Weekends are always busy. This weekend was especially busy!
Friday night, Lucas & I attended a suprise 30th birthday party for my best friend's sister. Turns out she got engaged that morning and announced at the party. It was great fun, though Lucas and I only lasted about an hour. 7pm is a bit late for Lucas to start partying. I made these delicious donuts for the party, but forgot them!! Sorry, Lisa!
Saturday was a whirlwind of preparations. I baked 2 batches of Rolo cake-mix cookies, and plated them with my donuts. I ran around like a crazy person to get Lucas all packed up for his overnight visit with my in-laws. After dropping him off, I made a mad dash back home and had a whopping 45 minutes to get ready for the 3rd Annual True To You Stump Trivia Night Fundraiser. I wore my FAVORITE (to date) thrifted dress. It's an adorable magenta pinstriped house dress. I love it.
Sunday we spent the day at my mother in law's house. Lucas loves it there, and after seeing the photos below, anyone can see why. It's so peaceful on the lake, and the comfort of being at a grandparents house, combined with the beautiful scenery is just irreplaceable. I love spending time there!
The view
My handsome husband
The boys heading out to go fishing
Yes, his eyes are THAT blue
I love these chubby little hands
1st fish of 5 !!!
He had to touch all of the fish & throw them back in!
See what I caught, guys?
**Before I catch heat from the safety police. I know he should have a life vest on when near open water, this lake happens to be knee deep at the end of this dock, and there were 6 adults and two children. Also, we had Lucas wash his hands after touching the fish, I know they have bacteria and germs on them. **
This will likely be mostly a photo post. I'll include a little blurb about each photo beneath it. I don't really have the words to describe just how awesome last night was. We needed it for a lot of reasons, and it was nice to feel like all was right with the world, for those few hours at the circus!
This photo is a little dark, but if captures Lucas's spirit perfectly. The look of "wow", and John's look of peace are all I need in this world. Seriously. It's the bottom line for me.
A little unsure about this fluffy stuff...
"Ok, well if it's Daddy's favorite then I'll give it a shot!"
(Ps, I don't wanna hear about how horrible it is to give a two year old cotton candy.
We're at the fucking circus. Leave me alone!)
These tigers were phenomenal. I was so impressed, and you could tell they were very well treated and their trainer really loved them. They were so sweet, and very talented. Lucas really liked them, and continued to "ROAR" even after they were out of sight.
Yes, that is a tiny little man up there, dangling above those onlookers. He was extremely exciting to watch, and Lucas kept saying "Oh, wow!"
These camels scared the shit out of me. They were running, at full camel-speed around the "ring". Did I mention the ring was a whopping 2 feet in front of us, separated by a PVC "fence" with a vinyl banner?? I thought for sure we'd be trampled to death. Alas, we survived, and the camels had some pretty neat tricks!
Why, yes, that is a Jack Russel riding a pony. What of it? My mother has a Jack Russel named Max, and Lucas was convinced that it was Max out there. He was so proud of Max. So proud.
The elephants were definitely the best part of the show. Such sweet gentle animals, so huge. Lucas insists on yelling "moooooooo" at them. He knows they are elephants, and says so. He'll also tell me they go "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" (while pointing at the sky as if he had trunk), and immediately follows it with "mooo". Cracks me up.
Wow, elephants! I was amazed.
I'm so glad they saved the fire act for the end. Lucas is petrified of all things "hot". This scared the shit out of him. While he did't cry, he did shake and grasp on to me as if his very life depended on it. He was very scared, and I don't blame him. The heat from those flames was unreal, and as I said, we were VERY close.
...so much fun!
Everything I need. Everything I live for.
I should mention that Lucas was so well behaved, despite the fact that the circus started at 7:30 pm. He usually goes to bed at 8. Oh, and did I mention that it was raining? Oh it was raining. Pouring, even. And that tent was leaky!
Lucas peed, all over John and I. Through his clothes. Onto both of us. And me being the oh-so-clever mom that I am, I swapped our diaper bag for a smaller version and never bothered to put extra pants in the small bag. Rookie mistake!
SO... Lucas sat on my lap in just a diaper, with my sweatshirt wrapped around him like a blanket. He didn't seem to mind. We also lost our umbrella during the circus, due to a seating mishap. So we had to make a run for it when it was time to go to the car. Lucas enjoyed the "shooowwwwww" (pronounced like the first syllable of shower. Which is what he calls a shower).
I love my boys. I'm so glad we spent this time together. I'm a lucky lady to be so loved by those guys.
Well well well... it's been a crazy couple of days.
As you know, there were multiple tornado warnings for my area on Wednesday. We were VERY fortunate not to be hit by any tornadoes, as the destruction in western Massachusetts is simply devastating. I realize how lucky we are, and my heart goes out to those in western Mass. that were affected. With that being said, having a tree get struck by lightning mere feet away from you is pretty horrifying.
We had no idea just how bad it was until the next day. The photos in the slideshow below are proof that Mother Nature is one fierce lady! Holy Moly! Yesterday we were able to see the spiral of bark missing from our tree a bit more clearly. I was concerned enough to call th Tree Warden in our town and ask him to take a look. We also have an interesting situation. We are not sure if the tree actually belongs to us, or our town. It sits halfway in our driveway, and halfway on the banks of a brook that is owned by the town. It's roots actually help support the structural walls of the brook. I put in a call to the Warden at about 10am yesterday, and never heard back from him. I spent the day at my Mom's and arrived back home after dark, and everything seemed fine.
Then I woke up this morning, and upon further inspection, I can see a crack, that follows the same spiral as the tree bark. Not good. So I got nervous. I called the Warden and left him a message to call me as soon as possible. I told the neighbors (A local Verizon branch) to move their cars, just in case. I called my insurance company to see if removal would be covered. The agent says it's not, I requested another copy to be sent to my house so I can re-read my policy. I seem to have misplaced mine. I called several tree removal companies to get estimates as soon as possible.
The Warden called be back and said that he seen the tree, and it definitely needed to come down. He started dancing around the issue of whether it was the Town's tree, or our tree. I finally cut him off, and said something to the effect of "Listen. I have a two year old in this house. I need this taken care of as soon as possible. I don't want to sit around and wait two weeks for you to determine that the tree is mine or not, and risk our lives for politics". He reassured me that they were working diligently to determine whose responsibility it is. The rest of the conversation he spoke as if the town will, in fact, be taking care of the matter and it's just a matter of finding out which company they will be subcontracting the job to. He actually said "you may go out for the afternoon and return to find that the tree has been removed". He also asked me to have the neighboring business leave their gate (non-existent gate!) open for the weekend so they can access the property.
I'm praying this is a quick & fairly pain free process.
I did go out and tear down the 6 foot flap of bark from the tree, and laid it out on the lawn to dry out. My husband, John, plans to paint something on it for us to hang in the house as a memento of our brush with Mother Nature.
(you may want to watch on youtube site, to be able to read captions... i'm new to technology! haha)
Edit: It's now Saturday afternoon. I received a call yesterday afternoon saying that the tree was, in fact, town property and a crew would be out Saturday morning. Well, we all awoke to the wonderful sound of chainsaws at 8am today. (Yes, my nearly-2 year old was STILL asleep at 8am. No, I don't hold the universe's secrets. He just likes to sleep). Our tree is now gone. It took them less than an hour to cut that sucker down, pack up and leave. Amazing.
