Potty Training

I've been saying since I started back at school that I wanted to try to potty train Lucas during winter break. Well, winter break is upon us and it's time. A few other Moms have also expressed interest in potty training, and reached out to the masses via social media for advice. I decided this would be a good time to write down my potty training techniques.

Let me start by saying that every child is different, and no single method will be effective for every child. I'm aware of this, and I don't expect anyone to want to actually do what I suggest. I'm just putting it out there, because I've had good luck with it in the past. I'm not an expert, and do not claim to be.

I was a preschool teacher for 2 years, then a nanny, and now a mommy. I always have started by introducing the kids to the potty through observation. In the preschool we had a large open kids' bathroom, so kids could see their friends going potty and it sparked interest. When I was a nanny, I told the parents to have an "open door" policy with the bathroom for a month or two before trying to potty train. Kids need to see what they are supposed to do. In my house, we've always had an open door policy with Lucas. He's very aware of what happens in the bathroom. He even cheers us on. Open door policies, apparently, make some parents squeamish. I live by a "to each their own" philosophy. It works for me, it always has. I'm sticking with it. 

So after we had a decent "observation" period, I like to jump straight to a cold turkey method. I buy about 10 pairs of comfy easy-wash pants. I tend to go for cheap sweatpants. Then put that kid in undies, with lots of talk about how to keep them dry/clean, and then just go with it. As a preschool teacher we would make bathroom trips every 20 minutes if I had a potty training child in my class. As a nanny to twins, we started with potty trips every 6 minutes, and increased the time between trips by 1 minute every hour. I know that may seem excessive, but the twins were fully potty trained in under two weeks. The first two days are always the toughest. Expect to go through all those sweatpants for the first few days. Be ready for the onslaught of laundry. 

The most important part about potty training is your attitude. Stay positive. If you go into it dreading the amount of laundry, or stressing about accidents you'll drive yourself nuts. Not to mention, your kiddo will pick up on those bad vibes, and the whole experience will be less than pleasant. Have realistic expectations, and stay as level headed as possible. 

I'm on the fence with "rewarding" successful potty trips. At the daycare, we didn't really do much in the way of rewarding kids for using the potty. We certainly were encouraging and very congratulatory, but never gave a physical reward. The twins' mom, however, insisted that they get 1 M&M for every time they peed, and 2 M&M's for every B.M. This seemed good in the theory, except that there was no end to the rewards. When they moved, a full two years after potty training began, she was still giving rewards for potty success. 

I'm planning to start the process (again) with Lucas on the first of the year. He's very interested in the potty. He's even asked to wear underwear a few times in the past couple weeks. I have found potty training other people's children to be quite easy. I have a feeling that potty training my own child will be quite different, but I'm excited about the process. My little guy consistently surprises me with his ability to cope with change. I have the highest hopes for him!

I should be writing a paper about mortgage backed securities and financial collapse following subprime mortgage lending, but I just need to gush about my little guy for a minute.

Today we put together his "big boy bed". And by put together, I mean we took the crib out, and put a box-spring and mattress on a frame for him. Thanks to poor planning on my part, his headboard/footboard (from his convertible crib) don't fit in his tiny bedroom. You see, when we first found out we were pregnant, we designated the smaller of the two extra bedrooms as the "nursery", fully intending to move our little bundle into the larger room when the transition to bed happened. Well, the bigger room isn't ready for him. It get too cold in there, and we aren't in a position to really fix it up the right way right now. Not to mention, he really loves his bedroom. It's his and he knows it.

So, poor Lucas has a bed with no headboard and footboard. But guess what? He doesn't care! It looks just like Mommy & Daddy's - we have no headboard/footboard. It has his special Pottery Barn Kids Cat in the Hat bed set from Auntie Karla. He loves it.

We put it together about an hour before nap time today, and when nap-time rolled around I braced myself for a battle. I thought I'd have to put him back in his bed a million times. Nope. We read storied, tucked him in with the same routine we used for his crib, and walked out. He cried, like he always does, for a few minutes and then fell asleep. Never got out of bed. I had to wake him up after a 2 hour nap, to ensure he'd be tired for bedtime.

