Weekend Recap: Simplicity

Man, I love weekends.


Even weekends where we don't have very many plans.  Actually, sometimes these are the best weekends.  There is something about the simplicity of them, the family time that just warms my heart.  This weekend was one of those. 


Nothing grand.  Nothing extravagant.  Just good times with our family and some close friends.  See for your self.


Friday night gardening.  Yup, not at all what you'd expect.  The husband planted this earlier this summer and Little Miss (even clad in her princess dress) really enjoys it.  Her favorite thing may be picking all of the peppers that we've grown or the ginormous zuchinnis.  Sadly, the zucchini plant is done and before its demise it killed off the tomatoes.  Next year, we plan on adding a few more beds so hopefully this won't happen.

And gardening is hardwork, which makes you thirsty, right?

And tired.  At least for daddy who readily took over the supervisor role.

And once we were fed and bathed, it was time to watch Ragan and all the other Olympic hopefuls on the porch:

Despite going to bed rather late for the littles, we did make it to gymnastics on time the next morning:

And then headed to our favorite splash pad and park for a playdate with some neighborhood friends/classmates.

See saw.

And as expected, a nap was much needed.  At least for Littlest Miss. Not so much for Little Miss or her friends.

And because the three of them had so much energy, we figured what better way to end the day then to head to their house for pizza and laughs.  Boy are these three trouble.  Thankfully, the white bedding was spared of the stamps.

Once home, daddy found a frog on the patio and tried to find his prince.  Thankfully, it didn't work.

The next morning, we decided to skip church (bad, I know!) and just bummed around.  We also thought it would be a good idea to teach the girls to be thankful and respectful of the police officers...so we did what any normal family would do...and delivered them donuts.  Even though the girls may have hid behind me and whispered "thank you for keeping us safe" it was still a great gesture. And they were super excited to take their picture with the statute in front of the station.  I don't know about your kids, but mine may be slightly obsessed with statutes and mannequins.

After we got home, the girls spent the day bumming (aka watching the Disney Channel) while the husband and I continued on the massive cleaning purged we'd started the previous day.  I generally don't like them to sit in front of the tv for that long, but it was the only way I could ensure that the purged items remained in the trash can.  Clearly, Littlest Miss has this bumming thing down pat.

And that pretty much sums up our weekend -- other than doing our weekly grocery shopping and watching the rest of the Olympic Trials.  Neither of which were photo-op worthy. 

What about you?  How was your weekend?

Five on Friday: Catch Up

Rather that apologize for the short hiatus, I figured I'd use Five on Friday as a means of catching everyone up on to life as of late.

However, before I do that, I can't help but comment on the events that happened in Dallas last night. 


My heart goes out to everyone involved: the police, those wrongfully accused, the city, and the country.  The amount of hate that there is in society is downright scary.  Not only that something like this can and did occur but that its only getting worse and makes me wonder what kind of world will our children inherit one day. 




Having small kids and having to try to explain the events to them breaks my heart.  They are so innocent and so kind, and all kinds start out this way -- yet somewhere along the way, something apprantly changes.  How do we ensure that the smiles, the love, and the joy captured in the pictures below are there in twenty/thirty years?




And there is no easy answer, but it starts with us.  Each and everyone of us.  Love.  Don't hate.  And pray.  Pray for those injured, pray for those hurt, pray for our city and pray for our country.

And with that, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

1. Splash Pad Fun

A few weekends ago we had plans to meet up with friends downtown for a day at Klyde Warren Park -- playing in the splash pads and eating at the food trucks.  However Little Miss's friend woke up sick and this momma was in no mood to try and corral her two tornados downtown by herself.




Not wanting to disappoint the girls however, I did remember that there was a splash pad, playground and farmers market right near the girls gymnastics.  Thus, I pulled an audible and based on the pics below I would say it was fairly successful!

2. Park fun and a new skill

Later that same weekend, I decided to fulfill their repeated requests to go to the neighborhood park.  Not only did it make them happy, but it forced this momma to get up and walk as I am fairly certain I'd been pretty lazy that weekend.  And even better, with the husband not wanting to be left home alone, it tricked him into walking as well.




The park was fun.  But hot.  So hot that we lasted a matter of minutes before we were red faced and sweaty and packed it in and headed to the pool.  But during our short time we were there, Little Miss was able to master a new skill...the monkey bars!

3. Saturday Night Handpies

Doesn't everyone bake handpies on Saturday nights?  Ha ha, probably no, but with Little Miss's recent requests to bake a pie and an abundance of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries that's exactly what this family did one Saturday night.




And let me tell you...they were so good.  As in gone by breakfast Sunday morning.  Although I am not sure if the girls enjoyed the pies or the filling more.  Judge for yourself.




And if you are wanting to try, here's the recipe (another pinterest find).  Although we did cheat and used store bought dough...I know, I know...and because the girls were eating them, I omitted the rosemary (and added blueberries!)

