Take Me Out to the Ballgame!!

On Friday night, Chris' company hosted a summer outing at Comerica Park. We decided to bring Levi along for his first Major League ballgame "among the general folk", he's actually been to Comerica one other time for one of our friends' 1st birthday party, but that was high class...in a suite...parking in the Tigers Garage...private elevators, and it was 2 years ago, so he was just about 18 months, too far away for his memory!! I digress...
Anyway, we got to the ball park, made our way to our seats and sat down with our hot dogs, chips and pop ready for a fun night and watching our firstborn get ALL the attention of mom and dad, and experience something that his mom and dad love so much...baseball! We got through 3 innings and decided to take Levi down to the ferris wheel, made our way back and just as we reached our seats, the rain started to fall...and fall..and fall...I'll let the pictures tell the Rest of the Story!!

He was so excited about the game that he conked out as soon as we headed to the park!!
Inside the Ferris Wheel, the cars are all baseball shaped, it's right in the park...pretty cool!



We knew this was a bad sign...and also, not something you want to read when you have your 3 year old in a packed stadiumbut really, Levi and I needed a chance to wear our blue rain parkas, so I was glad for the opportunity!
We left the stadium and took Levi for dessert at Ram's Horn...remember when we were there last??
I don't think he was too upset about leaving the game early...he finished off MOST of the strawberry shortcake and a lot of my hot fudge cake!!
Although, things didn't go as we planned, it was a really fun night and it felt really special to have Levi get both of our attention for the evening. Especially because we knew Mason was having fun with some great friends of ours from church at his own special sleepover!

Books, Brothers,Bawling and Bedheads!

Books are fun!
Did somebody say Books? I want to read with you, big brother!!


Let's surprise mommy and actually SHARE the reading fun!!

...well, that lasted about 30 seconds...

(The next morning)

Channeling the faux-hawk!!


STOP TAKING PICTURES OF MY HAIR!!!
The best bed-head is meant to be shared among brothers!!
This is his best camera smile...we need to work on that some!!

Keeping Up Appearances

Remember that picture of my living room a few Monday's ago? It was really, really hard for me to post that picture. Most people who know me well, know that I am FAR, FAR from a neat freak, and that in our house, it's Chris who is the one the mess gets to first. Knowing that this knowledge is fairly common in our circles of friends, I still go to great lengths to have a clean house when I know people are coming over. I recently was mortified when a surprise visitor dropped by in the midst of tornadic conditions in our home. So much so that I nearly missed the blessing of the visit!! At some point I realized that our visitor wasn't coming over to check out how clean things were, and she surely wasn't expecting to hear Mozart playing in the background while Levi and Mason practiced their French lessons and I pranced around in pearls and high heels. THAT would clearly not be reality!! The question I find myself asking is, "what's wrong with the reality, anyway?"
Would anyone love me less if they knew that the remnants of last nights dinner are probably still lingering around somewhere between Levi's chair and Mason's high chair..or that I rarely (as in almost never) make our bed...that sometimes I wash a load of clothes twice because I forget to take them out of the washer before they get a little stinky smelling?
Don't misunderstand me, I certainly believe that these are all areas in need of some improvement, and I do wish that I were better at keeping things in order around here, my intention is not to excuse the mess. However, there are days when this is the REALITY.
If I really desire authentic relationships, and that's really the only kind of relationships I want, (it's too exhausting to do it the other way) then I should be a lot less bothered by the mess, or the kids in PJ's at noon and allow myself to focus on the visit...I can only imagine how much more conversation we could accomplish if every 5 minutes, I didn't interrupt the conversation to spend 5 minutes apologizing for my messy home, dirty kids, and stinky dog!!
So, I'm going to work on being more organized and keeping a better home anyway, but in the meantime if you happen to drop by and can't make your way from the kitchen to the couch, be assured that I'll be embarrassed, but not so much that I'll miss the blessing of your visit and our friendship!!

AHHHHH!

Six years ago, 2 newly engaged couples packed up 2 tents and more camping equipment than they could have used in a month, and headed off to Silver Lake State Campground for a weekend in the sun and Sand Dunes! The couples had so much fun that they vowed to make it a "tradition", and do the same trip every year...
This past weekend was our fifth year on this camping trip with Chris' long-time best bud, Rick and his wife, Laura. We missed last year because we both had young babies at home and decided it would be best to take a year off, but this year we were right back at it feeling like we hadn't missed a year!
We packed up and headed out on Friday morning, rented a pontoon and spent the day on Silver Lake on Saturday, and came home Sunday. It's just such a great time and there's something about life long friendships (such as Chris and Rick's) that is so refreshing. Laura and I had barely known each other when we took that first camping trip, but over the years we developed a fun, easy friendship, mostly built on making fun of our husband's and the way they still act like they're 12 when they get together.
We laugh A LOT, eat A TON, and enjoy the sweetness of friendship and tradition that God has granted us. We first decided when I was pregnant with Levi, and they weren't having babies yet, that no kids could go on the trip until the youngest one was 5 years old...then we decided this year that no kids can come on the trip ... EVER!! This weekend is built around tradition, we try to keep as many traditions on our trip as possible, and kids would break most of them. We may just have to add another getaway to our summer, so that we can go as families!
Here are a few pictures of our getaway adventure!


Girls can climb big sand hills too! That's me on the left, Laura on the right.






Rick, Laura and I at our campsite...we don't really "rough it"!

"Alone" ...relatively, that is!

This is what happens when I try to go to the bathroom "alone"....


First...the appearance of objects under the door



then...said object becomes out of reach and the appearance of chubby little fingers accompanied by a small voice, "mmmaammmaa" "hi" "HIIII!

...And once I open the door I know I need to be careful, lest I step on the sweet face of my "intruder"! This is how I find him every time I open the door after my time "alone"!!

FYI: We don't actually keep a camera in the bathroom, but I was anticipating this post so I "faked" the bathroom experience to capture the moment!

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is NOT what my house looks like, because I am a wonderful housekeeper and would never let my living room get to this state of disaster...and if I did...I certainly would NOT post about it!!


This is NOT my People Magazine haplessly strewn on the floor, and if it WAS my People Magazine, I certainly did NOT buy it because I wasn't able to finish the article on Kate Goslin before it was my turn to load the groceries on the scanner at Meijer....


and finally...this is NOT my empty Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrapper that was also added to the scanner at Meijer at the last minute. I did NOT buy the ultimate worlds BEST candy EVER, and eat it secretly in the van in the 5 minutes it takes me to get from Meijer to home...NOT ME!!