Why I Chose to Run For Charity

As of you may know, I am running the Princess Glass Slipper Challenge at Walt Disney World in February of 2016. I chose to run for a charity this year, which includes a minimum fundraising goal to participate in the race. Making a decision to not only raise a hefty sum of money, but to also sign up to run 6.2 miles on a Saturday and then 13.1 miles on Sunday can make anyone question their sanity. However, I feel compelled to share why I was drawn to the particular charity of my choice, Children's Miracle Network.

Anyone I've known for longer than 8 years probably knows my reasoning - my oldest daughter. She was born at 35 weeks, so considered to be a "preemie" by most standards, as 37 weeks is full term. She came into this world with the appearance of a healthy newborn -- screaming, good color and a decent weight for a preemie: 5lbs, 6oz. However, once we got into feeding, the nurses noticed some issues. They got my ok to try some formula, but we noticed after every feeding, no matter how small, she was spitting up a green, bile-colored fluid. So after some x-rays and communication with the local children's hospital, it was decided she might have an obstruction and was transferred by ambulance to Winnie Palmer Hospital, which is 45 minutes away. I still remember those EMT's having to pack my baby up in the incubator & call my doctor in the middle of the night to get permission to release me from the hospital so my husband and I could meet them down there. This all happened in less than 24 hours after birth. Once we got to Winnie Palmer, we meet the neonatal doctor on duty, and were pretty much suggested we go home and get some sleep, as nothing would be decided until the morning.

Go home and sleep, and leave my 1st born, brand new baby somewhere else???

Weirdest.
Suggestion.
EVER.

But, these guys went to school for this and know more than my sleep-deprived self did, so home we went. Once we got there the next morning, the nurse and doctor on duty talked to us and let us know there was an obstruction, and they had her scheduled for surgery that afternoon. We had to sign forms for things like anesthesia and then sit in the waiting room at the adjoining hospital, Arnold Palmer Hospital, where the surgery was taking place. When they were done, Dr. David Miller, the pediatric surgeon talked to us about what he had to do. She had a duodenal atresia, which means her intestines weren't connected to her stomach. Poor thing was eating, but once it got to the bottom of her intestines, it had nowhere to go but up! He had to taper her intestines, reattach them to her stomach, then check to make sure there weren't any tears that would cause obstructions once they closed everything back up. They had to remove some of her intestines, because they had died due to lack of blood. Her appendix was also removed because in a tiny body like that with a major operation, it was just getting in the way! Once she got back to Winnie Palmer, she had to stay in the hospital until they could feed her actual milk (rather than IV fluids) and she had to have a bowel movement to be discharged. She got to spend time under the lights for jaundice, be poked and prodded for veins to put IV's in, and room with about 5 other babies. After about 2 weeks she got to move to the "easy" NICU room, where she was in a bassinet instead of an incubator & it was a lot quieter with less machines. We visited her every day, and celebrated her first Christmas at Winnie Palmer. I still have the tiny red hat a volunteer had crocheted. We learned to get our rest while we could, and I joked that we were paying for the best babysitters in the business. ;) (not that I think nurses are babysitters, just that if someone was going to watch my kid, I had the most qualified person taking care of her!!)

Finally, 3 weeks later she got to come home. We spent a lot of time in the first 6 months at Dr. appointments, but she is now a happy and healthy 8 year old girl! I remember how scary being a new parent was, much less spending the first 3 weeks of that time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Arnold Palmer is a Children's Miracle Network Hospital, and I am so thankful to have one nearby. The employees of that hospital are amazing. The kids that have to spend time there, need to get the chance to be kids. Children's Miracle Network helps with that, whether it be so mom and dad have a little less to stress about so there is time for one more story, or fun things that make a hospital seem a little more like "home away from home."

I want to support those families in their time of need, so I am running to help. Please consider donating to my fundraiser, so we can all help kids grow up happily ever after.

Please consider clicking below to donate!!

