The battle in our driveway begins again...

Amelia is 3!

Amelia turned 3 on Friday. We celebrated on Saturday when Ben got back from Las Vegas. We took her to see Kung Fu Panda and then had cake and opened presents. After numerous cake requests, she finally settled on a frog cake, which was good because I wasn't sure how to make some of her other cake requests.




We think Amelia is pretty awesome. My favorite thing about Amelia is her wild imagination. She is so creative. She keeps us laughing all the time.

Elsa is one month old!

(Thanks for the cute matching dresses Steph!)

Recent outings...

This past week we enjoyed a lovely nature walk...



and a trip to the farm...


and a visit to the zoo...

Fun with FDR

On Father's Day evening, we went to the FDR Memorial. It's the often forgotten memorial, but one that we really like. It's definitely Amelia's favorite. I was sure she was going to fall into one of the many water features, but she managed to stay dry. She did manage to do an accidental flip off of one of the walls and landed on her back in a bed of flowers. All in good fun.

Green Cake

Amelia requested a frog cake for her 3rd birthday. My hand was a little sore from squeezing frosting by the end, but she was pleased with the results. I used one round cake for the body, 2 cupcakes for the eyes, and cut the legs out of a rectangular cake. Then covered it all with loads of green frosting.

The room reveal.

I spent most of my pregnancy working on a new room for Amelia. It was really fun to create a room completely from scratch and it was the last room in our house that I hadn't really done anything with. The inspiration for the room came from this great cabinet we found at a flea market in Arlington. It's an Eastern European liquor cabinet from the 1940's. We refinished it and then used the curved lines of this piece to create other furniture for the room.


Before:

After:

After patiently searching Craigslist, I found this great dresser from the 1950s that only required a little bit of touch-up.



I found this great couch for the "reading corner" and then painted it purple. I was so excited when I found these old pillow cases in our attic that were green and purple. They didn't quite cover the couch, so I added in some extra purple fabric and made a slip cover for the couch. My mom ingeniously figured out how to fit it perfectly to the couch.


I designed a toddler bed and Ben did an amazing job building it. After a little trial and error, he pulled it off and it is one sturdy bed. He has definitely proven himself to be quite the handy man. He single-handedly built a fence for our backyard, including two gates, and he put in a perfect paver patio in our backyard, among many other projects around the house. Since he handled the building of a bed quite well, we designed a book case for the room that matched the bed and he built that too. (Notice the fabulous wall art courtesy of Emily Martin at the Black Apple.)


I made a toddler bed size duvet and my mom sewed a great duvet cover for it. She also made a pillow and a pillow case for the bed.


Amelia loves her little coloring station. The pots hold all of her crayons and art supplies.

The room reveal.

I spent most of my pregnancy working on a new room for Amelia. It was really fun to create a room completely from scratch and it was the last room in our house that I hadn't really done anything with. The inspiration for the room came from this great cabinet we found at a flea market in Arlington. It's an Eastern European liquor cabinet from the 1940's. We refinished it and then used the curved lines of this piece to create other furniture for the room.



Before:

After:

After patiently searching Craigslist, I found this great dresser from the 1950s that only required a little bit of touch-up.



I found this great couch for the "reading corner" and then painted it purple. I was so excited when I found these old pillow cases in our attic that were green and purple. They didn't quite cover the couch, so I added in some extra purple fabric and made a slip cover for the couch. My mom ingeniously figured out how to fit it perfectly to the couch.


I designed a toddler bed and Ben did an amazing job building it. After a little trial and error, he pulled it off and it is one sturdy bed. Since he handled the building of a bed quite well, we designed a book case for the room that matched the bed and he built that too. (Notice the fabulous wall art courtesy of Emily Martin at the Black Apple.)


I made a toddler bed size duvet and my mom sewed a great duvet cover for it. She also made a pillow and a pillow case for the bed.


Amelia loves her little coloring station. The pots hold all of her crayons and art supplies.

My name is bun.

Update for this week:

I have one child that only wants to eat and poop. I have another child that refuses to eat and poop. So on the average, we're doing pretty good.

Amelia survived her tests at the hospital and the results were good. More interesting was her response to the nurse when she asked Amelia what her name was. Amelia stated very firmly "my name is bun." She still insists that is her name. Sometimes she adds the phrase "and I like to play the drums."

Elsa is spoiling me and I usually only have to get up once at night with her. She's getting chubbier by the day. My mom is leaving today which will be sad. No more childless errands for me during the day. Ben will be leaving for Las Vegas on Monday for a week so perhaps the reality of two children will finally set in.

It. Is. HOT!

I can't believe the heat and humidity of summer is already upon us. This weekend the temperatures were pushing 100 degrees and the air was nice and thick. On Friday afternoon, Ben and I beat the heat by hiding out in the movie theater and watching Indiana Jones. On Saturday, we attempted a trip to the park. There was a little train ride that offered some shade and a nice breeze, and Amelia was thrilled when we happened to run into the Webbs there and she was able to play with Emma. We even got to play some disc golf which was fun since it's been too long since I've broken out my discs. We discovered that Amelia is a natural. Eventually the heat got to all of us and we headed home to fill up the swimming pool and Ben was kind enough to stand in front of the hot grill and cook us some burgers.

Swimming...






The train...


Disc golf...check out that form!

Big sister.

Not exactly how I envisioned my 5th wedding anniversary...

On Tuesday, Ben and I almost celebrated our 5th anniversary in the ER. Earlier in the day, Amelia had gone to the doctor to get one more urinalysis done to make sure her infection was gone. The doctor called me later and said they found sugar in her urine and she wanted a new sample by 5 p.m. to confirm if there was really a problem or if it was just a bad sample. It was after 2 when she called, and Amelia was down for a nap. Getting a sample from Amelia has not been easy. In fact, it has always ended in a catheter. So the doctor called again at 5 to see if we had any luck and of course, we hadn't yet. She then informed me that she wanted me to take her to the ER that night to get the test done. What?? I was sure this could wait until the morning. If there really was a problem, Amelia would have been exhibiting some sort of symptoms. Luckily, the doctor called the ER and talked to the doctor there, who said they were on a 2 hour delay to see patients (of course) and he recommended that we not drag Amelia there and wait for several hours and to just take care of it in the morning, unless she started acting sick. So thankfully, Ben and I were still able to have a lovely evening out to dinner at this great Italian place in Old Town while my mom watched the girls. When we got home, we found ourselves cheering on Amelia in the bathroom when she finally produced a sample for us in the cup. (We also discovered that she has amazing will power to hold it in for several hours). We've never been so enthusiastic about pee before. A romantic ending to the day.

We brought the sample to the doctor's office the next day and of course, there was no trace of sugar.

Two weeks old.

Getting cozy with dad. (The beard had to go...Ben says it was too itchy)


Amelia has taken over Elsa's bassinet.


We're all getting spoiled by Grandma.


First bath. Amelia was so excited to help.


Amelia really wanted to make a cake the other day and decorate it. We're not sure how she managed to step in it.