I thought for sure bedtime was going to be dreadful, but no. It was exactly the same. I even got to sneak a peak of him alseep in his bed. You see, once Lucas is down, we don't EVER open the door. I swear he hears every creak it makes. But somehow the cat got in his room tonight, and was scratching to get out, so I had to open the door. And of course I had to sneak a peak... tiptoe over to see his precious little face. My baby is not a baby any more. He's a kid. A kid who sleeps in his own full size bed.

I pushed and pushed for this big milestone, and who's having the most trouble with it? Me. Of course.

Things I learned on date night...

Saturday night was my husband's 10 year high school reunion. I spent months worrying about it, and then on Monday night he decided he didn't want to go. I was both disappointed and relieved. But most of all, I was concerned about what the hell we were going to do. We'd already booked a babysitter, my younger cousin, who we plan to ask to be a regular sitter once a month so we can go out. Cancelling was not an option. It was the first time we asked her, and I didn't want to go changing things on her.

So we decided to "wing" it. This is not a concept that I'm comfortable with, but I decided to just stop being a whiny baby. Here's what I learned:

• I love small intimate Italian restaurants, except when a friend is having a date 3 feet away from us. Then I feel like I'm spying. 
• I dress too conservatively for dance clubs, apparently. 
• Clubs I used to frequent have changed quite a bit.
• Dubstep is not for me, but I really am glad I experienced it. 
• Jersey Shore style clubs are not my style either, but holy moly are they entertaining.
• Researching a night out is not always the best way.
• My husband is, and always will be, my favorite dance partner. 
• Hanging out with people that are 5 years younger than you really makes you feel your age.
• I saw more vaginae last night than I ever have in my life.
• Apparently the plural for of vagina is vaginae. (pronounce vuh-ji-NEE) You're welcome. 
• I don't need a drink in hand, or to be drunk, to dance anymore. I'm over the insecurity hump. 
• Driving home with a bunch of drunk friends in the minivan (we had a designated driver, always!) is often more fun then the actual outing.

Tonight is all about snuggling a little boy that missed me last night. I missed him too, but I really needed a good night out dancing the night away with his Daddy. 

I'm alive

I kind of fell out of my blogging habits this past week. I had a couple big tests, a sick toddler, 3 photo shoots, and a lot of planning to do. I'll give a quick synopsis of the going on around here.

This week, I had an accounting test. I am not doing as well in intermediate accounting as I did in the first two levels. My average is a very weak B right now, but I managed an 85% on my last test, and he's dropping the lowest test score, so I"m pretty confident that I can pull off a solid B. It will hurt my GPA, but I'm doing my best, so I need to just let it be.

We had a large family photo shoot on Sunday with John's side. It was stressful, but we got some cute photos out of the deal. One of the 3 photos of my Christmas card was taken that day. On Wednesday I had another photo shoot, this time a local Target, for my sister's two kids & Lucas to have some holiday shots done. We always give our very large family photos of the kids each holiday (which can get mighty expensive). I ended up with a great solo shot of Lucas that was totally unplanned, but I bought a bunch of copies. Then today John & I had a small shoot on our stairs, with Lucas, for our Christmas photo & for a large print to be hung in our living room. We got a few great shots. Over all, I'm very happy.

I went out last night with Heather, Kate & Nikki to go see the latest in the Twilight Saga. There were some parts that absolutely made me cringe, but overall the movie was ok. It was nice to get out, if nothing else. The wedding scenes were great. All the scenes with Charlie at the wedding had me all choked up, it reminded me of my Dad at my wedding.

Now to the fun stuff. For those that know me, you already know that I am a bargain shopper. I hate paying full price for anything, especially during the holiday season. Christmas card bargain shopping has always been a favorite sport of mine. I tend to split my order among 3-4 companies to get the best bargains. My goal is always to spend under $50 on all my Christmas cards, because postage always costs me around $45, and my overall budget is $100 on Christmas cards. This year, and last year, I have cheated. I don't buy traditional Christmas cards. I don't even buy the "cheap" flat photo cards that are ever so popular this time of year. I go even cheaper. I buy custom printed post cards. I design a template in Photoshop (which I'm not very good at), and upload it to the site and I'm all done.

Last year, I spent $33 on 100 post cards, 100 envelopes and a set of 140 return address labels, and then paid about $10 for shipping. I came in under budget. This year, I amazed myself. I got 100 postcards, 100 envelopes, 2 kinds of return address labels (140 of each design) and 140 custom gift tags for $21. Shipped. That's right. I spent less than half as much money and got more products.

I love buying products that are designed for a different function, and making them fit my needs. Like the gift tags, are actually return address labels that I rearranged, and re purposed. Sure, I spent a couple hours playing with Photoshop, and trying to make everything look OK for the Christmas cards, but I saved tons of money. If I had bought those flat photo cards, even on sale, for $.30 each, I would have spent $30 alone on the cards. Then there's the envelopes, the shipping, etc... It just gets too costly.

What are some ways you save?

Thursday Treats & Yums 11/3/11

This recipe is not my own, but man oh man is it delicious.

Rolo Cake Mix Cookies is a borrowed recipe, that I found on bunsinmyoven.com .

Simple cookies to make. Simpler to eat.
This is not a vegan recipe, clearly. But it would work well to adapt to a vegan recipe. Use a vegan chocolate cookie recipe (such as this one from Food.com but without chocolate chips) and put Choices Vegan Caramel Chocolates in the center.

My only advice when making this recipe is to be careful. The dough is SUPER sticky. I put mine in the refrigerator to chill for a half hour before rolling into balls, and coated my hands with Crisco so they wouldn't stick. It worked great, and didn't compromise the flavor of the cookie.

Rolo Cake Mix Cookies 

You'll need:

• 1 box devils food cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil
• Rolo candies (have fun unwrapping!)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
2. Mix together the first three ingredients. Grab a small piece of dough (about half the size of a golf ball) and roll it into a ball. Smoosh a Rolo in the center, and then close the dough around the Rolo. Repeat until all of the dough is used. I left them in a ball shape, the original recipe calls for them to be flat.
3. Bake for about 9-12 minutes. 

Wordy Wednesday 11/2/11

This weeks favorites:

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown By: Charles M. Schultz

Do I really need to review this? Love this story, though Lucas lost interest quickly. He loves to tell me the names of the characters. He chose it every night this week!

Elmo in Dreamland By: DiCicco Studios

Honestly, I don't like this one. Lucas presses the button, the music starts and I have to sing the lyrics printed in the book. Cute songs, quick & easy. I am just not a huge fan. Lucas loves it though, and that's what bedtime stories are all about it.


Mama's book:
I'm still reading "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson. I don't think I even read 20 pages this week. It's been a busy week around her. I'm hoping to curl up with it tonight for an hour or so.

Photo Challenge Week of 11/1/11

I know that this is not a great photo, but... Halloween was cancelled in our neck of the woods. Thanks to an untimely Nor'easter, the area was full of downed power lines, power outages and other trick-or-treating hazards. We'll be heading out to trick-or-treat on Friday night, but here's a cute photo of Lucas in his Dino costume from Monday. 

PS, please don't give me any seatbelt shit. I know that the clip goes on his chest, parallel to his armpits. I adjusted it after the photo. My parenting skills have kept him alive this long. Thanks

Linking up with The Paper Mama Photo Challenge

Thursday Treats & Yums 10/27/11

I have been searching for ways to effortlessly make roasted chicken, and I read a few recipes for slow-cookers. So today I went for it.

CrockPot "Roasted" Chicken:
You'll Need:
1 whole roasting chicken
1/2 stick butter
Minced garlic (to your liking)
Chicken Seasoning (see note below)
Crock Pot
Tin foil.

Ready for this?

• Roll 4-5 pieces of tin foil into 3/4-1" balls & place on bottom of crock pot.
• Throughly rinse chicken, remove innards, and pat dry.
• Place chicken on top of foil balls
• Melt 1/2 stick of butter in microwave, add minced garlic
• Pour melted butter/garlic over chicken
• Sprinkle with Chicken Seasoning
• Turn crockpot on low
• Wait for the popper to pop (have a meat thermometer handy too! 165° F)
• My chicken took about 7 hours on low. I've read that you can do 1 hr on high and 3 on low. 

The chicken came out perfectly juicy, and not dry like I thought it might. My only criticism is that the skin doesn't get crispy in a slow-cooker. I used the remainder of the chicken to make (the world's simplest) chicken pot pies. Yum! 

A note about Chicken Seasoning: So, in preparation for this post I went to my trusty bottle of Chicken Seasoning to see what it actually is. I always buy the same bottle, from the same store, and have since John & I started dating. I've never checked what's in it. Here's what I found. "Ingredients: Salt, Peper, Spices (including paprika)". Ummm. Wonderful. What spices might those be?? A search of their website brought me no answers. I suppose that's what I get for buying cheap dollar-store seasoning! 

Wordy Wednesday 10/26/11

This week has been all about the books. Lucas is in full-fledged dinosaur obsession, so we've been reading last week's books a lot still.

I've tried to weasel in a few new books. Here's the one's he's taken to so far:

Little Blue Truck by: Alice Schertle

Lucas LOVES this book... only when John reads it to him. You see, John reads it in an awful southern accent. He and his father think that you must talk in a horrible attempt at a southern accent to discuss trucks. Lucas giggles away while John reads this to him in his goofy accent. I'm just glad he likes it! It's a cute story.

Frederick by: Leo Lionni

This has always been a favorite around here. Lucas calls it "Fwed-fick" which cracks me up every time. This started as an attempt to potty train. I took out all of the "longer" story books, with actual pages rather than board books, and read to Lucas while he sat on the potty early this summer. Well, we stopped trying to potty train, he lost interest, but we weren't ready to part with Frederick. What a great story. I love it.

I figured I should mention that I also read, albeit very slowly. Right now I'm finishing up Steig Larsson's trilogy by reading: 

I loved the first two. I will say that it took me a while to get "into" The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It was slow in the beginning, but once it really grabbed me I was hooked. I flew through the second book (The Girl Who Played With Fire) in a couple days. The third one is slow going for me. I have midterms at school, and have been busy with park stuff, so I'm lucky to sneak in 10-20 minutes of reading a day. But I'm interested to see where the plot goes.

Photo Challenge Week of 10/24

This week's photo challenge is "face".

If you know Lucas, you know he's obsessed with brushing his teeth. He brushes every time I use the bathroom, which if you know me, is a lot! I decided that it was high time I documented some of his hilarity. 90% of his teeth-brushing technique is sucking the water out of his toothbrush. I love this face.

Linking up with The Paper Mama's Photo Challenge

 

Thursday Treats & Yums 10/10/12

A new weekly recipe post? Ok!

I have to honest. I don't cook as often as I should, but when I do I feel so accomplished. Lucas LOVES to help me bake. Or cook anything that requires "mixing". He yells "mix, mix, mama! I do mix mix!" It's pretty adorable.

Tonight was not one of those nights. And I forgot to take photos, but that's ok. I will put the recipe here and add photos to next week's creation.

Tonight for dinner we had:
Eggplant Parmigiana - easiest thing ever!
You will need:
9x12 pan (I use Pyrex)
Large frying pan (I use a jumbo cooker)
1 jar of tomato sauce (I use Francesco Rinaldi, cheap and delicious!)
1 medium eggplant (or whatever size will feed your family)
2-3 eggs (beaten)
Flour
Bread crumbs (Italian seasoned, or you can add seasoning to plain bread crumbs)
Oil to fry in (I use as little as I can get away with)
1 tbsp. minced garlic
Mozzarella & Parmesan cheese

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F. 
• I usually let the garlic sauté, on low, in the oil while I cut & bread the eggplant
• Cut eggplant into 1/2" slices. If you cut it too thick, it won't cook properly.
• Coat in flour, dip in egg & then coat with bread crumbs.
• Fry eggplant slices on each side until golden brown, don't let oil get too hot, it will burn!  (usually takes about 2-3 mins on each side)
• Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of your Pyrex pan
• Put eggplant in pan, overlapping each other.
• Place a piece of mozzarella on each slice of eggplant
• Top with remainder of jar of sauce
• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
• Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, until eggplant is soft when poke with a fork

I always serve this over pasta. Tonight we tried Ronzoni's Garden Delight fettuccine, and it was delicious. It made about 6 adult servings, assuming each adult eats 2 slices of eggplant. It was delicious. 

This has always been a go-to meal for me when I only have about 45 minutes to prepare something. Enjoy! 

