4th of July 2011!

 The Fourth of July was great!  Chris and Uncle Matthew took the big kids to see Cars 2, we had fun at a birthday party, and then Ella decided she was ready for her FIRST fireworks!  Chris took Sadie home to bed and Ella and I headed out for our adventure.  Our friend Cree was in the car with us and we laughed as Ella asked all the way there "Are you sure this isn't risky?  This is the last chance to tell me if this is too risky!"  She had fun waiting for the show to start playing with friends and the enormous number of glow bracelets Aunt Amy brought (genius idea!)  

When the fireworks started, she did freak out.  She hid her face, snuggled into me and shrieked every time a firework went off.  She was terrified the "fire" was going to fall on us (which is evidence that it was a good show and we had good seats because it really did look like they were right over us!).  Somehow, after about 10 minutes, she sat up and said, "Ok, I'm not scared anymore."  She proceeded to whoop and holler and cheer and clap for the rest of the 45 minute display!  Good times :-)

Michelle and Cree

Lexi and Hannah's reaction when the fireworks started (Ella was just behind them and I didn't capture her face)

Lexi is lovin' it, Hannah just got kicked in the face but this is about what Ella looked like in the first few minutes of the show :-(

Top Chef Quest: Spike & Carla

The Top Chef Quest continues! I blogged a while ago about going to one of Spike Mendelsohn's restaurants in DC and this time we hit up Spike's pizza joint.   It was a late night stop and we were starving but the pizza was SERIOUSLY good.

I had the Forest Shroomin Pie with Wild forest mushrooms, truffles, mozz, and fresh thyme.  It was fabulous-earthy and well seasoned and they didn't skimp on toppings.We also had the Sausage and Peppers Pie with their house made tomato sauce, mozz, homemade Italian sausage, oven-roasted peppers, fennel seed, and fresh basil,  I'm not big on Italian sausage but this was pretty darn tasty.  The house made sauce was great.  Tangy and fresh tasting.  Even the fennel seed worked on this pizza and I'm a fennel-hater.  Chris had pepperoni pizza also which was also top notch.  I would definitely go back to this place.  Sadly, it's next door to his burger joint which was also super tasty so it'd be hard to pick!

horrible pic but brings back memories of a fun night for me :-)

So, in other Top Chef news, I have now twice ordered tiny cookies from Carla Hall!  She's also local but I've been able to order online and received the cookies (with fabulous customer service from someone named Julie) in the mail really quickly.  I bought one tin for the Top Chef Finale and the other as a gift for a fellow foodie friend, Alicia.  They are SO good.  Both times I got the sweet sampler that has six types of cookies.  They are tiny but OH so tasty.  My favorite by far were the Pecan Shortbread with Vanilla Salt.  Mmmmm.  The Mexcian Cholocate chip, Black Forest Crinkle, and hawaiin wedding cookies were also quite tasty.  I would definitely order these again!  And, i just checked and her website is up and running (before I just emailed with Julie directly!)  I LOVED Carla on the show and hope she hits it big!  She's awesome and her cookies were heavenly :-)

Bromo Seltzer date night!

A few weeks ago Chris and his ability to find SUPER random things online scored us an AMAZING date!  We got to go into the Bromo-Selter clock tower for a special anniversary event! We got a tour of the clock tower on the top, access to dozens of artists studios/galleries on the 15 floors before you get to the clock, live music, and wine, cheese, appetizers...FOR FREE!  We had such a good time perusing the art, chatting with artists, sipping some wine, riding in the original (and super scary) elevator, and getting some awesome views of the city.  This date was a surprise so I didn't know to bring my camera so sadly, all the pics are from my phone but glad I documented it nonetheless.  We capped off the evening with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants nearby. Love date nights :-)

lookin' kinda GQ inside the clock tower

the mechanism of the enormous clock was pretty awesome

The view from the clock tower

The stairwells in there were intsense!  You could see all the way down 15 floors.

Sadie-11 months!

This baby is exploding with speech, mobility, and utter cuteness.  She was a late crawler and early talker just like Ella.  She scooted on her stomach some until just a week or two ago.  Her actual "crawling" (more like sitting and pulling forward with her hands) started just before she turned 11 months.  She likes standing and walking holding onto adult hands but is cautious (like her mama!) and isn't pulling up or cruising yet.  No concerns about that, she can take her time :-)



She is a moody talker meaning, she has times during the day where she talks non stop and then moments of silence.  Her go to phrases lately have been "ohh wow!!" or "whatz zat?"  She also sometimes says "uh oh" and "all done."  She also has random things she's only said on one occassion.  Like "french fry" and "are we there?" (I'm not kidding)





Sadie is a dancer.  It's just part of her.  We think it's my Rockette-grandmother's legacy living on (where she got her blue eyes also!)  The girl cannot hear music and not shake her bootie.  It's hilarious.  And her moves are developing over time.  She not shakes her shoulders, moves side to side, bounces up and down, shakes her hips, claps, bobs her head-quite a repertoire for a tiny person.  The girl just has the need to move when ANY kind of music comes on, anywhere.  It's SO cute!

