an arrival almost as exciting as a baby sister

I'm still here...and still pregnant. But, that doesn't mean that life in the the Slacker house was uneventful this weekend. Au contraire. In fact, we welcomed something into our house that might be more exciting for A and E than getting a new little sister.

After months and months of living in utter denial saying that we would just fit three across in seats in our current cards, the Slackers got ourselves a minivan.

As the time to make the purchase grew near, I had accepted my fate. I mean, I'm 36, live in the far reaches of the suburbs, and will soon have 3 kids. There's really not much about my life that doesn't say "Minivan Driver." John took a little more convincing. There was begging to give the Pilot one last chance. But, alas, the minivan it was.

The girls, however, were over.the.moon. They have been begging for a "car with slide-y open doors" for months! One of the highlights of our trip to San Jose was renting a mini-van. And, they love it! We've had to impose a limit on the number of times they can open and shut their doors. They pull up the sunscreen on every single trip. And they beg to use DVD player for the shortest of trips. They gasped with wonder when I folded down the rear seats.

We asked them point blank if this was more exciting than getting a little sister. To be fair, they said No. But, in reality, Baby Girl Slacker better come up with some cool trick soon, or she'll be out shined by the sunroof once the good weather hits.

san jose pics

I finally got my pictures uploaded from our San Jose trip. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get more of them, and that the ones I did get weren't all that great. Photographing all three kiddos was definitely a challenge. Guess I have that to look forward to on a regular basis in a few months.

Just Hanging Out

Monterrey Bay Aquarium

Halloween

bullet points

It's been crazy round these parts the week or so with the beginning of school and football season. Here's what's rattling around in my head, in my [NERD ALERT} favorite format...the bulleted list.

• First grade seems to be going well. E hasn't been bitching about SAC, either! Yay! And, if you need healthy ideas to pack for your kids' lunches...I highly recommend you hop on over to Sweet Pea Chef, where she has compiled a kick-ass list of things that DON'T include Lunchables!


• Yesterday was John's birthday. We have celebrate 13 of those together. The first one I took him to a really fancy French restaurant. Last night the girls and I took him to a pizza joint. My, how the mighty have fallen. We did, however, bake from scratch buy him a cake with "Happy Birthday, John!" in orange.
  


• On a related note, every member of my immediate family would prefer vanilla cake with vanilla frosting over chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. What kind of freakshows are they?!?!?!?


• We are catsitting my parents' cat, Frank, again. Hopefully, he won't run away this time. Now that the girls are older, he's actually letting them pet him. Either that, or he has early onset Stockholm Syndrome.
  


• The Slackers are California Dreaming. Well, actually, we aren't just dreaming...we are doing! All four of us are headed out to visit Baby AJ and her family before her little sister arrives! We are so excited!

it's that time of the year again

It's football time, yet again.

 

And, in case you were wondering what life is like around these parts during the fall, here are the FAQs about Football Chez Slacker.

I'm not going to lie, the enthusiasm is a bit tempered around these parts this year because...well...UVA and UT are both supposed to suck. Luckily, the Cincinatti Reds are 1st in their division (and 7 1/2 games ahead of the Cards)...making it likely that they'll make the playoffs this year!

Can you just *feel* the enthusiasm that I have for watching inning after endless inning of baseball this fall? Maybe I need to write the GM for the Reds a letter.

the beach in a nutshell

I'll have to admit I was a bit nervous about our Hilton Head trip this year. I mean, sure it was the beach and we spend lots of time wth O family (their house, our house, near and far). But this was all 10 of us together...for a week...in a three bedroom condo.

Needless to say, my fears were for naught. Everyone had a blast. Sure, there were some tantrums. And sure, every night was a new and different sleeping arrangement. And maybe everyone came out of the vacation a little less rested than going in. But that doesn't mean we didn't have fun. See for yourself!

 

the goodbye kiss

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" E yelled this morning as the garage closed. When I went to ask her what was wrong, she said, "Daddy left for work, but I didn't get a kiss goodbye." We walked out on the front porch only to see him driving out of the cul de sac.