Happy Haunted 5k Recap

So even though I'm not much of a runner, I am a runner, and now I'm the kind of runner with 2 races under her belt! Saturday the 5th I completed my 2nd 5k race with RunDisney at the Happy Haunted 5k trail run. My previous (first) race was the Royal Family 5k back in February during the PHM weekend. This was much different! This race started a little later, so since I'm local, we only had to get up and out by 5:45am. We arrived at the Wide World of Sports around 7am, giving me plenty of time to take a potty break in the real restrooms & get a few photos before I turned into a sweaty mess.

I made my way to my corral (signed up so late for this race so I was dreading my start in D) & waited. We had entertainment & I heard Mickey & Goofy were there but I was at the very back of my corral so I couldn't see all the festivities. We did get to see an awesome hot air balloon lift-off though!

The Headless Horseman also made his way to the stage, bringing a message to stay on the trail!

Apparently Headless Horsemen do not go over well with 2 year olds, I don't believe she even saw him but I guess since the DJ's were making a big deal out of it, my husband texted me that our 2 year old was trying to climb out of her stroller in holy terror! We Facetime'd for a minute so I could blow her a few kisses (too noisy to hear what she was saying!) & the race started!! I was so happy with how the corrals moved, and I really hope this is a trend with Disney, I've been hearing they are adding more corrals and shorter wait times. In D, I started at 13:30 so about a 3 1/2 minute gap in between. We rounded the field and were in the woods! This being my first trail race, I didn't know exactly what to expect. Well, now I know -- trail! 

We ran the majority of the race in the woods around the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. Very cool part of this race, and I believe a hot selling point for any Disney fan -- lots of rare characters on the race path! The only one I skipped was the first character stop, which was the Big Bad Wolf, I got in the line and there seemed to be some sort of camera malfunction at the beginning so I stepped out and moved on. Next stop was Prince John & the Sherriff of Nottingham -- rare to see these guys and I do love Robin Hood!

Then we rounded a corner only to come upon an oversized swarm of buzzy bugs, complete with sound effects.

Right around the water stop with AWESOME volunteers was Briar Bear and Briar Fox, and then not much longer and we were literally out of the woods!

I totally dug the next character stop, The Haunted House Gravediggers! These guys didn't crack a smile the whole time I was waiting, but they added some awesome poses to all their photos.

 We ran around the track, which was a nice change from the dirt all over the back of my ankles, and came across some football and viking zombies -- can anyone tell me if they were part of RunDisney? I couldn't decide!!

After that it was around the corner and FINISH LINE!

I believe my actual finish time was 49 minutes, but I did spend about 10 minutes in character lines. That was the one thing I promised myself after the Royal Family 5k -- no PR's during Disney races! I want to stop for all the characters & have lots of fun!! All in all, I love all Disney races & think this one was fabulously executed. I personally probably won't run it again now that I have the medal because I didn't love getting my pretty Brooks all dirty! But I did like that it didn't seem to be as crowded, whether that was new RunDisney cut off regulations or the fact that it wasn't a huge race weekend, I'm not sure. Kids races & ToT Expo will be coming soon!

Important to Remember...

So I am trying desperately to start a healthy eating kick again, as well as maintain some sort of exercise routine. But in light of this new "beginning", I feel like this is something really important to read & share. I know my husband shared it on Facebook thinking of me, and I know at least a hundred women that need to read this. Having 2 little girls, this is something I probably need to revisit on a weekly basis. Not only do I teach them to read & write, to say please & thank you, but I teach them how to look in the mirror. How I define beauty, or happiness; and therefore give them guidelines in how they also should define their own beauty & happiness.

I will never be that woman that skips a meal, or doesn't have a piece (or two) of cake because I just love food too much!! But when my 6 year old gets her hair cut short to look like me & donate her hair because I did it, I need to remember she is also watching when I step on the scale, or "pinch an inch" on my waistline. Please read, share, retweet & comment! 

When Your Mother Says She's Fat

What do you do to share a healthy image with your children? 

