Mardi Gras Fun!

Last weekend we took the girls down to Galveston for their family-friendly Mardi Gras celebrations.  I have never been to any kind of Mardi Gras festivity, so I didn't really know what to expect.  However, I was thrilled to know it was family-friendly, as I've heard of some not so family-friendly things that take place at Mardi Gras. 

The day started out SO COLD.  Seriously, it's been a super mild winter and here we were driving to a beach island where the high temp for the day was in the mid-40's with 17-20 mph winds.  NOT my idea of a good time, especially with two kids in tow!  We all dressed in two layers plus winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves and headed on our way.  We arrived in Galveston right around 11am, which was when the festivities were to begin.  We had planned to go down, find a nice restaurant to sit down in, eat a nice, slow lunch and basically hang out there until the parade began at 1.  Well, we found exactly TWO restaurants that were open on a Sunday.  One was a greasy cafe that served burgers and dogs, the other was a little cafe that served muffalettas and deli sandwiches.  We chose the cafe and ate some hot fresh, greasy food :)  It was a really small place and started to fill up fast when we were finished eating so we cleared out of our tables, bundled back up and went back out into the blustery cold. 

We started walking a little and that's when Eric saw the beads being thrown from a balcony.  Of course, since we were at a Mardi Gras celebration, we HAD to get some beads!  What I wasn't prepared for was the amount of beads we would end up with...but I'm getting ahead of myself.  We stood there catching beads for a LONG time.  I don't know how long, but it felt like forever :) I finally managed to pull Eric and Maddie away from the crowd of bead-catchers and we headed over to enjoy some live music for a while.  We danced with the girls and had a good time, then we found a spot on the curb to wait for the parade!  The curbs in Galveston are about 18 inches (maybe more) high...I guess to accomodate any minor flooding in the city.  It was quite convenient for sitting on waiting for the parade.  AND we had thought ahead to take a blanket, so that made for a much warmer seat!

Once the parade started, we all stood up to get up close to catch MORE beads!  Little did we know, the parade only lasted about 15 minutes (and that might be generous).  We were pretty bummed that we drove all the way to Galveston in freezing cold temperatures for a 15 minute parade.  Eric and I just kind of looked at each other and laughed...it was all we could do :)  We headed off walking back toward where they were throwing beads over the balcony, because, you know, we didn't quite have enough beads at that point (I'm being sarcastic here...).  We caught a few more beads and were surprised when the "parade" came back around again!  How strange was that??  Maybe it's the norm when it comes to Mardi Gras parades, but we were shocked.  So guess what we did??  Yup...got MORE beads!   At this point I was telling Eric we had more than enough and we should give up on the the beads and take the girls to the beach.  I kept saying we were going to have to weigh the beads when we got home so we could see just how much we had.  It was insane!

We finally headed back to the van and took the girls over to see the beach.  It was still really cold, although it had warmed up into the low 40's by then, and it was still SUPER windy.  But that didn't deter our die-hard beach bums!  Both girls took off to run in the sand fully clothed with hats and mittens.  What a fun sight and great memories!  We finished off our day in Galveston with a trip to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.  That's become an unspoken tradition.  It seems every time we go down there, we stop off for some ice cream before heading home.  It was really fun (and yummy!!).

We were relieved to get home and get warmed up and REST!!  But we had some business to tend to first...the weighing of the beads.  Eric put ALL of the beads on Maddie.  She had to put her arms out to her sides in order to keep the beads from falling off of her!  She managed to walk back to our bathroom where we weighed her with the beads on, then took them all off and weighed her again.  The grand total for the beads was 9.2 pounds.  Yes, you saw that right, NINE POINT TWO POUNDS of beads!!  We were shocked that Maddie was able to walk with all that extra weight on!

A Pinterest Party!

Leighann at Living with Three Hobbits and a Giant is hosting a Pinterest Party on her blog today.  Go check it out and link up if you like :)


My inspiration from Pinterest comes in the form of a delicious, but totally addictive snack.

