Roar!

I went to my very first Jacksonville Jaguars football game yesterday.  I’ve been in Jacksonville for five years now, so it was about time. Our awesome friends had extra tickets, GG was free to babysit, so away we went!  I was equally thrilled to watch football as I was to get some grownup play time!

That’s me and Touchdown, our Jacksonville Jaguar mascot.  He was in front of the entrance to the “Touchdown Club.”  Oh, I didn’t mention that our friends super spoiled us with club seats?  They rock.

I had to take a look at our seats before we grabbed some lunch.  It was thrilling to walk into the stadium.  It’s the same excitement I get when a concert is about to start.

We had lunch and Hubbie and I bought some cool hats.  It looked like it was going to rain or be really hot. That’s Florida.  So we had to be prepared with some head coverage.  I love my pink hat.

Special thanks to my girlfriend for letting me borrow her turquoise necklace.  We wore white because the game was declared a “white out.”  But a lot of fans still wore game jerseys and other “interesting” outfits.  I tried to get a photo of the dude wearing a full-on jaguar body suit, but I missed my chance.   But here’s a guy with a funny hat:

After a couple of beers, and a rum and coke, I even forgot we were losing!

But we lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 30-20.

I really wasn’t that sad.  We had such a great time.  So great that Hubbie and I were calculating how we could buy season tickets next year, and bring the kids to all the games!  And even get the seats in the club section! Um, maybe we’ll just keep schmoozing our friends.  Thanks again, guys!!

PS: I didn’t include the photos of all the food I ate or the shots Hubbie took of the cheerleaders.  For obvious reasons.

Daniel the Daredevil

My son Daniel loves to be a daredevil. He already had two staples in his head from slamming into the wooden foot part of our sofa. My hubbie was home watching the kids and said Bean was dancing on the couch and just fell. Great. I love that he has no fear, but my heart pounds every time I watch him run up to that jungle gym in our park. Or take off on his Spider-man bike. Or even cruise around the corners in our house.

Luckily, he has a safe, padded outlet to go crazy in for 90 minutes each week. Here’s Bean at the My Gym.

Laugh for, I mean, see for yourself.

Bo

Fall TV: Lone Star

My husband works in radio so he gets some really cool promotional items sent to his office.

We had a lot of fun with this Glee cardboard locker last year.

Last week he brought home this:

It’s a cardboard suitcase from the new Fox TV show Lone Star.  I don’t know why the promotional item is a suitcase.  I didn’t get a chance to watch Lone Star yet.

And now I won’t be able to watch it….because it’s been CANCELED.  After only TWO EPISODES!

My TIVO has been on fire lately with all the new Fall TV shows I have recorded.  I was going to record Lone Star because of all the positive early reviews. 

But then I forgot.

And now it’s too late.  I guess a part of me is glad because I just don’t think I can fit one more new TV show to my “must watch” list. 

(BTW, check out THIS list of the top 25 TV shows that ended too soon - according to Entertainment Weekly.)

Bean is now using the Lone Star cardboard suitcase as a bed for his trusty pal Blue Dog.

RIP Lone Star.

I wonder what’s next??

Quick Poll: What do you predict is the next show to get canceled? Leave a comment below.

Feel The Heat

It’s HOT. 

The high was 100 degrees today.  And yesterday.  I KNOW that I live in Florida, but the heat just sneaks up on me every summer.  I feel like Spring is five seconds long and then we just zoom into four months of sticky, uncomfortable heat and humidity.  I know all my family and friends up north are laughing at me because I don’t like the cold either.  But the EXTREME summer heat is what gets me. 

It’s also a challenge with the kiddies.  It’s now too hot for our morning park play dates. It’s two hot for long bike rides. It’s too hot for strolling around the outdoor town center.  And when we ARE outdoors, I just chase them around with big hats, SPF 50, and bottles of water.

Thank goodness for our neighborhood pool, cold smoothies, our backyard baby pool, and slip ‘n slides.