Correcting Bad Behavior

Nope, not talking about my kiddos this time!! I was the one with bad behavior. I really, really need to focus on my eating habits. Part of my reason to run is so that I can have "cheat" days and not feel bad when I want a brownie (or a pan of brownies. I don't judge here, folks.). However, when I haven't been running & I still eat the junk, I can tell. I feel sluggish, the numbers on the scale go the direction I tell them not to, & then of course I always feel mad at myself afterwards. Today at work was a great example. I had a granola bar in the car this morning on my way in with a glass of water. Then we had a morning meeting where they brought in trays of unexpected food. Mostly the not good kind that you really want...bagels & muffins! And these muffins had cinnamon sugar on top! Aren't you proud of me for not taking one?! There was an entire platter of fruit, so I grabbed a bunch of that -- strawberries, pineapple (only 3 chunks) and some red grapes. So far, so good! Then around 10:45 I was hungry. I knew I didn't want to do lunch that early, so I sat down at the computer to work on the schedule & grabbed some pretzels. Finished those off and grabbed a few more. Hit lunch around 11:45 and was too full for my mostly healthy salad I brought from home, so I grabbed a Heath bar while I gathered my Shopkick points & checked Facebook. 

UGH!!

Dinner I can't always get around, when hubby is at work I have to make something both kids are going to eat which is a tough one unless you break out the PB&J. Tonight we made mini-pizzas & while I wish I could've used something better for the crust (we use Pillsbury Flaky biscuits) I did put cheese, bacon, pineapple & red & yellow peppers on it. Now that the girls are in bed, for my snack I tried a new Pinterest pin I've been eying -- chopped up banana, drizzled with honey & sprinkled with cinnamon. It was really good!! Even for my sugary sweet tooth. Definitely will be trying that one again.

Oops -- will have to try for the before picture next time! ;)

So now I ask -- what are your go-to snacks or quick meals? Do you have a tip or trick to stop from grabbing the easy junk food?

Running Disney - The Prequel

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks ago, but...2 weeks ago I ran my first 5k! Being the huge Disney fanatic I am, of course I had to sign up for a Disney race to be my first. Another good motivator was the cost, as Disney races don't come cheap. I know local 5k's in my area are around $25, while the Disney 5k was $50. Totally motivated me to train and be prepared to run -- I was going to finish this thing in a decent time! I signed up back in like August of last year or so, I'd have to look at my checkbook to give you an actual date. I started with the Couch 2 5k program and loved it! I definitely recommend it to anyone that is starting running & in good health or given the go-ahead from their doctor. I was a true Couch 2 5k'er, (is that a real phrase? If not, I just invented it!) seeing as how I have hated running my whole life. But I was ready to start something -- get moving, get healthy, show my kids how to set and accomplish a goal! So I ran.

Now let me just break here to point out that if I found time to run, you can. No excuses. I have 2 kids, 6 and 2. My husband and I both work full time, and we do not have daycare. So if one of us is at work, the other is home with one or both kids. We have one car, so I had to run near home, not on any cool running trails. And yes, I have sidewalks near my neighborhood but I live in the country where the speed limit on the main road is 40 and consists mostly of thru traffic & semi trucks.

We would get home from work and I would go out and run before dinner, or I would run in the morning before work. On Thursdays & Fridays when I am home in the morning, I walk my daughter to school & then take my 2 year old on a run with me. We use a stroller I got on a local for sale group, not a fancy jogging stroller but one that is about to bite the dust. I probably don't run as fast as I could with the stroller but point is that I run. Tracking your run is so important in the beginning -- you can see your accomplishments from day 1! I know we all got really sick in November, my husband got pneumonia & I had bronchitis, then Sophie got RSV & Delaney got an ear infection. I could hardly wait for that month to be over!! I think I ran maybe twice in November. I don't think I ever officially finished the C25k program, I started using RunKeeper to track my distance but I wish it would let me shuffle my songs! I ran my first full 3.1 miles 2 weeks before the Disney 5k, and I did it pushing the stroller in 40 minutes. I know 40 minutes isn't the best time, but I wasn't running for the best time. I was running because I could.

 

 

Running Disney - Race Day coming soon!

Now it Feels Like Christmas!