Be warned:  If you don't want to gain 5 pounds this week, PLEASE do not make this for yourself.  Make it for a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, but whatever you do, don't make this to keep in your own home.  I don't care how good you think your self control is, these WILL win.  Make a batch to give away and snack on a few pieces as you break it up and put it into a container.  All of my neighbors will be getting this in a cute little package for Christmas next year :)

You can find the recipe here.

One tip, I didn't melt the chocolate chips as the recipes says to do.  Instead, I spread the chips out over the bark as it came out of the oven and they pretty much started to melt right away.  Then I spread them out with a spatula and sprinkled on the sea salt.  YUMMY!!

Sisterly Love

It's been a while since I posted anything so I thought I'd pop in real quick and show you this sweet picture.  Sadie was sitting on the floor in front of the chair watching Baby Einstein.  Then Maddie decided to sit in the chair behind her and I started to get upset with her for always needing to be in her sister's "space".  Well, she put her legs on either side of Sadie and started rubbing her head.  It was so sweet, Sadie just rested her head on Maddie's leg.  They stayed that way for a few minutes being so super sweet with each other.  I LOVE it!!

Post Surgery Update

Yesterday's surgery went well. I've decided I could use more anesthesia naps in my life! Ha! Anyway, the doctor said I was born with extra cartilage in my knee so he trimmed off the damaged portion and I'm left with a "normal" amount. After surgery I felt a lot better than I thought I was going to. I drank a cup of coffee shortly after I woke up then ate a banana on the drive home.

Sleep last night was less than stellar. I woke up at least every hour. I have to sleep on my back with my knee elevated so it's not the most comfortable position to stay in all night. I kept waking up when my arms were numb or my butt was numb. So strange. I just had to stretch a little to get the circulation back. Also the Vicodin that was prescribed is making me incredibly itchy. I was scratching myself so much in my sleep I have scratch marks on my arms, belly and chest. That's not fun! I called to see about getting a different prescription but I guess they're extra cautious when it comes to narcotics do they wouldn't change my prescription. I was told to take 800mg of ibuprofen, ice and elevate my knee. I'm in too much pain to rely solely on ibuprofen so Eric when to the store to pick up some Benadryl (another option the dr gave me). As soon as he gets home I'll take my Vicodin and Benadryl and probably have a really good nap!

I'll check in later :) Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

(please forgive any typos that may be in this post, I'm using my phone)

Pre-Surgery Nesting

I'm going in tomorrow for a quick, out-patient surgery to repair a torn meniscus in my knee.  When I initially spoke to the orthopedic surgeon, he told me this surgery was no big deal, I'll be back to my normal daily activities by Monday and can start running again within 4 weeks.  I think I let myself get a little too comfortable with that idea and now that the surgery is so close, I'm realizing that I'm having SURGERY.  They're going to stick surgical instruments inside my knee joint.  Just the thought of it is making me feel nauseous.  I'm sure I'll be fine, but I'm just making myself be realistic about things.  I'm expecting to be in a lot of pain and discomfort and not being able to walk...that way when I'm able to put weight on my right leg and walk without crutches by Monday I'll be pleasantly surprised.  ha!

In preparation for my surgery I feel like I'm nesting. I'm trying to get all of my last minute chores done around the house so Eric won't have to worry about anything this weekend (well, except taking care of me and the girls!).  Laundry is caught up, there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge, I'm going grocery shopping later today, bathrooms are cleaned, floors are swept and vacuumed, cloth diapers are washed.  I'm feeling pretty good about the house being taken care of for a while so if I find that I'm not back to my normal activities by Monday, it'll be ok for me to take it easy!

