A Halloween packed weekend

Friday I was a chaperone for the kindergarten field trip to Ganyard Farm. Thursday was 78 and sunny, so warm that I had to wear a sundress to an evening event. Friday it was 50, windy, and overcast, just in time for the field. This didn't make a dent in the enthusiasm of 120 kindergarteners (6 classes). (Pics of my kids only)




We've been to Ganyard multiple years in the past but with a pumpkin farm trip in Chicago, a YMCA field trip to another pumpkin farm, and the kindergarten field trip, we decided to skip it. I will be honest, I haven't felt as Halloweeny this season since our family didn't have one big trip close to Halloween.




As a first time chaperone, I was worried how it would go but I only had to chaperone two kids. Since I HAVE two kindergarteners, this was a cake walk for me! We met up with some other friends to enjoy the trip.

Saturday was packed with basketball, a birthday party, and a Halloween party. Sunday we finished up Halloween decorations, watched Halloween shows, and the boys enjoyed the Carolina-Vikings game (Jon rooting for Vikings, Nate and Alex rooting for Carolina).

I do love fall and all it brings, but sometimes it feels like a crazy non-stop action ride!

Deep thoughts on Pinterest

Last week I went on a little twitter rant about Pinterest. It all started because everyone was pinning this bathroom.


Do I think this is an amazing bathroom? YES. Would I ever be able to afford this bathroom in a million years? NO.

And then there's stuff like this. I'm pretty sure this was in an episode of MTV Cribs. I don't even have one chandelier in my house and this closet has at least 11!


I joked about making Pinterest boards with snarky titles, like "Homes You Will Never Own" "Crafts You Will Never Do" "Places You Will Never Visit" but really what it came down to is this:

Is Pinterest a to-do list or a dream list?

Y'all know I'm an engineer so I see Pinterest as a to-do list. I've done a lot of things because of Pinterest.

I bought these cupcake designs (don't buy them, only the Star Wars one is reliable for more than one cupcake):


I bought this sign for a reading nook I am creating on the third floor (in blue, turns out this etsy seller lives in Raleigh!):


I bought this print for my office. I also found my office desk on Pinterest.


I gave the boys glow sticks at bathtime (ended in someone getting a glowstick to the eye). I made a vodka slush drink. I make multiple batches of peach sangria. In fact, I have an entire Pinterest Board dedicated to projects I have completed.

I want to dream, I really do. In fact, I took an online course on dreaming and rave about it all.the.time. But with such busy lives, how much time do we want to spend DREAMING and how much time do we want to spend DOING?

Of course Julie at Joy's Hope has a great post on this (her print):


When Brandy asked me to sit down and write a snarky post about Pinterest (she has a great post up today!), I had grand plans to write about EVERYTHING in a jar, and KEEP CALM posters, and neatly arranged children's bookshelves (FANTASY). Instead I couldn't help but bring it all back to the fundamental question I ask myself each day:

Which direction am I moving today toward my dreams?

Dream big people, but do something about it.
What step are you taking today toward your dreams?

A comparison

An awesome awesome quote from the fiasco of Monday night:

Laura: "I don't care if you fight. I just don't want to hear it while I'm cooking dinner. If you want to fight, go to the second or third floor and fight there."

Nate: "Come on, Alex. Let's go to the second floor in case we need to fight."

Tuesday night:
I ordered a pizza online (so I didn't even have to talk to someone) and we walked to the playground directly behind our house. This is part of our neighborhood - we can see the playground from our bedroom windows. I got totally creamed in freeze tag. That Alex is a speedy gonzalez.

One of those days

First day back to school after track out.
Arguing over what to wear as soon I open my eyes.
Jon out of town.
Being up early but rushing rushing rushing to get everyone out the door on time.
Work work work for 8 hours, crazy busy at work.

Pick up boys. Cook dinner. Eat. Clean up dinner. Realize there's homework.

Homework includes the usual practice pages and reading. AND a special "go for a walk and collect leaves to bring in tomorrow." It's not even leaf drop here yet. No leaves in our neighborhood. Also we have a Fall Fun List and have been saving this to do with Jon. Who is out of town.

