Graduation and more

Kaitlyn graduated from 8th grade last week. Hard to believe. Time is flying by! She was 1 of only 3 that got straight A's all year, smarty pants! She is one of those girls that makes you crazy: smart, athletic, and pretty.

I went up to Chicago for Rach's bachelorette party last weekend. I had a blast. It was great to hang out with Rach and Anne and get to know the rest of the girls better. Of course, we ran into some people that we knew or where from Peoria. How is that possible?

We went shopping on Michigan Ave, had dinner at Sangria, then off to Spoon, and finally to Rino. I managed to stay out way past mommy time and danced up a storm. For those of you who have seen me dance, you know I had a blast. Rach wasn't feeling so hot the next day but she was a living it up Saturday night! I will try and get some pics of the weekend. I didn't take my camera because I was in charge of using Rach's camera that night.

I have been whipping up some new sewing projects. I am doing an open house for St. Jude in a couple weeks. My newest creations are a tutu and an apron. I want to make a cape this week or next. Something for the boys out there.

what happened

I was trying to change my layout. Tried following the directions. Don't have the 'layout' tab everyone keeps saying should be there. So frustrated!

I got it fixed. Not sure how but I am sticking with this layout for a while.

A little of this, not much of that

As the weather has been getting nicer, the inside of my house is getting less and less attention. The kids want to be outside, I want to be outside and there is the problem. And the messier the house is, the more I want to be outside. See the maddening cycle. I am also in the middle of a few sewing project for a St. Jude fundraiser. So don't be alarmed if the next time you are at my house. While the yard and flowers will hopefully look good, the rest is a different story.

Matt just finished up the new playset. Kids can't get enough of it. Pics soon!

The rest of my day

We hung out around home and Matt worked on the playset again. Then we went out to my parent's house for the afternoon and evening. On our way out Matt spotted a turtle in the middle of the road. So we stopped and put it in the only thing we had in the car to contain anything, a cloth bag. We put it at my feet and the next thing i know i can hear it scratching around in the bag. Then it starts to crawl out! I was out of my seat and in the backseat between the kids SO FAST! Aren't turtles suppose to stay in their shell? This one was not shy at all. So one we got to my parent's house we let it go in the yard. Of course the darn thing just sat there hiding in its shell. By the end of the day he had wandered away. We helped my p's move some furniture and had a delicious dinner made by my dad and sisters. Mia and Kara made dessert, dirt n worms. I got some very nice gifts and had a great day! The kids fell asleep on the way home and I wasn't far behind them.

My day

Today is Mother's Day. I woke up to an empty house and laid in bed for a bit. Then took a nice shower with no one running in every couple of minutes because they needed something or wanted to see what Mommy was doing. By then my family had returned with Lester's Donuts (brings back childhood memories)! Not sure what the rest of the day looks like but this morning was great.
Happy Mother's Day to all you moms, soon-to-be moms, Grandmas, and great-grandmas out there.

Potty training

So last week I started potty training with Dane. He has been showing interest for a few months but i was trying to hold him off until we got back from FL. Knowing that being in a car for that long would probably undue all my efforts up to that point. Now we are back and it is going good. Dane is starting to tell me when he has to go pee and will tell me when he is stinky which is going in the right direction. With Mia I was home a lot more so that is making it a little more of a challenage but maybe this way Dane will do better with public toilets. (Mia refused to go on any noisy potties the entire trip to FL. She is not a fan of automatic flushing to say the least!) So Dane has been going 2-3 times a day and I am braving the world of big boy pants today. Mia would sit on the potty just to get the treat (M&Ms) but Dane doesn't seem to want to sit there unless he wants to actually go. But I am fine with doing it on his terms.

Vacation recap

We just got back from Marathon, FL. Another successful Easter vacation. 18 family members, 1 house, ages 1.5 - 83 years old. 1500 miles. I will post some pics later but here is a recap of how things went.

We left Friday afternoon, 2 suburbans and a van full. We joke every year that we look like the Beverly Hillbillies driving down the road. My parents' burbon 5 had a car top carrier on the roof and a luggage rack that hooks into the hitch. At one rest stop my sister Kaitlyn comes out of the bathroom and tells us that Margaret, a family friend, is in there. Now it is late at night and i am guessing that we are in either KY or TN. What are the chances of that? But Margaret was heading to FL with her daughter and grandkids. The trip was going along rather uneventful and we were making decent time. The GPS said we would be to the house in the Keys by 4 pm Saturday. All that changed when we came to a complete stop on the interstate. And we stayed that way for over 3 hours! We watched Marley & Me and tried to waste some time. I can only imagine how far the traffic backed up behind us. We were pretty close to where the accident happened. We ran into traffic several other places but finally managed to reach Marathon at 11pm! My dad went to sleep right in the front seat of the Burbon 5.
The house was really nice and there was plenty of room. We got our workout each day walking the stairs that lead down to the dock and pool. Iguanas were all over the place and the kids liked watching them. We managed not to go to the store every day, usually we need something from there every day. My mom, Andrea, and I power shopped Sunday morning filling 2 carts in about an hour. Good work girls! To give you an idea of how much food we needed, we went thru 2 loaves of bread for one lunch and 5 racks of ribs for 1 dinner. You get the idea.
The Easter bunny came to our house early since we would be driving on Easter. (I'll post more about that another day.) We all went to Key West on Tuesday and had a nice time. Andrea and I scored the parking spot of the day, right off Duvall St. The men spent most of the day at the Sports Page, a bar with no Key West atmosphere but they were happy. We walked around, did some shopping and watched the sunset festivities in Mallory Square. Then back to the house we went. And for the record, Andrea and I were NOT mad. The kids were just done! We ate dinner at the McD's with the best view in the US. Overlooking the water in Key West.
Boat rides and pool duty filled the rest of the week. We had to be out of the house Saturday morning so we started our journey home to IL. Dropping Aunt Chris and Jacob off at the airport and Grandma Hartnett off at her house we hit the road. It was slow going pulling a boat back but we had plenty of time. Dane did good on the way down but on the way home he was not happy. He was screeching if he was awake. He earned himself the nickname Teradactyl. Thank goodness he is a grandson or my dad might have "ripped his face off!" Ask Kaden about that. We stopped at a nice hotel in GA and then another one in TN. We didn't have any swimsuits available (all packed away in the car top carriers) for the kids so we did it white trash style. Underwear or diapers for the kids. Now we are back home and it is freezing. I am ready to head back to FL already!