Well, wish me luck for tomorrow and pray for a speedy recovery so I'll be able to keep up with the whirlwind that is Sadie!  :)

Llama, Llama, Boo Boo Drama

Maddie must be the most dramatic kid ever!  It's cute and ridiculous at the same time.  She seems to be most dramatic over boo boos.  It's been this way as long as I can remember.  I remember when she was really young, the first time she scraped her knee.  She would go along her day as usual, obviously not in any pain from the scraped knee.  But then if she caught a glimpse of it she would start crying and pointing to her knee as if it was a fresh boo boo.  So, I learned that I had to always put long pants on her to cover them up and she'd be just fine :)

A couple of days ago Maddie was playing in the playroom before breakfast.  Everything was fine until all of a sudden she started crying and told me something was wrong with her wrist.  She couldn't move it.  She told me if she twists it it hurts so she has to hold it still.  I was trying to figure out what she had done to herself, looking around in the playroom for any clues since she was fussing too much to give me any information.  Within a few minutes she decided she wanted breakfast.  I got her a cup of yogurt and a spoon and she started crying because her wrist hurt so bad that she wasn't going to be able to feed herself!  I asked to look at her writst, promising not to touch, of course!  She let me look and I saw some dry drool.  I asked if that was where it was hurting and she said yes.  I grabbed a warm, damp wash cloth and wiped it off.  Yup, that was the end of the boo boo.  She was fine the rest of the day.  She thought since it looked like a boo boo, then certainly it must hurt, right?  Silly girl!

Today she has a little cut on her finger.  It's on the back of her finger, just behind the fingernail.  The finger does look red and puffy so I'm sure it hurts.  But this kid can't. do. anything.  She's bedridden (well, couch-ridden) and needs me to do everything for her.  She's crying off and on (probably every time she looks at it) and whining and fussing that it hurts.  I had been offering suggestions such as some ointment (which she HATES), bandaids, lotion, a kiss...anything.  She refused anything and actually started screaming at me when I made a suggestion.  Well, mommy finally had enough of it and told her I was going to take care of it.  I put some Neosporin on a bandaid (where she couldn't see me doing it), then brought the bandaid to put on her finger.  This is where things got crazy...she was pulling away from me and pulling at my arms with her free hand.  I had to get her behind me so I could put her arm between my legs to hold it still.  We wrestled like this for at least a full minute before she held still enough for me to get the bandaid on securely enough (I'm surprised I didn't really injure her wrist with this move!!).  She proceeded to scream/cry for a minimum of 10 minutes.  I'm not even exaggerating.  What a mess!

Ahhhh....these will be fun things to laugh about when she has a 3 1/2 year old of her own one day and can't get over how dramatic she is!  :)

Toys, Toys, Toys!!

I'm pretty sure my kids have enough toys for a family of 12...they used to be organized in little bins according to the type of toy.  We had a bin for "baby" toys, one for My Little Pony, Fisher Price Little People, one for small stuffed animals, one for blocks, etc.  We still have these bins but it seems we have a lot of "floater" toys.  Little, junk toys that don't really fit into a category.  You know what I'm talking about right?  The kids meal toys, the little junk from party treat bags or class parties.  Ugh, the stuff that drives parents crazy!  The problem is my kid LOVES this stuff!  We sort out her class party stuff several days after the party in hopes that she won't ask for it again.  A lot of times she does.  I have to lie and tell her it broke so I threw it away.  I've even told her Murphy got a hold of it and chewed it up.  Am I a bad mom??

So, my question is this:  What do you do with your kids' toys?  I'm tempted to just do a big ol' toy box but I know they'll play with stuff less if it's not easy to get to.  Or I'll daddy will just have a huge mess to clean up every night before bed.  (As much as we try to get our girls to clean up, it becomes a hassle and it's easier to do it ourselves, which Maddie is fully aware of now that we haven't been strict on keeping up with her doing the cleaning up so she "lets" us do it...nice, huh?)

I'm off topic!  How do you organize your kids' toys so that they'll play with them but still be kept neat?  Our playroom is pretty good, but Maddie's room is a disaster!

Please help!!