Weekend fun.

After about a month's work of weekends of busy days, crowded schedules, and a lot of hard work on projects, this weekend was all about kicking back and getting some R&R. Friday night we kicked off the weekend with an early Cinco de Mayo dinner with some dear friends (sorry, no pictures, I forgot to document!) with some margaritas, yummy meal, and a homemade Mexican chocolate ice cream that was amazing - honestly, we were still talking about it the next day!

Saturday, after some morning errands, we celebrated (again!) at our favorite spot, El Rey. After that it was family nap time, followed by some play time for Delaney and a hibachi dinner at Kobe's to celebrate my sis-in-law's graduation (yay Mimi!) We had fun visiting, eating, and watching the show - although Delaney wasn't too sure about the onion volcano or anything involving bursts of fire - but she loved the food!

Being silly with Pop at El Rey - she can say "Hola!" and "Gracias!"

Working out the chopsticks at Kobe's

Sunday, we ended our weekend worshipping at church, with lunch afterwards and a meeting to follow for me. We spent the afternoon doing our laundry and grocery shopping (not fun, but it makes for a much happier week when there are clean clothes and food in the house, I've found), and finally some pool time and a yummy meal with Grannie & Pop.

 This girl loves her kiddie pool!

                                                          Sharing her snacks with Daddy

                                             Yummy blueberries, one of D's favorite snacks.

                                                             Me and my girl. Love her!!

All worn out from a day of fun in the sun

Wonderful Wednesday.

This week, I took a day off to spend with two of my favorite girls - Delaney and my mom (now know as Grannie around these parts). We went to the zoo in the morning with our friends the VanSickles, followed by lunch with daddy, some fun in the kiddie pool at Grannie's house, and an ice cream date! It was a really fun way to spend a Wednesday, and I think we both enjoyed the beautiful day together!!

Here are some pictures from our day:

                                  Delaney checking out the elephants - they came up really close!

                                                                        Cheese!!

                                      Tracey pushing Linley and walking Gavin - wonder woman!!

                                               Delaney and Grannie checking out the zebras

Delaney and mommy checking out her favorite - the mingos!

                                    
                                           Yummy lunch at Pie in the Sky near Daddy's office

Fun in the inflatable pool

                                                 

Afternoon ice cream treat!

Fashion plate.

Delaney is becoming a real accessory fiend these days. Although she usually protests getting out of her jammies in the morning (but really, who doesn't, albeit silently), she loves getting to decide what to do with her hair, what shoes to wear, and which pair of sunnies goes with her outfit. Most mornings, as we are climbing the stairs to get dressed, she declares the hairstyle of the day. Mommy is pretty crafty on this and can do a variety: down, pony head (also known as "ponytail" for those who don't speak toddler), pigtails, and bow. She also loves to wear hats, so much so that I had to go on a mission to find some more colors of hats, as one white and one pink/purple was not cutting it with every outfit. Sometimes Delaney throws a real curve ball and decides which bow she wants to wear before the outfit is picked out. That leaves Mommy the task of finding a suitable outfit for said bow. Lucky for this mommy, we have a lot of outfits to choose from.

Not last to mention are the shoes and the sunnies. Delaney loves picking out her shoes (I usually cut it down to two matching choices for her to decide on), and her sunnies (we go wild here and where absolutely any color, matching or not). In my never-tiring quest to create a mini-me, Delaney has sunnies enough for many more pairs of eyes than exist on her beautiful little face. She's got yellow, pink, white with flowers, pink with flowers, purple, and the list goes on. What can I say? If the bows and the sunnies are right, how can your day go wrong?

Here are some recent pictures of my girl sporting some of her favorite things:

                                      These yellow bows are her favorites for pigtail wearing

 Supervising mommy getting ready and going over our to-do list for the day. Check out the awesome colors!

                                                              How cool is this chick?

                           Rockin' the pigtails and yellow bows again at family fro yo night!

Loving this one - she demanded eating in her sunnies for lunch! Guess she didn't want to be bothered by the paparazzi mom...HA!

Cookin' up a new kitchen.

For a few months, Andrew & I entertained the idea of listing our house and buying a new one. There were a few upgrades we were looking for, but as we scoured the internet search pages, we realized that there really isn't anything that offers the location, layout, and yard that we love in what we have now (at least not in our price range!) That said, we decided to start on some changes to our house to make it a place we love even more! We started with new carpet last year, and a few little decorative projects (like our gallery wall in the living room), but this was our first major DIY room project - our kitchen. We are SO proud of the results and plan to enjoy this room a long time.

Here are the pictures, and a few details of our hard work.

 The only before picture I could find, from our housewarming party in 2008. Aren't we cute?

Flash to 2012 - cue sale of table on CraigsList, losing the curtain, transplating our big letters into our bedroom (because I still love those) and...

Don't you LOVE it?? We do! My amazing hubby installed wainscoting and chairrail, we gave the walls a fresh coat of the same paint, and some fresh trim paint too. Oh, how I adore a freshly painted space!

