Choo! Choo! Coming Through! Part 1.

The kids love trains. They always have. Thomas is one of their favorites although they aren't huge fans of the show.. PBS doesn't much draw them in as the Disney Channel. But last fall we drove up to Salisbury to ride Thomas and they loved it. Well Thomas came back and this time to the mountains (thank you for cool weather in the summer). This time Thomas was at the Tweetsie amusement park in Blowing Rock. And we really enjoyed ourselves. For everyone not from here, Tweetsie is a SMALL (more like fair rides) amusment park with a real train on which you can ride and they put on a Cowboy and Indian show. I am told that the show the do when Thomas is not there is a little more dramatic but for this event it was mostly Cowboys and Indians being silly and we loved it. The pictures will explain better. So we got there and walked around and got the lay of the land. And missed our train ride. Oh Well, we decided to have lunch and wait for the next train.

As you can see the kids passed the time by making silly faces. But not long after, here came Thomas!

As you can see the weather was awesome yes this was June (before it cooled down) and we were in long sleeves and pants. I actually packed our fleeces but we ended up not needing them.

Halfway through the train ride we stopped for a "show". The cowboy you see rode in our train car with us.

Once we disembarked, we took the requsite pictures with the engineers and Thomas.

Up next time the Rides!!!

The ATL, yo!

To say we've had a busy summer so far would be quite the understatment. I'll tell you I am so grateful for the car DVD player (berenstein bear on repeat not so much). The kids and I have been burning up the road a lot te past few months and dragging Kevin along with us when he can get away. We started out summer adventures with a trip down to Atlanta to visit my parents. Here we were able to do something with the kids that I had been eagerly waiting to do and that was the Georgia Aquarium. I had been before, years ago in my previous life before mariage and kids, and it was nuts going so close to its opening. I would love to say there was no crowd but that's not true it was still pretty crowded but the kids loved it, even Kevin was really impressed. I'm not going to show you pictures of the fish that Georgia Aquarium website does that much better than I; but here are Kevin, the kids and I trying to get the always elusive family photos.

Happy Lent

Growing up Catholic, Lent has always been this looming thing of what am I going to give up. I'll tell you it's a big topic of conversation particularly with other Catholics. As a child I frequently tried to give up ice cream but for a number of years would visit my grandparent for spring break where my grandmother would often feed us ice cream as a meal. In my adult years it wasn't as hard to give something up, which made the suffering through lent less part of the deal. Then I got pregnant and was pregnant through lent and then nursing so I was once again kinds of exempt. This year I have no excuse. I'm bathing regularly and brushing teeth daily so I can give something up. This year I have 2 things I'm doing for Lent which are part of my overall New Years Resolution. My New Years Resolution was to live more simply and to live with less. When you spend a year living out of suitcases and boxes and move 3 times you really learn how much stuff you have you don't need. With that being said my to Lenten goals are Project 333 (which my sister is also attempting; maybe I'll get her to update me on her progress) you can see more about this here . And also I would like to get rid of 25% of the stuff out of our closets. This one I think will be harder but basically its to force me to actively organize our cabinets and closets, starting with my stuff. This is well timed because it is consignment sale season so maybe we can make a little $$$ on the side to help fund the kids and my wardrobe budget. Hope everyone enjoys their Ash Wednesday and has there Lenten goals in order cause today is the day!

Happy valentines Day!

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day. No pictures today, just words about how we spent the day. So Kevin actually brought me candy and flowers on Sunday. He had been home sick all last week so he know that this week he would have precious few minutes so way better to be early than late. Personally I've never been big on Valentines Day for a number of reasons. If you really want to know why let me know and I'll share my rant. Since we've been married it's even less of a big deal for us. When your anniversary is 2 weeks before it just seems a little more redundant. So yesterday morning we woke the kids up and brought them downstairs so see their haul and I had to beg them to ge ready for school and only the promise of more toy, candy and a class party were able to pull them away. I actually was in charge of hosting Trip's party and I'm glad for the treat bags I opted out of candy because plenty was sent home anyway. Let me tell you twelve 2 year old will wear you out and I was only there for 2 hours. How preschool teachers do it everyday was beyond me. Plus I"ll probably have the added bonus of picking up some new germs. The kids had a blast. Then last night Kevin and I went out to the Capital Grille which is always delicious. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my like it would be their lobster Mac n' Cheese. It's ridiculousness. Kevin had tons of work to do when we got home and I was worn out for my day at preschool so I generously finished both my and his glass of wine and then announced that i was taking a "personal morning" in which I would do nothing all Wednesday morning while the kids were at school. And guess what, that's exactly what I did. Let me tell you there is nothing more decadent than taking a long bath and 9:30am. The house is a wreck and I'll probably pay tenfold for not doing a little bit around the house but it's my opinion everyone should take a personal day once and a while and it's not often that I get an empty house and time to myself. Anyone else out there take personal day?

