Main Street Market

I needed to get away.

The girls did too. 

The necklaces the girls are wearing here was picked out at one of the booths from Main Street Market.
Clara went with resin roses, Rhiannon went with a native american bust.
 (Unfortunately I don't remember the shops names where we got them.)

One of my dear friends was set to participate in this amazing little festival called Main Street Market in Rockford, Illinois.  

Cuteness abounds.

Perfect!  
It was only a two hour drive, the girls and I had never been there before so there was new scenery to experience and we could shop for insanely cute stuff. (see below...)

I'm told this AMAZING painting I got for a steal is in fact "creepy".

I beg to differ.
This dog begs to differ, too.

Insanely cute stuff ==Right up our alley!

It was held at the Midwest Village Museum.  So there were fun artifacts like this hand pumped well.  I told the girls that there was one of these on the farm I grew up on.   They told me " that kind of make's you ancient, Mom."

After Rhiannon showed Clara how this crazy ancient contraption worked she, of course, had to have a try as well.

I'll give you one guess as to what happened.
If you grew up with one of these I bet you already know.

Clara grabbed that handle, pulled down with all of her might and bonked herself really good right on top of her head.  

That pretty much ended the festival fun for us.

However we weren't ready to head home yet.  We asked a local if there was a beach or a lake we could go wander about for a little while.  He sent us to a beach about 10 minutes away.

  We got to the "beach".  
It looked and smelled like a cow pond with some sand around it.  

A cow pond beach they were going to charge $3 a person to go on, mind you.  

Looking for snakes.
Because they want me to have a heart attack.

We said "no thanks" and decided to explore the forest near it instead.

Where the faeries live.

We noticed a TON of large hawks in the area.  After walking into the woods we also noticed there were a TON of chipmunks scuttling about.

I did NOT tell the girls the connection between the hawks and chipmunks.  I did tell this little guy that he needed a better hiding spot.

All in all it was a pretty magical day.

Have a great weekend!

Snow Dog

Since I chose to live in the Chicago area of the world it is rare that I bitch about the weather.  

From the months of October, November, December, January, February, March and unfortunately most of April we will have bitter cold and winter weather.  

I'm totally okay with this, too.  We are completely stocked with hats, gloves, scarves, snow pants, igloo makers, snow ball makers, sleds etc ect to help get us through the long cold winter.

However, this really is a cruel joke mother nature is playing on us right now.  

There are two times when my kids are pumped to go to school.

• After summer vacation.
• After winter break.

This means I have two kids with severe cabin fever who are itching to go back to school.  

Instead, we are having forced snow days where it is to cold to even go outside and play!  

Oh, and the internet and cable went out.

AAAAGH!

This feels personal, Mother Nature.  

Yesterday was especially brutal.

 Rhiannon was so distraught (upon finding she had no immediate access to the outside world) she said to us, 

"Is this what it was like to live in, like, 1995?"

(Why yes.  Yes it was, Darling.)

 Finally I couldn't take it anymore.
I decided to bring the outdoors in.

You've had a pizza party+snowman building party in the bathtub before, right?  

This is totally normal?

I don't even care.  

This killed about three hours.

The snow was very powdery and not at all good for making snowmen.

Clara did a superb job at misting the snow and took her task very seriously.

(Make it BIGGER mama.  It needs to be BIGGER.  Hold on, hold on.  It needs more misty. There.  That's better. Make it BIGGER mama.  Wait, wait.  More misty...)

TA-DAAAAA!

Almond eyes, (Because who keeps coal in their house?) Candy Cane nose (those carrots are for supper!) and Candy Cane arms (it was way to cold to go looking for sticks.)

She was very proud of her snowman dog.

Buehrle was incredibly suspicious of him....

So I gave him some to eat as a snack.

And then pizza was had by all!

She had a pizza/tea party with her new friend Snow dog for a good 40 minutes afterwards.  

Thankfully, the internet came back on later last night.
(Phew, that was a close one!  Yea instagram and netflix!)

Happy Freaking Snow Day!

Color Me Bad

Rhiannon and her step sister went to see Justin Bieber last night.  When I picked them up they had no voices and aching feet, which could only mean one thing, 

They had a ridiculously fantastic time.

I am so happy that they have an interest in seeing live music - even though it is not the kind of music I wish they were listening to.   

Do you remember the very first band you saw without your parents being with you?  After thinking about it, I remembered that my first parent free concert wasn't any better than the Biebs....... 

(Hey girls,  {I won't personally call you out on our poor concert going choices}  remember riding around after this show and pulling up right next to these guy's limo?  Remember when they rolled their windows down and we started screaming like banshees?  Good times, good times!)

Happy Humpday! 

Hyenas

This weekend the girls and I made another short and sweet trip to Long Hared Grandma's house for my little sister's bridal shower.  It was fantastic to see everyone and I do believe she made out like a bandit at that shower!

Clara and Rhiannon were so happy to see their aunts and cousins.  The entire weekend was go go go go, play play play play!  Clara even slept most of the way home.  However, when she woke up she told me about a dream she had where the two of us went into the forest to visit the hyenas.