 New shelves and art on our walls. Shelves from Lowe's, and much of my other decor is repurposed from other areas in the house. It's amazing what you can do with some spraypaint! The milk glass vase on the top shelf is an antique from my mom's family. The Home is wherever I'm with you sign is from Caitcreate on Etsy, German sign (a little nod to the Klahn heritage) means "Life is beautiful" and was purchased from EinBierBitte on Etsy.

 Another look. Hey, it's my blog and I can over-post if I want to!

 A version of kid-friendly artwork that I've seen often on Pinterest. Artwork courtesy of my sweet girl!

 Our table! Ah, our table. I wish I had taken a before of this thing! It was a CraigsList find that had more potential than personality to start. The legs were bright white, top was a light oak (you know the fake looking kind?) and the chairs were a combo of those two shades. Kind of scratched up, beat up, but sturdy and changeable!! We sanded it all down, spray painted the chairs and table legs (Lovely Buff gloss by Valspar - LOVE the Valspar spray paint!) and used Rustoleum dark walnut stain on the top, along with 4 coats of varnish to protect this baby, since it is a dining table after all.

 Finally, my bowl of lemons has a home again! Thanks mom & dad for the pretty mini rose addition!

We are so thrilled with the outcome of the room, and all our hard work was worth it. Major DIY projects are not easy with a toddler in the house, but we were able to complete this one in a Saturday - Saturday start to finish (including one hard-working kid-free day while Delaney hung with Grannie & Pa).

Next project: revamping Delaney's play areas! We are about halfway done with this already, so I'll wait until the work is complete to share that with you! 

The zoo.

A while back I bought a Groupon to the zoo. $5 for admission for two, plus I had a $5 Groupon coupon (anyone else love how that rhymes?), so we got a zoo day for FREE! Delaney had a ball. We had been once before when she was much smaller, but this time she could really see and name the animals. Her favorites were the leopards - "sooo cute mama!" and the fishies. Here are some pictures from our fun family day!

Toddler trauma in aisle 3.

One of February's memories wasn't a fun one. Delaney experienced her first real tantrums this month. (Fast forward: they are gone for now, thank goodness!) In hindsight, I think Delaney must have been coming down with a sickness the Saturday these events transpired, but Daddy & I were convinced that the terrible 2's had invaded a few months early.

Woah.

The day started out fine, and transpired into a mess of tears, timeouts, and 3 very weary people (apparently throwing a tantrum is just as hard work as dealing with one!)

Here's where the mom logic went out the window.

Andrew had to be at church that evening, but alas, we need groceries, so off I trekked with my little diva to Wal-Mart. A quick trip with a short list. We've done this solo a million times, what's a million and one, right?

Wrong. So very, very wrong.

In the dog food aisle, Delaney dropped her goldfish (the snack, which is pretty much a shopping staple for us. Happy baby = mom able to put things into cart and check out). Seems like a win-win. But the concept of not being able to eat off the floor of Wal-Mart (there are some things you just can't compromise on, people) was just too much for this little girl to handle.

Insert kicking, yelling, and crying here. Delaney was pretty upset too.

I kid, I kid. I actually stayed really calm, attempted to calm her down to no avail, and then decided the best way to handle this was to get the heck out of there. So we bee-lined it to the checkout with the few things we had picked up, and got to the car.

Daddy to the rescue helped with dinner and bath, while Mommy took some time to decompress. The hardest part was getting my head around how my sweet little girl could act like this!

When we got home, I told Delaney that I loved her very much but did not like her behavior at all and did not want to see her act like that anymore. I asked for a kiss. I got it, along with her response: "I'm sorry, mama." And mama's heart melts.

Ah, turns out my sweet little girl is still my sweet little girl after all. Wal-Mart just gets to people.

Back Up - Let's talk about love.

Oops. Is it March already? We have been insanely busy since the New Year started, and haven't looked back. Instead of missing an entire month of excitement, I decided to go back and talk about a few memorable moments of our February. First stop: Valentine's Day!

Andrew & I love to celebrate Valentine's Day at home. We don't like the crowds and ridiculous people out, so we just make our own night of it at home. This year, after we put our little love to bed, we celebrated with a nice meal, gifts, and a good movie.

Since we have been dieting/eating healthy/whatever you want to call it, this was a big cheat meal for us. So we had some of our favorites: Blackberry Merlot wine (if you haven't tried it, you must!), homemade pizza (soooo delish), and Ben & Jerry's (need I say more?)

One of the gifts Andrew gave me was a new movie, Friends with Benefits. We curled up on the couch and watched while we let our food settle. It was a great night with my love, celebrating the life we've created together, and the love that started it all!

Here are some pics I snapped on my phone from our night:

Our pretty table. Even if you celebrate at home, you still need a little romance!

My Valentine whipping up an amazing meal.

The finished product. Divine.

Still lovebirds. Me and the man of my dreams!