Pink Swap Part 2

Now that my Pink Swap partner has recieved her gifts I thought I woud share what I sent her. I as I mentioned previously I giggled when I opened her package because there were a few items that we had purchased the same thing for each other. With out further ado here is what i sent Kelly. This is a calender I found on etsy (let me know if you would like the link) that i actually carry myself and I love it. It's so cute and each month is the size of a business card so I slip it into my wallet and it's always handy.

Pink Swap

This year i participated in the Pink Swap and I have to say my first time out was not only fun but exciting. As we get older I rarely get a gift that I a) didn't ask for or b) get surprised for anything other than Christmas, Birthday and the Anniversary. With an anniversary so close to Valentines Day we usually just end up combining the two. Which, for the record, is fine with me; I've never been much for Valentines Day. My Swap partner this year was Kelly and I could tell from the start we were on the same wave length. She's a crafter who loves J Crew, Monograms and Pink. Hello, did I just describe myself? Well my box arrived the other day and I could tell from the outside it was going to be good.

Here's the inside shot once I opened it. She too is afflicted with the tape the heck out of the box ailment. She wrote me a wonderful note.

I removed the pink tissue paper and Ta-Da! Look at all these packages. I haven't had so much to unwrap in years.

Here is everything unwrapped. At which point the kids started asking "Why did you get presents mommy?". And I replied "Because I rock, that's why". I'm trying to plant these seeds of wisdom early hopefully, they'll take.

I had to giggle because there were a couple of items that are on their way to Kelly's house. Great minds think alike. Here are some up close shots of some of my favorite things. Monogram Make up pouch. I've actually been on the lookout for one of these.

A jewelry roll. I love this. Kevin always complains when we travel and I spend half the time getting ready just trying to untangle my jewelry.

Monogram Tervis tumbler. Now there's confusion if this is my cup. Plus I'm a huge fan of Tervis.

Key Fob. It's too cute.

Tomorrow I'll share what I sent Kelly.

Her Royal Highness's Valentines attire

As we fall into more of a routine here at Casa de la Stacey, I've had more time to be a little crafty. One of my recent projects was Valentines Day T-Shirts for the kids and today I'll share with you Caroline's shirt. Basically Here I'm knocking of a Janie and Jack T-shirt and one I made up in my head but couldn't find anywhere (don't you love imaginary clothes). I find holiday clothes to be a little difficult all around. Caroline LOVES to dress up for every holiday under the sun, she is always dressed in theme which for something like Christmas is not to hard but the lesser holidays sometimes leave a little to be desired on the clothing front (I'm sorry but a 3 year old shouldn't be wearing a "dontcha love me t-shirt). So to meet the needs of my style concitous 3 year old and well me I pulled out my supply box. First up a t-shirt from Walmart. I love Garanimals t-shirts. They hold up and most importantly they are cheap but the plain ones always sell out right away. I was lucky to find this one. I wanted a long sleeve but they were sold out (go figure), so short sleeve it is. I may have to make a matching sweater but after how this winter has been it will probably be 90 on Valentine's Day. But I digress, here's the shirt.

Then I made the heart. I wish I had thought to take pictures of this process cause it wass a little more in depth but at the time I was just operating on a wish and a whole lot of prayer. I took double sided fusible backing. Then I ironed the sheerest, lightest, thinest piece of pink fabric I could find to one side and drew a heart. I then got out the fabric glue and a string of sequins and glued around the heart. Then I strung a string of little beads and glued them down as a border (I will admit I used a dab of hot glue here just in case). And cut out. (Remember this just has to make it through one day. After that anything else is bonus). And Ta-Da!!

Then I ironed it to the t-shirt and this is what I got!

Caroline loves it. I feel like it was pretty successful on the first try. And she's got a shirt that didn't cost me an arm and a leg. Plus it matches her new pink skirt and sunglasses perfectly. Now we just have to find some heart tights.