I heart art!

Still being obsessed with Groupon/Living Social/Deal Chicken daily deals, I am such a sucker for getting a great deal.  Well, I ran across the best one yet. 

There is an art studio called C.A.T.S. (Creating Artists for Tomorrow) that I drive past several times a week.  Its a purple bungalow that has paint splattered on the exterior, sidewalks, etc.  I never gave it much thought, but lo and behold, they advertised via Living Social and opened my eyes to the best ever pre-school activity!

Hello, Table Time!  For $15, I got Jackson 3 sessions of messy, amazing free-play with an array of arts & crafts mediums.  We walked in and were shown the various stations & given the directive to make as much mess & have as much fun as possible.  If paint gets on the floor, walls, anywhere, its all good.  The stations for the day included a jumbo easel with lots of paints, pre-cut contruction paper strips to make a Christmas Tree along with glitter & confetti, balloons resting in bowls of white paint to be used as stamps to make snowmen on black mat board, tubs full of sand and cookie cutters for indoor sandcastles.  Plus bottomless hot coffee, juice & fresh fruit.  Each day, the activities change.

Jackson beelined it for the Christmas tree station after eyeing the scissors that are typically off-limits.  The owner, however, took the time to show him how to properly hold the scissors and cut some paper (which were not plastic nor did they have rounded tips).  After realizing his new found skill, Jackson pretty much spent the hour cutting, then decided to try out the other activities. 

{Thoughts in my head: Of course my child chooses to do the one activity - cutting - that I can easily do at home with very little mess.  Why not hit up the paints, or glue, or sand???}

We left after an hour & a half, with several masterpieces in hand and lots of paint on the play clothes.  We had a fabulous Mommy & Me date and I can't wait to go back.  Word on the street is that they let the kids paint the building & sidewalks on pretty days.  Sanctioned vandalism sounds fun to me :)

The cost of a night out

This morning, I woke up to another "snowfall" in Jackson's room, a result of last nights baby powder flinging. I spent the better part of half an hour wiping & vacuuming his room before I would let him go down for breakfast.

The backstory: Last night, I attended a Christmas party with my former company. I have been looking forward to this "night off" for a few weeks now and I was excited to get dressed up, see old friends and enjoy some adult time away from the kiddies. Ben stayed home with the boys. I am grateful for a hubby who's willing to do "Daddy Night" while I regain my sanity. It's hardwork managing 2 little ones...and still clean up, give baths and put them down at a reasonable time. And Ben totally sees how much work it is being home with these little rascals all day. I'm so thankful that he respects how hard my job is. Not exactly sitting around popping bonbons.

When I got home around 10 last night, Ben had just gotten the boys down and was crashed on our bed, clearly pooped. The house was a wreck - dinner plates still on the table, books scattered, dirty diapers rolled up but still perched on the various changing tables. I'm not one to be okay with going to bed with a disorderly house, so I couldn't just leave it. I resentfully cleared, loaded, wiped, sorted and put our house back in order. And this morning, I did it again once I discovered the mess in Jackson's room. (Ben had warned me about it last night).

I really am trying not to use this as a forum to nag or complain, but I have to vent in order to keep my sanity. I feel like I have to pay retribution for my night off. Does that make sense? It makes it almost not worth getting a break when it's more work to get my house back in order afterwards. Is it even worth it? Am I the only one who feels this way? How can I make it easier on us as a family for me to be away for a few hours without the chaos?

Next Monday, I have a girls night with ladies from small group and on Tuesday night we have our neighborhood girls night. I am so thankful for Ben to willingly (and happily, actually) be okay with me having 3 girls nights in 1 week (actually 3 nights within 4 business days as Ben pointed out). Something's gotta give so that he can actually enjoy spending precious time with our boys and I can come home refreshed rather than overwhelmed. Any advice?

All I want for Christmas...

"...is presents." 

I took the boys on an impromptu trip to the mall last week and we decided last minute to see Santa.  Boy was Jackson excited!  Thankfully we were the only ones there so we rolled right in to Santa's workshop.  J was so excited when he saw Santa and crawled out of the stroller & ran right up to him and said, "Hi Santa!"  Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he said, "Presents!", quickly followed by "shoes".  (He must take after his Opa) 

After chatting it up with Santa, we added Weston to the mix & he was surprisingly pretty chill.  He didn't exactly smile a ton, but after about a dozen snaps, we finally got a pic where both boys were looking at the camera & relatively happy. 

