Dinner at Eight: Picnic Edition

11. That was the start time of our at home date on Friday night. Matty had trouble falling asleep and hubs and I dozed while trying to put him down. I woke fully expecting it to be 2 a.m. and ready to give the middle finger to my afternoon efforts of preparing our picnic dinner, but it was only 10:30 so I jumped up, left hubs snooze, and began to create our pretty picnic setting. I planned to have an indoor picnic because temps were over 100 with like a million percent humidity on Friday, so at least the late start didn't ruin any romantic notion of an outdoor picnic {though a picnic under the stars would have been amazing!}

I quickly threw a checkered table cloth over the cocktail ottoman in our living room, lit some candles, and

set out our meal: Mexican black bean quinoa salad, caprese salad, heart shaped chicken salad sandwiches {I swear the "salad" theme is purely coincidental}, sweet and spicy jalapeno chips, watermelon, brownies and blood orange European soda. 

Hubs came down just as I finished setting everything out. We snacked and watched Daniel Tosh do stand up.

 

Then I cleaned up while he fell asleep on the couch.

Romantic? Not really. But still nice to have put aside some "us" time. Many times we plan to watch a movie or play a board game after Matty goes to bed, but by the time the evening chores are complete, we are pooped and just call it a night. I was proud that on Friday night we stuck to our schedule {schedule sounds so unromantic, but really, most times, if married with children couples don't consciously carve out time for each other, it never happens and that is the purpose of Dinner at Eight. I love that it holds us accountable for our date nights...it would be so easy to be lazy and not have our dates if it weren't for this project. Our first Dinner at Eight was imperfectly perfect and I can't wait to see what August's theme will be. Also looking forward to our "outside of the house" date night this Friday night: we're seeing Lisa Loeb in concert :)

 

Dinner at Eight...ish

So excited to participate in this! You can read about it by clicking on the lovely logo below:

We're running late as usual so 8 is not going to happen, but as soon as we get Matty to bed, it will be time for our date night :) Post to follow on how it went later this weekend. Wishing you a great night with your special someone!

Wordless Wednesday

Music Monday

Oh my...it's been over two weeks since I posted last. I attribute this to the fact that Matty goes to bed later because it stays lighter longer and by the time I get him to bed, I am exhausted! I also get to catch up with hubby at this time, so my writing has taken a backseat to quality time with my boys. No big deal really, except that I like to have this blog to record and reflect on the many precious moments and milestones that our family experiences and time is simply moving way too quickly. I can't keep up with it! In my last post, I mentioned that I couldn't believe June was gone, and now we're over half way through July already. Matty has made progress with potty training, frequents time-out, likes to tell me that my cooking is "deewishis" and has sort of replaced his love of Thomas with a love of the Disney film, "Cars."

While coloring tonight, Matty came across a Christmas coloring book which sparked a tantrum because he wanted me to pull out the dancing snowman that I display for Christmas and throughout the winter. {He settled on watching a video from my phone of himself dancing with said snowman in December.} It made me think of Christmas in July and so I googled it to see what I could come up with for Music Monday.. and here you have it..enjoy!

bye bye June

I don't know where June went! Our Great Wolf Lodge trip came and went, tomorrow is the 4th of July, Wednesday is our 9 year wedding anniversary...before you know it, we'll be talking Christmas...ha!

My favorite June moment happened just this past Tuesday after we arrived home from our mini vacation. I ran to the store, while Matty and Dada stayed behind and played. When I returned, Matty climbed on my lap and I asked if he missed me. He replied that he did and then he looked at me at said, "Mama, I am happy to see you!" He repeated it several times. My heart was a melted mess! Tears rolled down my cheeks, and Matty cupped them and with concern said, "Mama's crying." I assured him they were happy tears. It was such a precious moment that I will always remember.
  
I have been reminiscing June tonight and came across this photo among the many that I snapped this month...

One of my favorites. It captures a quiet little moment between my boys right before bedtime. I can see the sleepiness in Matty's eyes and the love for Matty in Matt's. I love them both. So so much.

"But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June."

Father's Day

Unfortunately, I didn't see my dad for Father's Day because he has been working in China for the past three months, but he is on his way home and I will be going on a mini vacation with him and the entire fam at Great Wolf Lodge on Sunday! So looking forward to it, but first he needs to get here! He was supposed to arrive this afternoon, but his plane was diverted to Bejing. He should be taking off at around 10 p.m. est, so thankfully he'll make it home in time for our little getaway. Safe travels Papa Yang!

Even though I didn't spend Father's Day with my dad, I did get to celebrate my hubby and his dad. What was just supposed to be breakfast turned into a 6 hour shuffle board tournament. It was a blast! Matty had a great time playing with his cousins and was pooped by the end of the day since he missed nap time. Here's a recap of the day in photos...

Music Monday

Lately, being Matty's mama means never tiring of singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." He requests it over and over again at bed time. He also throws "You Are My Sunshine" and "The ABC Song" into the mix, but mostly, it's just "twinkle star" as he calls it. Although I am getting slightly sick of this classic children's tune, I do cherish these moments. When I'm in a rush to get through our bedtime routine, I remind myself that this will be over all too soon and why the heck would I be in a hurry to tuck my baby in when all I'm trying to get to is laundry and dinner dishes! Those things can wait :)

My recent bedtime repertoire inspired tonight's Music Monday choice...Bad Company's "Shooting Star."