TGIF!

This week I worked for the weekend. On Wednesday I was ready for Friday. And now finally, Friday has arrived. This weekend promises a date night, farmer's market trip, six mile run, playground fun, church, and football. Hooray for Friday!

She's got good taste.

Miss Pip is an accessories aficionado. She loves purses the most, but hats and sunglasses are a close second. She found Mr. R.'s beach hat last week and happily wore it around the house for the rest of the afternoon. She didn't mind that the hat was too big. It didn't bother her at all that she could hardly see.

 I love that Pip doesn't care how she looks, but rather how accessories make her feel. I love how she laughs at herself in the mirror as she piles on a neck tie, then a pair of necklaces, and maybe a belt and a  headband or three. This girl has self confidence in spades and I intend on doing anything and everything to keep it that way.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Every two weeks or so Pip sees me wipe down our chalkboard wall, then wash it with soap and water. And then she sees me pull out the chalk and draw on it all over again.

 Earlie this summer I bought her large pieces of sidewalk chalk and she has been drawing along the bottom third of our chalkboard wall.  Today however, she decided to follow in my footsteps, climb on one of our dining room chairs and add her own designs to my work. Mr. R. thought I would be ticked, but I have to say I love it. Imitation is the best form of flattery after all!

Life Lately

I take close to 20 pictures a day, some are for the blog, some are for our personal scrapbook, and some are just because. These are just because photos that really symbolize life in Casa Republican lately. If you were a fly on our wall you would see these scenes reapeated multiple times a week. You would also here lots of 80's music, for dance parties of course, Yo Gabba Gabba, the same three stories being read EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, and a noisy little 16 month old repeating almost everything she hears.

Enjoy these snippets of our life lately. 

Lots of bath tub swimming. She loves to stick her face in the water and blow bubbles. Get ready YMCA swim team, we have your newest member!

 Awesome bath tub hair.

 She likes to brush her own teeth now. 

Thanks Aunt Nicole for my awesome toothbrush!

Strollers are for babies, big girls walk around the block holding Daddy's hand.

 Reading to her babies. 

She needed to borrow Grandmother's reading glasses to complete the outfit. 

 Monday impromptu beach trip.

She ran right into the waves, fearless, never looking back.

 Cookie Thief.

I made pumpkin snickerdoodles tonight and someone is a fan.

When did she get tall enough to reach the dining room table?

 This is the playroom 2.5 seconds after I put all the toys away. 

I decided just to walk away and pretend this didn't happen. 

Purple Play-doh

The other night I was cooking dinner and Mr. R. was entertaining the Pip. He pulled out the play-doh in hopes something new and fun would distract Pip long enough for him to post a few comments for grad school. I thought Pip would be ALL OVER the play doh, but instead she slowly and diligently tore off small bits of play doh rolling it in between her fingers and placing it into random piles on her high chair tray. I can happily report that these play-doh piles kept her busy for 20 minutes. And dinner was on the table in record time without any little hands stealing wooden spoon and opening the fridge 1,000 times. Play-doh you just might become a dinner time staple.

Playground Time = Nap Time

I am going to let you in on my most amazing discovery. Say your VERY ACTIVE child had you awake at 5:30 on a Sunday morning. And this child continued to be VERY ACTIVE showing no signs of slowing down or needing a nap. Instead of getting frustrated and drinking another giant cup of coffee to stave off sleep, go to the park. Seriously, find the closest park to your house preferably with a slide and lots of things to climb on and climb through. When you get to the park let your VERY ACTIVE child run around like a crazy person. Let them climb on everything and slide down the slide a dozen times. Run with them, climb with them, and when they look tired stick it out for just ten more minutes. Why you ask? 

Because..... drum roll please...they will come home, collapse in your arms, and sleep for 2.5 hours. 2.5 glorious hours of silence and time to yourself. Now you can use this time to clean or cook or get things ready for the coming week. Or you can nap. If we are being honest, I almost always choose nap. 