So Sunday morning was a huge hit in our house. Why, you ask? Elmer & Trixie FINALLY made their debut, after 3 long days of questions about why they hadn't arrived yet. They seem to have started a tradition of bringing us a North Pole breakfast upon their arrival, so I think they were waiting for a morning we were all home.

So Delaney woke me up Sunday & was so excited that they elves had finally made it to Florida! I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, and spend most of my free time as of late trying to hack up one of my lungs, so I was completely exhausted from being up coughing until 2am the night prior so I was thankful she was content to pick a movie and let me get a little more rest since the rest of the house was still sleeping. We watched/listened to "The Secret of the Wings" & once Sophie got up we had our North Pole breakfast & visited with our new company.

Elmer & Trixie Jingle have arrived!

 

Santa usually prints his letter...his printer must be on the fritz!

 

Sophie loves donuts!

 

So does Delaney, but she might be too cool to let you know that...

 

 Then we woke up today to 2 elves climbing our Christmas tree (thankfully no ornaments were harmed in the process) to engage in a lightsaber battle. I bet they loved that our lightsabers we made at the Orlando History Museum weren't too heavy for them!

So as a co-worker posted on my husband's facebook page -- "Now it feels like Christmas!" Let the elf hi-jinx begin!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

Ok, I know, I know!! You're all saying, "Seriously? Can we just have Thanksgiving first?!" Well, as most of you know, I work in the world of retail. It's Christmas time, for many reasons. 1 - I listen to that CD thing back in the Christmas section where you can "sample" the Christmas music. ALL. DAY. LONG. 2. This coming weekend we are kicking off our fun, old fashioned Christmas by: seeing the Osbourne Light Spectacle at Hollywood Studios Friday (I love to see the lights when it's actually COLD out -- yay!!), possibly a visit to see Jolly Old St. Nick himself Saturday & decorating the interior of the house the rest of the weekend. We will be working all Thanksgiving weekend so we can't do our decorating then like a lot of people do, and personally, I don't feel 1 month is enough time to enjoy the tree & everything that comes with it! So since my husband is awesome he lets me get in the Christmas spirit early! I know the visit with Santa is a little early, but we go to see him at a very popular location & with our crazy schedules, I would rather go early than be stuck in an hour line.

Elmer & Trixie "go fish"

 

However, the whole reason of this post was to talk about a few visitors I anticipate will arrive in several weeks. Just like many of you, we have an Elf that spends the holidays with us. We actually have two, one for each kiddo, which works out nicely because the elves seem to have a lot more fun together (& Sophie is probably trouble enough to warrant an elf to herself for reports back to Santa). I know a lot of you follow our Elves through Facebook, but since I have a private facebook page, it's hard to share pictures you might want to show friends & now with the explosion of Pinterest, you won't be able to link to any ideas you love unless they are somewhere a little more accessible.

So -- make sure you subscribe to my blog & invite your friends that have kids & might be interested! Elf happenings will be getting posted (I can't promise daily, like I said, Sophie DOES warrant her own elf) & I'm sure we will have plenty to talk about once Elmer & Trixie arrive!

 

May The Force Be With You This Weekend

Around my house, we are gearing up for a little something called "Star Wars Celebration VI." I think the cool kids call it "CVI," but in my role as mom I am not allowed to be cool and therefore have no idea what to call it other than "that big Star Wars party." My 5 year old gets it. So, Star Wars Celebration is in Orlando this weekend!! I have never been, but it was in Orlando at the Convention Center 2 years ago and here it is again so we are all going this time around. Basically it's a HUGE, Star Wars only convention. Lots of merchandise, exclusives, toys, clothing, etc. Also a lot of famous people in town, tons of people will be at the convention in costume & there will be Droid races & other fun stuff going on. I considered making costumes for all of us, but just back in May we got our new Her Universe shirts & I really wanted to wear that. Her Universe is Ashley Eckstein's company, and she sells, among other things, Star Wars apparel exclusively for females!! A huge hit in a world geared towards men. I love my Princess Leia & Luke shirt -- "Looking for love in Alderaan places."

Will be following up with a recap and hopefully lots of pics from Friday at some point this weekend!

Box of Kleenexes, anyone?

