Summer loves

A few of my summer time favorites:

1. Cocktails, compliments of Pinterest! ;)

We've been experimenting around with some different sangrias, a strawberry lime red wine concoction (I don't even know, I just threw some stuff together :P), and yummy mint mojitos.

2. All of the fun summer prints on everything at Target, conveniently on clearance so I can buy it all! I scored a new tray for our ottoman in a fun turquoise and yellow rose design for only $3. I don't care if it's not summer year round, it is in my house! :)

3. Pool days!! The kids love the water an we've been having a blast using their puddle jumpers in the pool. That is one thing I'm going to miss when "summer" is over here in South FL!

4. So this is not really a "new" thing, but it's new to me! I have discovered a recent love for all things monogrammed, gold, glittered, and Lilly Pulitzer! I know, I really think it's my proximity to Palm Beach...it's starting to rub off on me! hah. Daniel is in for a real treat when I start redecorating the house...haha, just kidding ;) maybe I'm just finally embracing my southern roots?!

5. Last but not least, I'd like to give myself a pat on the back...I sewed my second pillow ever and it only took me 30 minutes this time!!! Haha. This is a huge improvement over my first one, that took (only) 2.5 hours and an in depth course from YouTube on how to rethread a sewing machine. I still don't know how the darn thing operates (magic?!) but whatever, it sewed a straight-ish line for me tonight. And I'll take it. The pillow is nothing special (I used some old fabric I had laying around forever) but I'm going to keep it forever as a keepsake of my handiwork! ;)

Oh yeah, and because no post is complete with Logan and Blake...here they are in all their ice pop glory.

Cruising & Loganisms

We're in the veggie section of Publix, Logan stops and points...
L: Can I touch that?
Me: What?
L: That. The pretend food.
Me: Logan, none of this is pretend food. It's all real. What is it you're talking about?
L: The peppers (the big baskets full of fresh bell peppers were next to us)
Me: oh, haha, yeah those are peppers and they are definitely real and ready to be eaten.
L: Can I have one?
I usually don't do spur of the moment requests from Logan in the grocery store (mostly because they are the Cheetos and Oreos type of requests) but hey if my kid is flat out ASKING to eat a bell pepper, by all means lets give it a go...
Me: Sure, what color do you want?
L: The yellow one.
He held that big ol' yellow pepper throughout the whole store, saved it for last to put on the conveyor belt, fished it out of the plastic bag and held it the entire ride home. When we got home, he put it on the counter next to the sink, so I sliced it up and put it in a bowl with some ranch.
Well. He hated it. But he gave it a good shot. And the second best part? My usual non-veggie eater, Blake, happened to love it! Who knew.

Up in his room this afternoon, Logan fixed the broken part on one of his race tracks all by himself.
L: I fixed it all by myself!
Me: Yup, you're such a big kid! You didn't even need my help!
L: But I still need your help for a lot of things, Mama.
Me: Don't worry buddy, I'll be around to help you whenever you need it. I love you.
L: I love you too, you're my little man.
Hahahaha. I almost died from the cuteness. We always call him our little man, so he must think of that as a term of endearment for everyone ;)

The cruise was so much fun, we had such a great time!! I even survived without talking to the kids for a few days :) even though our cruise activities were not what I would call "relaxing" per say - we did tons of talking, eating, drinking, some dancing, and having a blast! - I still felt so refreshed after a few days off from "real life." Since I've been back, I've heard tons of I love yous, I missed yous, and You're coming too, right Mama?s. Pretty cute. I can't wait til the next girls cruise! :)

In the past 10 years, we've lived in 4 cities. It always sucks meeting great friends and then leaving them, but one plus is having amazing friends all over the place!

We were lucky enough to catch a night out with one of my best friends and her boyfriend this past weekend while they were visiting from New Mexico. Even though its been over 5 years since Natalie and I graduated from FSU, we've still managed to get together once or twice a year since she moved out of state! And when we do get together, it's always like we've never been thousands of miles apart. Love her! Can't wait to fly out to Albuqerque next fall to finally visit them!!

