Girls' Day Out

This weekend Neely and I enjoyed a long overdue Girls' Day Out.  We haven't spent a day out just the two of us in well over a year.  We got a manicure and pedicure, but mainly we just hung out and talked and laughed over a little bubbly, which is what every Girls' Day Out needs!  It was so much fun!  We will have to do it again very soon.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  I am so lucky to have Neely as my sister-in-law.  She is a great friend, and she is so much fun to be around!  We are always laughing.  (Champagne only makes it better!)

Mother's Day Gift

Last night, Jason surprised me with my Mother's Day gift.  I know what you're thinking - he's a bit late on this one.  You see what I wanted for Mother's Day wasn't available until early June.  Then when it technically became available, it was sold out everywhere.  He finally found it for me, and I got it yesterday.


From here

Me lovey!  So far I have learned a couple things about this fabulous new lens. 

First, it is possible to take photos in my dark house without using a flash.  But I'm going to have to learn to steady my hands.  If Sims could stop moving so much, that would be really helpful, too.

The biggest, most exciting thing is the bokeh.  Oh, the bokeh!  (I'm just starting to learn some photography jargon.  Before I learned what bokeh was, I was calling it the blurry background that makes a photo more than just a snapshot.)

Oh, the bokeh!

This is what I have been dreaming out.  (And I don't mean the 1980s brass chandelier.)  I am so excited about my new lens, and I can't wait to spend some time getting to know it better.  Thank you, Jason and Sims!  What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

2-year-old Class

Sims has finally, officially, moved to the 2-year-old class at his daycare.  This transition has been amazingly easy, and he is so excited about it!  Two of his really good friends had moved up a few weeks before him, and he has been ready for the change.

For about a week and a half before the official move up, he visited the new class a couple of hours a day.  The first day he visited, the director of the daycare came to get him from the 1-year-olds.  She came in the room and asked, "Sims, are you ready to visit the 2-year-old class?"  He was so excited that he ran right out of the room and down the hall to the new class, leaving the director in his dust.  When he got to the big kid class, he and his 2 good friends had a big group hug.  Oh, I wish I could have been there to see that!

On another day, when he was told that he could go visit after his diaper was changed, he ran over to his teacher and hugged her legs as she was changing another child's diaper.  He wanted to be sure that he was next in line for that diaper change!

We have always called his daycare "school," as in "Are you ready to go to school today?" or "Have fun at school."  I was surprised one afternoon, when I picked him up and asked him," Did you have a good day at school?"  He corrected me by saying, "class" very matter-of-factly.  So now we call it class, too.  Now that he is 2 years old and all grown up, he goes to class.

The big kids even have Show and Share.  Yesterday was his first time for Show and Share, and he brought his NC State Wolfpack 101 book.  When he chose it, he kept saying, "Wolfpack," "Go State," and "High five."  (Whenever he sees a picture of Mr. Wuf, NC State's mascot, he talks about the high five Mr. Wuf gave him at the baseball game and about how big his teeth are!)

I'm so happy that this transition has been easy for him.  He's now even more excited about going to class each day.  And he's even less excited about coming home, which makes pick up a lot more time consuming.  I'm not complaining though.  I'm thrilled that he loves it this much!

Father's Day

First of all, I have to say that it is so wonderful to have Jason back home!  He was only gone from Monday to late Friday night, but it seemed like much longer.  Sims and I were both so happy to have him back.

I think Jason had a nice Father's Day yesterday.  We didn't do much.  We went to church, watched some golf and played in the baby pool.  Well, Sims played in the baby pool, and Jason and I put our feet in to keep cool.

Sims had a blast in the pool.  When he had splashed out half of the water, we just refilled it.

And to prove that I was there too, here I am living the high life.  Or drinking a High Life...

Jason and I were woken in the middle of the night last night by an intense storm.  Lightning was flashing non-stop like I've never seen and struck something nearby that caused us to get out of bed and look for fire.  I'm a bit more cautious after our neighbor's garage burned from a lightning strike.  Luckily the storm only lasted about 10 minutes, and Sims didn't even budge.  But I'm definitely a little more tired than I usually am on a Monday morning. *snooze*

Kitchens

I am taking a little detour in what I normally blog about (Sims).  I understand if you want to skip this post and just check back next time because today I'm going to talk about our kitchen.  Jason and I have finally decided it is time to do something about our sad, dated kitchen.  (Well, it's been time for a change since we moved in, but we are now going to actually do something about it.)
We're exploring all of our options: new cabinets or refacing.  We've even had a refacing company come to the house to give us an estimate.  He was there for a little over 2 hours as we picked out cabinet doors, paint color/stain, glaze for the cabinets, countertops, and hardware.  I was so sure about the cabinets, paint and glaze that we chose.  It was exactly what I had been imagining.  Or was it?

The next day I started looking at all my inspiration photos and realized that the ones I really love don't have the overally detailed painted cabinets with a glaze like we chose.  They are simple with no glaze at all.

