egg hunt!

our awesome neighbors host a lunch and egg hunt at their house every year. 60 people were invited, they are BRAVE! the weather was freezing and it sprinkled on and off. why do people pretend that easter is the onset of spring? for some reason 30 degree temps just do not lend themselves to seersucker and peep toe wedges.

somebunny's excited!!! we practiced putting eggs in our basket the night before, i think everyone does this!


about 30 kids played and rode bikes down in the HUGE unfinished basement while the adults ate and eventually hid eggs in the nearby yards. this marks the first time we left declan alone and unsupervised, it was a strange feeling! i kept peeking down on him but he was being babysat by the big wall-mounted basketball hoop.

almost GO time!

i think this is what i'm supposed to be looking for
yeay, first one!

bipolar spring weather creates for interesting outfits. raincoat with a fleece underneath for warmth + winter hat + boots.





i think we all took naps after this!

a boy and his basketball

we have been playing LOTS and LOTS of basketball since the popular snow basketball post. we play down in the basement, out in the driveway, in other peoples driveways (thank you neighbors with real hoops) and at gymboree class. i pay a membership fee for a gym class where he plays basketball 90% of the time until the parachute comes out!

it is such a funny thing to us because he seems really good at it. i keep raising the little tykes hoop and he keeps making his shots! so far he has 3 methods of shooting 1) running layups starting from across the room 2) standing four feet out and chucks it in hard and 3) sitting on his knees about a foot out and tosses it up and in.

anyway, funny stuff. we love anything that gives him joy not to mention exercise so we are onboard with basketball around here, for however long it lasts!

we had the opportunity to watch a neighbor play in a 5th grade girls basketball game at the Carmel varsity gym last weekend. declan was in basketball heaven and sat on tim's lap intently watching for an hour. during the time outs and halftime all the kids were allowed to go out on the floor, his first experience with a full-size basketball. once it was time to leave, no surprise to us, he wouldn't leave the basketball behind. our neighbor was kind enough to let him borrow one for the ride home creating one of the biggest most genuine smiles i've ever seen.

it all started with a ceiling fan

i recently did a mini makeover on our master bedroom. it all started with replacing our brown wood ceiling fan with an all white fan with beadboard blades. as i glanced up at my new white fan about a month back (which blended better into the white ceiling), i started getting inspired. i knew a few new chic accessories and a little rearranging could completely transform the room. great timing for spring!

i hope this post doesn't come off as show-offy or snobby, i just really love decorating! i especially love pulling things together on a budget, finding special little things in unexpected places or big box stores and making them look new and unexpected. my mission with our home is to make it comfortable yet stylish, fresh not stuffy, contrasting old + new pieces, blending traditional and modern styles, combining bargain finds as well as a few investments.


the duvet + shams came from crate & barrel some time ago, boudoir pillow from pb, mirror from homegoods. the mirror was a little diy project i am proud of. i was in love with the shape and style but it was brick red and all dinged up on clearance. declan and i snatched it up along with a can of heirloom white spray paint from home depot next door and voila, beautiful!

swapped out my favorite black & white houndstooth chair from the family room up to the bedroom. plan to recover the other chair in the near future to better suit the family room.

the paint color in here is sherwin williams "bagel" i should have known from the dumb name that it would be a dumb color. during the day, it reminds me a little of a circus peanut, but at night it is tolerable. we had a professional paint much of our house including this room a few years ago because of the high ceilings. once i started to see the results as the paint was going on, it was too late. i wasn't sure of the protocol to change mid-job when he had already brought over the huge vats of paint and was halfway done. so i'm just living with "bagel."

actually, my new decorating kick aimed to shift focus away from the circus peanut paint and instead on the bold paisley bedding, crisp checked chair and colorful green accessories throughout the room plus the contrast of a little black throughout. so far it is working for me!