Drive to the greenway. Kids bicker over the leaves. I pull leaves off the trees and suck up as much of a positive attitude as I can. (iphone pictures with PicFrame uploaded to Instagram):




Trip out of the house means we have to rush homework. Rush bathtime. Rush reading time. Rush bedtime. Lots of yelling. Starting the day rushing, ending the day rushing, with a mile-long to-do list after they go to bed.

Laundry. More dishes. Pick up the house and find this among the homework pages and artwork:




Laugh my butt off. Realize life will never slow down so I should find my zen in the chaos.

Glass of red wine, Trader Joe's chocolate covered potato chips, Good Wife.

ZEN.

My least favorite thing about fall and spring

We had another completely full fall weekend filled with trips to the park, photo sessions, time with my favorite peeps from fellowship, and crossing items off our Fall Fun List. But seriously peoples, I am about to LOSE IT over the daily bickering about the weather.




The boys are obsessed with the weather. They check my weather app every morning and report on what the day will be like. Today! 75! Sunny! That means shorts mommy!

It was 45 when we headed to the outdoor bus stop. I spent about 15 minutes arguing about wearing pants, short sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, and coat. At day care, this was a non-issue as everything got jammed in their cubby. At elementary school, this is a much bigger issue as sometimes things don't make their way home and never make their way to Lost and Found.

The argument ended when I said, "FINE. Freeze outside, I don't care. But don't complain to me when you are cold and you will be very very cold because it is 45."

I feel like 90% of the conversations with two 5.5 year olds in the house end in "FINE!"

Stella and Dot party!

I got a lot of emails about my outfit from our family shoot, in particular my necklace. Here is a closer photo of it (photo by Natalie Jill Photography):




The necklace is by Stella and Dot. I borrowed it from my friend Kim who is a stylist for them. It also comes in a brown bead style, which I bought for myself in my effort to de-slobify. It sounds crazy but it's only recently that I've discovered how much a necklace can dress up a simple outfit.

I had no idea a jewelry party would be so much fun. Having ZERO fashion sense, it was great to try things on and get objective advice on how things looked.



For the next week, I am hosting an online trunk show. If you'd like to check out their items (hello Christmas/Hannukah/winter solstice presents!) here is my online trunk show. When you check out, just choose my name!

Volunteering

As we get close to the end of the boys' first track out, the volunteer sign up emails for second quarter have come out. Here are the different ways I will be volunteering this quarter:

• Chaperone field trip to a pumpkin farm.
• Collect and organize items for the school-wide food drive
• Shelve books in the library (MY FAVE)
  
• Literacy centers in the boys' classrooms (reading to them, listening to them read, playing reading games)
• Mystery reader in the boys' classrooms - we submit clues about our child ahead of time and the kids get to guess whose parent is coming to read

And the most intriguing volunteer assignment... character lessons. North Carolina requires monthly kindergarten lessons on different positive character traits. I will present in one classroom about Kindness. Reading books about kindness, discussing the importance of kindness, talking about examples of kindness. Super psyched about this.

I will say it again.... I am so glad Nate and Alex attend such an amazing public elementary school, and even more glad I have a flexible work schedule so I can help volunteer at the school.

How we go to the state fair with young kids

We have been taking the boys to the North Carolina state fair since they were 2. Over the last few years, we have learned some lessons and I thought I would share them so you too can enjoy the fair with children!

First we buy tickets during the pre-sale. Children 5 and under get free admission but ride tickets add up quickly when parents have to ride with kids. Ride tickets are half price if you buy them during the pre-sale.

Because Jon and I hate crowds AND we are wrangling two small children, we always take a day off work and go on senior citizen day. It is the least busy day of the fair and Kiddie Land is generally quiet in the morning.

The gates open at 8 and we generally arrive around 9AM. This gives an hour to check out all the non-ride attractions (such as the animals and petting zoo) before the rides start at 10AM. This was the first year Alex was brave enough to hold the baby poultry (Nate always has).