I have always loved intricate details on cabinets (and on furniture for that matter), but it seems that my style is shifting.  This is what I call Darwinism of Style.  It's constantly evolving, and the more inspiration photos and design blogs I peruse the more it changes.  How do I pinpoint my ever-changing style to make such a big decision?  I'm not talking about a cute pair of shoes that I can wear this season but not wear again, if they don't fit my style next year.  This is a kitchen!  And kitchens aren't cheap, let me tell you. 

So we've decided to get a kitchen designer to help with the design part, which is what we were thinking about doing originally anyway.  Then we'll see.  In the meantime, I'll keep drooling over these pretty kitchen photos.

From Pinterest

From Pinterest

From Pinterest

From Pinterest

These are all from my Pinterest account, where you can see all of my kitchen pretties (plus other things).  If you're like me and have a huge notebook of torn out magazine pages that you keep for inspiration, Pinterest is a really nice way of doing that online.  Plus, you can look at what everyone else thinks is pretty, too.

Baby Sims

It's seems that I am constantly looking at Sims lately and wondering, "Where did my baby go?"  He's definitely losing the baby look and is looking more like a kid.  Well, that is until yesterday, when he came out of his room looking like this.

I couldn't help but laugh at my little baby.  It was even funnier since he never liked pacifiers when he actually was a baby.  I think this one just got mixed up in his toy bin and forgotten about.  That is until my baby found it!

He thought he was pretty funny, too.

Not the Happiest Camper

Sims has definitely noticed that his Daddy is not around this week!  I spent yesterday evening with a very unhappy, whiny kid.

We're trying to have fun, but it's just not the same without his daddy.

We've tried all sorts of things.  He found my phone, and that seemed to help a little while.

Okay, maybe not that long.  Let's just say that we already can't wait for Jason to get home, so things can get back to normal.

Tunnels

Last night, we played in tunnels.  In our pajamas.

It can get dark exploring in these tunnels without the light from the camera.

I think flashlights are in order for our next tunnel trip.

But as long as we're together, who really needs flashlights?

(I know most people would call this a fort or cave, but around here they are tunnels.)

Dick and Jane Adventure

Sims' favorite book right now is an anthology of Dick and Jane stories.  He even woke up yesterday morning, and the first thing he said was that he wanted to read Dick and Jane.  He has a teddy bear that he now calls Tim after Baby Sally's teddy bear.  The stories are simple and their adventures are really easy to imitate.

So on Saturday, we went on a Dick and Jane adventure.  At first we didn't tell him what exactly we were going to do.  We just told him that we were going on a Dick and Jane adventure, and he was excited! 

He was even happier when he found out what the adventure was.  We went to get ice cream, and just like Baby Sally, Sims got his very first cone. 

Luckily for Sims, Spot and Puff weren't around to knock the ice cream on the ground.  (That's the part of the story where Sims points at the ice cream falling and keeps saying, "Oh, no!  Oh, no!")  Sims got to have every last bite.

Some people may just see this as getting ice cream, but it's way more exciting if it's a Dick and Jane adventure. 

Okay

Sims has started a new habit that it is really cute.  He now says, "okay," in place of yes.  Most of the time, it's not that noticeable, but it gets really cute in a situation like this:

Sims: I want ice cream.
Me:  You want ice cream, do you?
Sims: Okay.

Like it was my idea.


In other news, we have started a new weekly tradition.  We have started walking to dinner.  After living in our house for 8 years, we have finally had the realization that we can actually walk to restaurants!  We used to ride our bikes to downtown years ago, but we've never really walked anywhere.  Well, that has changed.  I don't know how long we will keep this up during the heat (and humidity) of the summer, but we'll see.  It's been a nice way to get out the house and tire out Sims at the same time.

Birthday Boy

On Sims' birthday, we just hung around the house relaxing and playing with all his new toys.  Mom and Smith got him a T-ball set, and he's pretty good!  It came with a beginner's guide that can help kids actually hit the ball.  He doesn't even need it!

His form may not be the best, but hey, give the kid a break!  This is his first day.

I think he had a pretty happy birthday weekend.  I know I did!  It's been a great 2 years!

Day at the Pool

On Sunday, we went over to Alex and Neely's and took advantage of their neighborhood pool.  On the drive over, we brought his new bag of zoo animals with us.  He took out every one and put them in this lap until he had a large pile.  He was so proud of them. 

I was worried that the water would be too cold for Sims and me (we can be wimps about cold water), but Sims didn't have a problem with it at all.  It took me a while to get in, but once I was in, I was fine.  This may be Sims very favorite place in the world.  He loves the water, and it's close to the airport, so planes were flying overhead.  He was in heaven.  I don't have any pictures of Sims in the water, but here are some cute ones of him lounging after his swim.

It was so nice to get in the water.  I really wish we had a pool.  We would be there every day after work.

More Zoo Pics

Here are some of the pictures I took as we walked around the zoo on Saturday.  We didn't get to see the whole zoo, since the party was in the middle of the day.  We did get to see most of the African animals though.

We brought the stroller for Sims, but he wanted to be held the entire time.  He was passed from grandparent to grandparent because he only wanted to be held by them.  By the end of day, he let his Uncle Alex carry him, and he finally fell asleep in his arms.

It was a long, exhausting day, but it was so much fun!  We'll have to make another visit to the zoo later in the year, so we can see the rest of the animals.