Play-Doh and Airplanes

Just a little Play-Doh on the patio…

 Pink is my FAVORITE color and Mmmm this pink Play-Doh smells so good…

 Should I taste it?…

Wait.  What’s that??…

I think I hear an AIRPLANE!…

Could it really be an AIRPLANE??…

Let me use my super fancy purple Play-Doh tool as my airplane telescope!…

 Yes, CONFIRMED.  It was an airplane!

Weekend Fun

It was a super busy Saturday.  There was a Gymboree sports class and a Where the Wild Things Are art class and a pirate themed birthday pool party and a Mommy Group block party in the park.  I wish I had more photos, but here are some snapshots. 

I was lucky to get one photo of Annabel and it is so funny.  Please notice the pink plastic bracelet she is wearing that I bought her at JCPenney just hours before while Daniel was taking those sports and art classes.  She was my shopping buddy and she was an angel.  Daniel never stopped moving the entire day and he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.  We were all exhausted.  We all had a blast.  We spent Sunday just relaxing and playing around the house.  It was the perfect ending to a fun weekend.

PS: I really, really want/need an iPhone to improve my photo quality.  (Hmmm…Mother’s Day is coming soon…hmmmm)

Pink Umbrella

Bean loves to play with my little pink umbrella when it’s raining outside.  And it rains A LOT here. 

But the amazing thing about this little pink umbrella….

… is that it was with me during a summer vacation in Venice, Italy.  That was when my little Bean was still just a *twinkle* in my eye.

Where does the time go?

Back to School

It’s “back to school” time.  It’s that time of year when kids say goodbye to their carefree days of summer and say hello to schedules and homework.  I see all the kids in my neighborhood standing at the bus stop again.  My sister sends her little girl to kindergarten tomorrow.  My brother sends his oldest daughter to middle school. Yep, it’s “back to school” time. 

But, not for me.  Not yet.

Nothing really changes in my world.  I still have the kiddies home with me all day.  I don’t have to look at the clock when we eat our oatmeal with bananas and chocolate chips.  I don’t have to rush around to get them dressed, comb their hair, or match their socks. I can brush their teeth when I remember to brush their teeth.  Sure, there are some schedules we like to follow like going to story time at the library or a walk around the block in the wagon.  But that’s about it. 

I think about the future when both of my little ones are in school full time.  I find myself smiling with the thought that the days will be ALL MINE again.  I will have some ALONE time.  I will have ME time.  I can go back to an office job where I can interact with ADULTS all day or I can work from home without interruption.  I can drink a cup of coffee without it going cold.  I can eat lunch without someone asking for something off my plate.

But that time will come.  It will come FAST.  So today, I will choose to live in the moment.  I will choose to enjoy it all.  I will remember why I wanted to be a stay-at-home mommy. I can be home with both of my amazing kids.  My kids who are NOT at school.  Not yet.

They are home with me – playing in the morning sunshine.

Catch Me If You Can…

One Dollar Fun

When Daniel was a little over a year old, I bought him some items from the Dollar Store to create a “busy box.”  I got this idea from his Gymboree class. The teachers always had a “busy box” time toward the end of class when all the babies would grab small little items out of a plastic box.  There were musical shakers and small books and little toys.  Bean loved it.   I decided to recreate this “busy box” idea at home.

So I got a plastic box and filled it with “Dollar Store items” like measuring cups and small boxes and the same musical shakers, books and toys.  Then I saw a string of colorful ”Mardi Gras” beads.  I grabbed those too.

Well, TWO YEARS LATER, the most popular item from that busy box are still those beads:

These beads have provided Daniel, and now Annabel, with so many hours (and days!) of playtime fun.  They wear the beads and play dress up. They twirl the beads around in circles and sing.  Daniel uses the beads as gas to fill up his play car.  Annabel places the beads in and out of stacking cups.  They both use the beads as pretend food ingredients and mix them and cook them in pots and pans.  These beads allow them to be creative and use their imagination.  

(I think there used to be some red beads and gold beads too, but there is always one that breaks in a moment of chaos.)

So I learned with my kids, a dollar still does go a LONG WAY.

 My husband says, “These better be the ONLY Mardi Gras beads she ever gets.”

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