Maggie had another dose of football this weekend. We went to the Bishop Foley game on Friday night and then Jamie took her to see cousin Ryan's football game on Saturday afternoon. She loved snuggling under the blanket with Daddy, eating raisins and watching some football.
I'm going to lift these bleachers by myself!
Working hard to climb all the bleachers
The game is the other way, sweetie
Maggie was in desperate need of some fall clothes, so I had some fun shopping this weekend. We have a great resale shop in Royal Oak, where I got some great stuff. I love this little outfit (Ralph Lauren top, Guess jeans and fashion boots - $13!), so I grabbed some photos during our outside play:
Welcome to the secret garden... where the grass is rarely mown
Frolic!
Insert another hint to my husband to cut the grass here
Taking a stroll around the block
This seat is just for me!
Seriously, this kid has so much joy
We've completely entered into the picky-eater phase - so frustrating! She will happily eat fruit, crackers, eggs, yogurt, pasta and dry cereal... it's hard to get her to eat ANY vegetables except green beans, and she has little interest in most meats. It's not terrible, but I miss my little adventurous eater! She also loves all sweet things, which she refers to as "cake."
This weekend Maggie got a chance to hang out in the "D" for a Ben's Encore event. The "Back to School" concert at the Hard Rock was Saturday, and so I took Maggie for a couple hours to make instruments (egg shakers), play the percussion wall, and watch some young kids rock out!
I'm a roadie, just helping Daddy
load the drums
Making as much noise as possible!
Sunday we celebrated my Dad's 69th birthday in total style... at Chuck E. Cheese! That's how all 69-year-olds roll, right? It was a fun time, Luke and Maggie really seemed to enjoy themselves!
Maggie would not take her sunglasses
off half the time! She also wore them
all throughout church.
Singing Happy Birthday!
Helping Daddy shoot some hoops
Here Pops, I'll show you how this works
The merry-go-round was Maggie's
favorite ride of all!
I had a great time hanging out with Luke and holding little Claire. Luke was so cute during the birthday song - he just stared intently the whole time, waiting for someone to say the word "blow." As soon as he heard the magic word, he blew out those candles before Pops could get near 'em! We re-lit them so Maggie and Luke could both blow them out again - perhaps the highlight of their day!
Here's Maggie getting ready for cheerleader tryouts:
We had ourselves a nice little weekend together. Three-day weekends are the best!
Friday after work we went to the park with Maggie and then walked to a nearby grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. I grabbed a container of watermelon for the walk home because Maggie was getting hungry. Needless to say, she was a hot mess when we got home - sticky hands and face, but very happy.
This is the life!
Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to go swimming and have dinner. Maggie loves being in the water and likes to "dunk" Daddy by tapping his head to make him go underwater.
Eat ya heart out!
Here's Grandma (who has the energy of a teenager) giving Maggie a piggy back ride around the house:
Giddy-up, Grandma!
We decided to let Maggie watch her first Disney movies this weekend. We started with Aladdin at Grandma and Grandpa's, but it was getting late and Maggie wasn't super into it. Today we tried Tarzan, and she really enjoyed it. She doesn't have the attention span for an entire movie, so every 20 minutes or so she would run to the back room to play with her chalkboard, and then come back and snuggle.
First taste of popcorn!
We've had some fun visiting with cousin Will lately. Maggie gets pretty jealous when we hold him, but I think it's more because she wants to hold the baby, rather than being jealous of our affection. She likes to help with bottle time too.
Let me help, Grandma
Just hanging with my cuz
Trying to give him a pacifier
We also let Maggie experiment with paint for the first time today. She really enjoyed herself, and was very careful not to get paint everywhere. I was pretty impressed!
Please stop disturbing this important work
Grammer watched Maggie a couple weeks ago, and was sweeping our driveway after the big storm (because she's an awesome mom like that). According to my mom, she actually accomplished very little because Maggie wanted total control of the broom. This week we got a big surprise in the mail - a kit with a mop, broom, duster and sweeper thingy! Maggie has been "cleaning" a lot this week, though she likes to use the hand-held sweeper to try and brush my hair...
This is my mop.
Shoot, gotta keep on keeping on
Maggie is completely obsessed with me for the time being, and I'm eating it up! She's normally such a daddy's girl, but she pretty much wants nothing to do with him if I'm around. I know it's just a phase, but I think Jamie is starting to get a little annoyed!