Today was our first day of Kindergarten. And actually, I have some tissues to spare, because the first day wasn't as traumatic as I had envisioned. Delaney was fine, and I made it out of the classroom before one or two tears made their escape. I was sad to see her stay in the classroom, but glad she was brave & was excited to be there. I am really excited about her school, because she gets "specials" or whatever they call them nowadays for an hour each day, except Wednesday, which is early release day. I love that she will get her fill of so many things she loves, like art, music & playing outside. I am still counting down the minutes until it's time to go pick her up though!!

And in other exciting news, I am on week 2 of the Couch to 5k program and I love it. I was actually really disappointed last night because I got ready to run, headed outside and it WAS NOT raining. I got 2 houses away and it started raining pretty heavy so I turned back and finished the day's program in my living room which wasn't as great as it would have been if I got in a real workout. The funniest part was watching Sophie watch me, and when I would run in place, she would run in circles around the family room. Silly goose!

My costume for the Royal Family 5k is almost complete -- I decided rather than to order a sparkle skirt, I would make my own tutu for this event. I'm happy to say my tutu is coming along great!! I love it, but I'm going to have to wait until around November or December to finish it because I'm hoping once I start running regularly that I'll drop a little weight and have to take in the elastic for the waistband. I think the only other thing I need is my Pascal applique! Once my outfit is done and together, there will definitely be pictures!!

Hopefully Sophie will start taking naps again and maybe we'll see a little more of each other!

Run Like A Princess

This is a big week!! I am going to start my Couch to 5k program & prep for the Royal Family 5k during the Disney World Princess Marathon, which is on February 23rd. I am truly going from the couch to a 5k, so I am really excited there is an IPhone app for this! Is there anyone that has tried the app yet? I haven't really looked at it yet because I was waiting to actually start running & didn't want to mess up the program if I "previewed" it and started early. I bought my new shoes at Kohl's this weekend with a 15% off coupon and here in the lovely state of Florida, it was tax-free weekend so I was really excited -- not only about finding a pair of shoes I think have awesome arch support, but awesome arch support at a great price!! Friday is pay day, so I am DEFINITELY registering for the 5k on Friday so I am 100% motivated to make sure I can run this race!

More posts will be coming about my race preparation, as well as my oldest daughter's 1st day of kindergarten (only 2 weeks away!!) & a lot of other fun we have going on this month!!

There Aren't Enough Scoundrels In Your Life

So I'm not sure if my husband fully approves, but I've become a little bit immersed in Star Wars in the last week or two. Usually on the nights we are actually home together, we watch an episode of our favorite show on DVD (Psych, currently on Season 3) because I am so tired by the end of the night we both know I won't make it through anything longer. However, seeing as how we are going to CVI (Celebration 6 -- a huge Star Wars convention) in August, I thought maybe I should brush up on my Star Wars knowledge and asked him if we could watch the movies. I told him to pick which one to start with (Such a seemingly easy decision -- but do we start when Anakin was a boy? Watch all the way through to Episode 3? Start with Luke & Leia's story, then go back to 1 through 3?) My husband says he likes to start with IV, A New Hope, so that's where we began. As I mentioned earlier, I can't make it through much more than an hour so we actually split each movie into 2 nights but I am proud to say we watched all 6 movies! I don't know what it was, but I really loved them this time around. Loved Han & Leia's story more, used the Force to will Anakin to change his actions this time around (I'm sorry to say the Force was not strong with me), and had second thoughts about not making costumes for CVI as I drooled over Padme's gorgeous wardrobe. But I know I'll be excited to wear my Alderaan shirt from Her Universe & since I'm only going one day this year that's ok.

Then I went a little crazy on Etsy. I was supposed to be online setting up my shop, but I did a search for Star Wars and walked away from my computer with this little ditty on it's way...

I put them on the car yesterday and can I just say that they are so much cooler than the generic stick family that was previously residing there.

Then I went ahead and got these that I've had pinned on Pinterest for a while -- 

 So awesome!! They are perfect for us. And now it's time for this Padawan to make her way to bed because my kids don't know the meaning of "sleep in." Good night!

