summmmaaa

Summertime has been in full swing around here! Lots of pool time, sno-cones, drive in theater, the zoo, playtime at the park until dark, family walks, and FINALLY getting our flower garden in order. 

Since coming home from Dallas ..which seems like YEARS ago.. we have been soaking in some good quality time here on the homestead and just enjoying these days of June before we fly right on into July. 

One of the new things around here is homemade popsicles. With all the gorgeeoouusss fruit that comes along with summer, I have been trying to think of ways to make it stretch just a bit. No better way than popsicles! I can also throw in fruits that are otherwise not wanted by the little kiddos.. I.e blackberries and rasperries. According the Damien they have a weird shape and taste sour. So being the good ol' mom that I am, I throw them in a blender and suddenly I'm better than a juice box or fruit snack. I'll take it! Mom for the win. Seriously, we are addicted. I found the mold at ikea for like $1.50 so it has been worth a whole lot more around here and you can't get much better than $1.50! Another mom for the win moment! Growing up my mom uses to make homemade popsicles, so it's been fun carrying on that with my little ones. 

Owen has really been exploding on the scene these days. Now that he is a big bad 15 mon old he is saying words like, "cheese" when we take a picture and shakingn his head while saying "no" when you ask him if he wants to do something. He is the most adorable little guy and will be talking before I know it. He is so verbal. 

Damien is starting soccer this Saturday. Don't worry, there will be pics. I cannot WAIT to see him out there with the other little kids - I may be living vicariously through him on this one. Ah, the good days. But really, he is excited. He keeps telling me he is going to be the fastest on the team and asking me who his coach is. He is a competitive one and soccer will be the perfect sport for him to unleash some of his energy. He is the energizer bunny in child form. The kid went on a run with Jj the other night. Not kidding. Jj told me that Damien is the perfect running partner because he takes just the right amount of breaks. Ha. I love those two. Damien's little strides are to die for.... Gah... He is so cute. 

We went swimming at a friends neighborhood pool today and Damien didn't quite understand why there were 'breaks' for 16 and older to swim and at one point he was the only one in the pool. I clearly wasn't paying attention until I heard some little girl yelling, "you are not allowed to be in the pool!!!" While Damien is floating in bliss (and rebellion) on Owens floaty - with his life vest. He only peed about three times while we were there... and later asking me why he couldn't just pee on the road. At least my

kid isn't peeing in the pool-- well, one of my kids. 

I'm currently on the hunt for some good, easy-but-still-yummy recipes.. So share a few of your favs if you have some! 

My children are waking up so it's time for

me to get a snack together and decide on dinner. Ah, mom life. 

Enjoy :)

dallas or bust

Sooo two weekends ago we took a spontaneous family trip to Dallas for the weekend. JJ had found out about 4 days prior that he was going to be taking residents to a cadaver lab at a research hospital so we decided to turn it into a mini vaca. Plus we had a Christmas IKEA gift card to spend... soooo there was really no persuading on my part. 

 We drove down Friday evening and had dinner at restaurant Buca Dì Bepo which is an Italian chain that we just so happened to have our first date at-in Pittsburgh. JJ spent Saturday at the cadaver lab while the boys and I had ventured into Dallas to see what mischief we could come up with. 

It started with breakfast at Panera where Damien somehow coaxed a teenage girl to give him free chocolate chip cookies-- 2 of them--and where we saw the waiter we had the night before at Buca. Except this time he was dressed in a tank that showed all his vibrant tatoos and Damien kept asking me why that man colored all over his arm. After we destroyed our booth which looked like a bagel and cream cheese had died a very violent death, we moved on to the container store which is the store of every organizers dream. I could have spent a good hour in there but instead we chopped it to about 45 min since Damien thought it was a good idea to crawl in every basket and Owen threw anything I put in the cart onto the floor. 

So far it was a pretty easy morning as I am used to the little boy crawling, exploring, hiding, karate-chopping ways by now. 

By this time it was time to find a park so we located a city park with Google and I let the boys run their hearts crazy until lunch. Our hotel, JJs hospital, the park, container store, panera, galleria mall, and everything else was all within a 15 min drive so next on our list was the galleria mall. There we had lunch, watched the ice skaters, played in the germ infested nasty plastic play area and I had to constantly explain to Damien why we don't take off our shoes even though the other kids are. Sorry. I'll let them play in there..but I'm not trying to pick up warts or staff by them running all over germ city with no shoes on. Ain't gonna happen. 

And wait for it.. I didn't buy ANYTHING. What?! With H&M and every other store imaginable.. I didn't spend a dime. I was proud of myself. Honestly there isn't enough sanity in my day to attempt clothes shopping with two toddler boys.. So I wasn't disappointed at all. Plus, I was here for ikea.. So that's all I really cared about! 

By this time the boys were exhausted and it was time to go pick up JJ. 

The boys napped as I snatched up my man and we drove 25 min north to IKEA. Praise God I don't live near an IKEA. It would be my money pit. I can almost rationalize buying EVERYTHING in the store. So good thing we budget ha. I found a few great treasures and once I paint the boys room we can assemble everything. I'm pretty excited:) 

JJ actually thought about guest blogging about his adventures with Damien and Owen at Ikea.. Which consisted of major amounts of poo and a screaming 3 yr old because there is an hour wait to get into the 'kid zone' and "but lassttttt time you saidddd I couullldddddd." 

Meanwhile I was shopping in IKEA bliss and then we met up for dinner and peaced. Back to the hotel for a little swim and bed time. The next morning was a fab breakfast from the hotel, mass, more play time at galleria mall-- where we ended up buying the boys new (needed) shoes and Jj went off for another adventure with the boys while I got to go looking at my favorite stores! He was such a trooper-- both boys fell asleep on him while he was carrying the bags and he actually contemplated paying a stranger to carry one of our children. Thank God he didn't resort to that, and I answered his call of desperation and we packed up for the ride home. The boys slept all but an hour of the 3 hour trip and so we made great time home (as JJ usually does ;) ).

I wish I had my ikea finds assembled and together so y'all could see them, but I'll have to just update this post when that happens. Don't wait around. 

Enjoy :)