One Fine Day

I wrote the following post when I returned home from a visit to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Memphis this past summer. I can't remember why I didn't post it, but I found it sitting in my drafts folder and decided they needed their praises sung.

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You know that bag Michelle Pfeifer's character carries in the movie One Fine Day? You know the one where throughout the movie she seemingly has every item possibly needed for any and every occasion or emergency? Rip in her stockings, voila another pair are in the bag; son spills food all over her shirt just before an important meeting, voila another shirt; it starts raining just as she and her son are heading to walk home...no problem there's an umbrella for her and full head to toe rain gear for her son in that darn bag! So...my Mother and I decided that's exactly the perfect analogy for describing my Uncle Mike and Aunt Gail's home. They have everything a guest could ever need! Not just guests, anything THEY could ever need. I'm not kidding! I don't know why they would need to go to the store for easily the next solid year!

They have a closet stocked full of all the household maintenance items you may need: shelves of light bulbs, batteries, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. This same closet has a treasure chest chock full of the freebie toys that are given away with Kids' Meals at fast food establishments. Seriously it's enormous! Heck, **I** got excited looking at that treasure trove of goodies! I wanted to dive in!

Moving on from that well stocked closet of necessities to the pantry...oh...I'm gaining weight now just thinking about that pantry...every snack, goody, and food under the sun! Whatever your favorite is...it's there, no doubt! Oh and then there is the SECOND fridge outside in the garage that is full of sodas, popsicles, beer, and the like. Because, you know, the fridge in the kitchen was busting at the seams with all kinds of delectable things to eat and drink, so clearly all the other awesome stuff couldn't fit and they needed a whole second fridge. Just awesome!

Moving on to the rest of the house...we find every toy imaginable available for their grandkids; thereby making our trip incredible. I came with my toddler and infant in tow, so of course the guest bedroom has a crib for the baby and my Uncle brought up a rocking chair from downstairs for me to nurse the baby. Not that I would ever dream to request they rearrange their house just for me - they insisted! They are just that kind of people.

My toddler had a friggin blast sleeping in the fold out beanbag. Yeah, it's the coolest thing ever...the beanbag chair unzips and the stuffing is a queen sized mattress - this is soooo much better than an air mattress...I was jealous my son got to sleep on it. Don't think for an instant it's not comfortable, it's like sinking into a cloud! If you're curious they're here: http://www.cordaroys.com/. I've been looking for an excuse to buy one....thinking the kids' bedroom may need it! :)

Moving on...they have every single (I think) Dr. Seuss book ever printed - my son discovered a love for Dr. Seuss while we were there: Hop on Pop and A Fish out of Water had to be purchased when we got home from the trip.

Still...more...the guest bathroom is stocked with shampoos, soaps, extra toothbrushes, hair care products, hair driers, hot rollers...everything!

So yeah, my Uncle & Aunt Thornton's house is just like Michelle Pfeiffer's bag in One Fine Day. Everything you would ever need is right where you would expect to find it!

I don't have many visitors stay at our house all that often...but I will now strive to come as close as I can to my Aunt and Uncles' home whenever I do have guests over again. Perhaps One Fine Day, I'll achieve a Thornton-esque home! I Love you guys!

I dug around trying to find a recent photo of them and found none with them together, so here's a picture of my Aunt and Uncle at a cousin's wedding about 2 years ago I guess:

Bento to Go!

Peter has been in summer camp since the end of July. Although, we are forced to refer to it as summer school, because the first day of summer camp when we said - "Are you ready for summer camp?" Peter jumped up and down and shrieked with sooo much excitement because he thought he was going camping and wanted to bring his tent his grandmother had given him last Christmas. This one:

Anyway, summer school has been a great experience for Peter. He goes three times a week from 9:00am to 1:00pm. Silly me, I thought I was going to get a little break this summer while he was away - but didn't pause to think what a half day meant for me in travel time. As I've mentioned numerous times...we are a one car family. That one car goes to work with my dear husband and the kids and I hoof-it everywhere. Not a big deal, in fact I prefer it. I always feel like I'm unpacking the circus every time I get the opportunity to keep the car...it's a real pain in the butt! It's soooo sooo much easier to pack up the stroller and whip out the door than to haul the baby car seat to the car and get hoisted in, then get the toddler strapped in, then the stroller goes in the trunk and the diaper bag in the back seat - no wait, move it to the front seat because the toddler likes to unpack the diaper bag and throw the contents everywhere. Add to the fact we are rarely in the car my son gets super-duper antsy really fast when we are finally in the car. Because when we take the stroller he can hop out and walk whenever he wants.

