Last Week in May

Our last week in May has been fairly unadventurous as Derrick was out of town and the kids and I took it easy. In the mornings, we went a couple of times to the library or had a play-date and the afternoons were usually spent cooling off in the splash pool in our backyard. Amelia proved to be a big helper when I needed her to watch Elliot for me. Here she is reading his favorite book to him.

I also set up the tent in the living room, which kept them entertained for quite a while.

On Friday I took both kids to the library for an arts and crafts event. They had set up 5 different art projects and Amelia was happily crafting away. She made a suncatcher, a pinwheel, a beehive picture with thumb prints, a superhero mask and painted a kite. Even Elliot enjoyed coloring his pinwheel. 

Luckily Daddy came home on Friday evening. Even though he was only gone for 3 days, we missed him a lot. Since our neighbors and I held a garage sale on Saturday morning, Daddy got extra quality time with the kiddos. There were quite a few people coming by and I sold some of the kids stuff but the best part was hanging out with the neighbors while selling (we had the sale set up in our neighbors' driveway). I'm happy that we get along with those living right next to us and I can see future BBQ's together.

After I packed up my stuff at 11am, I took Amelia to an indoor activity center, The Pit, where we met up with friends from church. Our church had organized a kids' day and Amelia was happy to go. First we played some Black Light Mini Golf before eating lunch and then playing some arcade games. 

The Mini Golf was pretty cool but Amelia was a bit scared of all the wizards and dragons. But she did hit a couple of good shots. Daddy would have been proud of his future golfing buddy.

Lunch break while watching the Go Karts and then arcade games:

Today we went to church and then rested at home before going back to church in the late afternoon for their First Annual Firefighter Appreciation BBQ. 

The people at Fairview United Methodist Church are very friendly and welcoming and we feel very comfortable there. 

We enjoyed hot dogs, burgers and cake while listening to the church choir, the Praise band and the SHINE trio. The kids had fun on the bounce house, coloring and playing with other kids. 

But the highlight of the day was sitting in the firetruck (Elliot loves cars, firetrucks and trains) and then getting cooled off by a mounted fire hose (deluge gun).

It was a well-rounded weekend and I can't believe that June is already here. Time flies when you are having fun!

Home Tour: Second Floor

Today's tour will show you the 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms that are located on the second floor. Once you come up the stairs, the kids' bathroom is straight ahead, on the left side (in between is the landing) are the kids' rooms and on the right side is our Master bedroom. I'm not a huge fan of the wasted open space (our neighbors have an office space there) but since we are renting there is nothing we can do about it.

Up first is Amelia's room aka the princess room. If you can't tell but Amelia loves princesses so we made sure there were some flying around her bed.

 

Next up is Elliot's room, which is located across from his sister's bedroom. His room is still set up as a nursery as he still sleeps in a crib and we are still using the changing table.

 

The kids' rooms are not huge by any means but it is spacious enough to play some, considering most of the time they are in the playroom or outdoors anyways. On the other hand, the Master bedroom is very spacious:

Our desk is the bedroom so that we can do some work in quiet and peace if needed. Here is a look in to the Master bathroom:

And lastly the kids' bathroom:

This concludes the tour of our new house. It may not be a palace or new construction, but it suits our needs for now perfectly and we made it our home.

Memorial Day Weekend 2015

Today we are celebrating those who fought for our freedom and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live happy and freely.  We are not only remembering the fallen soldiers but also the ones that were injured in the line of duty and the families of all soldiers. Thank you to those that served and protected us so that we can live the American Dream. 

We enjoyed this special holiday by eating homemade strawberry pie, ribs and corn on the cob and relaxing in the backyard. The kids had fun in the pool and playing ball with Daddy while Mommy enjoyed reading her book. 

Yesterday, we went one more time to Patterson Farms to pick some fresh strawberries and go to the petting zoo since during the week, the zoo, adventure playground and "cow train" are closed to the public.  The weather was great (cooler in the morning and sunny and mid/high 70s in the afternoon) made it a great day to explore new things. We arrived right when they opened up and were the first ones to ride the "cow train". It was a fun but bumpy little ride that went all around the farm. 

Next we saw the ducks, chickens, goat, calf, ponies, peacocks, pigs, and alpaca. In April they all had offspring so it was really cute to see the chicks, calf and kids (baby goats). By the way, if we ever own a property with more than an acre, I want a baby goat and a chicken coop (but that's another story).

Elliot was not afraid of any of the animals and loved feeding and petting them. But he was most fascinated with the peacock. 

Then we headed over to the adventure playground, which consisted of home-build play structures and was very interesting and adventurous. 

And lastly, we went to the strawberry fields. While I picked, the others ate (after we sprayed the berries with some water)...

As you can see we truly enjoyed our holiday weekend and we hope that you did too. Now with Memorial Day being here it means that summertime has arrived. I can't wait to see what this season has in store for us. 

Festival, Friends and Fun

I'm happy to report that we enjoyed another great weekend. It seems like that every weekend and even every weekday we are busy doing something new and exciting. For example, last Thursday the entire family went to the EnergyExplorium, which is just 10 miles South from us.

The local power company, Duke Energy, has a nuclear station (and a pressurized water reactor) next to Lake Norman and an education center. The hands-on exhibition was very informative and one can learn quiet a bit about nuclear energy as well as basic electricity. The self-directed learning environment is for kids of all ages. Next to the Explorium is also a mile long nature trail that borders Lake Norman and offers a backpack full of nature guides. Elliot walked more than half of that trail by himself.

