Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day gets funnier every year as the boys grow up. Coo had to answer questions about me which his teacher dutifully wrote onto the card he made for my special day. The answers made me laugh out loud. I love that he thinks I'm 85…and that many of his answers are correct! 
His pre-K teachers hosted a Mother's Day tea where we received the cards. I can't believe Coo is already 5 and soon will be in Kindergarden.  The years really do fly by!!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Happy tres birthday, Baby!!

Do you ever STOP being in love with your babies? The baby of our 40's turns 3 today. I look at the pictures and I'm amazed. I feel as though I can taste his personality in every shot. 









You really ARE my sunshine, little H-P. Don't tell your brothers :)

Friday, May 9, 2014

7 Quick Takes and a Fashion-ish Friday







Why I'm doing 7 Quick Takes Today
I have a blog that I've been following pretty regularly called conversion diary. The blogger is named Jennifer Fulwiler, and she hosts a shared post every Friday titled "7 Quick Takes." This is my first attempt at linking to her blog (because I'm new). Jennifer just released a book called Something Other than God that I found hugely interesting. I want to write a full bourge take on it in the next few days - mainly because I want a bit of time to collect my thoughts on it. Come back in a few days if you'd like to hear more. #SOTG.





Parenting is Mortifying
Yesterday, I had the SINGLE MOST MORTIFYING MOMENT of my parenting. And with three young boys at home and sailing through the world with me, that is saying something!
 Anyway, A little bit of background: my three boys are obsessed with asking philosophical questions on the way to school. They inevitably come up with some zingers. Thursday morning was all about eternal life. "Mom, why do people go to hell?" My basic answer to an 8, 5 and 3 year old? "Oh, honey, there are people who make bad choices and choose not to be with God where there is no love and no hope." That seemed to be enough for them and the day continued on.

Later, H-P (3), Coo (5) and I had to run into Starbucks to pick up a few travelers (containers holding a lot of coffee) for an end-of-the-year party at school. The staffers had forgotten about my earlier call, so we had to wait while they brewed 2 giant pots of coffee (and I learned how to breathe out my anger). My boys began acting in their normally perfectly subdued way and this ended with H-P smacking Coo across the face in full view of the entire store.

Being an ideal parent, I bent down and whispered to my three year old, "You made a really bad choice, honey. You don't get a cake pop." To which, my son begins screaming, "I don't want to go to hell!" Computers snapped shut, baristas gaped and other mothers turned away. I had instantly become the Fundamentalist Mother from (the aforementioned) hell. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. The entire place was convinced I had told my toddler he was destined for the underworld. I honestly just wished I had spanked him.





Renovation Surreality
We're well into the demolition renovation of our house. Join in the odyssey here





First, Second and Third Communions
At least there are only another 100 things going on for us these days to break up the monotony of completely changing our house with renovations. I am slowly learning to dread May with all there is to do. Thankfully, this May has been saved by the excitement of Buck's First Communion. We were so glad to have a number of new friends to share in the day with us…even as Buck and I mourned our far away family and friends. I love to create imaginary family parties in my mind with all of you who couldn't be here. Maybe after that renovation.







I always promise Fashion-ish Fridays to my followers. This week, you get THREE amazing outfits!!
#1 What to Wear on Warm Spring Days

First, a "hot trend" this season (because I live the "hot trends") is SAFARI style. Funny, it looks a lot like the "camo" and "military" trends of the last few years. When I read that SAFARI style is basically anything camouflage, khaki, black or animal print, I found an old camo mini and threw it on. Hot renovating trendsetter - that's me! Not pictured: black flip-flops






Fashion-ish part 2 - What to Wear on Cold Spring Days. 
This look is a bit fuzzy and hard to see, but it's proof that I showered twice this week, so I included it.  Spring is a crazy season in Colorado. It's HOT (85F/30C) one day and really cold (43F/6C) the next. So, one day, it's SAFARI and the next it's denim and black pants. I think I threw on a scarf with this after my 5 year old got the "perfect" shot. The forecast says 100% snow on Mother's Day, Sunday, so warmer clothes are in the future for us anyway.





Fahion-ish 3 - What to Wear to a School Mother's Day tea
 I have an amazing group of paparazzi to immortalize my looks each day, they're just a little short. H-P took this shot this morning. Today is a Mother's Day tea at the pre-school, so I'm going with a boxy shirt and cigarette pants as the temperature drops for the upcoming weekend. I wear pointy black flats with nearly everything because they're comfy but more grown-up than my favorite black havaianas flip flops (which I wear most of the time anyway).



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Family Room Demo (Raising the Roof)

I mentioned yesterday that the Renovation is coming along nicely. 
 We stopped by the house yesterday (this is our house, BTW)
 and we were greeted with this in our living room. 
 The ceilings felt very low to me from the first minute we moved in - the kitchen, dining and family rooms were basically topped with a continuous flat ceiling pocked with canned lights. 