At 10, we head immediately to Kiddie Land to get on rides. The ferris wheel has one of the longest waits so we hit that first this year with no wait right at 10!. Alex and Jon are afraid of heights so they sat this out.




This was the first year the boys were tall enough to ride almost every ride by themselves, and they were even tall enough to go to the big kid section of the fair. Due to this, we bought just 5 sheets of tickets during the pre-sale. Because we had such short wait times, we honestly could have bought twice that amount and continued to ride.

HOWEVER... we like to leave the fair on a high note with kids, generally leaving somewhere after lunch. It is a LOT of walking for young children, and this year it was hot and sunny. (Btw, they chose to wearing matching outfit. SIGH.)




There are also a lot of one-off games they can play. I would not recommend this one. Alex was super scared and even Nate got tired of it. Next year, we'll stick to rides.




And of course... FOOD! You can bring outside food and drinks into the fair. We bring healthy snacks for the kids so we are not waiting in a long line at a booth with two cranky hungry children. There is also a state fair iphone app, which we used to plan out our lunches and snacks.

While we do love to indulge in some sweets, we also want to get something hearty in everyone's stomachs. This year Jon and I hit the Cattleman's Association booth for steak sandwiches while the boys ate belgian waffles from next door. And of course roasted corn.

We did sample both fried oreos (YUM) and fried brownies (so so). What could be wrong with oreo filled doughnuts?




To stop the constant "I want to play that game!!!" requests, before we go, we explain we will play one game on the way out to the car. Then when they ask for a game, we tell them if we play the game we have to leave. Problem solved. They love this fishing game in kiddie land so we hit that as a last stop before heading home to rest in the afternoon.




The state fair is one of our favorite family activities every year and I would highly encourage everyone to give it a chance.

And PS, the lady at the child ID tag booth gets serious kudos for suggesting she take a family photo for us AND for taking a great one!




(All photos Canon G12 point and shoot.)

A game for you!

We're at the state fair today so I've left a game for you. Name five things wrong in the following photo. Look closely then scroll down for the answers.





Are you ready?


NO CHEATING.

Okay here you go:

1. It's October 17 and the ice cream truck is still coming around our house. SIX MONTHS of always saying yes to the ice cream truck. Stupid Laura Case Life Rules.

2. Is Alex color blind or did he inherit his fashion sense from me and Jon? Everyone knows Spider-man doesn't go with Star Wars!

3. OMG. Nate is wearing something tie-dyed. From YMCA camp, not us.

4. Nate ate the strawberry part of the neopolitan ice cream sandwich first. STRAWBERRY, the most inferior of ice cream flavors. (Unless it is homemade.)

5. Does that bomb pop look ridiculously large to you? Look again:





Let me note for the record the blue coming out of Alex's nose is NOT Bomb Pop, it is blue marker from camp. It is unknown whether the marker was in his nose or the marker was on a finger which was in his nose.

Did you find anything else wrong with the photo? (Joanna?????)

Yes, I am alive!

Super busy at work + super busy with photography + best month of the year = very little personal computer time. Let me catch you up on the last week. We went to Chicago for two reasons: to visit Jon's sister and family before they move to England in January and I needed to visit work.

As you might imagine, when you get three cousins five and under together, there is a ton of fun. The weather was gorgeous when we were in Chicago so we did a lot of stoop sitting while the kids ran around and played. We also managed to hit a pumpkin farm that was HUGE.




They had a petting zoo that was a huge hit with the kids.




And of course, the enormous corn pit was the favorite. Don't ask what Alex is doing, I don't understand it either.




We also hit the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is a free zoo in the city.




Do you see the short sleeved shirts in Chicago in October? It was glorious.




(I can't really let a photo post go by without some "real" photos... this was Nate's face in 99% of the photos.)




Jon's mom Roxane was also in town for the weekend, adding to the fun.




While we were there, I also did a quick shoot for Jon's sister and family. I'm not sharing their family pictures since I think they'll be used for holiday cards but I can post this as a thank you to Liz and Andy for hosting us yet again!