It's Time to Make the Donuts!

Ok, maybe I don't get up the same time the Dunkin' Donuts guy does, but I do feel like all I think about lately is food! What I should eat, what I shouldn't eat. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner for Delaney. Sophie really needs to start eating more solid food!! Really, that's the main focus of my blog today! Sophie is 14 months old and is still eating some baby food. We have had such a terrible journey with changing formulas, SEVERE constipation, finding a baby food she liked, and the fact that the poor kid only has 4 teeth!! For all the issues she's had, she is a happy camper. The only baby food she likes is the Target Brand squeezie pouches. And of course, they clearanced them out at my store. She eats puffs & Cheerios like they are going out of style, but I am still giving her the baby food sometimes because I want to make sure she has all the nutrients she needs.

I guess my problem is also having stuff on hand for her. I am going to bake up some silver dollar pancakes in the morning and freeze the leftovers so I can pull one of those out some mornings. I bought some Nutrigrain bars tonight and gave her one at dinner...she liked it until it started getting gummy on her fingers and then she just wanted to play. She does love cheese and yogurt, but I am a little iffy to give her yogurt because it was one of the foods she had around the time she turned one and we had a lovely case of hives that we don't know what caused it. Thinking it was not food related, as the majority of the bumps were on her knees, feet and arms.

So I'm going to start a list of "safe" foods (meaning we've had them for 3 days straight with no reactions) and when I get a good list I will post it here to share!! Please feel free to comment with your ideas, and I'll add them to the list!

Getting Rid of Weight

Today started my "Getting Rid Of Weight" Challenge. I am challenging myself to actually GET RID of all this weight I am tired of carrying around! As I saw on a friend's pinboard --

My goal is to be able to run the Disney Princess 5k, which isn't until February so I should be fine. I'd like to be able to do the 5k in November for the Wine & Dine at Epcot, and then the Princess 1/2 Marathon, but BABY STEPS! I am so out of shape! I walk all day at work, but tonight I put both girls in the double stroller and walked up and down streets & around cul-de-sacs in my neighborhood to hit a whopping 1.2 miles. I would have gone longer, but I think I must have been walking funny because I could feel a blister forming so I cut off the last cul-de-sac in the neighborhood and turned home. Sure enough, a tiny blister on the inside of my right heel....?? What a weird place for a blister! I was wearing older shoes that the insides of the heels are worn out, so I was wondering if maybe a piece of plastic or something was poking me.

I have been attempting to count calories on my IPhone with the awesome Lose It app, but all of the Easter candy at Target has been taunting me, so I know my totals are off a bit. I have been eating better I think, having a hard boiled egg or an oatmeal muffin for breakfast. I know - what is an oatmeal muffin?? I found this amazing little recipe on Pinterest, and I LOVE these for breakfast. It's from Sugar Free Mom. I make a whole batch, put them in the freezer and wa-la! Breakfast is ready in 30 seconds in the morning. I was thawing them out overnight in the fridge, but have found on the mornings I forgot to transfer one the night before that they thawed just fine from frozen. I put it in a bowl, microwave for 30 seconds and can actually sit at the table and eat a healthy, quick breakfast instead of scarfing down a granola bar in the car. I have actually cut out ALL soda from my diet too, which is amazing because my husband and I were both having a coke a day but we finished our last 12 pk. almost 2 weeks ago and I have only had 1 coke since! So here's to hoping my "Get Rid of Weight" Challenge is successful!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Ok, I'll admit I'm a little late! But, the thought of anyone expecting a St. Patty's Day post prompted me to tell my husband I needed a little bit of computer time tonight! So 2 days late is better than never!

So about 2 years ago I found this in one of my Family Fun magazines. They're Rainbow Cupcakes, and probably the closest thing we get to celebrating St. Patrick's Day around my house! (You'd think, being McM's that we would at least have some decorative 4 leaf clovers...) But for the last 2 years on St. Patrick's Day we make these deliciously colorful cupcakes, and they are so easy!! All you need:

And, of course, the ingredients to make your cake -- mine required water, vegetable oil and 3 eggs. Once you mix your cake batter, divide it into 6 separate bowls. I love to use "kiddie" spoons in mine because they are easy for my 5 year old to stir with, and in this particular project, they are just the right amount to spoon into the cupcake liners.

