Sisterwife Reunification

In all seriousness, the forthcoming pictures are documentation of the best weekend I've had since we moved. Don't get me wrong, I am making friends and doing fun things, but reuniting with Sisterwife and the boys was the highlight of late. I told Sisterwife that the last few months felt like a divorce that neither of us wanted. To that end, the weekend was perfect. Doodle and Jayburb we beyond excited to see each other. There was not one cross word between the two of them during the entire stay. As for Trouble, he had a great time too and didn't get into too much! SJ made me look like a whiney fool and was the exact opposite of the hot mess she had been!

We started the weekend out hanging out at the house and the kids played.

And yes, someone did end op getting hurt from this game. Can't remember who, but there were a few tears.

They were super excited to share a room and Doodle couldn't wait to show Jayburb his bed in her room.

The next morning, it took Sisterwife and I a little while to get our groove on and get super organized, but when we did, we rocked it out. Sisterwife stayed in the house with all 4 munchkins and I reinstalled all 4 car seats so that we could all travel in one car. We managed to get all 4 dressed, fed, loaded and into the museum by 10:30ish. We were impressed with ourselves!

Trouble watching Doodle climb the noisy staircase

Jayburb decided to climb up through the maze

"how fast can I get up those stairs?"

SJ spent the better part of the trip chillin in her stroller.

The water table/room was a hit with all 3 of the kids! Good thing we brought extra clothes because they all needed it!

They had such a good time that we left with 6 pruny wrinkly hands!

Saturday we crammed My Favoritest into the car

And headed to the Carnegie Science Center. Much fun was had, and few pictures were taken. Here are a couple of the good ones

We finished the weekend off with an attempt at a picture of all four children. Not so successful, but better than nothing!

Sunday came too soon, and the visit was over to quickly. It did make my heart happy to see that nothing has changed between Doodle and Jayburb. They still love one another with an innocence that is only found in children, and Sisterwife and I will do everything in our power to make sure they get every chance to grow up together!

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The Week My Favoritest Left- Part 2

Life interrupted this post getting out sooner, and I know you have been anxiously waiting (or not!). But here is what happened the rest of the week that My Favoritest was gone. The girls and I sadly dropped Beverly at the airport on Wednesday and I buckled down for a long few days! I was determined to make the best of the solo situation, and decided being busy was better than being bored. So we headed out to the zoo! We had a great morning. Doodle and I sat and laughed at the lemurs and she had a snack with the gorillas. SJ... slept. Imagine that!

We also managed to make it to the aquarium portion of the zoo. Doodle had a great time touching the giant sting ray and crawling through the tunnel under the touch tank.

We also discovered the play area. The first time she went down the slide, she was a little nervous.

But after one time, she was hooked. She must have gone down the slide 50 times!

Doodle spent the next day at school and then we hit up Tot Shabbat that night. As I was getting the girls ready to go, Doodle climbed into SJ's bed and this is a moment that melted my heart! Doodle hanging with her sister!

We survived the week and even had a little fun! That's not to say that I want My Favoritest to leave again any time soon!

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We Got Ears!!!

We celebrated Doodle's birthday last weekend with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bash! This is the first time we have had space to have a party at home. Doodle was excited to have all of her friends celebrate with us. I am a woman of few words this week, so here are the pictures!

I am a totally birthday party dork! I made Mickey Mouse ears for the kids even though I knew my own would not wear them. She hates headbands.

Along with my dorkiness is a sickness involving birthday cakes. Thanks to Landlord and Sisterwife, I realized that making fantastic looking cakes isn't as hard as it looks. It just takes alot of planning, supplies, patients, and most of all LOVE! Doodle knows that I have made her cakes in the past and this year she got into helping me plan it. Becuase of that, every one of the clubhouse gang had to be on the cake!l

I felt like I spent the whole party running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I didn't really get to take as many pictures as I wanted. I also don't want to post too many pictures of Doodle's friends without speaking to their parents.

Doodle obviously enjoyed the unlimited snacking aspect of the party. Please notice that she has a different bowl in each picture. And yes, she ate so many snacks she didn't want dinner!

The kids played and had fun. I had stations set up for necklace making, play doh, giant bowling, a bean bag toss, and sidewalk chalk. The kids turned it into a free for all fun fest, which was perfect!

We sang Happy Birthday and opened presents!

And although I didn't take a ton of pictures, I did manage to get a family picture and a couple of pcitures of the girls in their "matches"!

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The Week My Favoritest Left- Part One

About a month ago (I have been a little sporatic in my postings) My Favoritest had to go out of town for an entire week. Normally, I am okay with staying alone. don't get me wrong, I don't like it. I will admit that I am scared of the dark, things that go bump in the night, and I am pretty sure that anything I have ever seen on Criminal Minds will happen when I am alone in my house. All that being said, I usually can handle it. But, this go round I started to panic. I was terrified of being alone. It had very little to do with single parenting for a week, I mean I do that most days anyway. It had more to do with the irrational fear that something bad would happen and I would have no one to help me or take care of the girls.

In an effort to not have to be alone, I sent a sad and pathetic text to my friend Beverly. She loves to travel and is always up for an adventure. We texted back and forth swapping scheduling details and she said she would talk with her husband and get back to me. A couple of days later she called me and said she was coming for a few days! My heart soared from the relief and then I started planning all the fun we could have!

And fun is exactly what we had. SJ wasn't a total hot mess and we explored the city like we were both tourists!

We started the week off by enjoying a dinner without the girls. My Favoritest hadn't left yet so after I picked Beverly up from the airport we headed out to window shop and eat a nice dinner. It was heavenly! The next morning we dropped Doodle off at school, where we left her until 4:00. Have I mentioned that I love the existance of extended day! After leaving school we headed into the city to take river boat cruise. The weather was gorgeous and the boat ride was great. I took a ton of pictures and I am now going to bore you with a handful of my favorites!

Beverly, SJ, and I getting ready to sail away on the Monongahela River, or maybe the Allegany River, or the Ohio River. At some point we sailed on all three of them, but I don't know what it was when we started our trip!

Given the 3 rivers I just mentioned, there are a ton of bridged in Pitty. The river cruise was a great way to see them up close. They are all different colors and shapes. They are really pretty and when you go under them in a boat have a nice echo acoustic!

This sunburst is on one of my favorite pictures from the day. I love the sun, clouds, and metal all in the same shot!

The other intersting thing Beverly and I noticed was a church steeple on the top of Mt. Washington. It was visible from so many angles and I had fun taking shots of the same thing from different perspectives.

The next day we packed both girls up and headed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Not anywhere near as cool as the Field Museum but lots to see and look at and even a few things for Doodle to "do".

Doodle "listening" to the information about digging for dinosaur bones.

My furture archeologist digging for dinosaur bones, before the museum docents told her that she had to wear the protective goggles if she wanted to dig.

And my Doodle after she put her goggles back on. I am in LOVE with this picture. It is truly my favorite in a long time!

We took this picture just for Zayde. When he was in college Zayde had a bob cat (creatively named Cat) as a pet.

After we left the museum we had a lovely lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then headed to the Duquene Incline. The inclines were used back in the day to get people from the city to Mt. Washington.

I took the picture of the Incline the day before from the river.

View of the city from the top of Mt. Washington

And while this isn't anything super interesting, I love this picture. It's a shot of a fence along the sidewalk at the top of Mt. Washington. I like it so much I am toying with the idea of having it printed on a canvas and hanging it in my living room. Whatcha think?

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