May 29, 2014

Last Day of School

This morning, I dropped Aedan off for his last day of preschool for this school year. He is finishing up his 2nd year (the 3 year old class) at this school and we just couldn’t love it more. I can’t believe he is going to be in Pre-K next year!

Here he is on the first day (Sept 2013)

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And here he is today (May 2014)

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And just for fun, here he is on his first (Sept 2012) and last day (May 2013) of the 2 year old class.

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I can’t believe another year is over! We have been so blessed to have wonderful teachers and a great school year! I am really looking forward to the summer since this will be the first summer I am not working and don’t have to worry about various schedules. We have some fun things planned, like VBS, swimming lessons and hopefully lots of playtime with friends!

-Lauren-

May 27, 2014

Red Shoes

A few weeks ago, I told Aedan we were going to go to the mall to get some new shoes. He immediately asked if they would have red shoes. I told him they would probably have shoes with red on them.

Little did I know, they would in fact have red shoes. Completely red shoes. As soon as he got measured, we started looking at the section of shoes for his size. He saw these, and once he did, Jon and I both knew there was no way we were leaving without them!

He reluctantly tried on a few other options, but these shoes were totally him. Of course we brought them home (along with a super cute pair of pick converse for Adelaide).

These are the first shoes Aedan has had that have laces. Sigh. He was getting so good at putting on his own shoes before we got these. Which, all you moms know, putting on his own shoes is pretty much the equivalent of having an extra 5-10 minutes for me to get us out the door. In other words, it is priceless. Ha!

So I lasted about a week, helping him put these on and tying the laces for him. Of course we had to do double knots so they stayed tied, but then that meant I had to un-tie the double knots before they could be put on and re-tied. Such an long process, when it already takes us a decent chunk of time to get everyone out the door to go anywhere. 

Aedan’s teacher and I were joking that I should get him those elastic curly laces. Anyone remember these…

One night while I was doing some online shopping, I decided to look up elastic laces and apparently we have come a long way with them!

I ordered this pair and so far we love them! They came in a bunch of colors, so I was able to get red and they work great. Aedan still needs a little help getting the shoes on sometimes because the elastic is snug, but even with that, the process is so much faster!! Best buy ever!

-Lauren-

May 22, 2014

Day In the Life

It has been awhile since I have done a day in the life post. In fact you can read my last ones here and here from July 2011! I think these are fun to read and I love looking back to see what our typical day looked like at different points.

I did this on Monday, which was a pretty typical day for us.

7:00: My alarm goes off and I eventually get out of bed to get ready for the day. The kids usually wake up around 7:30 (although this morning Aedan came bouncing in just after 7). I told him to pick out a toy and play quietly in his room until his bunny clock wakes up. I get myself mostly ready and the bed made before 7:30, which really makes the morning run much better!

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7:30: I get everyone up and start making breakfast. I have to be honest, most mornings Jon makes breakfast for the kids and himself (I have been making smoothies for myself each morning). This morning, Jon had an early call so I am on my own. While the kids eat breakfast (instant oatmeal and a pop tart for Aedan, cheerios and raisin toast for Adelaide), I make my smoothie and unload the dishwasher.

8:00: Aedan heads upstairs to play with his Legos, while Adelaide “helps” me finish cleaning up the kitchen, start a load of laundry and start making up Aedan’s bed (I do the covers and I have him put all the pillows on).

8:30: I start trying to get the kids out the door to go to the grocery store. Aedan doesn’t want to stop playing so he chooses to stay home with Jon. He promises not to bug Jon. I think he lasted almost the whole time I was gone so I’d say he did well. Adelaide and I head to HEB to get groceries for the week. In typical fashion, I manage to forget one thing. It is always just one thing. Sigh. Looks like I will be headed back to HEB later in the week.

9:45: Adelaide goes down for a quick nap (she is back to taking her morning nap again). I think I am going to go with two naps until Aedan is out of school and then I am going to force her to go down to one. While she naps, Aedan watches a show and I unload the groceries and enjoy a cup of coffee.

10:30: I get Adelaide up and we are supposed to go to a mom’s club event, but Aedan really wants to go to the park instead. We get some snacks and head to the park for some playtime.

12:00: Lunch time for everyone and then we play outside for awhile.

1:00: Aedan is getting tired and Adelaide is fussy. Time for a show! They watch a show, while I get some cleaning done and clothes put away.

1:30: Nap time!! Once I get both kids down, I got outside to get some work done on my nap time project. I have been redoing an old dresser my sister wasn’t using. It is almost done and I am really liking how it is turning out…post to come soon! After I get some work done on that, I do some blogging, a quick wipe down of the bathrooms and then I relax until the kids get up.