I let Delaney do all of the color calculations, we talk about what colors she needs, and then as she mixes how much she thinks we need of each color and what colors she needs to make the orange & purple.Once all of the colors are mixed, I just use the kiddie spoons to scoop one spoonful into each cupcake liner, starting with the bottom of the rainbow and working my way up. I made 18 cupcakes with mine. In the original article, they used a spoon to smooth each color over the previous, but I don't have the patience for that!! Here are mine after colors purple, blue, green and yellow.


And after all 6 color layers:Bake according to the cupcake directions on your cake mix, and voila!Who can resist a cupcake that pretty? You can always top with fluffy buttercream frosting or cool whip for a cloud effect, but I love yellow cake mix so much that we eat them just like this!

Supermom On The Move

Today, I felt like SuperMom. I don't usually have those moments, you know -- where I feel like I could don a cape and fly up into the clouds. My moments usually consist of "Let's-Watch-A-Movie-Because I'm-Tired Mom" or "Please-Give-Me-Five-Minutes-to-Finish-the-Dishes Mom".

Wednesdays and Thursdays stink in our house. My husband and I work opposite schedules, which leaves him home with the girls Wednesday morning, I get home in the afternoon, hand him the car keys and he heads to work, only to get home late. Thursday is more of the same. Usually I don't do a lot on Thursdays because I have to get ready for work after lunch, and Thursday is just our chill out day. Well, we had another GORGEOUS weather day. So, I got everyone ready and headed out to the porch. Our porch is huge. It's also disgusting. I never take the kids out there because it's so dirty. Part of that problem is because our dryer vent blows onto the porch, so any loose lint lives out there. So, any suggestions to that problem are welcome!! Anyway, Delaney wore her swimsuit and Sophie got to sit in the stroller while I cleaned the porch. No deep cleaning, but I put the long "As Seen On TV" pressure washer thing on the hose, used the sprayer side and rinsed all the pollen off the screens, then cleaned all the dirt, grass, daddy long leg spiders, and lint off the porch. I even took everything but the play house and the glass table off the porch and had Delaney help me clean the toys. Once about 1/2 the porch was clean, I let Sophie down to play and she had a good time with a bucket and a shovel. I just can't believe I got the entire porch done and that's one less thing on the to-do list for this weekend. And now we might be able to enjoy a little bit of our weekend off outside as well!

Make sure to check back tomorrow, with St. Patty's Day around the corner, I'll be posting our favorite snack!

It's Girls Night!!

My daughter calls Wednesdays "Girls Night." I always feel bad for my husband, as I would rather it be family night, but since we work opposite shifts on Wednesday, he's at work and it's been officially dubbed Girls Night. I try to utilize Wednesday to go outside with the girls, and today was no different -- absolutely gorgeous Florida weather so we put on our shoes and headed out. Days like today are a perfect example of why I could never actually leave Florida. 85 degrees & sunny. Of course, I might need reminding of this in August...

Lately I've been trying to run a little on Wednesdays, but I am new to running (translate: I've always hated running) and have found I cannot push the double stroller with both girls aboard for a respectable distance. Delaney's constant questions that only stop for an answer, which I can't provide when I can't breathe, have a little to do with the lack of running today also. So instead we headed out to the swingset and played for almost an hour before we had to head in for dinner.

Tinkerbell (as I am requested to call her when she is in costume) loves the slide! We were missing some screws that we just got, so it's only been up for 2 days. I have to add that sometimes I do call her Tinkerbell or Rapunzel, and sometimes I don't. But I look at it this way -- she's 5. When she's 7, or 8 or 10 -- she won't ask me to call her that. When she's 14 and around her friends, she might look the other way when I call her real name. So Rapunzel for a year or 2 doesn't hurt me.

Sophie was too interested in the grass to pay me any attention. And how cute are those chubby little thighs?! More importantly -- why aren't chubby thighs cute as we get older???