An early celebration

When Troy first mentioned having people over on Saturday, I first assumed that it was for a Memorial Day gathering.  Cool, any excuse to hang out with everyone, and I'm all about it.  Then he corrected me - he wanted a little birthday celebration for me.  I'm not one on big celebrations for myself, but hey, like I said I like having an excuse to get everyone together to hang out, so sure - let's do it - and what fun it was!  Dan and Rosie were back in town from their around the continent travels, my parents came over, the Chandlers, the Reaves, and Jimmy all made it over!  It was such a fun time seeing all the kids playing and having beautiful weather to enjoy everyone's company.

Having fun on the playset!

The adults playing with the t-ball set (minus the "t")

Cutest thing ever was seeing Parker play with the dump trucks in the dirt.  Too cute!

Kids being kids and chasing each other around!

Grandpa throwing Parker the ball to hit with the bat and impressively, he hit it a few times!  Great hand-eye coordination Parker!

They LOVED when Grandpa swung them around in circles!

Although I think Grandpa was wishing he didn't start it because once you start with one, you need to repeat it with all of them (and then start the cycle over!)

It was a perfect day/night to hang out with awesome friends and family.  Big thanks to everyone for coming out to hang out!  Let's see with year 33 has to bring (well, I still have a few more days to finish out year 32, so let's not be to quick to rush things....)

Our Front Yard "Makeover"

For the almost 4 years we've lived here, we've spent very little time in the front yard.  Heck, we don't even use our front door since we live on a corner lot and our driveway is on the side of our house.  When we moved in, we first dealt with the jungle we had surrounding our deck and planted new flowers and plants around it.  The next year we had newborns so we just maintained what we did the first year.  Last year, we spent a little time fixing up the front yard, but mainly the hot mess of a corner we had.  There were two dying evergreens near the corner of our lot, and right on the curb line, there was a massive "garden" area that was very overgrown and out of control.  We cut down the trees and planted a new maple, and dug out the "garden" and sodded the area.  There was just no way that I could keep up with all of it!  As we started spending a little more time in the front yard, I realized how unappealing it looked.  We had some greenery out there, but that was it.  There were some perennial bulbs planted but they were so overcrowded, they stopped growing.  So, in the fall, I started digging out everything I didn't like - some hostas (that the deer just ended up eating, so they looked horrible), some jam-packed bulbs of who knows what (there were so many of them in there, they just couldn't bloom and grow).  It was my mission to fix up the front yard.  Even though we might not be out there much, people drive by all the time and it wouldn't hurt making it look a little nicer.

So, I've literally spent all my free time this entire month, whenever it wasn't raining, outside.  I've weeded, weeded, and weeded some more until I thought I got all the old stuff out.  This past weekend, our neighbor popped out two of our shrubs that were on the shabby side (and starting to die).  Today, I pulled out three mini supposed-to-be-ornamental trees that just weren't doing anything for us.  On Friday and Saturday, Rosie and I went out flower/plant shopping, and we busted butt yesterday planting most of it.  Since I didn't pull out the mini trees until today, I finished planting the rest of the flowers while the boys napped.  NOT an easy feat to get all of it done, but I'm pretty pleased with it.  I like how "clean" it all looks (with the exception of the couple of shrubs we kept that need to be trimmed up), and I can't wait until things start blooming and growing and fill in the space a bit better.  So, here is the before and after:

Before: This is just to the left of the garage and the sidewalk that leads to our front door.

The home of a bunch of hostas last year.  This year, it started as nothing but weeds and sunken in dirt

There used to be some tulips and lilies in between these shrubs but they haven't bloomed since the first year we lived here.  When I started digging the bulbs up, I couldn't believe how jam-packed they were in there!  No wonder they couldn't grow!

AFTER: The shrub has been taken out of the corner and replaced with daisies - my favorite!

This is right under the garage window - next to the daisies.  A mix of perennials and annuals,
mainly pinks, purples,  and whites.

A close up of the same area as above.

On the right of the sidewalk, there was a shrub that we pulled out yesterday and put some grasses in it's place.  To the left of the sidewalk, I pulled out the 3 mini trees and planted some annuals around the rock.  The space in front of the sidewalk that is just dirt has grass seed on it.  There were tons of deer-eaten hostas there, that I took out last fall.  

A closer view of the right side of the sidewalk.

Where the 3 mini-trees used to be. 

