catch the moment 365: week twenty-eight

Posted on July 16, 2014July 31, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

I’m not one to complain about summer – ever. But why is it going by so fast? WAAH!

Linking up with Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer, Mindi from Simply Stavish, and Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

Day 191/365: July 9th. Just a Wednesday evening playing at home. It starts out like this: “Daddy, will you help me build {insert name of dismantled Lego set here}?” It ends like this: “Daddy, that’s okay. You can just finish it by yourself.”

Day 192/365: July 10th. What time is it, Dexter? We were out to eat, celebrating the successful completion of a project I had a love/hate relationship: “Frugal June.” I really need to write about my attempt to decrease non-essential spending for 30 days.

Day 193/365: July 11th. My friend’s sweet baby boy at the splash pad on Friday evening. Why can’t they stay this age forever!?

Day 194/365: July 12th. This photo is pathetic. Saturday was a nice day …relatively uneventful but not without opportunities to take some nice photos. I just wasn’t in the mood. This picture was the only successful {if you want to call it that} attempt to get a picture of all 5 of these wild boys having a picnic. A picnic with 5 kids ages 4 and under isn’t that relaxing, for the record.

Day 195/365: July 13th. Sunday morning bowling. I could feel a cold coming on late Saturday night so while I still felt halfway decent, we took advantage of Sunday morning happy hour at the bowling alley. Ryan and I hadn’t been bowling together in YEARS and the boys had never been at all. It was actually really fun and I was surprised at how much the boys seemed to enjoy it. Dex tired out on the 7th frame but Theo finished his game and Dexter’s. We’ll have to go again soon. Also, the tiny bowling shoes were adorable.

Day 196/365: July 14th. This is the kind of fancy dinner my kids got once the head cold was full-blown and there were 87 gallons of snot in my head. Bologna & cheese roll-ups, applesauce, and shelled edamame. Cleaned their plates…figures.

Day 197/365: A couple weeks earlier we went to a friend’s house to picnic and swim. It poured down rain on the way there and our picnic ended up taking place on a blanket on my friend’s dining room floor. Tuesday night Theo asked me if we could have a picnic in the living room but it was a gorgeous night so I convinced him and Dexter to take it outdoors.

I felt like my pictures were a little uninspired this week. I’m sad to not feature at least one nature/landscape shot but it just didn’t work out that way. I found myself more than once feeling that me messing with my camera settings and trying to get the right shot was turning into more of a hassle, taking AWAY from the moment, and I just put the camera down. Do you ever feel this way?

My favorite picture this week is day 193 – my friend’s cute little boy at the splash park.

Which one do you like best?

the fourth: 2014

Posted on July 11, 2014July 31, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

Huh, how about that. I guess I’ve never posted a 4th of July recap. Well, last year we were on a little weekend getaway for our 10th wedding anniversary but it wasn’t all festive with fireworks and that kind of crap.

So here’s my first real Independence Day recap. It was nice that the 4th was on a Friday which lent itself to a lovely, long weekend. Ryan’s parents live on a small lake that is perfect for relaxing, jumping off the dock, floating around, and taking pontoon boat rides. They invited us We invited ourselves to come and stay for the weekend. Ryan’s sister and her family were able to join us from Ohio as well.

Obligatory red, white, ‘n blue outfit pics.

I mean, could they be any sillier? No. Cuter? Never.

sillies Love them a lot.

They napped for HOURS every day.

Saturday was our 11 year anniversary so Nana and Pop Pop watched all three boys while Ryan and I enjoyed a rare double date with his sister and her soon-to-be husband. Dinner at FARMbloomington. farm

Their FARMfamous garlic fries. Oh. Wow. And their homemade chipotle catsup. Yes.

Our view from the “silo” table.

Neat sights at every turn in this one-of-a-kind restaurant.

Yep, even by the bathrooms.

Although it was a GORGEOUS night to walk around downtown Bloomington, which is lovely, we wanted to get back in time to enjoy the fireworks over the lake with the boys. Aunt ‘Chelle treated the boys with glow swords and glow bracelets –they may have been a bigger hit than the show.

After messing with my camera settings for five minutes before the actual show started, I gave up and put the camera down. I couldn’t figure it out and didn’t want to spoil the moment.

Sunday mornin’ cherry eating. Theo likes the “yellow cherries.”

Dexter prefers red.

There is a HUGE component of our weekend missing…. the LAKE and the sunshine that we were so lucky to enjoy all weekend. Seems like when we are all able to get together, we are cursed with cool temps or cloudy skies – or both. Not this time. Again, I chose to live in the moment and not take 500 pics. I had a drink in my hand and the sun on my skin and many long conversations with my sister-in-law. That was all I needed to make the weekend complete.

A few iPhone pics:

What’d you do for the Fourth?

xo,

~C~

catch the moment 365: week twenty-seven

Posted on July 10, 2014July 31, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

We’ve returned to normal life after a crappy run that was divided up over the past two Catch the Moment posts. Woo hoo & yay for good times!!

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie for this year-long Catch the Moment challenge. I have to tell you — I had a hard time narrowing down my choices on a couple of the days below. When we’ve had such a good week and gotten this many pictures that put a smile on my face — life must be a-okay.

183/365: July 2nd. A friend and I went to a local sunflower patch.

184/365: July 3rd. Okay, so this isn’t a great photo at all. I took it at about 11:40pm after publishing last week’s Catch the Moment post when I realized I had been too busy running around (getting ready for the long weekend) to pull the camera out once all day long. The polish looked cuter at Target. I didn’t realize it was going to look like Queen Elsa had painted my toenails.

185/365: July 4th. “Hey Theo – think of something funny!” This is what I got. Love these crazy nuts.

186/365: July 5th. Our 11th wedding anniversary and dinner at a fancy (to us) restaurant. We’re easy to impress but this place was really nice and we enjoyed sitting in the “silo” with the kitchen view at FARMbloomington.

187/365: July 6th. The boys discovered a love of cherries over the holiday weekend. I’ll finally be posting our July 4th weekend recap on 7/11 so check back!

188/365: July 7th. A night when I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything spectacular so I just snapped a quick pic of the boys watching cartoons while I fixed dinner to get the pic-of-the-day out of the way.

189/365: July 8th. A trip to the park after getting ice cream on a warm summer night. This is the simplicity and joy that I miss yearn for during the winter.

Which picture do you like best this week? I really don’t even know how to choose between the two of the boys (days 189 & 185) versus that nature one (the sunflower on day 183). I’ll just print and frame them all! Yeah right — is anyone good about doing this or am I a total failure? At least I’ve got my blog, right?

xo,

~C~