ANYWAY, I got off on a tangent, what the point is...getting to Peter's summer camp is a series of buses and walking that takes roughly and hour to an hour and a half (it's a 10 min. drive in the car). So...up in the morning, haul the kids on the bus (which Peter enjoys immensely!) and drop Peter at school. Paul and I get back on the bus to go home, get Paul down for a nap and as soon as he's up we're back on the buses to pick Peter up and THEN BACK on the buses again to get home. Whew...it's tiring and I'm thankful this is the last week.

Still...another tangent...the POINT to this post is Peter's lunches! I've been having so much fun finding cute little things to send off for Peter's lunch time. I really enjoy packing away little surprises for him. (I'll post some other time about my mistake of sending cheese-peanut butter crackers to school...ooo ...that was bad news!). ANYWAY (again off on a tangent)...I bought these adorable bento boxes for Peter to use while in school. Never mind I didn't get them until last week - I plan for him to use them when he starts daycare this fall. Here's my first bento to go for Peter...so fun making these!!!

My son's duck bathtub

I had forgotten all about this inflatable duck bath tub we had purchased for my first born. I was never a fan of the plastic baby bathtubs intended to be used on your counter top. They were cumbersome and my baby always looked uncomfortable in it. The instant I felt comfortable propping my son up in an upright position without him flopping over (with both boys that age was 3 months old) I bought this inflatable duck bath tub and ditched the counter top bath.

I've resurrected our duck tub from the depths of basement with great joy for our second born son. He clearly enjoyed his bath much more with kicking feet and splashing hands...so fun! The tub is just wonderful. Since it's inflated it's soft on all sides (no hard plastic, no rigid supports ... just soft inflated plastic), also on the bottom inside of the tub is a small circle that turns colors and lets you know if you have the water too hot for the baby. It's small enough that it fits inside our traditional bathtub. Finally, it has a suction cup on the end so you can hang the duck up on the bath wall to drain.

I didn't take pictures of Paul in the tub tonight (we were having way too much fun to think of photos), but I promise to get one up soon...here's a few of Peter in the tub from when he was a wee baby boy. These are shots of us using it as a pool outside.

This one will give you a perspective on the tub's size:

Peter & Paul's Magnetic Wall!

I'm sooo excited about this project I have in mind. When my husband converted our unfinished basement into a playroom for Peter we had originally planned to purchase a large sheet of tin or some kind of metal so Peter could have a very large area for his magnets. It turned out that large sheet of metal was going to cost more than we were willing to pay.

Enter Magnetic Paint! Yes, you heard me right...paint that turns whatever surface you paint magnetic! Maybe you saw it on the episode of Extreme Home Makeover. I seemed to have missed that episode, so it was a huge discovery for me! You can either buy the magnetic primer paint that goes on under any color paint you choose or you can mix in an additive. I'm going for the latter since it requires less coats of paint (I'm lazy like that).

I just placed my order for the paint this morning and I can NOT wait to get started! I love having the basement where anything goes! I plan on getting a really fun color for the panel of the wall that will be magnetic...such fun!

I bought these Doug and Melissa magnets and have them tucked away to use the day we get the the magnetic wall completed!

Pictures of the new wall to come!

~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~

Well, bummer. The magnetic paint, it seems has a fatal flaw! The paint seems to only be strong enough, magnetically speaking, to hold flat rubber magnets. From the website:

"Recommended magnets are flexible rubber sheet magnet or rare earth magnets (neodymium type). Most heavy fridge magnets do not hold well on magnetic paint."

Meaning, that definitely the heavy wood magnets I've purchased won't work. His toy magnetic figurines won't stick, meaning...I cancelled my order and am back to the drawing board. :(

J'adore Bento Boxes!!!

Bento Boxes are the new cool lunch boxes (think Star Wars lunch boxes of the 70s)...  These things are the cutest and I'm on the prowl to find the cutest one for my son to take to Summer Camp in July.

I'm loving this website that also offers cute matching bags and thermoses: http://shop.iloveobento.com/

Cute stuff!!

Yankers! - Again

I know... I already posted about these awesome one pieces for baby...but I just got my 0-3 month size in, washed and on the baby and I have to say - after a day of Paul wearing this outfit it has lived up to all my expectations! Such a cute little onsie with it's wide legs at the bottom (so 70's - love it!) and ... the best part is the no buttons, snaps, velcro, zippers etc. The whole deal with these "Yankers" is you yank them down and off the legs, change the diapers and yank them back up and it really is that easy! Fabulous!

The material is soft too - Paul seemed happy and I loved holding him in them - was super-duper cuddly! Now I wish I could get one in each color, but the combination of cost ($36 a pop) and the quick growth of my baby (already at 12 lbs at 1 month old), I'll have to maintain control and just get two colors in the 3-6 months size!

BIG time thumbs up on these! Here's the link: http://www.babywit.com/baby-yankers.html

Yankers!

I gotta have these! GOTTA!

How ingenious!

And they're sold out of every size except for 2-T... I'll be hovering on their site until at least the 3 month size is available!