Oh Laura! What else did you do in Chicago? My Mondo friend Natalie met us to do our family photo shoot. Upon returning home with hundreds of photos from Chicago with NONE of me and Jon, I realized I needed to post something to remind us that we were in Chicago too. And this is an inside joke between me and Jon, because photographers always ask us to gaze longingly at each other and we just laugh. And hate our profiles.




Chicago was a siren that week. The gorgeous weather could make you forget that it will soon be -40 and windy as hell. I commuted each day downtown from the North side and this was my morning commute view:




I also had dinner with a good friend Julie and surprised her with a photo shoot. Her kids... ADORABLE!




I came back from Chicago to gorgeous weather here. Weekend highlights included: boys' starting basketball, trip to Marbles museum, lots of fall planting and yard work, and a trip to their favorite park, KidsTowne.

I also spent a good bit of time testing out a lens I am not going to buy. Saved myself $$$!




The rest of this month promises to be INSANE. Somewhere in my brain I have a post mulling around about how thankful I am I launched my photography business, and how grateful I am for my clients who believe in me. It seemed like a pipe dream 18 months ago and the reality is AMAZING.

I'm happy things are insane. I'm happy I followed my dreams. Happy happy just busy.

Remember that time?

I went to Chicago for a week and didn't tell anyone ahead of time and didn't write on my blog for a week?



(Why haven't you downloaded Instagram yet? I am LauraCase there.)

That's not entirely true. I did tell work people because I worked from the office for a few days. And I did tweet about my misadventures riding the El. (Those who don't know, I will always have a burning hatred for CTA because I was in a train wreck on the El. Hundreds of people hurt. I got a concussion.)

Oh yeah, and Jon's family knew because we got to see Jon's mom, and sister and her family. The cousins had a BLAST. More on that later.

Sixth blogiversary winner!

Oh.my.gosh. I love you guys! The comments from yesterday were some of my favorites. Some of YOUR favorite posts were:

• The time I screamed the F bomb in Nate's face when he was 3. So many great things happen when I single mom it.
  
• Nate's diarrhea incident (in underwear) at Target. On date night.
• Alex sharting into a little potty. And other adventures when Jon travels.
• The time toddler Nate got away from me in a dark parking lot while toddler Alex had a tantrum. In the parking lot. AGAIN while Jon was traveling.
  
• The time the ice cream truck bypassed our house and both boys cried and screamed. For ice cream!
  
• My letters to twin parents. You can click link after link for these!

Do you notice a trend? Besides poop? While people also did mention some good highlights (moving into our new house, vacation photos, birthday letters), the posts that sprung to mind are the ones where I kept it real about parenting AND kept a sense of humor about it. And that my friends, is what I try to accomplish here. Sharing our life, the ups and downs, while making it clear that our life is good. So so lucky to have it so good.

I hope one day when you are standing in a Target bathroom with a half naked kid covered in diarrhea who won't stop talking about diarrhea and no idea what to do, you remember me and my little blog. What a proud, proud legacy.

Random.org picked:
Commenter #24 was Julie! My girl crush from our Vegas trip on my 5th blogiversary! Mom to the only kid (Lana) who might out-talk Nate! Who ironically lives in Seattle and can get much better coffee than Starbucks!

Happy 6th blogiversary to me!

Today marks my 6 year blogging anniversary. Writing for 6 years every Monday through Friday = 1639 posts about our life. Kind of insane but also EPIC.

I started this blog the day I found out I was pregnant because I suck at keeping secrets. To celebrate, I thought I would post a picture from each October I've been blogging.

Year 0:

I was 4 weeks pregnant in this picture and didn't know it yet. In the foreground: my favorite mug. In the background: a lamp Alex broke as an early walker.




Bonus Year 0 picture! Here I am 36 weeks pregnant, just 3 days before the boys were born. In only 32 weeks I grew from the picture above to the picture below. No stretch marks and everything on my body bounced back. I consider it fair compensation for the FOURTEEN weeks on bed rest.

