, but you gotta do it. Avery loves school. She loves her teacher, and, unlike last year, she will tell me what she learned in school that day. Since Fridays are now pizza and movie/game night, I decided to buy the stuff to make pizzas this Friday. The kids had fun making it, but ate none of it. Shocking, right?

So I ate pizza and we played games and watched Rio again. I taught Avery how to play Mancala, which is so fun, and then we played Old Maid. My game attention span with a 5 year old is pretty low, so we ended after those two. Plus, Colt was itching to lose every marble in Mancala.

What a fun night. Since my kids don't eat pizza (sigh), I decided to change our Friday nights to Waffle/Pancake and Bacon Night. We tried it out Saturday, and it turned out much better! Avery can put back some bacon!!

I just realized I got ahead of myself. On Thursday Meme came so she could see Avery get off the bus and hang out for a couple days. Colt and I met her in Huntsville Thursday and we went to Costco. Meme bought us some good snacks that should last us several months. Well, maybe not the Rice Krispies Treats...

We went to Ken's for lunch then came home and rested until Avery got home. We had fun playing outside in the crazy heat.

These are the only two vegetables still alive in our garden. Daniel had to level most of the garden with the lawn mower because the weeds had taken over. Thursday night my mom and I made fried green tomatoes and fried okra and some yummy chicken. It was delicious, but I think okra is way too much work! 

And this was Colt after dinner. He wanted to be the queen. We thought he was saying king, and he finally ran in and said, "I'm the queen, I say!" 

I've been in a crafty mood lately. I'm rereading Harry Potter six and seven to get ready for the new book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I'm a little obsessed with Pinterest these days, and I found some easy crafts that I absolutely love.

I bought white mugs at Wal-Mart for $1.75 and I had all the paint already. Then I just painted some Mod Podge over it, and voila, super cute mugs! I love drinking my coffee out of these everyday.

I found these cute potion bottles on a website that said 29 Harry Potter things to put in your house. The ones on the website were from Etsy, but I went to Hobby Lobby, and luckily all their glassware is on sale this week! This craft was a little more expensive. I had to buy the bottles, sand, and glitter. I found some Harry Potter fonts and used my new trick, wax paper, to trace and rub on some labels. I found some good silver and gold pens, plus the labels, at Dollar Tree. It turned out so cute, and I'm a little obsessed. 

That's Polyjuice Potion, Unicorn Blood, Floo Powder, and Felix Felicis, in case you care.

I've been wanting to make the kids a growth chart for a while now. I finally found a decent piece of wood in the barn, which I now realize is way too tall and heavy. I'm going to have to bolt it to the wall so no one gets knocked out! I used the gray paint from our bedroom and the yellow paint from the kids' bathroom to make this cute chevron pattern. Absolutely free craft...my favorite kind.

I was pretty proud of myself for measuring out the chevrons perfectly the first time. I was going to put a cute saying on it, but didn't want to mess it up with my handwriting. 

Tonight I measured the kids. I don't actually have the inches on there...just a little tick mark at their height and the date. Can't believe Colt is so close to Avery!!

And one more I found on my computer tonight.

These are the absolute best muffins you will ever put in your mouth. When I heard people say zucchini muffin, I thought that sounded disgusting. Stupid me, I thought you tasted the vegetable in a sweet muffin. The key ingredient...cinnamon. I might have to buy zucchini out of season to have these in the fall. And what makes them even more special is the recipe you see behind it. It's Memaw's recipe in her handwriting...priceless. 

Colt's going to be a little tricky to actually sit down and teach. My goal for the next few weeks. Might take the kids to the first home football game at the local high school on Friday. So looking forward to fall weather and everything that comes along with it. 

How Can It Be?

I remember bringing Avery home from the hospital in the spring of 2011. I remember being so happy to have a little girl. But I also distinctly remember thinking, "I have no idea what to do with this baby." I just took it day by day and tried to enjoy every moment with my sweet baby girl. I still have no idea what I'm doing, and I make a million mistakes everyday, but I'm enjoying the time I spend with Avery and trying to learn from my mistakes. As I sent my baby off to kindergarten this week I am amazed at this little girl. She is so smart, funny, independent, beautiful. I don't take any credit for this (especially the beautiful part). God has been so good, so gracious. He has blessed us beyond measure, and Avery is only five! I can't even imagine what He will do in the years to come.