For now, I'm pleased with how it looks.  Of course as things start growing and blooming, I will love it even more since it will fill in the empty space a bit, but it's a start.  I tried to get things that are a variety of heights and textures just to change things up a bit (and not have everything so low to the ground, looking all the same), but that isn't always so easy when buying young plants.  It's just a matter of time (and money)!    

Next up, trim the shrubs up a bit and wait for things to start blooming!  Anyone else do some gardening this weekend?  

TWO

Despite our crazy past 24 hours here at the Perez household, we just had to spend some time outside after we got home. Logan loves the address numbers on our house and uses them to practice counting!



Yup, looks like he's got TWO down pat, and we are making some progress with five.  He actually started counting "1, 2" the past few days, but of course we don't have a 1 in our address for him to show off that too...

Week in Review

We took an impromptu trip to Kroger on our way home from work to grab a few things I forgot this weekend.  The boys just LOVED not being in a cart and did pretty well following me through the aisles.  Logan was especially excited to walk with the basket!

Logan's new word of the week? "CHEESE" Another word he spit out earlier is "tree" after looking outside at our tree!

Another parent/tot class this past Thursday.  Logan was especially excited to go in.  They did fairly well, although Ellis was a little more resistant to do the planned activities they had.  He loves free play and played well with the other boy that was in class that day, but we need to work on some small structured activities with him.  This little boy does NOT like being told what to do or when to do it.

On Thursday, Nicole came over with the kids before we went to see Jillian Michaels.
It was a perfect afternoon to play outside and the kids got some energy out.

Ellis learned to "saw" using the actual saw of his mini work bench.

This is what happens when I bring down my blanket and pillow to lay with the boys.  They steal it and act as though it's theirs.  They are just like their mommy - they love to relax and cuddle with a blanket!

And, this is what happens to a cell phone when it is left on top of your car and falls off about a mile
after you start driving.  Thank goodness for insurance!

Nicole and I had a girls night out, Thursday night.  We saw Jillian Michaels - my favorite work out bad ass - and it was not only informational but entertaining.  After seeing her presented as a bitch on TV, it was awesome to see the real side of her.  She kept it very real, that's for sure, and of course spoke about eating right and exercising, but also how become the best you, that you can.  Not only was it a good show, but it was also awesome to hang out with Nicole.  Hopefully with summer around the corner, we have more opportunities to hang out, both with and without the kids!  

My Mother's Day breakfast.  Troy suggested going out for breakfast this morning, but this mama also loves her sleep and since it was my morning to sleep in, I didn't really want to give that up for breakfast.  So, my next suggestion was cinnamon rolls, and that's what I was greeted with (with two rambunctious kids) around 9:15 this morning.  And yes, my morning drink of choice is diet wild cherry pepsi - consider it my iced coffee =)

And last but not least, in my efforts to work on colors with the boys - I found this color/car matching app on my iPad.  Not quite what I was really looking for, but after Ellis watched me a few times, he became hooked and this is probably now his favorite game.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, especially all of you awesome mama's out there.  I did spend part of my day yesterday weeding the hot mess of a front yard we currently have, with hopes of buying and planting some flowers today, but obviously the weather had something else planned.  It was just too chilly and windy to do that, so it looks like that to-do will have to wait!

Let the fun begin!

One week later, the boys playground set is finally up and ready to play on.  Starting last Saturday when a majority of the small intricate stuff was done, I took pictures every hour to show the progress.  Just looking at a picture of it, none of us would have realized all the small details that had to be done, but a huge thanks (again) to my dad for helping Troy labor through it all!

Last Saturday - Noon - all pieces are out of the box and separated by the number code written on the edge.

1pm - getting started...

2pm - putting together the frame for the swing set

 3pm -

4pm - starting to frame in the clubhouse off to the right

5pm -

6pm -

7pm -

8pm -

9pm - too dark to keep working =( but a lot of work was accomplished!

Sunday - Troy worked on putting the bench on the clubhouse and some siding on it before it started raining.

Yesterday - oops, forgot to take a picture after Troy put the door on, on Monday, but here is the finished product.  It's a little smaller than I thought (it's not easy deciding on what set to buy when you can only look at it in a photo), but its perfect for the boys and they LOVE it.  They immediately climbed up the ladder and went down the slide, over and over and over and over...  Oh yeah, and they love opening and closing the door too!

Then they were off to the swings (didn't get pics of that though, since they liked when I pushed them).

