Friday Fun Run Playlist

I dropped Asher off at school this morning and arranged to have Matt take Lucy so I sneak in a run this morning. Then I got to the park and decided I didn't want to run at all. I resigned myself to just walking. Then my shuffle played all of this music and I ran hard for an unexpected 30 minutes. So here we are:

Where the Streets Have No Name-U2

Panama-Van Halen

Changes-2Pac

Scrubs-TLC

Bang on Your Drum-Todd Rundgren

Vertigo-U2

Ants Marching-Dave Matthews Band

Kick Drum Heart-Avett Brothers

Change Me-Ryan Long

Stuck in Moment-U2 (cool down)

Delicious.

NYC Girls Trip Recap

There isn't a lot to say about the trip to New York. Mostly because it was so much fun that I can't possibly retell it in words.

But it was lovely to get away with girlfriends. To just waltz through security without having to take off someone else's shoes, holding a jacket, dumping out a sippie cup and worrying that I have lotion in my carryon. I just walked on through like it was natural or something.

The girls that I went to New York with were friends of mine since we met when they were freshman in high school and I was a sophomore Young Life leader in college. That many years ago. Yes. And we laughed at so many many ridiculous things that I loved every single minute of it.

This is Megan and Cassie on the far left at Rockbridge in 1998.

They might burn my house down for posting this image.

We all landed at LaGuardia at the same time, hopped in a taxi and were in Manhattan in 20 minutes. If there is one thing I am sure of, it is this: always go to New York with people who 1) love it and 2) go there regularly or 3) have been there enough times that seeing the Empire State Building is comforting but not something that they have to the top of. These girls are EXACTLY that.

With that being said, we did not do so much the typical touristy things. We were just looking to get away together. New York just happened to work out fantastically. So we all landed, had a broad outline of things to go do, but after that...we had no agenda. It was so super nice. Obviously when that happens, you end up in dangerous parts of town like this:

Two floors of candy bliss. Be still my heart.

These girls know my heart, my stomach and my mind.

The fondue station was a place of many many "that's what she said" jokes.

Like when we heard the mom behind us say,

"just stick it in fast and twirl it."

We about DIED.

This poster was not for sale.

But I do believe if I ever have another child, their nursery will be candy themed and this will be the centerpiece.

Every candy store ought to at least consider a bathtub full of gumballs.

Shoulda bought it. For me. My kids. For me AND my kids.

But I just took a picture.

Awww, a nice little sign on the stairs. All the candy is encased in poly as you go down their stairs to their "classic candy" level. Yes, that exists.

Dylan's Candy Bar.

Don't miss it next time you go to NYC.

After candy times, Megan surprised us with tickets to see Zach Braff (from Scrub's) in an off Broadway show called Trust. We hung around the cast door after the show to meet the cast and we did!

"Vince" from Sex and the City was super nice.

And of course the super nice, Zach Braff. Yes, that is his arm on my shoulder.

Be jealous.

But be more jealous of Megan's Sharpie mark that he made on her arm.

She wouldn't wash it off.

:)

The next night we went to see Promises, Promises.

And we were sorely chapped because Kristen Chenoweth was well, missing.

She was in LA instead of in NY.

So when we hung around the cast door that night we had to be satisfied with meeting:

Sean Hayes

and Tony Award Winner Katie Finneran.

My sister joined us for the night. It was so fun to be with her!

The next morning for brunch before leaving we hit up Serendipity, which I had never been to before.

And it was delicious.

Frozen HOT CHOCOLATE.

Pretty much sums up the entire trip.

Chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top.

Let's do it again soon!

First Day of School

Today was Asher's first day of school. Lucy started preschool yesterday...but for the sake of sanity we are all going to pretend that she started today as well.

For the last hour, Lucy has been checking the door to see if Asher is here "yet." I think she missed him today. Me too.

I can't wait to see him get off that bus!

But here are the pictures from this morning. He handled everything like a champ! He was so excited to get in there and get going, it was incredible. Matt and I teared up when we had to leave and I don't think Asher knew exactly what was going on. Whew!

My sister calls it the "Boo-Hoo Wa-Hoo!" All the mom's simultaneously are boo-hooing and are ecstatic at the day that has now opened up in front of them. I am in full understanding of the boo-hoo wa-hoo now.