Year 1:

SURPRISE SURPRISE. We had two five month olds! And they were/are so so so so different you would never consider them two peas in a pod.

Year 2:

Also known as The Year They Never Looked At The Camera At The Same Time. Also known as the year with two one year olds. Also known as the year more destruction occurred in our home than will ever happen again.

Year 3:

Cutest.Pirates.Ever!

Year 4:

Another reason to love NC: 75 on Halloween day.

Year 5:

Judge if you will but they were SO HAPPY we dressed up.

Year 6:

Who knew this blog would still be going? When I sat down to create a little online journal about my pregnancy for my family and friends, I never imagined I would still be going strong six years later. Or that I would learn so much. Or that I would make so many friends. Or that I would get so much great advice. Or that I would still be on a blogspot domain.

Thank you to everyone reading. In ways I can never explain, this blog brings so much into our lives.

And if you've read this far, SCORE. I'm giving away a $25 Starbucks gift card from my own pocket to say thank you to my readers. Comment here (one per person) and you're entered. Winner announced tomorrow. Style points if you answer the question: what is your favorite post I've written?

My favorites:

• It's a BOY.... and another BOY! (That is how we broke the news to everyone when we made the calls.)
• My letter to Alex the day he got his helmet. Might be my all-time favorite.
• 2010: Best Year Ever
  
• All the birthday posts. I work on those a month ahead of time. Age 1. Age 2. Age 3. Age 4. Age 5.
  

SIX YEARS?!

One teeny tiny shred of guilt, just one

Yesterday was the boys' first day at Track Out camp and they LOVED it. They got to play tons of sports and games and do new things they've never done before (archery, freeze tag). They'll also get to go on field trips like a corn maze and the state fair. It's awesome...... but

but but but but but

there is a teeny tiny shred of nagging guilt in the back of my brain that feels a TINY bit guilty they will never get to experience the complete freedom of doing nothing for weeks at home when they are out of school. I never ever doubt our decision to be a two income family, but things like this make me feel that tiny glimmer of "would they be happier if one of us stayed home?"

In my heart, I know the answer is NO. At camp, people play with them all day. If they were home with us, it would not even be close to that experience. I think what made it hard was looking out my office window yesterday and seeing their school friends run around outside playing together. That tiny part comes from not wanting them to miss anything.

Talk to me about this peoples. Anyone else completely happy with their work/home arrangements but still feel slight guilt sometimes?

Now THIS is how you start Track Out

Friday Nate and Alex finished their first quarter of kindergarten. They will be "Tracked Out" (on vacation) for the next three weeks, attending YMCA day camp. To celebrate their first quarter, we went on a family camping trip. Through friends, we learned there are two NC state parks where you can rent heated cabins with kitchens and one... Hanging Rock... is only two hours from our house.

SWEEEEEEETTTT!



There was ZERO cell phone reception. No tv, no internet, no phone. It was glorious. We spent mucho quality time together as a family and did tons of hiking. (Nate is saying, "Hold my hand mommy!")




The boys got to see their very first waterfalls.




They got to have their first real campfire. See thousands and thousands of stars for the first time. First sighting of the Milky Way. First live bluegrass music.




First canoe ride.




When Jon and I moved to North Carolina, these are the kinds of things we had hoped to do with the boys. There are just no words to describe how beautiful North Carolina is to me. The beauty makes Alex dance for no reason.




We went into the weekend with low expectations and our expectations were wildly exceeded. While both boys loved hiking, Alex was apparently born to hike. He was fearless and didn't complain a single time about the cold, the distance, the steepness, or anything. He just ran and ran and ran. He wanted to climb to many (dangerous scary) places.




(In the distance you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains!)




Nate said Saturday was his best day of his entire life. Alex just smiled and smiled and hugged us tightly. Jon said he couldn't believe we had such a great first camping trip. And I feel like someone needs to pinch me. I can't believe we were at the beach four weeks ago and this weekend we were here. North Carolina is pretty freaking spectacular.