Berry sweet hubby

Call me sappy, but I love my hubby. I mean, clearly I love him. I did marry the man. But today I have a crazy outpouring of love for him.

Why, you ask? He is so sweet! Yesterday for no special reason he brought me home a special treat from Edible Arrangements - six decadent chocolate covered strawberries.

Yes, I know there are only five in the picture, but I couldn't contain myself and had to have one as soon as I opened the box! I get that way around chocolate sometimes. Or all of the time. But whatever, that's not the point.

XOXO to my hubby.

Spring has sprung

I know it's spring-time and all, but "Rain, rain, go away"!

This time of year I find myself anxious about the impending warm weather and frustrated when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate! The Chicagoland area has been hit with precipitation off and on for the last week. Luckily the weekend wasn't a complete washout. The sun poked out for a couple of hours at a time and kept us pretty warm!

During one of those dry spells on Sunday, Hailey went on her first outing with Grandpa & Grandma (a.k.a. my Dad & Cheryl). There are so many Grandparents! It's even hard for us to keep track.

Anywho...my Dad and Cheryl picked Hailey up and took her to the downtown park along the river to play and feed the ducks. I was worried about how she'd do on her first outing with them because she refused to nap that day, but they said she was very well-behaved. They even took her out to dinner after the park!

She came home about 8pm happy, but tired. Daddy to put her to bed right away and she was out like a light. Which is surprising because she had ice cream for dessert. I guess her sleepiness took priority over her sugar rush.

While Hailey was on her outing RJ got the new door to Hailey's "big girl" room hung and the bi-fold closet doors installed. I supervised. Clearly that is what I am best at when it comes to handywork.

The room is coming together now. All that is left is the closet organizer, which we have yet to buy, and some art for the walls. So far we have some cute fabric butterflies, which we are going to hang from the ceiling and walls. And Auntie Lisa is going to make some artwork using the butterfly stencil I used for the walls. So exciting!

If you have any ideas for butterfly-themed decor, email them my way. I'll be on the scout for the perfect pieces!

Stop following me!

For some reason half of the Chicagoland area has started following me around. Yes, I'm flattered because I am super-cool (clearly), but it's getting aggravating. I really don't like crowds very much and I hate traffic.

So, you want to know why I think half of the Chicagoland area is following me?

Event #1: Last week we went to the Helicopter Egg Drop and there were literally thousands of people there. The event was very cool. But the traffic? Not so much.

Event #2: Yesterday Rachel from our playgroup and I took the kids to the Brookfield Zoo. I have never seen it so packed! We waited in traffic to get into the zoo parking lot for at least a half hour. And once we were in, it was so hard to see anything because of the massive amounts of people. While on our way out of the zoo parking lot, there wasn't an open parking space to be found. People were parked in the grass and everywhere else that technically wasn't a parking spot.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little paranoid about being followed. Maybe the warm weather that occurred on both of these days was the reason for the masses.

But whatever. No one better follow me tonight. It's date night with my hubby!

The plans begin!

In three more days Hailey will be 23 months. Thank God the counting in months thing is almost over! I can barely keep track without looking at a calendar. Soon she'll be 2 - that's easy to remember.

The invitations for her birthday party are done and ready to be mailed! I made all of the characters on the card with my trusty 'ol Cricut machine and assembled the cards myself. At first, I thought using my Cricut to make the invitations was going to be easy. But I was wrong! If anyone has ever used one of these, you know that it cuts out predetermined shapes in which you choose the size. Because of the intricate characters I chose, they required multiple layers of different colored cardstock.

If you've never used one of these, I probably lost you like three sentences ago.

Anywho. Because of all of the layers necessary, these cards are heavy! I'm thinking they are going to require at least 2, maybe 3 stamps to mail. But they are worth it - I love the way they came and so does Hailey!

I don't want to give away the card by posting a picture, but I will say it includes this guy (affectionately known around here as "Kikis")...

...and some of his friends! I know...real original right? But Hailey is really into Elmo (a.ka. "LaLa") right now, so I figured this is the year to do it. She probably won't be so into it next year. We'll probably move on to something just as unoriginal....like Dora!

My friend Nata-Leigh is doing a "tie dye" theme for her son Lubbock's birthday (he turns 2 the day before Hailey). It's so unique! No wonder other Moms keep asking her to help them plan their kids' birthday parties.

The Third Easter Egg Hunt

I took Hailey to her third Easter Egg Hunt of the season today. She's becoming a pro!

My friend Brandy and her son Evan (Evan and Hailey are in a playgroup together) invited us to go to an egg hunt put on by the church they attend.

This wasn't your average egg hunt! Instead of hiding the eggs, a helicopter flew over and dropped thousands of eggs into an empty field. And as soon as the helicopter finished spreading the eggs around, all of the kids rushed into the field and "found" the eggs.

I would have thought that thousands of eggs would have gone a long way, but I was wrong. People came out in droves for this event!

Unfortunately we weren't quick enough getting on the field. Evan and Hailey didn't find any actual whole eggs, but they did have fun picking up the halves of the eggs that broke open from the fall out of the helicopter. Later a nice volunteer lady walked around and gave eggs to the kids who didn't get any.

The biggest challenge of the day was getting in and out of the parking lot. Nata-Leigh was also supposed to come, but the traffic coming into the complex was so backed up she didn't make it in time. The helicopter was already dropping the eggs while she was still waiting to get in.

After the egg hunt, we waited about 50 minutes for all of the cars to exit before our turn came. It's days like today I'm thankful for our DVD player in the car. I don't think Hailey would have made it that long in the car at a standstill without an Elmo fix!

Suprise for Sister

I really did mean to post party details for my sister's surprise party earlier, but just haven't gotten around to it.

The past month I've been planning a surprise 40th party for my middle sister, Lori. Her husband was the ring leader and I'm grateful for that. I've never planned a surprise party before - it's hard keeping secrets!

Lori was under the assumption she was having a birthday party for her 6 year old, Ryan, that day, so we didn't totally ambush her with a houseful of people! And the best part of the surprise was that our oldest sister, Lisa, and a good family friend, Suzanne, traveled here for the celebration. (In the photo: Lisa, me, Lori & Suzanne) Lori seemed quite surprised! And the party was fun!
My Dad & Cheryl (his long-time main squeeze) unleashed their creative genius and compiled old pictures of Lori and our family into a posterboard collage. It was really cool....and I just realized I didn't get a picture of it! Dang it!

And for the record, I hate surprises and never want a surprise party thrown for me! Got it?!