Spontaneity

Once you have kids spontaneity seems to come to halt. Prior to my children, I considered myself a spontaneous person and I loved it. This past weekend I decided enough was enough. At 11 am Saturday, with no plans, I asked my husband if he wanted to grab the kids and head to Cincinnati for the weekend. He agreed and within 2 hours we were on our first spur of the moment road trip. I felt free!

We knew we couldn't plan a lot of activities with our little ones so we kept it simple. Our plan was to hit Ikea on Saturday, have some dinner and get the kiddies back to the hotel and settled for the night. The next morning we were going to head to the Newport Aquarium have lunch and head home. The whole trip went off without a hitch! Okay so there was one hiccup... my dear daughter snores like an 80 year old man and my husband and I couldn't fall asleep. Thank goodness we stayed in a Homewood Suites* so there was a separate living room with a pullout couch. So as the princess slept in her bed (E stayed in his pack-n-play) we were sleeping on a pullout couch. All in all a good trip and a great way get a little change of scenery not far from home.

She is so excited about staying in a hotel. She loves hotels!

Someone was in need of a nap. Within minutes of taking he was looking at the back of his eyelids (this was his first time facing forward since turning 1 so it wasn't till we reached the south side of C-Bus that he finally feel asleep...too much to check out).

Having fun at the hotel.

The princess all set up in her kingdom.

The ugliest turtle I have laid eyes on!

Getting a shark on her face, a highlight for her trip (hotel was the big one).

Evan feeling the love from his sister.

A SUCCESSFUL TRIP HOME!!!

*The location of this hotel was quite comical. Glenn and I aren't very familiar with Cincy so we opted for a hotel close to Ikea however we wanted a Suite (as mentioned above, a good option for our family). The hotel was in an industrial park.

Family

The week we got hit with the terrible flu bug the weather was fantastic and we missed it. Then it got cold again and I thought it maybe weeks before we saw some signs of spring.
Last weekend we made a BIG purchase. We have been preparing for this since last year and we couldn't be more excited. And to make it all the better, spring weather came with it!


Now I will fill you in on all the gory details of this swingset. It took my husband & a friend two days to put up the majority of this set. Then we had to wait for a beam that was missing from the box to get the monkey bars up. How a wooden beam didn't make the box is beyond me but Rainbow was great to deal with and they sent it out right away. Once we received it my lovely husband spent two days putting it together (and making several trips to Lowes and some specialty fastener store due to missing hardware). Now wouldn't it have been easier to account for all the pieces from the beginning?!?! That would be too methodical for my man!


Overall I am excited for the whole thing to be done and we can have a summer of fun in our backyard. As we calculated it, this will be our kids birthday present for the next 8 years at $100 a piece... so excited we won't need to buy birthday presents till Ry is 11 and Evan is 9! However I don't think that will work... damn that would have been sweet!

It's Alive

Okay, well I'm alive! It's been forever and a day since I posted which is unusual considering my recent steady stream. If you follow me on FB then you know I was on death's door last week (or at least the all mighty stomach viruses door). He came knocking then just charged through the Sharp household last week and it was bad...
Last week was suppose to be a week of celebration and reflecting on my baby boy and his first year but that wasn't how it turned out. Tuesday we went off and got pictures done then Wednesday I wasn't feeling so spiffy. Rarely do I lie on the couch almost an entire day but that is where I stayed. It's a little difficult when little ones are tugging at you begging you to come play on the floor and I tried my best but it was hard. Thursday morning came and so did everything I ingested the evening before (which wasn't much). The call had to be made to my sidekick to come over & watch the kids (my mom). Glenn stuck around for part of the morning before he had to take off for training so I was left to watch the kids for 20 minutes. It was a tough one but I made it till my 3rd in command could take over. Then off to bed for me. The next day my mom came again and spent a chunk of the afternoon with us so I could rest up for what was to come.
Friday night, Ry got the same stomach bug which had plagued me. I was still a little under but my supermommy cape got dusted off and I held a puking child for 24+ hours. She was good through it all and slept in between bouts of vomit. Thank goodness. I also did massive amounts of puke laundry...her linens (twice over), my linens (yes I laid her in my bed at one point), blankets and towels from the couch... all the while watching heaps of regular laundry piling up. So this week has been major catch up and clean up. I still feel way far behind but with a sitter coming Saturday night it will light my fire to get cracking!
Let this be the only stomach bug for 2009!

What E, Ry & I did today

Check it out here!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Evan's 1st Birthday Cupcake from Maribeth Corby Sharp on Vimeo.

I had no idea G was recording...