Busy, busy, busy

Things in my corner of the world are very busy. I think even when I had a full time job outside of home I wasn't this busy.

We had our monthly neighborhood dinner on Tuesday night and it was our turn to host. I decided to hit the Farmer's Market and make a really nice fresh vegetable meal. We ended up with:

Fried chicken
Sauteed corn
Fried okra
Fresh red tomatoes
Greek Squash and Zucchini
Hot Cornbread
Red New Potatoes
Salad

One neighbor even brought a red, white and blue cake her daughter made so we had a fun dessert to top it all off.

Colin's first birthday party is Saturday so yesterday I worked on making gift bags. I wanted something to go along with his palm trees/monkeys and couldn't find anything so I bought plain brown bags and a palm tree stamp and made my own.

I also am making these adorable monkey cupcakes so I'll have to get a picture if they turn out okay.

The two older boys go to camp at the YMCA every other week and I am very thankful for it. Having all 3 of them home full time does not go well some days. But having them in camp means getting bags ready each night with 2 snacks, packing a lunch, putting 4 Gatorades and 2 water bottles in the freezer overnight, getting swim suits and towels, goggles and sunscreen packed and making sure they have their camp shirt on Field Trip days and money on lunch days when they can purchase something.

It gets a little complicated when their schedules are totally different. Patrick may have a Field Trip on Tuesday and Josh may have his on Thursday. They may have lunch days at different times too. Good thing I keep all this straight on the calendar!

This week they are at camp so Colin and I have the same basic routine. We eat breakfast then go for a walk around the lake and feed the ducks. He has started making a "Duh" sound for "Duck, Daddy and Dog".

After our walk we come in and crawl around on the floor. He has invented this game where he chases me as I crawl around couches and chairs and when he finds me he giggles his head off. My knees are not loving this game.

Around 9AM we watch 2-3 songs of a Praise Baby video (he LOVES these) and he takes his bottle.

Then I carry him upstairs and he lays down for a morning nap...usually an hour to an hour and a half. I lay him down awake and he settles right in. Worst case he may fuss for 2-4 minutes but by the time I'm back down the stairs he's good.

While he's napping I shower or do housework, return phone calls and emails and make a list of any errands we need to run.

After he wakes up we head out to do anything on our list and either grab lunch out or come back and eat depending on how many things we have to get done.

After we get home we play with toys and look at books. He normally repeats the Praise Baby and bottle deal sometime between 1:30 PM and 2PM then takes an afternoon nap for another 1-1 1/2 hours.

While he's down for the afternoon I work on dinner and every so often get to take a quick nap myself.

Today he will stay with my parents as I have a job interview in Montgomery. We'll just see how that goes.