Wordy Wednesday 10-19-11

This week, as many before it, have been all about dinosaurs. Lucas is obsessed with the PBS Kids program called "Dinosaur Train" . There are a few episodes streaming on Netflix, so we usually let him watch an episode (or two) here & there. He loves it! He sings the song, and knows the names of all the dinosaurs. Do you know any 2 year olds that say "michelinoceras" on the regular? (Note: I am aware that a michelinoceras is not an actual dinosaur, but it is featured in a dinosaur train episode, and Lucas picked up the word)

The past few days we have been reading, and re-reading:

When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach

Elise Broach's story is so adorable. A boy is bored by his mother's errands, and is not thrilled about tagging along until he realizes that he gets a dinosaur with everything. Mom buys donuts, he gets a dinosaur. Boy gets a haircut, he gets a dinosaur. Not a toy dinosaur, an actual dinosaur. Cute story. Even cuter ending, when Mom decides to make lemons into lemonade and capitalizes on their new pets' various skills.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up by Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart

This is the pop-up book to end all pop-up books. I was floored when I picked this up off our book shelf. It was one of many hand-me-down books we acquired when my nanny-family moved to Spain. The pop-ups in this book seriously blow my mind. Each page is breath-taking, and has bonus tiny pop-ups behind little flaps with lots of nuggets of information. This is a book that will grow with Lucas, which is something I always love. I will say, he was a little nervous about the T-Rex pop-up, which comes straight out of the book in a chomping motion. He is now over that fear, and enjoys putting his finger in T-Rex's mouth and yelling "CHOMP" as the paper jaws close and he finger is trapped in paper teeth.

Photo Challenge Week of 10/15

Photo Challenge

Another addition to my new attempt at weekly posting will be linking up with Paper Mama's Photo Challenges. I've followed them for some time, and while I'm not a professional photographer, I'd still love to share the beauty I see in my son with her readers. To anyone clicking over from her site, Hello! 

Painting fun 

Steppin' Out Saturday: 10/15/11

Lucas & I headed to a birthday party today. The weather in good old Massachusetts is as unpredictable as ever, so I wasn't sure what to wear. So this tunic with rolled sleeves seemed to fit the wishy-washy nature of the forecast. It's also SUPER windy so my hair is a mess. Oh well. I was comfy. Do note I took the boots off about 10 minutes after we took these photos, and threw on my trusty brown boat shoes. Much more realistic for a birthday party full of two year olds! 

My outfit:

Top, Belt & Necklace>> Thrifted

Boots>>F21

Leggings>>LOFT

Lucas's Outfit:

Polo>> Kohl's

Sweater>> Target

Jeans>> Calvin Klein

Sneakers>> Target

Ideals

My definition of an "ideal" Friday night has sure evolved a lot in the past 10 years or so.

Ideal Friday night of 2001 Nicole: I was still in high school, so I would imagine that having ANY plans would have been great. Likely I would have been hanging out with a group of girls, in a basement somewhere, talking about boys, putting on face masks, and painting our nails. Or I was out with my "wilder" friend, sneaking into clubs or other such debauchery. I had my first "serious" boyfriend in 2001, so Friday night may have included a movie-watching night with him.

Ideal Friday night of 2002-2004 Nicole: I was living at Bridgewater State by that point. Again, any plans would have been nice, but in reality I was either working with my roommate on Friday nights, out drinking (underage) in Providence {or being the Designated Driver, which we always had}. I spent lots of time going to local shows during this time frame. I met some of my best friends at shows. Music has always been the common thread for all my friendships. My last option would have been hanging out with the worst "boyfriend" I ever had. He wasn't even really a boyfriend, so much as someone that I hung out with, and spent obscene amounts of time trying to impress. He was the definition of "loser" and I wasted some of my most attractive years on him. I also saw my husband for the first time at a party once during this time frame, though we were not introduced.

Ideal Friday night of 2005-2008 Nicole: John and I were dating by this point. We spent our Fridays doing anything and everything. We'd laugh into the wee hours of the morning. We'd drive aimlessly for hours. We'd go dancing. We'd eat late night food with more calories than we should consume in a day. We'd find adventure in doing nothing. We had great nights out with friends, and great nights in together. We'd go in his mom's hot tub in mid-January, and watch my hair freeze (since he didn't have any!) We had no one to answer to, and not a care in the world other than being together. We also spent a fair amount of time apart, with our own friends. I had plenty of girls nights out, and even more girls nights in. I spent more Fridays than I can remember scrapbooking, or playing with my nephew with my girlfriends.

