Odds & Ends

Wow where did this week go? I feel like I just blogged yesterday and then when I look I am reminded that it was Sunday-oops. No big stories here just some odds & ends...

After a long hiatus, I am finally back to sewing; working on a few baby gifts. We have 3 friends/family members who have either just had a baby or are going to have a baby soon. So I am working on making some custom onesies. When I finally complete something I'll post pictures. I also bought some 2 inch foam at Joann Fabrics to make a cushion for the bench in our entryway. For some reason foam is really expensive, so when I saw it for 50% off I decided to buy it. Now I just need to figure out what kind of fabric I want to use. I also want to make some covers for the cushions on our dining room chairs, maybe using the same fabric as the bench to tie the rooms together, not sure yet?

Speaking of our dining room... I recently had a conversation with John about how much I disliked the current lighting in the room. We had an ugly cracked dome light that cast a yucky dim glow and it drove me nuts! When renting a home sometimes it seems like you can't change anything, or that you don't want to invest a lot of money into something you are going to eventually leave. But I kept thinking how nice a chandelier would look. I admired them in the Menards flyer every Sunday and dreamt of better lighting. Then on Wednesday Anabelle and I drove over to the new thrift store in town, Restore. Restore is run by the Habitat for Humanity people, they sell used housewares. Everything from furniture to fixtures to tile to toilets. They have everything you could need for a home. As we wandered through I spotted the lighting aisle and thought, "hmmm... I wonder if they have any chandeliers?" Guess what? They did! I found a nice one for only $10!!! So I brought it home and began to contemplate how to take down the ugly dome light and install the new lovely chandelier. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of my husbands ability to assist me in wiring the new light. I am now eating my words because he not only got it up and hooked up properly, but he was quite pleasant about giving up 2+ hours of his evening to do it. All I had to do was make a stop at Home Depot today to get some additional parts and we were good to go. I LOVE the new light! Tomorrow Anabelle and I will be making a run to Hobby Lobby to get some little mini shades. The chandelier came with 6 nice glass covers, but sadly one of them fell prey to Anabelle's curious, and quick hands. **Stupid Mommy! I am still learning that she can reach higher than I think she can** But is is okay because the light is really bright with the glass covers and I think it will look nicer with some shades to diffuse the light a little. I will post pictures as soon as I get the new shades up.

On Wednesday, Anabelle and I drove into the city to visit our friends Angela, Andrew, and Sophia. Angela is the wife of a high school classmate of ours, Andrew and Sophia are their almost 3 year old twins. They are pretty cool and we love to get together with them for play dates whenever we can. This time we got an extra special treat, we met the newest addition to their family, baby James. Just 3 weeks old he is still a little smaller than Anabelle was when she was born. Who knew at 8lbs. 11 oz. that she was giant? All new babies are adorable and James was no exception. I got to hold him for a bit and it made me remember how nice it feels to hold a newborn.... I think it's time for another baby soon. Or maybe I will just drive to Chicago frequently to get my newborn fix =) Angela also shared with me the exciting news that they will be moving out our way this April, yay!

I have more odds & ends from the week to share, but it is late and I am tired. And before I know it I will be woken up by a little voice and the squeaky sounds of her crib while she jumps around. Stay tuned for more odds & ends tomorrow =)

The things we do at the cabin...

Eat yummy french toast for breakfast

Play the guitar

Look at the frozen lake

Take walks

Hitch rides

Do some grocery shopping

Try to beat the Rubiks cube record

Read magazines

Give impromptu concerts of "oompa-loompa"

lounge by the fire

Play Jenga

contemplate the next Jenga move

Give kisses through the railing

Eat tacos -YUM!

Ride side saddle

Try to draw blindfolded during a game of Cranium

We're home from a fun weekend at Becky's cabin. We spent lots of time eating, laughing, and just hanging out. We didn't get much sleep, so we are all tired today. Early to bed for everyone in the Delaney house tonight. I ate so much naughty food, it was fantastic! Back to weight watchers tomorrow. It has been 3 weeks now and I am down 4 pounds. It should be warm enough to add in some long walks this week to help out. Not much else planned for the week, hope you all have a happy Monday tomorrow!

The Midwest is Starting to Thaw....

so we've been checking out the local parks. The last time the weather was warm enough to go to the park Anabelle was only big enough to go in the swings. Now that she can walk, climb, and run she is really enjoying our trips to the park.

The slide is her favorite

She is not so sure about the moving bridge yet

Maybe I should sit down just to be safe

Even though she can climb all over, she still loves to swing

We are heading out of town today for a quiet, relaxing, and fun weekend away at the cabin with friends. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!