A little break to play chase with Grandpa while Troy put the finishing touches on it (Ellis does NOT like the sound of the drill, so Grandpa distracted them)...

Then back to the slide, over and over (again)

Think they like it?

The only NOT fun part was getting them back in the house.  It was about 8pm and about 30 minutes past their bedtime.  So, we thought we'd take them in.  All they did was scream, scream, and scream.  We tried bribing them/calming them down with a snack but they didn't really care for a good 5 minutes.  I felt horrible but they were definitely getting tired and needed to get to bed.  They will have many more days of fun this summer, and I can't wait!!!

A great first experience

Today was the boys first day with their speech therapy.  Troy took the day off and joined them at their Parent/Tot class and was home for their home visit - so all details below are from what Troy told me!

First things first, their Parent/Tot class seemed to go by super quick.  It was an hour long and was only with one other boy (usually there are a couple more, but only 1 more was there today).  It is very structured, time-wise, where the boys got to play freely for a few minutes, then they would do a variety of different structured activities.  Some activities included singing songs (which Troy said totally caught the boys attention), using a paint brush to "paint" with shaving cream, eating a snack, reading books, and other circle time.  During these activities, they enforced repeating words, using sign language, and teaching them to be gentle with the toys (and not throwing them, like they do at home some times -- oops!)  There is one adult there for each child so they get one-on-one time and they rotate amongst the kids to work on different skills.  They seemed to enjoy it, and before they knew it, they were cleaning up and it was time to go.

After their nap, a speech therapist and social worker came over to work with the boys for an hour at home - two adults since there were two kids.  The boys warmed right up to them, and they worked with the boys using their own toys.  Since Logan likes playing with blocks, they gave him choices of what color blocks to take and repeated how to say and ask for a block, how to signal for more blocks, etc.  Ellis showed off (and I LOVED hearing this) by pointing out all the picture flash cards we have (over 20) when Troy asked him to find certain ones.  We knew he could do this, but for whatever reason he wasn't interested last week when they were first evaluated.  The women were very impressed and marked it down on their sheets since recognizing items when asked was one of his goals.  HA - so there!  =)  When the ladies left, they gave high fives and Logan even blew them a kiss.  Everything seemed to go well and I can't wait until I get to take them next week.

Today after I got home, they were playing with the picture flash cards again and Logan started being more active with pointing out pictures.  He's always been more vocal, trying to say words, but not really reactive when we ask him to point things out, whereas Ellis is the opposite.  I was excited to see Logan starting to show interest in that.  Then, Troy went to go get gas for the lawnmower and when he was about to leave, Logan said "bye dada".  Love it.  I know, I know, most kids say these things by the age of 2, but I just love hearing him say things that I actually understand.  Heck, I still love when he waves and says "bye" to me in the morning!  Mama love her boys!!!!

A new month - a new challenge

First, I'll recap April's challenge.  My goal was to be more active.  Out of the 30 days in the month, I wanted be active for at least 20 minutes on at least 15 days.  I started out strong - running, and taking Bella for walks often during my Spring Break, but as the weather got dreary for what seemed like forever and the end of my class got closer, I kind of slipped a little bit.  Luckily, I pulled it off at the end of the month and ended up exactly with 15 days of activity!  A mini part of April's challenge was also to not use the elevator at work, again, to stop with the laziness and be more active.  I was 99% successful with that, only using the elevator once....I kind of forgot and after I was on with some other teachers, didn't think I should make a big deal and get off to use the steps.  Oh well!  =)

For May's challenge, I wanted to kick up my activity a notch and my goal is to do the Insanity Challenge.  I saw infomercials about it and heard some people talking about it on Facebook and though I'd give it a try.  Like anything, if you put your mind to it and dedicate yourself to it, you will be successful right?  Plus, summer is right around the corner, and it would be nice to not feel so self conscious when showing more skin, right?  So, I officially started on Sunday and as of today, I've completed 5 days so far.  My goal with this is definitely to tone up a little bit - and hey, losing that last 5 lbs that I've never been able to drop and keep off after the boys arrived 2 years ago, wouldn't be a bad thing either.  Also, this program lasts 60 days, so this challenge will be for May and June.  I'm hoping once I get more into the swing of these workouts to really adjust my eating too.  I've been more diligent with not eating junk and eating mindlessly, but I'm just in a rut with healthy meals, especially dinners.  If anyone has any good ideas, I'm all ears!

Anyone else have any goals for getting fit for the summer?