Ideal Friday night of 2008-2009 Nicole: Pregnant Nicole wanted nothing more than to eat, and be catered to. John waited on my hand and foot, and never batted an eyelash. Friday night was really the middle of my weekend because I was working on Monday through Wednesday. We usually spent the time going over business plans, finances, or drawing ramps for the skatepark that was under development. As long as there was food involved, I was happy. I also rediscovered my love of reading while I was pregnant.

Ideal Friday night of Present Day Nicole: Quiet. I love the quiet of my house right now. John is at work, and while I miss him, and would rather he was home, I'm happy to have some alone time too. I love to sit on the couch, with a glass of wine, and my latest "project" and watch mindless TV. Sometimes I have a crochet project, sometimes an ancestry project, sometimes a homework assignment, but I always have something "busy" to do. My absolutely ideal Friday night (when I'm stuck home because John is at work) is to grab a glass of wine, fill the bathtub with hot water and bubbles, and read a book for hours. I'll refill that tub with warm water 15 times if I have to. (See also: I need a bigger, better tub. Whirlpool, are you listening?)

Tonight, I spent an extra long time rocking with my little guy, reading books. I'm writing this while my pumpkins seeds are roasting, and I'm anxiously awaiting my bath. There really is nothing better than a nice quiet Friday night in.

Though a Friday night out does have it's appeal too... Dancing & drinks? Ok!

Image via Pinterest 

Family Craft Time

We carved pumpkins as a family today. Lucas colored on his pumpkin with markers for about 15 mins and lost interest. John & I continued to work for 3 hours! Clearly someone (JOHN!) is an overachiever, and far more artistically inclined that me. That's fine. We had a ton of fun. I wish we had unlimited funds and could buy more pumpkins to carve.

Wordy Wednesday 10-12-11

I'm going to try to start doing a few "weekly" posts. These scheduled posts help me to take inventory of the small blessings in my life, such as bedtime stories.

This weeks' favorites are:

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly - by Simms Taback 

We love "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly." We've been reading it nearly every night for weeks. Yes, this book does contain the "Perhaps she'll die" line, from the folksong. Yes I read it as written. That's how it was sung to me as a little girl, and that's how I sing it to my son. He loves it. He sings along with me, and giggles away.

Counting Kisses - By: Karen Katz

"Counting Kisses" has been another go-to book for many months. I credit this book with my sons ability to count so well. I have no been a diligent "teacher" to my son. As a former preschool teacher, I'm surprised that I don't "instruct" him as much as I did when I taught, or even when I was a nanny. I find that in a mothering role, I tend to teach my showing and engaging him in everyday practices that lead to learning. I do count aloud, but I don't ever "teach" him to count. He surprised me one day at a restaurant with my parents when he took out the sugar packets and successfully counted to 8. This book counts down from 10 kisses, to the final kiss before bedtime. Lucas loves it and can tell me where each of the kisses land. For example, if I were to say to him "10 kisses on teeny tiny...?" he'll yell "TOES!". At first I thought he just remembered the order of the body parts in the book, so I would pick numbers at random one day, and say the first line from that page, and he'd finish it. He adores this book.

Painting

Busy weekend

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. **

Saturday Night Out

I finally got out on a Saturday night!

John and I were joined by his sister, aunt & father, to attend a breast cancer fundraiser. My parents, sister,brother-in-law and most of my Dad's side of the family was there as well.

We had a blast competing (horribly) in trivia, and trying to win (unsuccessfully) raffles. I forgot to take photos of my newly thrifted dress, until we got home. I will forewarn you, I was a little tipsy, and apparently feeling saucy because I'm mugging it up for the camera. Also, I apparently spilled something on myself before taking photos. Bummer.

Dress>Thrifted
Shoes>hand-me-ups from my sister
Necklace> Pearls, a gift from my GodMother

Here's a cute photo of Lucas with all his bedtime friends. Internet, meet Baby, HopHop, Monkey, Elephant Pillow, Big blankie & brown blankie. Oh and Pillow pet.

Linking up with Mandy from Harper's Happenings

http://www.harpershappenings.com