3:30: Aedan is up and watching some Lego videos on the computer. He and I hang out for awhile before Adelaide gets up around 4:30.

5:00: Jon is done with work so it’s play time. We hang out in the upstairs for awhile and then venture outside.

6:00: We have a quick dinner. I say quick because my kids each probably take about 5 bites and then declare they are finished. We throw everything in the sink and head down to the park. It is such a beautiful evening!

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7:00: Bath time! Jon bathes Adelaide in the kid’s bathroom and Aedan plays in our bathtub while I get the kitchen cleaned up.

7:15: Adelaide watches her “show” (baby signing time) while she drinks her milk and I finish up bathing Aedan.

7:30: I read Adelaide some stories and put her to bed. Aedan gets to watch his show of choice (tonight it is power rangers) and Jon makes Aedan’s lunch for school the next day.

8:00: I help Aedan brush his teeth and get ready for bed, then Jon reads him books.

8:30-10:30: I take a shower and Jon and I hang out and watch a couple of episodes of Modern Family. Then it is off to bed for us too.

-Lauren-

May 20, 2014

Family Week

Jon had the week off last week. He always has a lot of unused vacation time built up by the end of the year, so this year we decided to schedule intentional family weeks. We may not go anywhere or have anything specific to do, but he takes the week off work and we just enjoy ourselves.

We had a lot of good family time and I took a little break from blogging. This week will be my first official week as a stay-at-home-mom and I am planning to get a blog post up every Tuesday and Thursday mornings and I may throw in a Friday post occasionally. Hopefully that will be the schedule I maintain for awhile.

Last week, we did some house projects. The main one is that Jon stained our back patio. It looks really nice!

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Our long term plan is to build a deck out to the right and front of the porch. Hopefully in the next year or so, we will get that started, but for now, I think we are really going to enjoy this space. I took these before we put all the furniture back so I need to take a better after picture, but here is what the space looked like before…

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We also spent some time at the jumpy house. We took advantage of their preschool play time and basically had the whole place to ourselves!

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I never got a chance to share a few pictures from our Mother’s Day dinner with my family. My parents are adding a stone patio off the back porch of their Round Rock house. So far my dad had just laid down the sand, which both kids loved. Actually Adelaide was all about it, Aedan had to put on his shoes first (my clean one).

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-Lauren-

May 11, 2014

Happy Mother’s Day!

I am so blessed to have a wonderful mother and wonderful grandmothers to celebrate with this weekend. I am honored that two people call me mommy as well.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

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-Lauren-

May 9, 2014

Five Things Friday

  • Yesterday, we had Muffins for Moms at Aedan’s school to celebrate Mother’s Day. It was so fun! All the kids made little gifts for the moms, and sang some cute songs.

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  • As of this week, I am officially a stay at home mom! It has been something I have wanted since Aedan was born and I am so excited! I love what I do, and I have had so many great opportunities over the past few years, but I am really looking forward to just focusing on our family. The plan right now is to reassess things when Adelaide starts kindergarten. Maybe I will go back part-time then or maybe I will continue to stay home. For now, I am just going to try and soak up the time with the kids at this age! Hopefully it means more time for blogging as well!
  • Yesterday I did a big playroom clean out (I have more time on my hands now!). While I was cleaning up, Adelaide was playing with the toy kitchen. I looked over and saw her making coffee. She had removed the coffee pot and put it on the floor. She just kept putting the mug under the coffee maker and then pretending to drink it. Can you tell we have a Keurig!

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  • This morning, we went to the zoo with some friends. Adelaide is finally down to one nap and I am still playing around with our afternoon schedule. Ideally she is ready for a nap at 12, and Aedan is ready more like 1/1:30. I have been spoiled because for a long time now, their afternoon naps overlapped perfectly. Today, I kept her up until 12:30 and I put Aedan down at 1. I am hoping they both stay down until 3/3:30. I think it helped to be out and about this morning and the zoo was fun!

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  • This weekend we have plans with my parents and grandmothers to celebrate Mother’s Day! I can’t wait!

-Lauren-

May 7, 2014

Our Weekend

The weather was gorgeous this weekend so we took advantage of it and did a little work outside.

Jon build this little garden for the backyard. We planted a few plants and then some seeds. We had good luck with out garden at our old house, so we are hoping we can have good luck with this one too!

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Home projects like this one mean a trip to Home Depot, which is one of Aedan’s favorite stores!

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Adelaide was napping when we filled the garden with dirt and planted the plants. Probably for the best, since I know she would have just wanted to get in the garden and play with the mud.

Other than the garden, we took it pretty easy this weekend. We hung out with family and enjoyed lots of outside time!

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-Lauren-