Busy Weekend

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. The weather isn't supposed to cooperate, but most of our stuff is indoors, anyway. Tomorrow morning, Sadie has her lesson. I'm bringing Eden with us, so hopefully, chaos won't ensue with her and a barn full of horses. Anyway, that ends up eating up the entire morning (almost 3 hours, including the travel there and back).

I'm going to try to recruit my mom into watching Eden so that the three of us can go see Shrek 3, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm SO excited to see it. Currently, she's nursing my dad back to health, after his surgery to fix a hernia, so I'll have to see if she's up for it.

Sunday, Sadie's best friend from Pre-K, Matan, is having his 5th birthday party. The party is at Chuck E. Cheese. It should be a lot of fun (for them. Me? I'll probably need a glass of wine and/or a couple of tylenol afterwards).

Of course, in between all of this, we'll have to figure out how and when to run errands and clean the house. So, I'm sure it will be Sunday night before I know it.

The Lesson

Sadie's first horseback riding lesson was a huge success. She really enjoyed it. She's already looking forward to seeing her horse again next Saturday.

In other weekend news, Evan, Sadie and my dad treated me to some weeding and planting in the front yard.



Eden took up her usual command and oversaw the activities from the comfort of the house.

Lists and Plans

I know it is only Tuesday, but I've already started listing out all the things I need to get done/take care of this weekend. I think the hardest part of being a working mom is fitting in the darn errands.

I could use my lunch hour, but, I guess I'm selfish in that I would rather use that time to go to the gym, or walk the boardwalk, or scoot home and get my bike and ride back to work.

Immediately after work, I'm all about getting home as soon as possible, since the girls are down for the night on the early side. There's dinner and clean-up and baths and stories to squeeze in to about a two hour window as it is.

Once the girls are in bed, it is often too late for much in the way of running errands. I might head over to the library to return a book, or run to the grocery store for a quick pickup of a couple of things, but nothing too ambitious.

So, I try to pack it all in on the weekends. Sometimes my mom comes over and watches the girls and I am able to take care of a ton of things in pretty short order. But most of the time, I have the kids with me. I hate to have them spend their entire Saturday morning doing boring errands, so I try to intersperse errands with fun activities throughout the day. We might head to the grocery store, then unpack the groceries and go the park. Or, we run to the bank on our way out to lunch. The result is that the five things I need to do that should only take at most two hours, end up getting prolonged and stretched out over an entire day.

And, now that our Saturday mornings are going to be taken up I'm going to have to figure out when to get things done. So, the fact that I'm making lists and planning bright and early on a Tuesday morning doesn't seem so strange, after all.

Again with the Yard...

We had such a productive weekend, as far as the yard goes. Saturday morning, bright and early, Evan, his friend Paul and my father-in-law got out there and started ripping up the old, delapidated deck. The work seemed to go pretty quickly and easily for them. Probably because, as Evan says, "destroying stuff is fun." By noon, the deck was off and most of the building material that couldn't be salvaged was loaded into Evan's truck, ready to go to the dump.

So, now we are left with a bit more of a disaster back there, but within the next week or so, Evan is going to rent a machine and level out the yard. Then, we'll get a load of topsoil delivered, spread that out and plant some grass. Our current plan is to leave it like that until later in the summer when we can afford to buy the material for the new deck. Evan has decided to use Ipe
for it, which is quite a bit more expensive than we had originally budgeted for. So, we'll be deckless for a bit longer.

As an aside...Eden was completely mesmerized by the whole demolition project. She sat in front of the kitch windows, eating her crackers and watching her Daddy work, for well over an hour.


Yesterday, Eden blessed us with a three hour nap in the afternoon, and Sadie cooperated by mostly entertaining herself outside, so Evan and I got a ton done in the front. We got the bed along the front walkway tidied, and Sadie and Evan planted some flower seeds there, as well. We mowed the lawn, transplanted some hydrangeas, and tore out a very unsightly row of stragly azaleas bushes along the driveway. It is really looking pretty good out there!

Other weekend updates, bullet style:

• Had a great playdate with Sadie's friend Olivia, and her mom and baby sister
• Sadie and I had a girls afternoon, with a trip up to the Short Hills mall to meet my friend Cara
• Above trip did result in my first ever car accident. I got rear-ended (in my father-in-law's car, no less) while stopped at a light.
• Had a nice dinner with my parents last night - they brought Sadie this book, "The Kissing Hand" to help her with the crying at school in the morning issue. It worked like a charm this morning :-)
  

Another Great One

I just love, love, love that exhausted but contented feeling you get on a Sunday night, after a thoroughly great, action-packed weekend. We had another one of those.

Saturday morning, my mom came over and watched the girls so that I could run a bunch of errands without them. What a treat! I got so much done, in such a short amount of time. Then, we all went out for lunch. Later, our friends came over, and all the kids had a blast together. I love that they're getting big enough to really be able to amuse themselves without us. We ended up having Margaritas and ordering pizza, so the rest of Saturday night is a bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure I had a really good time. ;)

Yesterday, we took a hike at Huber Woods. Sadie did great, and even Eden was able to walk along for some good stretches. The highlight was seeing five deer come charging past us on the trail.

We did a little bit of work in the yard and after dinner, went in search of the ice cream truck (we found it!) and ended the day sitting out on our front steps eating treats. :) and, as seems to be the pattern after these busy weekends, both kids passed out well before dark. All in all, another really nice weekend.

Perfect Weekend

Monday, again.