Jamie's students started class this past Thursday, and he's been busy getting everything together. We had a fun outing on Sunday at the meet and greet picnic - Maggie got to run all over the bleachers and football field, and was in her glory!
Woo!!!
It all starts here, guys. Dig deep.
Maggie 1 and Maggie 2 (one of the other teacher's daughter)
I thought we were finished with our basement issues, but we ended up hiring a company to remove some of the drywall due to mold issues. We now have the bottom 12 inches of drywall removed around most of the perimeter - it looks pretty goofy. We're starting a new trend - most people like to finish their basements, while we're looking to un-finish ours!
Do you hear that Mommy? That's the sound of you trendy new basement making news!
This is how real artists do it
Please come out. Can't we just talk like adults?
Out of my way! Wonder Woman is here to save the day!
My poor little nephew Will had to have surgery this week because food wasn't getting from his stomach to his intestines. I know it was really scary for Amy and Rex, but thankfully everything went very well and he's doing great now!
I'm a champ!
Thursday we went to cousin Betsy's to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Aunt Judy and Uncle Walt! They are a very loving couple, and we're so happy for them!
Playing on their awesome swing set!
Maggie went back to daycare this past Friday, and moved into the toddler room. I was so anxious the night before and all during the day (even called to check in on her). I was worried she would feel abandoned in a new room with a new teacher. She was a little unsure when we first arrived, but they said she was awesome the whole day. She was definitely thrilled to see Daddy at the end of the day, but no meltdowns or sad moments! She even napped a little over an hour (last year she almost never napped at daycare). I think it's going to be great year!
Today we had an awesome Saturday. We went to the zoo, and all the animals were really entertaining because it was so cool and overcast. We all took a 2 hour nap afterward, and Mommy went for a pedicure. I decided to do zero work today - we just needed a family breather! Tonight we're going out to celebrate our 4th anniversary - so glad I have this guy, I really needed him these past few weeks!
First train ride at the zoo!
Zebras and giraffes were her favorite animals this time
Taking time to smell the flowers
I'm going to go play with the animals!
We went to lunch afterward, and made the rookie parent mistake of ordering spaghetti despite the fact that we forgot a bib. She actually did a pretty good job eating without ruining her clothes.
That's a good-a meatball!
Maggie likes to pretend she's a horse jockey sometimes:
After a long day of fun, Maggie tends to nap pretty hard... though I've never heard her snore like this!
This was probably not the worst week of my life, but I think it ranks in the top 5...
So our basement flooded Monday, about 12 inches. This was actually not terrible considering our next door neighbors had four feet! They had to tear out all their drywall and throw pretty much everything away. We threw a lot of stuff away, but there wasn't anything super sentimental or new.
No big deal, Mom, take it easy!
Tuesday night Jamie's dad came over to help us carry all the wet carpet and furniture to the curb. We made really good headway, washed most of the floor and cleaned most of the salvageable stuff. I was exhausted by the end of it!
Then Wednesday morning we walked downstairs and found 2 inches of water... seriously?! We called a plumber who snaked our line and replaced our (broken) sump pump, which was the culprit. At this point, I'm just really frustrated with having to re-clean everything, scrub the floors again, and restart the drying process. But I figured the worst was over, and we could move on...
Playing Daddy's drums while they're upstairs
...the newest trend in dishware
Then on Friday as I was leaving the Donoghues to take Maggie home after work, an excellent driver changed her mind while turning left in front of me and quickly reversed, hitting my car and screwing up the front end. Everyone was ok, but it was the last thing I wanted to deal with!
Saturday we finally had a bright spot - our home insurance is going to cover us for our losses! This was such a relief, I can't even describe it. We've heard of so many people who didn't get anything. We are planning to donate some of the funds to help people who are in the hole from this disaster.
Today Jamie's car started smelling really bad, and we determined his radiator is leaking... so we have two cars in the shop and it's really hard to get a rental right now because of all the flooding - really hoping this is the last bad thing!
We didn't get a lot of photos this week, but here's a few:
Maggie also likes to set new fashion trends
Playtime at the mall!
Maggie usually takes a few minutes to observe all the kids before jumping in
Up!
Ooops, down
Here's a couple photos from our vacation last week that I forgot to get off Jamie's phone:
