A Day in the McLife: September 2013

Sunday, September 29, 2013

This is how Lane rolls

I'm a little behind on documenting most of the last 6 months or so. Things like

Lane's Super Hero 5th birthday party and

Parker's 3rd birthday.

But I did want to share this awesome video taken by Matt. He's on Instagram if anyone's on there. I'm always jealous of his posts. :-) Parker and I headed to Sesame Street Live last weekend. We had 4 tickets and our friends (pretty much the only ones who have a girl) had to back out at the last minute because of a fever. So Parker and I went solo and had 4 floor seats to ourselves. While we watched Elmo and Abby dance across stage,

Lane and Matt practiced riding his bike and by the time we got home, Lane was riding his bike without training wheels! I love how he's talking away until he realizes Matt isn't holding on anymore and then all he can do is laugh.

Of course, just this weekend we had 2 big falls. scraped knees and elbows on the first time and 2 fat lips on the 2nd time, but he's heading out now to get back on. Go Lane!

Apple Picking

Once we got back from vacation, we were halfway into September and couldn't believe we were already thrust into Fall. Each Fall proves to be very full of travel for us and until this year, had never made it to pick apples. With maybe one less trip (or two) of traveling this year, we found this past weekend to hit up one of the orchards here for some apples. We picked one in NC because it was in Flat Rock, a cool little mountain town. Sometimes it's hard to believe that only a 30 minute drive puts us there!

We started with lunch inside The Wrinkled Egg. They specialize in wood-fired pizza so we had to order one of those and while we waited Matt and I split a spinach salad unlike one I had ever had before. Yum! Once our bellies were full, we headed to Sky Top.

We're back...from the longest vacation ever!

Just kidding...we've been back, just haven't been back on the blog! I'm not kidding when I say that we are back from one of the best vacations EVER!

We had such a great time that we ended up staying an extra day and night. Going to Disney at this time of year was a smart move and we didn't even realize it. I mean we sort of knew it would be slower than usual, but we never.waited. Ever. I mean never waited in line for anything, for the most part. Between fast passes and low crowds, we were able to hit every ride with minimal wait time numerous times. The day we went to Epcot, it was virtually a ghost town.

The kids were awesome. We had no meltdowns whatsoever. We did not expect that. I mean, Matt and I nicknamed the most Magical place on Earth the most Magical Meltdown place on Earth because they were happening left and right around us. I mean naturally. Kids are very excited, they are skipping naps, probably eating more sugar than they are used to etc so we expected the meltdowns, but we also went into the trip planning on letting our kids dictate how much we did. We never did go back for naps, although we anticipated doing so, but the kids hung in there and occasionally Parker would fall asleep in her stroller at a park, while we were getting ready for dinner at the room or on the way to dinner, but all she really needed was 30 minutes here and there and she was refreshed! That was surprising to me because when we are home, she still very much needs a good 2-3 hour nap every day. So another part that made the trip so enjoyable was how awesome the kids were.

Here are a few pics! It was a very exhausting vacation and we are finally catching up, but it was worth it! You can see a few more pics on my Facebook page. :-)

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Bon Voyage!

Poor little Parker sometimes perks up in the backseat and asks if we are on our way to Disney! No, Parker, just Target. For a 2 year old, the talk of our trip for the last 3 months must have been pure torture. So she resorted to things like wearing half of what Cinderella would have worn to the ball to dinner at The Soda Shop on a random Thursday.

Or sleeping in her Cinderella best. But the time has come Miss Parker. When we get into the car today and you ask if we are on our way to Disney, we will say YES!

The last loop on our Disney countdown chain has been cut!

M-I-C-K-E-Y....See ya real soon!

Will this ever become a reality?

The yard saga continues. With all of the rain that we have had and there has been PLENTY of it, we learned quickly that we would need to figure out a solution to our damp crawl space. $8,000 later....and it's fixed! I cannot tell you what went on for 2 WEEKS down there and really I cannot tell you what it looked like before or what it currently looks like $8.000 later, but it is "fixed." We've just had set-back after set-back, but we finally have our plan in place. We met with the architect, which took us forever to find one that would call me back or follow through, and he delivered our plans. My mom calls it Central Park. Call it what you want, I just know I am excited for grass and plants. Even though our house was completed almost 2 years ago, it really has not been complete. There is absolutely no curb appeal, in my eyes, so we are excited to add some of that. This is definitely a many-phased project, but I hope to keep you updated on the progress!

The center orange-outlined structure is the house as it stands currently and the back orange-outlined structure is a garage that doesn't yet exist.

Little {Soccer} Momma

End of Summer Happenings

Even though it will be well into the 80's through October, we are marking these last few weeks as the end of summer. School started 2 weeks ago and we are getting back into the routine.

Last few days at the pool.

A weekend trip to the beach. We hadn't been all summer and the kids kept asking to go.

I think (almost) 3 and 5 are the perfect ages for the beach. This was one of the first years that a trip to the beach wasn't all work. Matt and I were able to relax and enjoy ourselves and Parker did a total 360 from last year. She LOVED it!