The dishes, laundry, and cooking can wait.

It's officially fall!

I love the fall. When we lived up North fall meant sweater season, tall brown boots, trips to Leesburg outlets and corn maze, and Mood's Farm Market apple cider doughnuts. Now that we live in the south fall has a new meaning. We gear up for football, we drink pumpkin spice lattes in our shorts, we decorate our porch, and we eat dinner outside. 

In celebration our chalkboard wall got a makeover. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, thank you pinterest. We found a giant bag pumpkin coffee at Costco. Sam Adams Oktoberfest graced our dinner table and sweet potato chicken and dumplings were eaten Friday night. Homemade minestrone soup was eaten while watching Sherlock Holmes.  And today we will cheer for The Cowboys. 

Happy Fall Y'all!

D is for Doughnuts and Dinosaurs

Saturday we headed to Jacksonville's Museum of Science and History to visit Sue the Dinosaur. Going along with our D theme for the day we also stopped at Dunkin' Doughnuts for Pumpkin coffee and a pumpkin doughnut.

Sue was the dinosaur discovered in Faith, SD when Mr. R. and I were in second grade. I remember reading many a scholastic magazine article about Sue in grade school and it was really awesome to see her up close and personal. It was amazing to see an almost complete T-rex skeleton and be dwarfed by it's size. I cannot imagine what the Earth must have looked like with dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Pip's favorite part, hands down, was the dinosaur dig. MOSH set up a giant sandbox complete with cast fossils, digging tools, and brushes. Our girl jumped in and played paleontologist for 45 minutes. She would dig up bones, recover them, drag them around the sandbox, and then brush away the sand.

MOSH also has a human body exhibit, St. John's river exhibit, and a sea life fossil exhibit. We were able to see almost everything without any complaints from Pip. I think she is enjoying her new freedom from the stroller.

Mr. R. is a somewhat of a space nerd and he spent sometime marveling at the pictures from the Hubble Telescope, the recreation of the Apollo space capsule, and the astronaut suits from the 1960s. I am telling you, those suits DO NOT look safe at all.

 I loved Saturday. I am loving that we are having family time, that we are taking adventures. I am loving that Pip is easy going. I am loving that we have new memories.

The Office Date

This date comes to you from the brilliant minds of the Dating Divas.

Mr. R. and I follow 5 sitcoms, Modern Family, The Middle, How I Met your Mother, Big Bang Theory, and The Office. We started watching the office way back in 2006 when we were just newly weds. At first I was horrified by the awkwardness that was Michael Scott and then much like a train wreck I couldn't look away. Now I am hooked. I actually teared up a bit when they did the final tribute to Michael on his last episode. The office premiered for the fall season on Thursday night and we celebrated with an office themed date. 

On the menu:

1. Meatball subs (a reference to the man meat Michael served up for Bob Vance's bachelor party.)

2. Chocolate Covered Pretzel (a reference to Free Pretzel Day! Stanley's most favorite day of the year.)

3. Mint chocolate chip ice cream (Michael's favorite served on both his birthday and Meredith's)

We watched a few of our favorite episodes:

Murder in Savannah, Mafia, Diversity Day, and Product Recall

We gave each other Dundies.

Hilary: World's Best Mom, for one handed diaper changes, awesome pig tails, list making, and bathtime fun. I also earned one for whitest teeth. Thank you pinterest for the DIY white strips recipe. They are really working!

 Mr. R.: Hardest Worker for dedication to his job, his family, his school work. He managed to get an A  in grad school this semester while juggling more work responsibilities, still serving on the zoning board, and being 100% committed to our family. He also wins a Dundie for Sexiest Republican. He looks super hot in his grey suit and blue striped tie. 

When Piper sleeps she finally rests.

