post SIP playdate

Posted on July 6, 2020 by tandem in love

the girls did very well staying occupied and entertained during our shelter in place. there were no complaints but only a few questions about what was happening outside our house. i was super grateful they were happy as clams playing together and never truly fighting. there was the occasional bickering but overall…they love playing together!

once phase 3 came about, we slowly inched our way towards socialization outside of our family. it was joyous, satisfying, and exciting to socialize with friends and to see our kids finally play with other kids!

by the time we had this play date shown, we had already had three playdates within the past week!!! crazy. we were on a roll and loving it! the funniest part about this get together was when my girls got out of the car and my friend erica says, ‘annie has the same shirt!’…right when she said that, her daughter came running out wearing the SAME tee shirt! hahahahahaha! i was dyyyyying! it was perfect! the girls were all dressed alike and i couldn’t have been happier or more content!

let me tell ya. if you think you are happy now, having kids creates more joy than you ever thought possible. yes…speaking strictly from my experience. i love my girls so much and seeing them with our friend’s kids fills my heart with joy!

anyhoo, random rant.

erica is someone i met through the girl’s school. she’s a wonderful, sweet, and caring person! we met at the beginning of the school year and we instantly clicked! the best kind of start to a friendship!

erica and i relaxed, drank coffee, the girls played and we had a wonderful time conversing in the sunshine. it was simple, fun and good to be together. we are so blessed to have the community that we have and we’re so thankful the girls go to the school that they do!

[sweet friends]

[ellie serving them food]

xoxo

every day’s a sundae

Posted on June 18, 2020 by tandem in love

our casual ice cream outing turned into a mad mess. LOL

i thought, oh – we should head out to every day’s a sundae! it’s so warm out and an ice cream treat would be perfect! hahahaha!

because of the limited number of people allowed inside the shop, we waited outside for a bit. so there we were, waiting in line…tick tock tick tock. it really did seem like a long time! then we read that only three people were allowed inside at a time. there was four of us, so i relented. i wasn’t feeling it for some reason…and i was the one who wanted to get ice cream! LOL really, it’s for the girls…it’s always for the girls.

anyhoo, it made sense for hc to go inside with the girls and let them pick something fun and yummy. after a few minutes, out they came with their cool treats! we decided to walk across the tracks to the fountain so the girls could enjoy that while eating their ice cream.

right as we got to the train crosswalk, a freight train came roaring by! it was so fun to watch and feel the energy and power of it whizzing by. the girls thought it was so cool!

we finally made it to the other side and that’s when all the ice cream craziness broke out. hc’s ice cream was spilling over the edge of his cup like it was running water. it dripped everywhere! out. of. control. i kept yelling ‘unprofessional’! i said to him, the first thing you do with a full ice cream cup is to scrape the lip of the cup and get all the ice cream that could melt over. he kept telling me he did. shyeah.

then ellie started dripping her ice cream everywhere! oh em gee. so i took over and was feeding her the ice cream. while i was scooping ice cream up for ellie. olive was like, ‘uh oh’. i turned around and she has tried to place her cup full of blue ice cream on the ledge but ended up putting half of it on the edge and it flipped over onto her dress and all down her leg and shoe. gahhhhhhh!

what. a. disaster. hc and i had to laugh. a scenic thought of getting ice cream on a warm summer day turned into a war with melting ice cream. haha! well, regardless, they finished their ice cream, we wiped our hands down, and proceeded to walk around downtown and soak in the gorgeous weather.

indeed it was a beautiful evening.

[she’s so silly!]