4. Fantastic Gymnastics (Cue Dora Song)

Gymnastics continues to be a big part of our lives.   We are at the gym twice a week (no longer three!) and both girls really love it.  Little Miss recently moved up to Pawsomes 2 (with girls as old as 7) and Littlest Miss moved up to Flipadillos (aka the 2 year old class).  It amazes me how quickly both girls are picking up on things, learning new skills and getting stronger.  Plus, the smiles that both have both before and during melts my heart.




Oh and this "practice" time doesn't include the hours that they spend doing handstands, cartwheels and rolls at homes.  Hours.  As in every night until we tell them enough is enough and its time for bed.  So many hours that I've contemplated turning the new media room (update on this next week, I promise) into a gymnastics gym full of mats, wedges, balance beams and bars...pretty sure the husband would veto this, but the Stewart girls can dream right?!?!?

5. You Can Do It!

And with that, I am pretty caught up on our life.  We've really been trying to be a bit more low key and get in some quality family time.  Which often means I don't take pictures (that's good right!!) and don't have anything super exciting to blog about...so since I need one more thing for Five on Friday, I'll end with this...

...Go Ragan!!

Ragan is a little girl who trains at the girl's gym and is competing in the US Olympic Trials this weekend in San Jose.  We are all so excited to watch her (and the other girls) on TV this weekend and cheer them on!  So much so that Little Miss may have requested to watch some of her routines last night on my phone while in bed (she knows all about YouTube.  moreso than I'll probably ever know!)

So that's all folks...have a great weekend, because as you know today is Fri-YAY!

Happy Birthday 'Merica

Whew.  What a weekend.  Apparently, we celebrate America's birthday (aka the Fourth of July) like any other birthday in our house...with a weeklong celebration!  So needless to say it was a fun, but very exhausting weekend. 

Combined this with the fact that we had two nights of awful thunderstorms (on the first night a house a few streets over was actually struck by lightening and caught on fire) and thus two little girls in our bed, means that we definitely started this week a little behind on the ZZZ's.  Thankfully its a short week. 

But I am even more thankful for all of the family fun we had over the extended four day holiday!

The weekend kicked off Friday with our next round of family pictures.  Here's a sneak peak.  

It pretty much highlights the girls moods that morning.  Serious.  Grumpy.  Not wanting to smile.  And if you took the hats off, it was worse.  Tears.  At least until the glitter came out (cannot wait to see these by the way)  Oh well.  At least we know we got one cute picture of them. 

We then sent them to school so that the Husband and I could work on the house and prep for the rest of the festivities, which started Friday night at our house.  We had our old neighbors over and just hung out like old times.  Even though they live less then a mile away, both of our lives are so incredibly busy that we never see them, so needless to say, Friday night was great.  And judging by the number of bottles of wine drank and the smiles on the kids face, I'd say everyone agrees.

Pool + slide + house = A LOT OF FUN.  Best part about this is that the kids (7, 4.5 and 2) figured this out completely on their own!)

Saturday morning we woke up like every other Saturday and headed to gymnastics.  However, afterwards we went straight to the pool to spend the day with some friends.  Needless to say, the kids are turning into true fishes.  And despite our best attempts, they swam from 11 until 3:30.  Popsicles may have been one of the only methods of getting them even to rest!

However, have no fear, as soon as we hit the road, both of my girls were fast asleep.  The only bad thing about this is that it ruined my dreams of an early bed time...whomp whomp

The rest of Saturday evening was spent relaxing at the house and getting "pretty" for the holiday weekend.  Even daddy insisted on getting his nails done. Not sure he knew what he was getting into letting Little Miss paint his fingers!

Sadly, we have no pictures from Sunday.  However, it was another day of being fishes.  First was a birthday party for our old neighbor, followed by a cookout at our neighbors house.  We then watched fireworks from the neighborhood lake (and learned the next day that you can see them from our front yard!)

And despite all of this activity, it still wasn't even the fourth yet!  And Monday may have been the best day yet.  We woke up late, but still managed to make it to the neighboring town's parade with plenty of time to spare.  The girls favorite part was definitely the candy being thrown!

After the parade we headed to our friends house for the second annual book club party.  Water balloons were clearly the big winner this year.

After a quick stop home and a car ride nap, we headed to one more friends house for yet another bbq and more swimming.  Because of yet another lightening storm, we let the girls finish the weekend off by sleeping in our bed (again).  Needless to say we were all tired.

Hope y'all had a great 4th as well!

Bear's Bubble Party

This past weekend we hosted a 2nd birthday party for Littlest Miss.  I am not going to lie, at first I thought about skipping a party all together under the reasoning that she really doesn't comprehend parties and wouldn't have missed not having one.  However, mom guilt shortly took over and I felt compelled to throw her a party -- mostly because I had internally promised myself that whatever we'd done for Little Miss, we'd do for Littlest Miss...and the thought of Littlest Miss looking at pictures of her sissy's 2nd birthday party one day and then asking to see her's broke my heart.

