Make-aheads in the 'fridge

Tomorrow's the big day! The culmination of everything that Erich (and really all of us) have been working toward since before we got married - GRADUATION! The ceremony is at 4:30 and then we'll celebrate with a few local family and friends. Stuffed mushrooms, homeade hummus and lasagna are in the refrigerator, and booze is just waiting to be cracked into. I feel like we can finally start our lives together :)

Easter weekend

An eventful weekend is coming to a close. The "For Sale" sign went up in front of the house and we had two showings. It was rainy and cold for both of them, which meant I got to hang out at the McDonald's playland and/or Petco with Leyland and the kids. A little boy had the misfortune of accidentally stepping on Nolah's hand at McDonald's and incurred the wrath of Eli. It was so cute to see him sticking up for his little sister (although the very next day he would be sent to bed early for purposely scratching her in the face). Thursday afternoon, we met up with a friend of mine, along with her 3 year old and 2 month old at Kensington Metro Park. They had a lot of the baby animals out at the petting farm, and the kids enjoyed chicken tenders and ice cream at Applebee's for lunch. Eli and I colored eggs later on during Nolah's nap. Friday morning was Eli's 3 year check-up. He is weighing in at just 32 pounds, putting him around the 50th percentile; however, he remains below the 15th for his height. It earned us another referral to endocrinology and recommendation to start giving him Carnation instant breakfast. He had two shots and was very brave - the nurse had left the syringes out for him to stare at while she went to get something just before getting poked. He only cried for a minute, and we took him directly to the Detroit Science Center, where there is a display of huge mechanical dinosaurs and a dinosaur IMAX movie. He and Nolah both enjoyed that. Saturday was Eli's 3rd birthday! We all went on a bike ride and then I took him and Nolah to the park to play on the slides. Later, we had more chicken nuggets (these ones were actually shaped like dinosaurs) and a star-shaped birthday cake with a fireman and firetruck on top. We made the early service at Northridge this morning. Eli's been having trouble staying in the nursery there, so I thought I'd teach him a lesson and make him sit through the "boring" adult church service instead. I knew that I had made a mistake when Superman and Spiderman came flying through the rafters and landed on stage at the beginning of the service (which was about power). We then came back to our house to have brunch with both sets of grandparents and Uncle Clint. The kids found Easter eggs in the backyard which were filled with sillybands, candy and bandaids. They also got Easter baskets (aka plastic storage bins) filled with beach towels, water bottles, binoculars, a watering can (etc). Both of them were in bed by 7:30 this evening and if I'm lucky, they'll let me sleep in as well.

Totally '80's

Got to go to the '80s Festival in Frankenmuth FINALLY. The last time I tried to go, I bailed at the last minute due to horrible morning sickness (with Nolah). But this time, we went to a bbq over at a family friend's home and then I tagged along with my brother and his friend after the kids had fallen asleep. It was tons of fun and the cover band was impressive. I took the kids out to play at the Birch Run property on Saturday morning, and then accepted an invite to my brother's friend's house with them in afternoon. They had a great time playing with their baby chickens, then went to another friend's house and used her exercise trampoline. Uncle Wes was home for the weekend and made tacos for everyone. Then we watched Toy Story 3 in my parent's bedroom while they entertained their friends (hosting their monthly card club). Sunday morning, my in-laws were nice enough to watch them even though they had just driven back from Florida the night before. Meanwhile, I met up with a friend of mine for lunch at Black Forest, and spent the afternoon shopping at Birch Run mall. That evening, we had dinner with Wes and his friends. Monday morning, we met the Easter Bunny at Bronners, although the kids were not too keen on getting anywhere close to us. Then we ate a quick lunch and drove back to Canton to see Erich, who had worked hard all weekend getting the house ready to show.

Party Time

It's the time of year where all of the event craziness begins. Today was a baptism celebration and yesterday, a baby shower. Had hung out with friends until late on Friday night so Saturday came a bit too early. Saturday night, we ate at Rocky's in Northville and then strolled through Best Buy, just like we did during high school. Thursday was my last day at work and everyone brought food and kind words. The kids got shuffled around through everything quite a bit but they didn't seem to mind too much. Now they're sleeping and I'm getting down to business with coupon clipping and trashy reality shows.

Weasel Box

Eli calls his jack-in-the-box a "weasel box." I caught him up in his room last night cramming himself into one of his drawers, pretending to be a "weasel box." Tomorrow is their last day of daycare and my last day of work. I'm feeling surprisingly anxious/sad about both. I packed a buffet of homeade junk food to send with the kids - ice cream cone brownies, hamburger cookies, chocolate covered pretzels...the teachers are going to be furious :) I've never done well with transitions so I'm gearing up for an emotional day tomorrow. As for tonight, I'm self medicating with a glass of Erich's vintage concord and trashy reality tv.

Broker

We've had two visits from brokers this week and need to decide with whom we will list our house. It's painful to have confirmed what we already knew - that we are ridiculously underwater. We may decide to rent for a couple of years and cross our fingers that the market will improve a bit rather than having to come to the table with the money we'd owe on the mortgage. Thursday evening I went to a Cindy Champnella training at Northridge Church, then packed up the kids and took off Friday morning for Frankenmuth. We celebrated Clint's birthday Friday night (dinner and Pictionary). Clint's friends came over with their toddler, which caused quite a bit of jealousy for Eli. He declared that he was going to "fight her" and put her in the bird feeder so that the birds would eat her up. This is the last week of daycare so maybe we'll see a decrease in aggression once he's not around other kids so much???? I spent a few hours shopping all by myself on Saturday morning. Found great deals at Birch Run mall. I can't remember the last time I just went out and bought clothes for myself but it's probably been since before our honeymoon.

Passport

Eli's skipping his nap today on a trial basis only. We've been putting him to bed at the usual time (8:00ish) and he manages to stretch out the bedtime routines for a full 45 minutes or more (books, warm milk, snuggles, multiple hugs and kisses, more warm milk etc, etc). Still not tired, we hear him wandering around upstairs. Two nights ago, he got into my nail polish (I intervened before that became too disasterous), and this morning I found fresh marker drawings on the upstairs bathroom vanity. So, I'm going to try letting him skip his naps and moving up his bedtime by an hour and see how that goes. I could be in for a rough evening tonight. Meanwhile, Erich just called and told me that it cost him $135 to replace his passport (!!!!) Yikes! His old one got ruined in the wash. He was bummed because it had all of the stamps from the exotic places we'll probably never go to again (Egypt, Turkey, Belgium etc). I know that a passport is kind of a necessity when you live 20 minutes from the Canadian border. Notwithstanding that, I really hope we have a chance to actually USE the passport someday soon. Traveling is not nearly the priority it used to be, and I'm actually a lot less interested in flying around the world than I was in my younger days...BUT, I realized today that I haven't been out of the country in over 3 years. Not even to Canada or Mexico. That's a huge lifestyle change for somebody who has seen 33 countries in the span of less than 10 years. Another example of everything changing when kids come along...