(Hyena's are Clara's new favorite animals.  Probably not the animal you want your 3 yr old to root for in the Lion King, but.....)  

Then for the rest of the trip (a little over two hours) Clara screamed and fussed about how we 

"HAD to go to the FOREST to see all her friend HYENAS!"

I promised her, if she would please please for the love of god stop screaming, we would ride our bikes to see the hyena's in the morning. 

It worked. 

Clara enjoyed the rest of the car ride and Rhiannon and I enjoyed the non screaming three year old. 

Without fail, about 6:45 this morning, Clara crawled into my bed and asked if the Hyena's were awake yet?  

So even though my house is a complete disaster area, I have laundry coming out the wazoo and I have house guests coming tomorrow morning, we suited up and rode across town to see ourselves some Hyena's!

Taking a "rest"

I made her wait ten minutes so Mama could get some coffee from the field house before we walked to the Hyena enclosure.  As you can see from above, it was a bit tortuous for her.

Luckily, the zoo offers Hyena carousel rides, too!

Still, ain't nothing like the real thing and once the carousel stopped she was ready to go!

When we finally got to the Hyena enclosure, they proved to hold true to their mannerisms by not wanting to have anything to do with us human folk.

Thankfully, this very shy but also very curious guy, briefly came out of his cave to say hello a few times.

It seemed to appease the wee one, and that is good enough for me!

Happy Monday!

Homemade Slides

Do you know what the hardest part of buying a house has been?

WAITING FOR THE SELLER'S REPLY!

The Mister and I are both feeling the same way.  

It's like when you were in middle school waiting for an answer on if your latest crush wants to "go out".  

I can't remember when I've had this many butterflies floating around in my stomach!

In other news.....Check out this awesome picture Rhiannon took while watching Clara for one of the Mister and I's date nights awhile back.

Yeah, that would definitely not happen if we were home.

(This home made slide goes right to the giant old metal vents we have coming out of our wall.)

But, in their defense, they were getting along!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Call Your Mutha

This year I told the Mister what I wanted for mothers day.

To be far away from my children.

Don't judge.  Everyone needs a break sometime.  

And Sunday, it is my turn.

Happy Mom's day, Mama!  
I love you!

Alive

My little sister is here for a short and sweet visit.  This morning I took her with me to spin class.  This was her first time.  About twenty minutes in, she looked at me and said 

"I don't like this woman.  I feel like I am going to die."

After the class the instructor came up to us and said, "You two must be sisters."  with a smile.  We said yes and then the instructor pointed to me while looking at my sister and said "She brought you here didn't she?"  We answered yes.  The instructor laughed and said, "I could tell by the looks you were giving her."

So, since I tortured my little sister this morning, this week's song is for her.

It's her favorite.

Sorry, Michaela.

Can we still be friends?

A Scary Ghost Story

By:  Clara

Once upon a time there was a scary ghost named Rhiannon.  And she would always scare her puppy and she was very mean.  Then, one day, a dragon came and ate the Rhiannon ghost all up!  And he flew away.

The end!

Clara is constantly asking me to tell her ridiculous little stories throughout the day.  This is the story she came up with while "napping" with Buehrle.  I do believe, if I were to keep a baby book, this would be something I would put in it.  Because I don't want to forget this moment.  Ever.  

Have a great weekend!

Resting

The Color Run was a wet, messy success this year!  Since it was wet, that meant my phone refused to take pictures.  I am waiting to get pictures of our madness from all my other running partners.  My favorite part of this trip was being in southern Illinois in the couple of weeks where everything is so bright in color.  It feels magical to look at.The fact that it was overcast made the new buds and all of the grass pop even more.

Clara has never experienced this before and was mesmerized.  Maybe it is from the lack of grass the kid has seen in general but once we turned onto the country roads (from the interstate) and started passing wheat fields, she exclaimed to me,

"Oh Mama!  Look at all that grass!  Oh my!  Look at all the grass they have here!"

Mama and I on the way to the race.
We are still very clean and very warm in this picture.

  I am still in recovery mode from all the sleep I didn't get with my travelling and trying to see as many people as possible.  However, today was the first time we have had a clean bill of health/warm weather in our house so it has been back to the tri training all morning for me. Tomorrow I am getting a kid seat to go on the back of my bike (another thing I swore I would never do).  This weather and the need to up my training is just begging Clara and I to get to the lakefront!

AND - the most exciting part of my Monday......Today after Clara's kid's yoga class......

SHE DIDN'T SHED A SINGLE TEAR!  

(Not even when it was time to leave!!!!!)

Small Victories in my house today.  

I will take them and I will LOVE them!

Her "I'm a big girl I didn't cry" prize.
Judge me if you will.
Bribing is one of the only tools I have that works.


Happy Monday!

Color Run

We are packing up to go to our 2nd annual family Color Run tomorrow!  I'm super duper excited, I haven't seen my Mama in months!

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!