We got home from Indiana Sunday afternoon. We had already picked out Avery's first day outfit. She told me what to pack in her lunch. We (grudgingly) took a bath. Then we read a book to get Avery ready for school.

We absolutely love the The Night Before series. 

And before we knew it, it was time to wake up (too early) and get ready for the big day. Memaw wanted to buy Avery a new backpack. I know Memaw is beaming at this cute little girl, and I'm glad she got to see Avery's first day and new backpack with her brand new, perfect eyes. 

Avery had two phase-in days with her teacher, Mrs. Monks. Then on Thursday the whole class came together. I took Avery to school and picked her up on the phase-in days. Then my plan was to have her ride the bus. That is, until I found out what time the bus comes in the morning. It makes me cringe just thinking about it...6:40 am!! School doesn't even start til 7:40. Makes no sense to me, so I decided I would take her to school and she would ride the bus home. 

This is what Colt did while we waited for Avery's bus the first day. 

Right on time

I was so nervous that she wouldn't get on the right bus or the bus driver would pass our house. But, of course, she did perfect!! She enjoys the bus, and I am so glad! She also loves loves school! Although I'm pretty sure she knows most of what is taught everyday, she doesn't care about that and just has fun. Wish I could be more like that! 

Last year we had dance on Friday nights. Now it is on Monday, and I couldn't be happier. I told Avery we can have pizza and movies or games on Friday nights, and she was so excited. She kept calling it our slumber party. 

These pictures are great for three reasons...we are celebrating our first week of school/pizza party. But I had to document the fact that we are actually eating at the table which we NEVER do, and the kids drank out of big kid cups with no spills! Success all around!

To celebrate the Olympics (which I am totally enjoying), we watched Rio. It's a really cute movie, and between it and the Olympics, my new bucket list destination is Rio. So pretty!! We had candy and glow bracelets. The kids are horrible movie watchers, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 

It was a long stressful week for me, with parenting alone, spending every second with a 3 year old, and making sure everything went smoothly for Avery. I treated myself to a delicious Rosie's margarita for lunch on Friday while Mamaw was here. Completely did the trick. We are ready for a fun weekend and week 2 of kindergarten. It's going to be a great year!

Last Hurrah

While I love fall, and I love a sense of new beginnings, I hate that our carefree days of summer are over. And now that Avery is in big girl school, we have to quit being gypsies (as my dad calls us). No more up and moving on a whim. We did get to squeeze in one last trip before Avery started kindergarten on Monday. Daniel got some tree work in Muncie, Indiana, which is about an hour northeast of our favorite city, Indianapolis! It took me two seconds to agree to that trip.

A few days before we left we met Daniel in Nashville to eat lunch and spend some time together at the mall. Little did I know it was tax free weekend. Everybody and their mom was at the mall. It was like Black Friday. Not worth it to me.

We went to play with all the cool toys at Bass Pro Shops. Then Avery and Colt had to do their new favorite thing. I wish we'd never started this...at $7 a pop, they are going to have to start working for their jumps! We had a fun trip to Nashville, and were excited about our trip to Indy.

We left Wednesday after my meeting with Avery's teacher. It was noon when we left, and Muncie is in Eastern Time, so it was 9:30 or so before we got there.

This is 9:15 pm in Indiana in the summer. I don't know how parents get their kids to bed!

Thursday we explored the cute college town of Muncie. Our first stop was Ball State. I had read that David Letterman went to school there.

And we found this right as we got on campus! 

I also read later that Garfield was created here, which made sense of this in the middle of the Ball State bookstore.

After a gross lunch at Culver's (don't do it, folks! Stick with the ice cream) we found this cookie shop. The cookies were good, but I wouldn't recommend the place. I spent more on a 16 oz bottle of milk than I do for a gallon at home. 

I found us a park to go to, and the kids had fun getting out some of their energy from sitting in the car so much.