Luckily, I was able to catch him on his cell phone, and he was able to turn around and give the girls one last kiss goodbye. Luckily, I was able to grab my camera iPhone and capture the sweetness of it all.

 

juxtaposition

My girls are definitely girlie girls.

 

But that doesn't mean that they haven't inherited a love of sport (and UT) from their daddy.

picture perfect

As part of the Camp Grandmom 2010 festivities, Grandmom set up a photo session with a local photographer, Ashley Quinn. In addition to being an awesome photographer and really really nice, she is the mom to FOUR kids, including TRIPLETS! Whoa.

We got the proofs back this week, and they were awesome! Here are some of my favorites:





John and I even got in on the action, and we got two really great family shots.


Hope y'all have a good weekend!

meeting in the middle

On Saturday, we headed up to Baltimore to meet up with friends of ours who live in New Jersey and were in town for the Os/Mets series. Since they were hankering for some crabs, we meet for lunch at Obrycki's Crab House for a dozen or two...and a beer or two. Well, the beer was just for John, Jason and me...the kids and Stef, who's 8 months pregnant, abstained. And none of the kiddos had crabs, but man did they *love* the mallets that came to the table!

The kids were relatively well behaved...but started to get antsy toward the end. And since we had already confiscated the aformentioned mallets we let them have at it with some of the paper reserved for covering the tables.

After lunch, we walked down to Fells Point to catch the second half of the US v. England World Cup game. John assured us that it was only a 3 block walk. Not so much. More like 15 block walk. In 90 degree heat. With kids that weren't really keen on walking 15 blocks in 90 degree heat.

Nevertheless, we made it, and got a couple of tables with our own personal TVs that had the game one. The kiddos were psyched and chanted "USA! USA!" over and over and over again. And over again.

The older kids really did watch intently...they apparently like to watch sports together.

A was the first to fade. She tried to chant some more...

But she this is how she really felt.

After the game ended, we got some gelato, and then headed back the 15 blocks in the blazing heat carrying with non-walking kiddos back to the car. It was a quick visit, but tons of fun! We should really do it more often. Except for the 15 block walk in the heat, of course.

(barely) alive and kicking

I'm still here. Just totally swamped with work. And, by swamped I mean that I've already worked 40 hours this week. We've got a big deadline on May 18th...but then two other related projects will start up. Not really much rest for the very, very, very weary.

That's not to say that it's been all work and no play. Au contraire. Last weekend, the fam headed down to Charlottesville to go to Foxfield, which are steeplechase races that are a total drunkfest UVA institution.** (Trivia fact: John and I met/exchanged numbers at Foxfield. Twelve-freaking-years ago.) The weather forecast was very gloomy, but as our friend Pete always say, "God smiles on Foxfield." And, sure enough, it not only didn't rain, but was occasionally sunny and warmer than expected.

This weekend, we head up to Philly for the big race. Training for this race in the midst of my crazy work schedule has been difficult at best...but I'm still looking forward to running it. Actually, I look forward to casually mentioning that I ran 10 miles just to sound badass...but same difference, right?

Finally (WARNING: SHAMELESS BRAG!), I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Slacker household is home to a 2-time Computation Queen. I wasn't able to make it to the ceremony this time (see also: Work Sucks), but John represented and took this incredibly blurry picture for me. It was almost like I was there...you know, if I were drunk or had vertigo.

So, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.


**EDITED TO ADD: Lest you think John and I got hammered this weekend, Foxfield *used to be* a total drunkfest. Wrangling the kiddos and just generally being adults have made it much, much less of the par-tay it used to be. But it was fun to see our friends!**

it's been a while...get used to it

So, I've been meaning to post pictures from Easter since...well, Easter. But I'm swamped at work. It's not as bad as last year (thankfully!), but I'm super busy nonetheless.

Anyway, Easter was fun. The fam took off Good Friday to hang out together. We went hiking. We played tennis. We grilled out. Then Grandmom and Granddad came to visit. Good times were had all weekend.