Random thoughts on the weekend, in no particular order of importance:

• Someone needs to tell Mother Nature that it is spring. Because, 40 degree days in April are no fun.
• I didn't actually make it to the gym on Friday. Well, that's not true. I did make it there, but in the locker room, I discovered that I'd forgotten to pack my workout pants, so, needless to say, I didn't go work out. I did steal away for an hour on Saturday and get a really good workout in, so I almost kept to my Friday promise.
• Teething stinks. Seriously. And that is all I'm going to say about that for now.
• I love my husband, he is, seriously, the most amazing person and husband. And that is all I'm going to say about THAT for now ;-)
• We have a couple of great friends, Jeff and Anonda, who live in the city. We don't see nearly enough of them, but they came down Friday night and stayed over. It was great to see them, and I love that we can just pick up where we left off each time we see them.

That's all for now. Maybe after another cup of coffee, I'll perk up enough to write something more substantial.

Weekend Recap: Just the Highlights

:: My in-laws are awesome - Friday night, they met us out for dinner, then watched the kids at our house (and put Eden to bed) so Evan and I could go grocery shopping. Who knew ShopRite at 7:30 in the evening could be so blissful?!?

:: I am awesome! ;) We took the 'dry run' bike ride on Saturday morning, and, while it certainly was work while I was doing it, it didn't feel any harder than a typical day at the gym. My legs were a little tired last night, but I feel fine today. I'm so excited to do this! I'll do it for real on Tuesday.

:: Our neighbhorhood is awesome :) Our neighbhor's held their annual Easter Egg Hunt/picnic on Saturday. It was a lot of fun--the kids had a blast. I'm so happy that we live in this neighborhood. Before we moved in, I was talking with someone I know who lives around the corner and he was saying how this little spot really is like "Mayberry." Having now lived here for over a year, I can 100% agree with him.

:: Progress made today in the 'must make new friends' front. We had one of Sadie's classmates, her mom and her baby sister over for a playdate. It was really nice, and she (Stacey) and I had a lot to talk about. The conversation flowed--we definitely have a lot in common. Hope to do it again soon.

:: My sister in law and her family arrived in town today for Passover. My in-laws, sister-in-law, her husband and their baby came over for pizza tonight. It was crowded, squeezing nine of us around the kitchen table, but a good kind of crowded, you know?

...and, with that, another weekend comes to a close.

Lots of Thoughts

ok, stupid title, I know, but I couldn't come up with anything better. Cut me some slack...its a Monday morning.

Anyway, the weekend was good, though very busy. The highlight, for me, was taking Sadie to her classmate's birthday party. I posted a while back about how I am really looking to connect with some new friends here. So, the party was at Build-a-Bear, at the mall. While the girls were engaged in selecting, stuffing, fluffing, and dressing their bears, one of the other moms and I went to grab a cup of coffee. I'm so glad we did! We ended up just talking and talking and having a great time.

After the party, we (and one other mom and daughter) decided to take the girls over to the food court and carousel (no food at the party). So, the girls got to binge on McDonald's and play, and the mothers got some adult company. Win win! I now have a playdate--I mean, Sadie now has a playdate ;) --for next weekend.

After that, Sadie and I headed home and caught up with Evan and Eden and enjoyed the rest of the day together. It was nice to be able to be outside all afternoon (yay for spring).

Yesterday, Evan needed to get some work done, so I took the girls up to my parents' house. We took them to a playground and let them run around. After lunch, while Eden was napping, Sadie, my dad and I played outside (Red light, green light...tag...races). I am a firm believer that tired out kids make for happy mommies, so I was keen to keep Sadie running around. I didn't anticipate how tired out I would be! But, my plan worked, as Sadie was completely exhausted and asking to go to bed nice and early last night. And, I followed suit not too much after that. Which was a good thing, since Eden decided to wake for the day at 5:30 this morning...Happy Monday!

Another Weekend Beckons

...and it should be a good one. Taking Sadie to a birthday party tomorrow, and visiting my mom on Sunday. I'm sure it will be Monday before I can blink.

Happy Friday!!!

Fast and Furious

that pretty much describes the weekend we just had. Woosh! Flew by in the blink of an eye. One moment is was Friday afternoon and I was getting out of work early (snow day, early dismissal - woohoo!), the next thing I know, it is Monday morning and I'm frantically trying to jump in the shower in the seven seconds I have while Eden is occupied with her banana and Sadie is still asleep.

So, what happened in between?

First, some waiting around for the tree service guy to come out and give us a quote for taking down a couple of trees. Waiting around in vain, I should say, as he called (my work #) to reschedule.

This exciting activity was followed by a trip to the grocery store (not fun - Evan and I foolishly thought going at 11:30 in the morning would be a fine time, and both kids ended up hungry and cranky).

Unpacking groceries, lunch for the hungry kids and a nap for the most-tired Eden came next.

Sadie and I had an afternoon "date" to go see a showing of Happy Feet at my work. It was cute, and we had a good time getting out together, but we didn't make it through the whole movie (she got frightened by the scene with the seal). Still, it was nice to have some time for just the two of us. We don't get much of that these days.

Sunday, I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese, so Evan could get some work done. Yes, I really did. I should get some sort of medal of bravery for that one. I did manage to lose Sadie within our first 10 minutes there, but that incident aside, both kids had a blast.

Then, my parents came for an afternoon visit and birthday (Dad's) dinner.

So, it was a busy weekend and now here I am, back at work. Time to start thinking about the next one!