[enjoying some ice cream with dada]

xoxo

rotary fest {aka…heritage fest}

Posted on July 2, 2019 by tandem in love

come summer, come festivals. oh, it’s one of my favorite things about summertime!

what wasn’t a favorite was the cold, cold temps! ughhhhhh. it was so chilly the evening we chose to go. for me, a jacket wasn’t even warm enough while standing outside for hours. i saw people in short shorts, tank tops and sandals and here i was in layers, long pants, and i was super cold!

we met up with lan, avery, thuy, kim and the boys. olive and ellie were so excited to see their cousins! ellie was all about holding my hand leading up to us meeting them. as soon as she saw the boys, she wanted to be a big girl and refused to hold my hand. LOL she did her best to keep and be cool. oh my two year, going on twelve.

the kids were living their best lives – playing games, having fun, winning prizes. us adults just walked around with the kiddos as they picked what games they wanted to play. the girls were having a great time! the best part of the fest was when the boys and olive rode on the bumper cars. hc went with olive and she had a blast! giggling, laughing, and hc was a pro steering the bumper car and smoked everyone in there.

after a couple hours there, we had made dinner reservations at a restaurant right downtown, just a few minutes away from where we were. we walked right over and enjoyed the rest of our evening in the comfort of warmth.

if the weather was better, we probably would have eaten some yummy festival food and sat on the sidewalk but we wanted to be comfortable {not freezing our tushies} while we ate our dinner.

despite the cold weather, we still had a wonderful evening out at the festival. what was most important was that the kids had a blast, memories were made, and we, in the end, still ate yummy food!

yay for summer!

[olive said, “kiki! kiki! look…a big lemon!]

[everything is so bright and over the top!]

[we chose and only had time to go to the fest friday night and of course it was freeeeeeezing. the next day was super warm. go figure]

[so many plushies, so excessive!]

[pop a balloon and win a prize!]

[i told ellie to look at me]

[then i said, “look at reagan”. look at her adoring stare]

[my sweet babe]

[i love her sweet looks]

[our crew]

[oh these two]

[this girl and her poses]

[girl gang]

[everybody wins!]

[dada helping ellie out]

[did you win ellie?]

[their prizes…pink unicorns!]

[toss the rings]

[i’m not sure how long he was able to hang in there for]

[i think thuy got to 75 seconds!]

xoxo

brunch with o + e’s guncles!

Posted on March 26, 2019 by tandem in love

we’re partial to hanging out in the city than the ‘burbs but we have the rare moments where we just don’t want to go far. we’re fortunate to have friends {the ones who live in the city} that are willing to alternate our meeting destinations. well, this past weekend, we were feeling it and matt and johann gladly came out our way.

we met at our current favorite place, pierce tavern. we love the vibe, the food, drinks, the staff. there was a bit of a wait, so we all walked to starbucks for coffee. our table became ready at the perfect time and we all made the short walk back to the restaurant, ready to eat!

they seated us at the first bar table by the door. imo, the worst table ever. one, when people are waiting by the host stand for their table, they literally sit on top of you. two. the chairs are so high, ellie would most likely plummet off of it and probably hurt herself, and three…it was right by their two way entrance – which meant high traffic and people constantly brushing past you. yuck.

anyhow, no matter. we made the most of it and we were most definitely not going to wait again for a lower table further in the restaurant. we squished the girls in-between the adults and first things first…drinks! we started ordering drinks, apps, drinks, food, drinks, and more drinks. these dudes are like fishes, then there’s me who nursed her spicy bloody mary the entire time because miss ellie could.not.be.apart.from.me. she let hc hold her for 7 minutes {so i had enough time to eat my food} and then it was back to kiki’s arms again and pretty much for the rest of the duration of our restaurant stint {and we weren’t there for a short period of time either!}.

as always, we had a great experience at pierce! once we finished up, we invited matt and johann back to our place to hang out some more. what started at noon, ended at 7? mannnnnn, we can totally hang with them! the girls were super good and low key…i loved that we were able to spend time with matt an johann allllllll day and the girls just flowed with it!

we had such a good time with them {always} and hc worked hard on trying to convince matt to move close to our area. johann is sold on that idea but not matt. he was steadfast in his opinions and even the libations weren’t swaying him! we also tried to convince them to sleep over but that was a no go either. LOL.

we reluctantly agreed to end the evening, we seriously have so much fun with them! thanks guys, for coming our way! it was so much fun and we love you two oh so much!!!