family

exercise report

Melissa 4 Comments

Confession: This is me.

I am not a fan of exercise.
I have to force myself workout.
I am super awesome at finding excuses… I’m tired. I’m PMS-ing. I’m too busy. Its Tuesday. Its awful.

Well, we joined a gym last month and I am determined to workout.

You know how they say that when you workout you feel better? Something about endorphins? How you start to love exercise?

Its a myth. A total myth.
someecards.com - Exercising always reminds me why I hate exercising.

Frankly the only thing I like about working out at the gym is that I get to drop off my kids and no one talks to me for awhile.

Oh. OH — want to hear the best part? I have lost exactly zero pounds. ZERO. Zip. NADA. Not a single stinking pound, despite my sweating my butt off 3-4 days a week.

Sigh. Back to the gym.

ellie’s best moment

Melissa 2 Comments

Life is full of little moments. Once in awhile, you get a best moment. A moment you will always remember. A moment you will treasure forever.

Last week, we had what had a best moments in Ellie’s life. She got to play soccer with World Cup Champion Brandi Chastain.

Ellie has played soccer for years. Its her favorite sport – and when she found out she was going to get to meet a real, professional soccer player. A real, professional, GIRL soccer player. She asked me every single day how much longer it would be. She was jumping around the car on the way there. We got there, she put on her uniform and pretty much charged onto the field.

(Oh, yeah, Kelly Ripa was there, too.  Ellie was like, “LOOK! Its BRANDI!! Hey, isn’t that the lady in the bank commercials?)

It was amazing. AMAZING. I was in heaven watching my girls have the experience of a lifetime. They were running around, running ‘laundry drills’ with the Electrolux Perfect Steam Washer and Dryer, and finally, playing a game.

I love how Grace is fixing her hair and Ellie is shoving Julie‘s son – who was
on her own team – out of the way to get the ball.
Those are my girls, all right!

After the event, the girls got their photo with Brandi. This was so very important to Ellie. She kept saying, “Mom, make sure I get my picture with her, okay? I really, really want my picture with her.”
Then Ellie really blew me away. Ellie is a little shy around new adults. She almost never says much to them (except when we give her the evil eye to make her make polite conversation). But she stopped Brandi and started talking to her, telling her how much she loved soccer and how she had 4 soccer trophies and she is so proud to meet her.
And Brandi was amazing. She was encouraging Ellie to keep playing and was so excited about her 4 trophies. Brandi Chastain was excited that Ellie had four soccer trophies.

It was amazing. I was tearing up watching them. You don’t have moments like this everyday!!

Electrolux understands how important these little moments are. They make so many appliances that save moms time so that we can spend less time in the laundry room and more time having special moments – everyday and best moments – with our families.  We’re researching washers and dryers now, since our dryer is no longer a dryer, merely a “thing that we put clothes in for several hours at a time” and our washer now slowly moves across the laundry room when the spin cycle is on. We’ve looked at so many brands and Electrolux is clearly the top of the top! They are the stars of my dream laundry room!!

Please go and share your “BEST” moments with Electrolux! Every time you do, Electrolux will donate $1 to OCRF. That’s all you have to do and you can help fight ovarian cancer! Every dollar is needed to help this important cause. Despite huge improvements in detection and treatment, ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among American women. Please take a minute to support OCRF!

disclosure: we received transportation to this event and a gift bag. we were not compensated for this post and, as always, all opinions are my own.

it was everywhere

Melissa 2 Comments

I innocently walk into the bathroom. Holding my freshly brewed cup of coffee, just to check on my little guy who is about to take his nap. And almost spit the coffee out of my mouth.

He’s standing there, holding a wad of toilet paper as big as his head. There was poo everywhere. There was poo all down his leg, on his BACK, on the potty, on the floor, on the wall, on his foot – his FOOT, people.

It was one of those parenting moments when you’re just speechless. You can’t even think of what to say. Things like “How?” and “Why?” just don’t seem to cover the confusion you’re feeling about how what just happened just happened.

20 minutes, half a canister of Lysol wipes, lots of Purell and a bath for Colin later, al I can say is OHMYWORD, I need a vacation.

I have to go redisinfect the bathroom now, just to be safe . And probably my kid, too.

what is lockdown?

Melissa 6 Comments

Last week, I was watching CNN and Gracie came in and joined me. Coverage of the school shooting in Chardon came up and they were talking about the school being in lockdown.

“Wait,” said Grace. “THAT’S what ‘Lockdown’ is? People shooting???”

What is a mom to say? Yes, that is what lockdown is. It is for when there is a danger in the school that you need protecting from. She’s only in first grade, she has no idea what lockdown really was… it was just another thing, like a fire drill or the ‘duck and cover’ earthquake drills I did growing up in California.

She was confused and horrified. It didn’t take long for her to put two and two together.

“So, when my school was in lockdown, there was someone shooting?”

“No, the gunman wasn’t in your school.”
“Then why were we in lockdown?”
“Well… he was near the school.”
“But, why? Why would someone want to shoot people? Why would someone want to hurt us?”