new lamp from homegoods. i don't know how anyone decorates anything without a homegoods! still rocking my ikea dressers from my post-college bachelorette apartment days. surprisingly they still totally work for us. they are very sturdy, offer a lot of storage and provide clean traditional lines. i swapped the knobs out a few years ago for black ones, and am even considering clear acrylic ones now for an anthropology-like angle.

new faux lucite tray a la target

hard to see but a fun new white croc tote accented with silver studs for my bedside reading... books and magazines stay contained so fashionably. homegoods, where else.

i'm totally dying for a pair of fuzzy white faux sheepskin rugs on either side of the bed. they would look cool and feel luxurious on bare feet! plus it would break up all the beige carpet. tim will surely label my fuzzy rug vision as a hallucination, wish me luck!

little patient

as many of you know, our little guy has been suffering from recurrent ear infections since he was 7 months old, often every month or every other month. last year in january when he was 14 months old he got ear tubes. they work for 80% of kids the first time. declan was in the unlucky minority of kids who needed them again, he still had 8 infections with tubes. this time the ENT also recommended that we have his adenoids removed. yikes, what are those?!

after a lot of research and a second opinion with another doctor we decided to go through with it. the surgery was this morning. declan was so tough and is recovering nicely. there is a certain level of guilt putting your child through this, there are never enough answers. however we are all praying for his chronic congestion issues and ear infections to go away. i am very hopeful!


a bright and early start at 7am, waiting in the children's play area


always trying to escape

BEFORE: we all still look a little sleepy

AFTER: coming out of anesthesia, this was the hard part

all in all it was a success. i wasn't prepared for his bloody nose for an hour in recovery or that he'd be trying to rip his iv out. he slept on me for an hour under a warm blanket. then he got some anti-nausea meds and baby vicodin before we were released.

i was happy when he wanted a waffle and some applesauce when we got home, it made him feel better.
he slept all day!

getting back to his regular self. watching an elmo movie after the long nap. i let him do whatever he wanted today and well, he wanted to eat directly out of the cracker box. it created a big drama everytime i tried to sneak it away so yes, he won. check out his leg flopped over the armrest, i'm glad he is comfortable!

a little ice cream after dinner makes anyone happy.

airplane

declan comes home with a stack of artwork every day. i have an art wall in the basement where his best work is proudly displayed. note to self: take a picture of art wall for the blog!

yesterday, the drawing below came home. you can see it says "airplane" in quotes. the quotation marks kind of made me think... and i wasn't quite sure if declan told someone he drew an airplane or if his teacher asked him to draw an airplane.

i held it up for tim without saying the actual title out loud and said let's get to the bottom of this.

me, holding up the art: "this is very nice art you colored today. what is this?"
declan, nonchalantly: "airplane."

having a 2 year old is all about the wow moments, i LOVE it!

pizza helper

i made homemade pizzas for dinner on friday and my little favorite someone was very curious so i pulled up a chair and let him see what i was doing. he did a pretty good job of spreading the sauce on the pizza and then sprinkling (and patting down) the mozzarella cheese on the pizzas. i made the mistake of tasting a few shreds of cheese. then the little stinker forgot all about pizza construction and focused on eating cheese. these were literally the only shots i could get, notice a pattern?!

the pizzas were delicious and i'll let him help me any time!

february fun

here is a random sampling of some things we were up to in february, in no particular order.
some sugar cookies i made for a superbowl party. delicious and always a hit. this is our old-school no-frills recipe, 6 ingredients and i have to give it out every time i bring the cookies somewhere! too bad about the colts, there is always next year!

brought some snow inside one day, he didn't much care


grandma nancy and grandpa lynn visited for valentine's weekend. we enjoyed family time and got lots of things done around the house thanks to lynn.

dec and parker are in the same class at school. here they are on a playdate singing the ABCs, well parker is! declan really does sing songs all day long. and starting this past month i can tell exactly what he is singing! it is heartwarming and one of my favorite things about him growing up.

watching the beloved elmo. i just thought this was a funny position.