But, I am ready to see that little monkey walk through my door.

Post Script: He came home and chattered for 30 minutes about how much he loved school, riding the bus, his classroom and all kinds of nonsense. SUCCESS!

Beach Times

We went to beach with several families last week on the coast of North Carolina and truth be told, I kept my camera hidden most of the time.

But I did manage to get a few beauties that I will share. But really, Lindsay Hancock got a bunch of great shots...she just hasn't updated her blog yet.

This might be one of favorite pictures of all of them. Because this is EXACTLY what we did at the beach all week. We rode bikes, Razors, and PowerWings. Hard. Click on the picture. There are so many details you are missing if you just scroll through it...

Who wouldn't want to look THIS amazing after three kids? Heck, BEFORE three kids.

Jeez, she's a walking, breathing advertising for P90x.

Lucy with all her 'tude on our last day wouldn't cooperate for a nice pic.

Serves me right.

How to Make A Road Trip Work

Take one handsome boy.

Take one beautiful girl.

Give them both headphones while they watch a video.

No seriously. Do it. It's magic.

Who cares about this face?

You will make a happy face while they are annoyed.

Do it.

Bring along a handsome man.

Who ignores the GPS.

And you end up here.

In front of this sign.

And a boat.

At the Elwell Ferry, in North Carolina's state service since 1905.

That carries two cars. Max.

Please note, 6 passengers are only allowed on this boat.

Not 6 vehicles. 6 passengers.

That's us four, the girl in the car ahead of us and the ferry boat driver.

Yeesh.

Get a ferry boat driver.

Say "O Captain, My Captain!" to him, while he stares blankly at you.

Cross the Cape Fear River. With your lives in his capable hands.

Drive off the ferry and be back on your merry way thanks to Gummy Bears.

Thank goodness for happy GPS accidents.

Kids Room Design

Asher and Lucy have been sharing a room for going on eight months now and they have never had anything hanging on the walls for several reasons.

1. They have both been transitioning from baby times to preschooler to elementary school kids all in the last eight months. Holy crap.

2. I have no idea how to decorate for a three year-old-girl who is super girly and five-year-old boy who is super boyish.

3. Budget constraints on all the good ideas that I saw out there.

Until this idea.

Clipboards!

I bought 16 clipboards at an office supply store (I looked like a really organized Type A nutcase) and hung them in rows of four over each kids bed. Then I printed out pictures, gather artwork they had done throughout the year and then hung it on the wall.

This way, the "art" clipboards can always change and I won't have to display it on my fridge! Woohoo!

I also picked up a globe, grabbed some cool blocks from the toy room and our old flag that I didn't know what to do with and TA-DA! It works!

Behind some of the pictures, I framed them with fun paper to set off the kids personalities and to add a little splash of color.

Stars are a major theme in their room and I was scouring one of our local "treasure" stores for anything star related and found this beauty. You will see the scale on the next pic.

Well, you can sorta see the scale. It's peeking out from the top of the picture.

It's gigantic.

Obviously a room is never truly done and I still have some more finishing touches to keep installing. But it was fun to spend time working on the kids rooms and not the kitchen (still) or some other room in the house. They LOVE seeing the pictures and adding their artwork to the clipboards. The best part is now I have a place to store it all as the school year is starting and I am sure that there will no shortage of treasures coming home!

Catching Up

Life has been a bit crazy around here, as you can probably tell by the lack of blog posts. One of the reasons was because we didn't enroll the kids in their "usual" round of programming in order to spend more time with them this summer.

Well mission accomplished!

And it has been quite the summer. We have been all over the place. I just realized that it has been a month since I uploaded pictures from my camera so hold onto your boot straps, there is going to be a flurry of activity on here tonight. Why? Because I leave for New York City in the morning and that is going to take up all the memory on my camera card. And it is a big card.

So here we go!

I Could Sing

Lucy and Asher have been listening and singing the song "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever." It has been super sweet.

Except that Lucy likes to sing it like this:

"I could sing of your LIE forever.

I could sing of your lie forever."

I keep telling her that it is LOVE, not LIE. And all she says is, "I like it better this way."

Hmm. How to handle this one?