a lovely day for a walk

We did it! Today turned out to be a gorgeous day, and Jenni and her crew joined Ryan and me for the March for Babies at Hummel Park in Plainfield (my first time there, but it seems like a really nice park - we'll have to explore it some other time). We even had a picnic lunch bfeore the walk started. Thank you to Jenni for joining me, and to everyone who donated to a cause so dear to my heart.

Now that the weather is nice, we got out the golf set that Uncle Dave and Aunt Jacqueline got Ryan for Christmas! Ryan absolutely loves it! Thanks again, guys! Dave, you'll have to come give Ryan some pointers since his golfing Grandpa lives in Florida...he was learning from Tony, Chris, and Dickerson! :-)



And I'm not sure about this one - he's either starting to slowly turn into the Incredible Hulk, or he was outside playing in the back yard while Daddy was mowing yesterday...you make the call.

you and me goin' fishin' in the dark

Okay, so it wasn't really dark, but I always loved that song when I was little and it comes to mind whenever we go fishing. Which we did last night. With Ryan. For the first time. He absolutely loved every second of it, until it was time to leave. He loved the worms and the weeds and throwing the fish back in. He would scream "BIG FISH" every time he got a bite. It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen. And the best part was he caught about 9 fish!


"I know it may have looked small, but it was really T-H-I-S big." Ahh...the fishing lies start at a young age, don't they?


Daddy helping him hold the pole, with Uncle Scott, and cousins Austin and Brandon fishing nearby.


Although he loved touching the worms, he would always yell, "EW!" when he picked them up.


This was the first fish he caught after I arrived, so it was probably his 5th or 6th catch.


Daddy was so proud that he caught his first large-mouth bass!

mama monday: children’s music

We don’t listen to a whole lot of children’s music in our home. Don’t get me wrong – we all like and enjoy music, and who doesn’t love shaking your hiney once in awhile? But children’s music just doesn’t do much for us, in general.

I play piano (not so well anymore), and Ryan LOVES to play with me. He thinks it is so cool to sit on Mama’s piano bench and reach WAAAYYY over there to hit the low notes and then WAAAYYY over there to hit the high notes. His train table is in the same room as the piano, so often while he’s playing choo-choos, I’ll play piano.

Tony plays guitar. And boy-oh-boy does Ryan like to play guitar, too! Tony is great at making up words to “our” kind of music, so he’ll often sing crazy songs about Ryan to the tune of an Everclear song (eg, "Pale Green Stars") or something. Very creative, my hubby.

Ryan and I listen to a lot of music in the car. Some of our favorites are Jack Johnson (who doesn’t love the banana pancakes song? We sing that on the weekends while I make - you guessed it - banana pancakes!), Norah Jones (which I listened to non-stop while pregnant), and Kenny Chesney (probably because of the fun tropical sounds in a lot of his songs). Tony also has an old mix CD that he and Ryan like to listen to while, ahem, jumping on our bed. Some of the songs have been censored by Mama, but it’s a lot of fast rock songs that are the perfect rhythm for jumping to. :-)

As for actual children’s music, we do have a few CD’s. We picked up the soundtrack to “Elmo Makes Music,” since Jenni was kind enough to take us with her family when the show was in town recently. We have the first “For the Kids” CD, which is really great…children’s songs sung by “our” bands – Cake, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, etc. That one actually does make it into rotation in the car. "La la la la lemon" by BNL is awesome. We have two of the Sandra Boynton CDs that Erin mentioned in her post, but they haven’t really won any of us over yet, despite her books being some of our favorites. And we have some various lullaby/classical type CDs that also don’t get much air time.

As far as Ryan’s favorite song goes, I’d say it has to be a toss-up between “Wheels on the Bus,” Leah’s version of the Tiny Tim Turtle song that she taught us in Florida, and KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” (the no, no, no part is easy for him to sing, and he loves to dance to it with me in the kitchen!). “Walkin’ in Memphis” by Marc Cohn also gets played pretty loudly on Saturday mornings when we’re straightening up the family room.

did you feel it?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxPvXBa_kwldln7jw_kNT0EsoE1QD904786O0

I sure did! I had just woken up and looked at my alarm clock, saw that I had 1 more minute to snuggle under the covers, and then the bed started shaking. Our "husky" cat Crosby had been laying in the window seat, and he jumped onto the bed, so I thought he had just jumped really hard and bounced the mattress. But then my water glass scooted off my nightstand, and I knew it had to be an earthquake. Crazy!

I vaguely remember one other quake when I was in elementary school...maybe 4th grade? My mom and brother were in the car waiting for me, and she kept telling him to stop rocking the car! Poor guy wasn't even doing anything (for a change)! :-)

Still trying to fix up the blog in spare minutes here and there. I'm not digging this template at all. We'll see what else I can find. Stay tuned!

Weekend plans include scooping up Ryan and going to dinner with my mom (and possibly Terry) tonight at Wiggles. Mmm...fair food all year round...mmm. Saturday we're checking out another puppet show with my mom, my friend Debbie, and her granddaughter Sophia, and then Ryan and I are heading over to my cousin Leanne's house to help finish setting up her farm's blog and maybe chase some chickens. Sunday will be breakfast at FlapJack's, and a newborn photography shoot for my friend Erin in the afternoon. Somewhere in there I'd like to squeeze in some laundry, clean the bathroom, and buy a new door. We'll see!

bear with me

I'm trying to make my blog all cool and it's much harder than I thought it would be. :-) Slideshow is up at the site mentioned in my last post - go check it out!

sneak peeks are up!

Check it out - the sneak peek of Dave & Jacqueline's wedding photos!

http://www.eclipse-photography.com/wordpress/?p=267

Chad was an AMAZING photographer - really laid back and cool, was more about telling the story of the day than making us do a million stiff poses. I've already recommended him to my friend Becky, getting married next April! I'll let you know when the slideshow is up - I think it will have all of the photos he took!

Not sure I could pick just one favorite, but I love the one with Jacq resting her head on Dave's chest, and he's kind of looking off. And of course, who doesn't love the one of Brad grabbing Gretchen's booty?? :-)

ahh...finally spring!

We finally hit temps in the mid-upper 60's! Yahoo! We definitely took advantage of the warmer weather. Saturday we had breakfast at FlapJack's and then bought a new bike for me! We went home, Tony made some adjustments, and went on our first family bike ride of the year! Ryan has been begging to go for quite some time, but it was just too cold. We rode over to one of the local schools and played on the playground, then headed home for lunch and a nap. Then Ryan and I ran to Marsh to pick up New York strips (for so cheap I couldn't believe it!), corn on the cob, fresh strawberries, and Cool Whip, and we grilled out for the first time this year, too!




Today, I got some alone shopping time at Kohl's, then we met Tony's dad and step-mom for lunch (they took us out to celebrate my b-day). Ry fell asleep in the car on the way home from Lone Star, and after nap we went for another bike ride,

and stopped by to visit our favorite family of six for a few minutes.

We headed home, played with bubbles and balls, and then went for a family walk. Definitely not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow - I'd much rather do fun things outside with Ryan every day! :-)

happy birthday to me!