There’s the question, isn’t it? How can you explain something that makes no sense? Especially to a child. A sweet, sensitive child who cried when the hermit crab died, still cries at night because she misses her great grandma and says that she wants to work in a nursing home someday because she “loves giving old people hugs.” How can you convey to this child the inexplicable idea that people are capable of positively evil things that you cannot even imagine? That there are people who would purposely hurt her?

I’m speechless. Truly speechless.

my week in instagram

Melissa

what a week.

we had a day or two that was positively summery.
thursday, colin and i played hooky and headed to the park.

ellie’s hermit crab has the courtesy to wait to die ON HER BIRTHDAY. So we had a funeral.
thanks, dumb crab.

friday was ellie’s birthday party – we took all the kids out to dinner. yummy. I know it sounds crazy to take all those girls out to dinner and give them their own table, but they did such a good job. And were so hilarious. They thought they were hot stuff sitting all by themselves!

saturday we went to longwood gardens. now i’m dreaming of spring….

and we indulged in indian food over the weekend. chicken tikka… yummmm….

left behind

Melissa 3 Comments

For Ellie’s birthday, she got one of her dearest wishes.

She is getting her own room.

She has been sharing a room with Gracie since she was 3 and Ellie is ready for her own space. She’s been asking for months and for her birthday we decided it was time. Ellie is ecstatic, to say the least. The phrase “Best Birthday Present EVER”  has been thrown around. She has big plans for her room – apparently she has been thinking about this for awhile now!

She is so so excited. The night of her birthday, she slept in her ‘new’ room in a sleeping bag, even before her bed got there. She gave me a big hug that night, and settled into sleeping in her new room.

Then I came in to say goodnight to Grace.

She was sobbing.

She was devastated. “I don’t want Ellie to leave!” she cried. “I love sharing a room with her. I’ve always shared a room with her. I don’t want to live by myself.”

I felt so bad. I was so excited to let Ellie have her own space – which she really, really needs – that I never considered that Grace wouldn’t be happy. I thought she would be thrilled to have her own space too. Its not like she never is the one who is whining about her sister being annoying/messy/in her space… But she really feels left behind and abandoned – and that her big sister is leaving her behind, moving on without her.

But I really think this will help their relationship. Living together seems to be causing more issues than its helping lately, and as they enter these tween years, being together 24-7 will probably make things harder.

Having their own space, their own place where they can be alone and have time to themselves will be good. I think they need space to be better friends.

But its hard to be left behind.

 

happy birthday, baby.

Melissa 1 Comment

Slow down, please.

Its going too fast.

How are you nine? NINE. I see the teenager poking through, whether its begging for an iPod for your birthday, dancing to Taylor Swift in your room or giving me “the look”.

But you still love stuffed animals. You still snuggle up to me when we watch a movie. You still play on the tire swing. You still hold my hand.

You still hugged Big Bird. Even when your sister wouldn’t. And when “big kids” were around. I love that.

Slow down… just a little. Don’t grow up too fast. I’m not ready to lose you.

academy of natural sciences

Melissa 1 Comment

This afternoon we had no school (insert daughters doing cartwheels here) so we hit up the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Now, I would never tell you to play hooky. But if you ever have a random day off, go into Philly and hit the museums when they’re not crowded. Even if you’ve been somewhere twenty times, it is incredible to have it practically to yourselves.

The dinosaurs were awesome of course.

Except when they tried to eat Ellie and Grace…

Then we headed up to our favorite place… the Outside In! We met some new friends. Ellie was watching this cute bird play in the water – and it splashed her right in the face! Hilarious!

We got to pet a legless lizard, a box turtle, this swimming turtle I forget the name of…
and THIS GUY:

Can you believe how brave Grace is??

I was brave enough to touch it with one finger, but if that thing had climbed up my arm, I would have probably shattered glass with the high pitch of my scream! (I am NOT a bug person!! I prefer my wildlife cute and furry, thanks.)

We had so much fun – what an amazing day! The Academy of Natural Sciences remains one of our favorite outings in Philly!

Check out the girls’ blog – they wrote about our visit as well!

disclosure: we received a complimentary admission from visitphilly.com. all opinions are our own.


my week in instagram

Melissa 1 Comment

it was a pretty calm week this week.

i learned how to play racquetball which, sadly, i do not have a picture of. four days later, i can lift my arms again.

we had my husband’s parents over for dinner and we were trying to have a conversation
and i couldn’t stop laughing at how colin was climbing over grandpa –
like he’s a jungle gym –
and grandpa was just continuing his conversation.

i went to a fashion event and met some twilight stars.
this picture was taken solely make my sister, amy, super jealous.

we taught the kids to play monopoly.
grace totally kicked everyone’s butts.

colin’s new favorite hairstyle – a faux-hawk.

three year old boy playdate

Melissa

I remember preschool playdates with my girls.
Maybe we’d have a tea party. Or a princess dress up dance. OR they’d color, make necklaces with beads or play Barbies…

Colin had a preschool playdate today.

I was stabbed twice, had my arms cut off by a knight, was shot by a pirate, got shot numerous times with dart guns, got attacked by kung fu ninjas and that was just in the first half an hour.

Little different, these boys.