On Friday, I had signed Amelia up for a TeddyBear Picnic at the library. The kids brought their teddies to the library where they listened to a story about bears, had some "beary" snacks before crafting an adventure map and binoculars that they used during an interactive hunt for hibernating bears. The kids sure had fun and even learned some things about bears.

That same night, I enjoyed a much needed Mom's Night Out with some other mommies from our MOPS group. We were invited to come over to Betsy's house where we enjoyed wine, appetizers and talking to each other without being interrupted by whiny children. I stayed past my bedtime but didn't mind a bit as I truly enjoyed myself while getting to know everyone.  Thank you, Betsy Jo!

Saturday morning we decided to go to the 32nd annual Race City Festival in Downtown (only minutes from our house). We went around 10am as another hot day was forecasted and we had other plans for the afternoon.  We met the local firefighters and other city departments, Amelia got her hair braided, won some prizes and looked at lots of different arts and crafts items for sale. We also learned that the partner city from Mooresville is Hockenheim in Germany (distance: 4,370 miles/ 7030 km).

In the afternoon, we had invited our new friends over for some appetizers and sangria so that we can get to know each other better. We had a great time chatting with Lisa and Morris and the kids enjoyed playing with their precious little girl Dori. It was a busy but fun day.

On Sunday we took it easy and just went to church in the morning (and hung out on the playground there afterwards so that the kids can play with their friends and I could chat with my friend) and relaxed in the backyard in the afternoon. We just had purchased a little splash pool that weekend and since it was another hot day (84 F/ 29C), we let the kids have some fun in the sun.

I hope you all had a great weekend too. For sure, we are enjoying the weather, all the activities this town has to offer and the fact that summer is around the corner. 

Treasures

Every year, life is moving faster and faster and people are (consciously or not) making the choice to move faster with it or to step off now and then. I'm so happy that we decided to step out of the hectic lifestyle of carpools, business meetings, phone conferences, daily household chores and pre-planned children's activities. They blurred one in to the next and we felt lost in the fog of everyday life and drifted away from what really matters. So we made the decision to start off fresh and moved away from what bothered us. Now we marvel at the wonders around us again, taking in the new sights and sounds of our new surroundings and just remember how beautiful life is. 

Visit to the Energy Explorium

There is an ad on TV that resonated a lot with me lately. It is from Pure Michigan ("Treasure") and invites people to come and visit the beautiful state of Michigan. "Once we were dreamers, adventurers set out to discover new lands, new people, new ways. Once we were great explorers in search of hidden treasures, secret hideouts, magic lands. The treasure is still here and waiting to inspire a new generation of dreamers..."  This ad describes how I feel, why I thought moving away from the stressful/ same old life we had was best for us and what I want my kids to see and know while they grow up. It is not about the money, material goods or keeping up with what everyone else does but rather it is about spending quality time the children while they are only that little once, making fond memories daily, and seeking new adventures everywhere we go. This means exploring new playgrounds, going to small arts festivals, taking long walks or having fun in the backyard. I learned that it doesn't take much to make a little child happy as long as I am right there too, being happy and relaxed.

Sunday afternoon fun in the new splash pool

Amelia's favorite time of the day is having "family breakfast" together. It doesn't matter what the food is but rather that all 4 of us sit together, saying this short, childish German table rhyme ("Piep, piep, piep, wir haben uns alle lieb, guten Appetit") while holding hands and then eat. It seems a little strange that she choose this part of the day to be her favorite but after thinking about it it is actually not. It is special because we never had many breakfasts as a family together since Derrick had to go to work during the week and didn't eat breakfast and on the weekends we often had plans or were in a rush to get out of the house that we cut it short or only had one day out of the week for a family breakfast. And now, every single day we are enjoying breakfast together and this is why Amelia loves it. And so do we.

My happy, silly boy

We have only been here 7 weeks but I can tell you that it was the right decision for us. In those short few weeks, we have explored new places around town, discovered hidden treasures in the backyard and beyond the fence, found out-of-the-way playgrounds, met new people and made already some friends, but best of all spent lots of time just being together. Of course this took some effort and adjusting since my husband is now home all the time when we were used to see him mostly at night. It means that we both parenting the kids now (where usually I did the majority of the parenting as he was earning money to support us) and that it takes communication and cooperation to do a good job. It also means that I had to take a step back in my approach of running a tight ship and letting more things go or do them much differently. For example, my cleaning schedule is pretty much out of the window and so is the organized weekly shopping trip. We are much more spontaneous now and out and about a lot more so that I learned to just go with the flow and do things when I have time or they are needed to be done. Of course, our kids still have a pretty set schedule (for bedtime, naptime and meals) but they also can be flexible if we need them to be. Overall, we have figured out a good system that makes us all happy and gives me and my husband the option of getting some needed me-time in when we trade off watching the kids. So far though, we have not spend much time catching up on our hobbies (for me that includes scrap-booking, sewing, reading, crafting, etc and for Derrick it is writing, reading and fishing) as we enjoy doing things together or just relaxing.

Summer 2008: Fresh in love. And our love for one another has only grown since then

Sometimes it is good to go backwards as it makes you realize what you really want and what is most important. For us, that means spending time as a family and living a simpler lifestyle.

Typical morning in bed with our two babies

(Here is the link to the TV ad if you want to see the full clip:  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pure+michigan+commercial+treasure&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=5134DCD33BF37A2A29FD5134DCD33BF37A2A29FD