Productivity

Accomplishing simple tasks like this makes me happy :)

Before

After-Sorted by type and cleaned (and some "disappeared").  Love it.

Mouths of babes...

Both kids are amusing me lately with what they say. For Sadie it's lots of "oh, wow!!" And "ooo, what's zat?" For ella it's things like this....

Just now
Ella: hey mom, wanna chat with me while I brush my teeth?
Me: sure! What should we chat about?
E: So, I've been wondering...what's it like being a grown up?
(Then I laughed and tried to convinve her it wasn't all just getting to do whatever you want!)

Yesterday on a walk
Me: oh my gosh! Ella look at this-it's a dead bat!!! (It was laying on the sidewalk and I was totally fascinated)
E: (totally deadpan) well, ya don't see that everyday

Two days ago
Ella: mom? Sadie has a huge head. Like, her feet are tiny and her hands are tiny but that head? Whoowee! It's huge mom! ....I guess maybe she'll grow into it.

Ummm-AMAZING!!

This is not a deep, spiritual post or a heartfelt child-focused post so put away any desires for depth.  But, have no fear, you will be inspired nonetheless :-)  If you're a girl.  And have longish hair. So, here's the scoop.

I am not adept with a curling iron.  Nor do I have any desire to spend the time, ever, to curl my entire head of hair.  Thus, I was intrigued when I saw this on a craft blog I read.  I was curious enough to watch the tutorial video on youtube and then tried it last night.  Oh.  My. Word.  This may be as life changing as 8 years ago when I bought my first professional grade flattening iron.  Changed my hair life forever. Seemed to good to be true, so I had to try it. 

I started with my hair straight and dry. It took literally 2 minutes (I timed it) to wrap it around the elastic headband like the girl in the video demonstrates. And woke up with this...

an unintentional side shot

All I did was curl my bangs a tiny bit (because they were still straight).  Didn't touch the rest of it.  I'm in love.

 

Here's the video tutorial. 

 

 

Baltimore Women's Classic 5k!

 Even though this was my third 5k, this one was on purpose (the first one I just meant to walk and the second I meant to do the 2 mile fun run and never saw the turn around) and it was the one my 3 sisters-in-law and I had agreed to train for and run months ago. We all trained separately for the most part but were all ready and able to finish the race! And, at the last minute, Chris' mom joined us too!!  She did awesome!  We had an awesome, BIG cheering section which was really nice-all the husbands, my Father-in-law, all 6 cousins, and my SIL's parents!  I think my favorite thing about this race was the random guitar player/singers who serenaded us t different parts of the course.  Oh, and the cold towels at the end.  That was fabulous.  Chris might have to hand me one of those when I get home from running in the mornings from now on :-)

I'm definitely proud of this accomplishment but I'm wavering between signing up for another race (10k? trying to do a 5k faster?) and being done with running.  Here are the pros and cons (no promises to how shallow or silly they may be, keepin' it real):

Pros: Feels good afterwards and occasionally during
Good for weight loss efforts and overall health
 I've invested in the clothes :-)
 It's very convenient (right outside my front door, no equipment)

Cons: I'd have to figure out some other form of exercise which might require paying for something or leaving kids with strangers
I can't wear my hair straight (I have to wash it every time I run and it takes WAY too long to straighten it every day or even 3 times a week)
It hurts
I get bored and think of all the things I could be doing if I was at home


I don't think I'll quit but this race being over has definitely decreased my motivation. But, Chris reminds me that if I went from not running to 3.1 miles in a couple months, I can certainly continue to increase my distance and speed if I keep going.  And it would be exciting to do a 10K....we'll see :-)  For now, the pics.
 

And we're off!  about 3000 women ran

See that little dot of pink up in the top corner?  That's Uncle David holding Ella.  Quite the good view of the race!

Almost done!

That's Chris' mom finishing and Uncle Matthew and the kids cheering her on on the sidelines

Nancy, Ping, me, Amy, Julie (post race) We did it!!