So I immediately got to party planning.

And compared to other parties this was relatively tame.  No over the top favors.  Not a ton of guests.  Just a few "bubble" related items and our closest friends.

Needless to say, despite the "simplicity" (ha!) of the party, everyone had a blast.

Here are a few pics from the celebration.

The "Pop" Corn bar and cakes

(yes, cakes.  No one ate the little cake but it makes walking the cake to the birthday kid easier and no one has to worry about eating spit on cake, because let's be honest, when a two year old blows out candles, there is definitely spit flying everywhere).

A Close up of the Cake

I ordered a plain cake from Costco with the Happy Bday writing on the cake.  I then added the bottle of bubbles, the sprinkles and the bubbles (plastic fillable ornaments).  Needless to say, I am super happy with how it turned out.

The Bubble Bar (for adults only!)

The Birthday Girl on Her Water Bubble

Seriously, this was the biggest hit of the party.  We will definitely be making more this summer!  Here's the link to the instructions (of course found initially on Pinterest)

Enjoying the Popcorn Bar

Birthday Hugs with Daddy

Giant Bubble Fun

Popcorn Bars are always better with Good Friends

Celebrating with Cousins

Blowing Out the Candles

Playing with New Toys



Five on Friday

I hope to get back to my normal blog posting next week, but figured I'd do a quick:

1.  Thank you to everyone who wished Littlest Miss a happy birthday yesterday.  The real celebration is tomorrow (aka her party) but we did celebrate as a family last night -- a few small presents and cupcakes.  I forgot how much fun 2 is...its the first time they start to "get it" -- Littlest Miss definitely understood opening presents and blowing out the candles...even if she didn't wait until the Happy Birthday song was over.

2. I was super proud of Little Miss. 


Normally, we don't do birthday gifts for our kids.  Why, because we'd rather throw them parties AND they have plenty of toys as it is. 


However, yesterday morning I did realize that it was probably important to start teaching Little Miss about gift giving.  Especially how its the thought that counts and not necessarily the dollar amount spent. 


And after our recent escapades to the toy store to buy her friends gifts, I was not looking forward to it --until I came up with the idea that we should start a book tradition with the girls.  But even then, given the sheer number of choices at Barnes and Noble, I was a bit weary that this would be a very long process. 


But low and behold, Little Miss surprised me.  After wandering for a few minutes picking out books for herself, she saw a Mickey Mouse book.  And almost instantaneously, she said, "Mommy, Sissy really loves Mouse right now.  I want to get her a Mouse book." 


And this is so true as sissy wakes up and goes to sleep asking for Mouse most days.  So needless to say, here is sissy's gift.

Little Miss understood the concept of getting a gift for someone else (not for herself).  Littlest Miss loved it.  And both girls have played with it pretty much every waking hour since we opened it.  So needless to say, happy Momma.


3. Speaking of Little Miss, she officially moved up to Pawesomes 2 yesterday.  And more important than anything, you could tell just how much she loved it.  Super smiley and silly the whole time.  The fact that she had this much fun made my heart smile.


And it continued to smile when we got home and she played "coach" and put me in all sorts of gymnastics "positions"

4.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the house is almost done.  As in, we will be able to use it for the party tomorrow.  Thank goodness!

It's been a very long process but definitely worth it in the end.  I'll do a full update next week, but I think all four of us agree that the new media room may become the most used room in the house (other than the outdoor patio) especially if this video is an indication:

5.  Lastly, although its been downloaded on my phone for awhile, yesterday was the first time I actually used flipagram.  I may be a little bit obsessed.  And so may the girls.  So much so that Little Miss requested that I make a video of her.  So of course I obliged.  Here is her Year 4 video.

Expect many more to come. 


And with that, happy Friday!  Hope its a good one!

HBD # 2

Seriously, it feels like only two years ago that we were moving into our new house...


...and welcoming Littlest Miss into our lives...

Where on earth does time go?




I can't answer that, but I can tell you that without a doubt the last two years have been some of the best years of our lives. 

Littlest Miss, we love you.  From the bottom of our hearts, to the hair on our head, to the tips of the toes.  We love you.  You warm our heart each and every day (even as we enter into the beloved terrible twos) and constantly make us smile and laugh.




You are so different from your sister, yet you want to be so much like her.

Every day your personality grows. 

And every day you continue to shock and amaze us -- whether its with new words or skills, your ability to love, or as we witnessed last night, your ability to do the stanky leg to whip nae nae.

As much as I wish I could stop time as you my little girl are growing up entirely too fast, I am so excited to see what year three has in store for you. 

And because we just can't get enough of you, here is a video that captures year two.

Happy birthday, baby girl.






We love you to the moon and back and can't wait to celebrate with you tonight and at your party this Saturday with all the bubbles your little heart can desire.