 Since the day we brought Pip home from the hospital Sophie has stood guard over her. She knows her cries, she follows her from room to room, she wakes up with us for middle of the night feedings and diaper changes, Sophie stands in the doorway and presides over bath time. Sophie partakes in tea parties, gets tapped in the play house, and is forced into multiple games of chase daily.

And then at 7:30 PM each day Sophie finally rests.

Charlie Brown was right, happiness really is a warm sleepy puppy.

Shiver me timbers it's date night!

Ahoy me matey, yesterday was National Talk like a Pirate Day. The Mr. and me celebrated like salty sea dogs with Hawaiian pizza, rum and pineapple juice cocktails, and a treasure chest filled with Reese's peanut butter cups. In this house Reese's are right up there with gold doubloons. This date was really just a spin on our usual dinner and movie date. 

Mr. R. rented the movie Pirates Band of Misfits for our viewing pleasure, currently $1.00 at our local Redbox. We took a pirate quiz, courtesy of National Geographic kids, to test our knowledge about the Great Scallywags of the Seas. And of course there were photo props, I actually had these leftover from Pip's birthday photo booth. 

 I needed this date last night. We have been running this week both litterally and figuratively. Sitting at the table, talking with my husband, stretching out on the couch in my pajamas, taking time to make silly faces and take pictures...the stress just melted away.

Yo ho ho, Happy Pirate Day to you and yours!

Peek-a-boo Barn

 Pip has been expressing interest in our ipad and iphones. She can easily turn them on and open apps and take pictures. So, we decided it was time to download a few toddler apps onto Mr. R.'s ipad. Her clear favorite is Peekaboo Barn. The farm animals stand behind two closed doors and make animal sounds. Pip then has to take her finger and slide the doors open to see the animal and hear it's name.

She loves to hear the sounds and I love that the app is working on eye hand coordination and is helping her learn the actual names of all the farm animals. 

So far she can say, rabbit, donkey (pronounced "on-key"), and pig.

Some light reading for your Tuesday afternoon.

Pip has always been really into books, but recently she has become a full blown bookworm. She gathers up a stack of books and will plop down on the floor and carefully examine each one. She looks at each page slowly taking in the colors and pictures and trying to pick out animals she knows. We have one Disney Princess book that features Pocahontas and forest animals. She loves to find the rabbits on each page. She calls them "babbit" and she loves to point out the birds and the deer. She calls deer "ears" and DOES NOT like to be corrected. Her current favorite read aloud book is Olivia. I read it at least 3 times a day and poor Miss Rita must read it about 5 - 10 times. 

As I type this Piper is splashing Jeff in the tub and screaming as loudly as possible, don't worry they are happy screams. Our kid is VERY loud. So in these pictures, where she is seated and quiet, for ten minutes each day, imagine Mr. R. and I resting and recharging for the next Piper tornado.

The Weekend Lens

This weekend was full of relaxing. It was as if we were storing up moments of rest and peace because deep down we knew this coming week was going to be bananas. 

Saturday we had coffee and doughnuts for breakfast, did our weekly shopping, and I ran 4.5 miles. We visited my grandparents, watched Franklin and Bash Season 1. Piper found my ear buds, packed all her crayons in my purse, and demanded to go down the slide a MILLION times.

On Sunday Pip had me up at 5:30 and I decided to bake. This pumpkin coffee cake is AMAZING. We went to church, I ran two more miles, We took turns reading the book Olivia at least 10 times each, and Pip now makes duck lips when you ask her to smile for the camera. It cracks us up. 

 We ended our evening cheering on the cowboys, followed by bathtime, and bed. 

Pigtails

I know when you are pregnant you have to say that you will love the baby no matter the sex and that no matter what you just hope that baby is happy and healthy. I said all of those things, but deep down I was hoping and praying for a girl. 

I wanted a little girl for three reasons. 

1. Princess Tea Parties

2. Ballet classes with tutus

3. Pigtails

I love that her hair is long enough to have two actual pigtails and I love that they stick straight out. Maybe we should add Longstocking to her name :)