I hate Ben wasn't there for the photo shoot but I figured we may as well check this off our list while it was so convenient. 

Pin-spiration

Recently, I've been pretty much addicted to Pinterest.  For those of you unfamiliar with this nifty new app (or website, actually), its a virtual pin board where you can pin any web-based image that inspires you.  You can organize your images on different boards and then clicking on any images links directly to the site where it originated.  My friend Sally & I both have 3-ring binders full of tear sheets from magazines, print-outs and anything else that is home-decor inspiring.  Pinterest is essentially the virtual version of this.  Not to mention that it also catalogs the boards of your friends so you can shop their inspiration too.  Definitely will suck you in. 

I recently read how Pinterest if counter-intuitive to creativity because its encourages one to be inspired...but that's as far as you get.  Rather than creating or doing, you tend to continue finding newer & better ideas without ever producing.  This is so true.  I'm a serial pinner, but rarely have I actually gone back and turned an inspiration into reality.  Until last week.

Project #1: Reindeer Footprints

I'm always on the lookout for cute and low-mess holiday crafts for the kids.  I like to avoid glitter, lots of paint & liquid glue...I know, I'm a party pooper.  And our version didn't turn out exactly as I wanted thanks to a smeared footprint due to an independent toddler...which is case-in-point why I avoid the above mentioned items =)

Pinspiration:                                                       My Creation:

Project #2:  Shutter Christmas Card Display

I saw this a while back & loved it.  I found a set of wood shutters at Habitat ReStore for $5.  I sanded, primed, painted & distressed one of them and LOVE how it turned out.  I wish I had done both of them but I was worried that it may not turn out...and I wanted to have a back-up. 

Pin-spiration:                                                                                 My Creation:



Felf on the Shelf

Everyone has heard of Fuggs (fake Uggs) and the ever so common Folex (fake Rolex), but the concept of the fake Elf on the Shelf is a little less conventional.  Inspired by a shortage of the real deal here in Greenville (not to mention the $30 price tag) along with the creative nudge from a friend, I created the Talbert version of Elf on the Shelf last night.  Yes, he's a little ghetto.  Yes, he could use longer arms & "real" legs, but hey, even card stock elves can fly back to the North Pole every night, right?

Tomorrow morning is when our new buddy will arrive straight from Santa's workshop.  I'm sure my 2 year old won't discriminate =)

Thanksgiving...Talbert-style!

We headed down to Brunswick to spend the holiday weekend with Ben's parents & brother. Oma & Opa are serial movers, and had relocated since our visit last November.  Albeit, they just moved across the neighborhood...but still, we had not yet been down to visit since they have been in their new house.

We arrived around 1:30am on Thursday morning (after a 5-hour drive with no stops!) and managed to smoothly unpack & put the kids down by 2 am.  Thursday was full of food, football & family.  It was so much fun to see the boys interacting with their grandparents who they don't see nearly often enough.  We were lucky enough to overlap a day with Ben's half-brother William & his family.  Jackson loves his cousin Cora & had so much fun playing with her. 

We spent Friday afternoon on St. Simons and finished off the day with a low country boil  with Lill's entire family.  Saturday, the boys we spent most of the day on the couch watching several awesome football games.  Epic win for NC State!  Jackson & Uncle Jon were buddies all weekend; its amazing how Jon can be "mean" to Jackson & call him a baby enough for him to willingly give up his paci.  (Whereas, I couldn't bribe him out of it.)

Oma & Opa's new house is right on the water & has the most gorgeous view out back.  It was like a painting!  We took lots of pictures & actually managed to get a semi-decent one for our Christmas card.  No worries, I'm not going to reveal it on here =)

And true to form, we only got 1 (yes, ONE) picture of Oma.  Unbelievable.  But its hard to be in the pictures when you are in the kitchen cooking up yummy food all weekend.

Thanks Ben!

This little surprise made this rainy day a little brighter!