Top 10

This list was written by Candy Kirby (thelaughingstork.com ) and was published in this month's Redbook magazine. I found it to be funny and true.

Top 10 Things Never to Say to a Stay-at-Home Mom

1. When the kids are older, do you think you’ll get a real job?
2. How June Cleaver of you!
3. Oh, so you don’t work?
4. Since you have extra time on your hands, could you whip up a few dozen brownies for the bake sale tomorrow?
5. All day with your kids? I can’t even imagine.
6. I’m jealous. I wish my husband were rich so I wouldn’t have to work either.
7. So what do you do all day, anyway?
8. Don’t worry; I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s ever wasted money on a college degree.
9. That explains why your son is so clingy!
10. Weird. I assumed your house would be super clean.

Yay! March is here!

Something old and something new

With February on its way out and Spring coming our way, I thought I would freshen up the look of my blog. I think it's easier on the eyes, I hope you like the new design too. This morning I was going through Anabelle's closet trying to decide what she should wear. I thought we'd try out a little dress that I wore as a baby, it's only going to fit her for a little longer. Since the weather isn't warm enough to wear it as a dress, we decided to pair it with jeans and a long sleeve tee. I like the mix of such a sweet little dress with jeans. Anabelle is not in the mood to pose for pictures lately so I caught her on the couch looking at the sunshine through the blinds.

Chicagoland Kids Expo

Saturday morning Anabelle and I drove to the Schaumburg Convention Center to attend the kids expo. I had read about the expo in a magazine that lists events for children and thought it sounded like it might be a fun thing to do. The cost was $9 for me to get in and Anabelle was free, parking was also free. They opened at 9am and I wanted to be there early so that it would be too crowded. It's not like before having a child I was that punctual, but now it's almost impossible to be anywhere on time with Anabelle in tow. So we arrived at 9:15-not too bad. If you don't know what a kids expo is, it is a place where vendors from all over the area can hand out information about their product/service. So there were lots of booths for food, toys, books, entertainment, and fun places to take your kids. Most of them hand out a pamphlet, some coupons, and a little freebie for your kid. Along with all of this stuff they also had 2 stages with music and dancing, big inflatable rides and bounce houses, a photo booth, a petting zoo, a firetruck, lots of costumed people walking around, and a rock climbing wall. Anabelle and I decided to walk through all the booths first since it wasn't crowded yet.

Anabelle did a great job of holding my hand as we walked and she really seemed to like it. Every few feet there was a new booth to explore, new faces to see, new people to ooh and ahh over her cuteness, and a new little toy to hold onto. What could be better for a toddler? Along the way we got some great coupons for area attractions and lots of information about things we can do this spring/summer. We also ended up with a bag of little stuffed animals, crayons, balls, toy jewelry, and snacks. When we were done with that we walked over to the stage area to do some dancing, which Anabelle loved! There were lots of other kids all dancing around and having fun with the parents all whipping out their cameras to snap photos. Sadly the inflatable rides were a little too chaotic for Anabelle to try, there were some really big kids jumping around and I thought she might get smooshed. It would have been different if I could have gone in with her, and helped her... maybe next year she'll be ready. So we tried out he photo booth, which was funny, Anabelle wasn't quite sure what we were doing inside a little box. Then it was time to check out the petting zoo. They had lots of animals and it was pretty clean. You could walk around the pen and pet them all, and they were all very kind and gentle. I was impressed, I wasn't sure how nice all the animals would be. They had some very large animals, a donkey and a llama. Lots of goats and sheep, and some baby goats too. The baby animals were adorable and also the perfect size for Anabelle to pet. She knew right what to do, and was very gentle with them. It must be all that practice petting the kitties.

After the zoo we were tired and ready to head home. It was about 11:30, and we had packed a lot of fun into 2 hours. Not bad for only $9! I would definitely recommend this to other families, and I think it would be fun for kids as old as 8 or 9. Here are some pictures from our day.

Anabelle loved the bubble machines and played with them for quite a while.

They had a sock monkey booth where you could make your own monkey ears.

Anabelle was instantly in love with these huge costumed animals. She had a huge smile and just followed them around trying to touch their fur.

This huge bird was dancing with Anabelle for a long time and she really adored him. He would mimic all of her dance moves which she thought was so funny. She even cried when he moved on to some other kids.

Llama at the zoo.

Petting the goats.

The little babies were so sweet!

What is that bird?

Look Mom a donkey!

Goodbye Mr. Goat.