 The plan is to add new trestles to the ceiling and raise the living and new dining room ceilings about 3 feet (my math could be off here - shocker). It is amazing to see the ceiling torn off the house (in a good way. Thinking of people affected by the tornadoes right now). 
 Also, the stairs have been put into that gaping hole in the front room. There is a make-shift railing.
This is our project manager, Nick. He is a total cutie (and seems about 15 to me). He's married or I'd be offering to fly some single girlfriends out here. He's responsible for all of this mess. 

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

"I got one less problem without ya"

…by 'Ya', I mean, the small egress windows in our basement, of course. Renovations are coming along fairly quickly, actually. I'm even a few pictures behind (which I will rectify this week). The house is starting to look so different! 
 We had tiny egress windows in our basement (a firefighter, his or her gear and a child could not make it through them). 
 Now, if anyone eats enough to become the 400 lb man, he will still be able to make it out any of the windows. 
 My only fear is that a 16 year old intent on sneaking out with his friends might also be able to make it out these suckers. 

  and there is even one in the back yard!


 already playing in the window wells! The boys were excited to see their new bedroom windows (and get covered with dirt doing it).


 Interior views
These will be two of the bedrooms (probably Buck and Coo) These spaces seem so big after the bedroom all three of them are currently sharing. Sadly for RKZ, it has inspired me to think of filling the space with more kids :)

 Just for comparison, here is what the space used to look like. 
 Notice the VERY small egress windows (and the baby rocker which could be yours if you email me!) 

Monday, May 5, 2014

First Communion for Buck

We had a great long weekend as Buck made his First (and Second) Communion. It was especially sweet because RKZ's family was able to attend. This was the first big event where Buck had both sets of Grandparents there!! 
 The Joads (Grandma and Grandpa) arrived a few days early, so we had a nice dinner at the local fondue restaurant. The boys are now hooked!
 The reservation was a bit late, so H-P was very tired and cranky, but he perked up for food.
 On Buck's big day, there are no pictures in the Church in order to keep the prayerful atmosphere, so we will receive the official pictures in a bit - but we captured the "behind the scenes" moments. Here, Fr. Juan blesses Buck's scapular and Rosary.

 We have a lovely group of Priests and Brothers at our Parish. Our favorite is a Brother named Fernando. Here, he realized he was joking around too much and decided he and Buck should have a "praying" picture too. I don't think Buck caught on.
Because our home is in the middle of renovations, we celebrated in fine Irish-Catholic style but renting out a semi-private space in a local bar to celebrate the First Communion (So Kelly-Grady of us). The kids had a booth to themselves.
and they spent a good part of the morning cheering on the Kentucky Derby (seriously).
The Duke and Duchess (Grandma and Grandpa) in a bit of a fuzzy shot. 
Can you guess which part of the dessert I hand-made? Hint: I did not bake ;) 
Even though I love to take pictures, I didn't get any of the entire family! That happens way too much when we're throwing a party. But, at least I got one of the three of us!
Cousin B loaded up on the carbs - we were so glad he was able to come! 
Another set of "new-ish" friends. Long story very short, we had some acquaintances while we lived in Canada who moved from Calgary to Denver the year we moved from Calgary to California. We contacted them we when we moved to Denver. Now, our families are becoming good friends!
Buck and his Godmother, Auntie H. 
The Grandmas enjoy the bar and the cupcakes! 
The party was very fun. Buck felt honored and only missed his California cousins about 100 times that day instead of 1000. We were so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate this very special day for Buck. We will have to celebrate again when we visit So Cal!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Grand Budapest


Here's a quick review of the movie RKZ and I went to see last Friday night. 
It will be short because we are INSANELY busy with life these days. 
A little background: there is a theater here (it's the Alamo Theater chain) that only allows people 18 and older after 6pm. There are little tables between the seats and there is table service for dinner WITH alcohol throughout each movie. The movies are the regular offerings of popular movies. If you are a movie lover and go on dates a lot to movies - these are the theaters for you. 

So, we chose our date-night based on the theater and NOT the movie. We chose the Hotel Budapest from a list of everything else that's out there because it seemed the most fun for a date movie. We had very nominal expectations. RKZ and I are both Bourge-ish in the way that we mainly just want to be entertained for 2 hours without being preached too or propagandized or given that sick feeling in our stomachs where we look at each other and say, "What?" Of course, we don't mind if we're going to the movie for one of those feelings/lessons but I can't remember the last time we sought any of those things out. 

Here was our overwhelming take: The movie was ridiculous and campy and strange and we liked it. It is a story within a story within a story movie which was meta-fictional enough to appeal to me. It was campy and slap-stick enough that RKZ found it funny. There are some silly vulgar scenes and some silly violent scenes, so don't see it if that would bother you. Nothing lasts too long and it's not a movie that will change your life. 

If you are familiar with Wes Anderson and liked any of these movies: 
then you will like the Hotel B. 

Was it worth the $25 we spent? I think so, honestly. In that great theater setting, it was a very escapist thing to watch so we enjoyed it.