We had a "happy hour" with her family before heading out to the port to have some dinner & drinks at Grills - calamari, conch fritters, margs & fish tacos!

Logan at 3 and a half!

I really did the posts for Logan and Blake backwards by doing Blake's 18 month review first...so I guess now I'll follow it up with a 3.5 year review for Logan! 

Three and a half is such a fun age, but it has been also very trying for us lately. Someone has gotten the independence thing down to a T! ;) 

He loves:

Cars, Monster trucks, dinosaurs, monsters, reading books, racing with Blake, dress up, fingerpainting, board games, watching tv, swimming, picnic lunches, baking cookies, making pizza and smoothies, riding his bike.

His favorite foods:

Seriously, sometimes he seems like the pickiest kid ever. But he does love strawberries, watermelon, grapes, apples, pb&j sandwiches, chicken tacos, Chipotle rice and beans, chips & salsa, pizza, salad, smoothies, carrots, grape tomatoes & ranch dressing, spaghetti, hot dogs & ketchup, hamburgers. And of course pirate booty, goldfish, and cheez its (aka Spider-Man crackers thanks to the picture on the box!)

His favorite places:

Workout park (Village park), the mall play area, "big swimming pool" (neighborhood pool), the beach, story time.

His favorite books:

Harry the Dirty Dog, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom series, Dora the Explorer books, Tickle Monster, Olivia the Pig books, Where the Wild Things Are, Little Critter books (Just Me & My Mom, etc), More Spaghetti I Say. Really anything though, he loves to be read to.

His favorite tv shows:

Cars 2 movie (of course!), Busytown Mysteries, Special Agent Oso, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, The Tigger Movie.

He is just such a friendly, outgoing little guy - he will talk to anyone and will probably talk your ear off too! ;) he is always quite the hit with all of the checkout ladies at Publix and Target! He loves his friends and always wants to know if I can call their mommies and ask if they can play. So opinionated too! And loves Blake so much, he is always telling me how much he loves his little brother and goes around telling other kids that "Blake is my little brother, don't push or hit him." If Blake takes too long of a nap, he wants to know when he can go wake Blake up to play! :) such a good big brother! We love him!!

The week

Some photos from our week! Getting ready to wipe clean the ol' iPhone (I take way too many photos, it always ends up full after a couple of months!) so I gotta get them on here before they're buried somewhere in my external hard drive. Which, by the way, is also horribly under-dated (is that even a word? Hah) that its not even funny. My folder titled '2013' has like ten pics in it. Considering we're already practically half way through July, I better get on that.

Oh yeah, and its been quite the week - Logan has been extra exerting his independence and strong will this week, leaving me in a puddle of mojitos, red wine, and popcorn. Not that I'm complaining about those things, but I would prefer to be enjoying them 'just because,' not for 'keeping my sanity' reasons ;)

Fourth of July

I am super super SUPER far behind on this blog, but whatever! it's summer! All of the days have started to run together with lots of pool time, some beach time, story time, mini vacations and visitors, and lots of RAIN!! Seriously, this is the rainiest summer I've ever remembered. I'm so sick of all the storms (and it's raining again now. Touché weather, touché).

I can hardly believe that it's already July...but so excited for Melissa's birthday cruise (just another week and a half to go! woohoo!). We also just booked our tickets for Puerto Rico in September for Apapa's 90th birthday party - we decided to make it our vacation and spend the week relaxing and taking in the sights! Well, as much of that as one can do with two extra tagalongs ;) hoping to make it to a little more of the rainforest this time and keeping my fingers crossed for sunnier weather to see San Juan again! Can't wait! Last time we went to PR Logan was only 18 months old, and ironically Blake will be 20 months old when we go.

Fourth of July was spent hanging around the house with my crazy men, catching up on some grocery shopping and having "races" around the living room.  Jen and Mike came over to grill out some yummy food and we did some sparklers and poppers with the kids! :) And of course, a post just isn't complete without the obligatory photos of my children...haha.