Easter was a success, despite needing an eleventh hour trip to Target to get basket stuff. (I swear, one of these years I will purchase stuff in advance.) On the bright side, I have successfully established a tissue-paper-in-the-basket policy...which is far less aggrivating than the Easter grass. So, I think that puts me slightly ahead of the game.

We tried to recreate our Christmas miracle of a great family picture. We failed. This was the best we got.

Thanks again to Grandmom for the girls' Easter dresses. I realize that the time for matching dresses is coming to an end...but damn they look cute dressed alike. And when the girls busted out the dresses again for our trip to the Dentist...*everyone* commented on how cute they were.

Alrighty...gotta get back to work!

the prude and the polygamist

After our anniversary dinner last night, the fam all sat on the deck and enjoying our wine (me and John) and dessert (E and A). We started talking about marriage.

Marriage According to E

E, how old do you have to be to get married?
25, maybe.
And, what happens when you get married?
You kiss a boy...EW!
So, what you are saying is that you won't kiss a boy until you are 25?
YES!
Uh...can we get that in writing?

Marriage According to A

I'm gonna marry one-hundred boys!
100, A. Wow, that sounds like a lot.
Yeah! And one-hundred girls, too!

two years until italy*

Eight years ago, I married the love of my life. It was freezing that day (unlike the temps near the 90s we are expecting today)....but I didn't care. I forced my bridesmaids to trapse around Arlington in pink halter bridesmaid dresses so I could get gorgeous shots of the Washington monuments in my wedding photos.

I was *so* happy that day. And, the last eight years have been wonderful, indeed.

I was 27 when we got married. It seemed so old back then...but now? I look back at pictures and we look so young. Though one day, I'll look back at pictures from now and think the same thing.

Happy Anniversary, John! I love you!




* For our 5 year anniversary we went to Ireland. We're headed to Italy for our 10 year anniversary. I cannot wait!

picture this!

E has taken an interest in photography. She has one of those V-Tech cameras that she loves...but after World War 3 broke out between E and A over sharing the camera, I gave E my old point-and-shoot to use. Since then, she's been taking tons of pictures. So much so, I've found myself having to delete some every few minutes because the memory card was full. I finally broke down and uploaded all her pictures to my computer so we could clear the memory card. Which will buy me about 10 minutes when she starts taking pictures again.

I thought I'd share with you some of E's work. As you can see, she focuses primarily on three subjects.

Still Life with Toys

 

Family Portraits

 

Self Portaits

 

I'll also be posting some tips for parents when their kids are Photography Prodigies. Basically, it will be how to pose for your kids to avoid having The.Worst.Pictures.EVAH taken of you. I'll be writing it as soon as the shock of learning that I have a triple double chin and the world's largest stomach pooch wears off.

to my valentines

Though I might not show my love by remembering to buying Valentine's Day cards (in my defense...we've been housebound! And moving as a family unit otherwise!)...there's no place I'd rather be than snuggling with you all.


Happy Valentine's Day, John!
Happy Valentime's Day, E!*
Happy Balentime's Day, A!*
I love you all!




*thought I would wish them Happy Valentine's Day how they say it.

have girls, will travel

One of the things that I love about John is that he has never been intimidated by taking the girls places. He was the first of us to fly solo with a kid. When A was a newborn, he took them both to Cracker Barrel so I could get a few extra hours sleep. He's taken them to Knoxville and Charlottesville for football games, and done some sightseeing in DC solo.

The other week, he took A down to Charlottesville for a basketball game. It was a mid-week game, so we figured A would be a better companion...since E has real school, can't nap and generally doesn't fall asleep in the car. E was understandably bummed, despite my efforts to have a little date night ourselves.

Virginia had a game last night against VA Tech. We had already considered letting E go to the game because of it being so close to the weekend (and hey, maybe we could get her to sleep in on Saturday)...but our rough week here kind of sealed the deal. The only problem was that A knew that there were fun times to be had with Daddy...so not taking her was out of the question.

Most people might have bristled at the idea of taking 2 kids 5 and under to a sporting event solo. Heck, I don't think I would have done it. But, John?
No problem. (Now if only I could get him to take flattering pictures, he'd be perfect!)