I had also read about this place called Minnetrista. It's a gathering place with nature and stuff like that. We explored the grounds a bit. Then I learned something new. The Balls of Ball State are also the people who made the mason jars. There were 4 of their old houses on the grounds of Minnetrista, and we got to see them and even go inside one.

This house is huge and beautiful! But its beauty is hindered by these signs. It's so sad that people can't get off their dadgum phones long enough to enjoy the sites. I bet the Balls are rolling over in their graves.

This is the house that was open. It was so pretty. It was huge inside. They definitely don't make houses like these anymore.

One of the houses had a backyard garden with this fun chalkboard.

After Daddy got home from work that night we went to this pizza place I had read about, Pizza King. It was very interesting...

You use the phone at your booth to order your pizza. It was delicious!

The next day we went to Indianapolis for the day. I was so excited to be back. Indy is definitely one of my favorite places.

On our way out, we ate breakfast at this amazing bakery in Muncie called Concannon's. Their donuts were amazing! We ended up going there again the next day.

Once we got to Indy, we started out at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the Circle. We rode the elevator to the top and got to see all our favorite Indy spots. Here is the Capitol Building in between the kids. It was super hot that day, and I'm glad we went up early. After that we headed to our favorite spot, Rocket Fizz, where we all loaded up on jelly beans.

I saw this on someone's Instagram, and they must have added this since we lived there. So fun!! Guess who didn't want to do it?

Next we headed to another fav spot, Massachusetts Avenue, and met up with our old friend, Ann Dancing. Avery didn't remember dancing with her before, so she got in another dance. 

Parking was atrocious and they were doing construction at the end of Mass Ave. Add to that a super hot, humid day, and you got some hot kids and mommy. The kids were troopers as we walked to this restaurant called Bakersfield that I had wanted to try but never did. It's a Mexican place that supposedly has great margaritas. To avoid a wait we opted to sit outside. Bad idea. I hate to talk bad about two places in one post, but this one was a doozy. I have never (and I mean never) been to a restaurant that didn't accommodate children in some way. Well, now I have. She had to bring their drinks in these small soup cups without lids cause that's all they had. The food was just ok, but the service was pretty rough. I know all you out there don't care about a restaurant in Indy; just thought I'd put my two cents in. And no pics from the place...it was too dang hot. 

For dessert we went to a place I knew wouldn't disappoint...The Flying Cupcake! We shared a chocolate and a strawberry, and we were ready to go. Delicious!

Next we went to the end of Mass. Ave. to our favorite bookstore, IndyReads. It's a used bookstore, and all the children's books are $1. We stocked up on some good reads.

I have a picture like this of Avery almost exactly 2 years ago. It will be fun to compare. Our last stop in Indy was Broad Ripple Park. I knew it was a shady spot, and the kids needed to run around. I absolutely love Broad Ripple and when if we ever move there, that's where I want to live. It's super cute and I could never afford it, but a girl can dream.

This is the only picture I got at the park. 

We got back right around the time Daniel did. We turned in early that night. I got too hot, and with only a margarita to drink with lunch I had a nice little headache. Learned my lesson there.

The next day, our last, we headed to Alexandria, Indiana. This is the hometown of the Gaithers, but also the hometown of Joey Feek. I was so excited to see this. 

If this wasn't on the side of the road, you might miss Alexandria. I had heard they have had some economic problems the last few years, but this town was just sad. If it wasn't for the Gaithers, it probably wouldn't even be on the map. 

We went to the Gaither's store, and the kids picked out a couple toys. Then we headed back to Muncie. I was expecting a little more time there, but there just wasn't anything to do. Still glad we saw it, though. 

It was still early when we got back, and I had messed up lunch the past 2 days, so we went to ol' faithful, Chick-fil-a. Then we put on our swimsuits and went to the community pool in Muncie. What fun we had! They had an awesome kid pool with slides, and we went back and forth from there to the big pool. 

Our last night in Muncie we had (good) Mexican. We had a fun night spending much needed time together as a family.

The next morning we made the long trek home. What a fun trip we had! I feel so blessed to be able to travel and see different parts of the country, even if it's only every once in a while. 

Next up...Kindergarten!