Crawfish Boil

A few weeks ago we were invited to a crawfish boil and it made me remember how much I love crawfish boils and how much I've missed having them. So, I decided to do some research and figure out if it was feasible to have a small Crawfish Boil on Saturday while my family was in town. Kroger has been running a special for Live Louisiana Crawfish. They were only $1.45 a pound - that's amazing prices for Texas and pretty darn good prices for Louisiana too. So, I jumped on the deal and reserved our crawfish immediately.

My parents and brother arrived on Friday and we spent a low-key evening at home catching up and relaxing. Saturday morning, Jeff and Matt went on a bike ride while Mom, Dad, Andrew and I went to Kroger to pick up the live Crawfish for our boil later that afternoon.

By about 1pm, we had a house full of family and close friends enjoying Boiled Crawfish, Lemonade, ping-pong and pool time. 

Dad and Matt Handling The Boiling

Round 1 - YUM!

Full Table Of Head Suckers and Tail Pinchers

After everyone ate, the ping pong and pool time began. Andrew got in to the pool with Aunt Jennifer and spent hours playing on the first step of the pool. He had a blast and fell asleep within an hour of getting out.

Andrew played on the first step for 2 hours - throwing the ball over and over.

Matt and his new puppy, Sheperd, had a great time too!

All in all, it was an awesome day. We ended the night playing poker for pretend money and we were in bed by 11pm. A great time with a great group of people. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family willing to spend part of their Easter weekend with us.

Eggs And Our Nut

We decided this year that we were going to try an Easter Egg Hunt with Andrew. He had a trial-run of the hunt concept at daycare and we were anxious to see how it was going to go. My parents came in to town on Friday around noon and waited "not-so-patiently" for us to leave for Andrew's daycare Easter Party at 3pm.

We arrived and within minutes were being escorted outside to the Egg Hunt location. Now, to clarify, these are babies - hiding an egg from them will get you nowhere. So, it's really more of an Easter Egg Dump than Hunt.

Easter Eggs "hidden" at Andrew's School 

We get outside and introduce the concept of picking up eggs and putting them in the bag and that was all it took. Andrew was off and on a mission. He was running around the other kids as he raced to grab eggs and put them in his bag. He had an almost full bag of eggs while the other kids just had a few. Then he realized the eggs actually had something in them. At that point, he dumped all of his eggs out and started emptying each egg one by one. He was getting some help from a few of the other kids as well. Here are a few pics of his first time at an Easter Egg Dump.

Mom introducing the concept of putting the egg in to the bag.

He has got it now - most of the eggs that are behind him end up in his bag.

More Mature Or More Boring?

Here is the deal - I pride myself on organized chaos. I realize it may be a strange thing to find joy and contentment from, but I do and I don't apologize for it....most days.

I'm a fan of planned discipline and writing a "to do" list is the only way I can make it through my day. I'm one of those people that goes back to my 'to do' list to write down and cross off something that I accomplished that was not previously listed. I'm anal about my lists. I walk around with a notebook practically attached to me. I save all notebooks which means I have to-do lists from 10 years ago still accessible. Not that I spend time going through them...but you never know when you may need some older information. 

This is so true.

That being said - I tend to fight structure. The thought of doing the same thing day in and day out would make me lose my mind. Eating the same thing for breakfast each and every day of life would drive me nuts by day 4. I need to feel like my life has some spice and spontaneity in it - even if it is as small as choosing my meal.

But - lately, things have been getting away from me. Don't get me wrong, I am the energizer bunny and am constantly on the go. I don't really watch tv, I don't like talking on the phone and the joy others find in 'surfing the internet' is extremely baffling to me. I have a bit of trouble with the notion of 'doing nothing' and can honestly say I've not felt 'bored' since I was in college.

Often I look around and wonder how other people get it all done. Is it a facade? I know that I want other people to think I've got it all together. I assume they have fooled me as well. Those that know me well enough to have peeled back the onion know that my 'togetherness' is more of a house of cards than anything well executed. I'm not sure how you are supposed to find the time to effectively run a business, be a mom, be a wife, be a daughter, cook meals, do laundry, clean the house, pay bills, plan for the future, play tennis, play volleyball, exercise, visit friends, go to church, drink wine, write this blog and actually get some sleep.

For those of you who read the list above and immediately say I should give up the tennis, volleyball, wine, friends or blogging - you need to get to know me a bit better. That won't happen. I am a firm, firm, firm believer in life-balance and the importance of activity, sports, creativity and a nice glass of wine. 

So, after a few conversations with friends and some surveying others on how to get it all done, I'm afraid I've had to abandon some of my "organized chaos" for "organized structure" - kill me. I've recently abandoned some of my spontaneity in life's little decisions in the hopes that it will free up enough time to allow for larger areas of spontaneity (weekend trips, last minute get-togethers, extended trips to the park, etc...).

A few of the 'new things' I have incorporated:
1. All Laundry now gets done on Sunday vs. throughout the week with piles of clean clothes to be folded. 
2. Weekly Meal Planning occurs every Thursday night for the week starting on Sunday.
3. Grocery Day is now Friday mornings. Good sales and zero crowds.
4. Dinner is now served promptly at 6pm to impress the importance of Family Dinner on Andrew.


Welcome to the more grown-up version of me. I've been dragged kicking and screaming in to this part of life and I've been told that 'once you get used to it, things get much easier to manage'. So, this is me getting used to it...I think I'm going to need a glass of wine.

Your Chariot Awaits...

Andrew's daycare facility is extremely close to our house so on nice days we will walk to pick him up. Normally, it is just Jeff and I who take the walk down to the daycare, but today we decided to take Cooper with us. Since Oscar is so old, we usually leave him home when we go on walks. He has arthritis and several joint issues and the walks are not something he is very interested in anymore. BUT - today was different. When Jeff got Cooper's leash, Oscar (who is deaf and mostly blind) got extremely excited to join us on our walk today. We hemmed and hawed about it for a minute and then decided...what the heck, let's bring him.

Our average walk is pretty quick and we are there to pick Andrew up within a few minutes. Today was a bit different. Since Oscar had not been out on a walk in a while, he was strolling along at his own pace and had to stop 3 different times to empty his bladder and do his "business". This was all before we even made it to the end of the street. By the end of the street, he was pooped. We knew he was not going to be able to make it all the way - so my genius husband fixed the problem!

Notice in the stroller.

Andrew was a-ok with letting Oscar ride in his place.

Oscar loved it!

Driving my kiddo crazy.

The daycare was hosting another night out for the parents so I was bringing Andrew to daycare Friday night from 7pm-10pm where he was going to get pizza, play with his friends and stay up late (8:30 vs 7pm). I bathed him and put him in his jammies and then pulled out the camera. Now that I know that Andrew will smile on command, I tend to follow him around with the camera and as you can see from the last pic...drive him nuts.

Andrew smiling for Mommy with Graham Crackers in his mouth.

I can't smile right now - I have to pull every toy out of my toy chest.

Ok, I'll smile again - No problem.

Seriously, stop following me around with the camera. I can't take it anymore.

 It was at this point that I put the camera up for the night.

Smile For Mommy

I guess my kiddo has adjusted to having a camera in his face all the time. Today, before we left for school, I asked Andrew to stand still and smile for the camera...this is what we got.

Not bad!!

A Bum On The Bottle

 

This morning before we left for school - my bum was relaxing on his couch sipping on the bottle.