Children's Museum Trip

Today we met our friends Natalie, Sam, and Abby and Amy and Amelia at the Children's Museum.  They have a special area for babies under 3 to play in with all kinds of fun activities.  Chloe and Brady were a little too young to enjoy most of the activities, but I think once they are both walking they will have a blast!  It is a very nice, clean and safe area for all of the babies to play in.  We also had lunch at the Kids Cafe at the museum, but I was surprised and a little disappointed to find out that they didn't have highchairs!  How can a place that has so many babies and kids not have high chairs?!? 

We had a fun morning with our friends and I did get a chance to snap a few pictures with my phone. 

They enjoyed a mini ball pit!



The baby area of the tots section was right next to a mirror!  Brady really enjoyed checking it out!





You can see me in the mirror taking the picture!

Because of the mirror we actually got all three of us in the picture!

After our big day we were all tired!  Whew!  Goodnight everyone! 

 

Blog Break Recap

Now that I've enjoyed several days away from the blog, I feel like I haven't posted in YEARS.  Going from posting every day for a month to not posting for 4 or 5 days was a definite change.  I found myself missing the blog in some aspects, thinking while we were doing something "this would make a fun post!" but I also definitely did not miss staying up late and frantically trying to get my post done before midnight so it would "count" for a certain day.  I think my family also appreciated me not having to take a picture every time we did something to "document" it for the blog.  That means I have taken very few pictures over the last several days, but I do have a few taken from my phone to share later in the post. 

Sometime last week I attempted to make sugar cookies from scratch.  Chad went to the grocery store one night after work and I asked him to pick up baking powder.  He asked me why I needed baking powder and I said, "I want to make my own sugar cookies".  Completely incredulous, he said, "Why would you want to make your own sugar cookies???".  I had to laugh.  In our household, that is a legitimate question since in all the time we've been married I've never expressed any desire to make anything from scratch.  I've always been a firm believer in box cakes and buying the pre-made refrigerated packs of sugar cookies and just putting them in the oven. 

Since I've become a mom I'm more interested in learning how to do crafts and bake things myself.  I want my children to have fond memories of things we made together or foods they look forward to having when they are grown up and come home.  I don't want the memories to include, "we can't wait for mom to put the package of pre-made sugar cookies in the oven".  Anyhow, I did make my own sugar cookies and I learned two things, 1. When you make them yourself, the recipe makes a whole lot more than the 10 or so in the pre-made pack, 2. The secret to making sugar cookies is timing, knowing the precise time to pull them out so they are cooked but still chewy and soft.  Next time I will definitely cook them for less time.  It may take me a few trys to get it right, but hopefully by the time Brady and Chloe can remember them I'll have it perfect!  Here is a picture of my imperfect, from scratch sugar cookies:

A Christmas tree, a Snowman, and a Gingerbread Man

On Friday we had the privilege of having our amazingly talented friend/neighbor Carlea come over to take some pictures of the babies in their first Christmas outfits for our Christmas card.  I may post some of those pictures on the blog in another post.  Here is a sneak peak at some of the elements of the Christmas card outfits (these were all just informal pictures taken by me on my phone):

Precious little shoes!

The tights and the hairbow are part of her Christmas outfit, but this was just a fun picture I took with my phone after the photos were done

On Saturday we had our good friends the Dermodys and the Rollows over to watch the Iowa State v. Kansas State game.  Our friend Jamie went to Iowa State and our friend Brett went to Kansas State, so it was a fun rivalry match!  The Dermodys are the parents to 18 month old twins Sam and Abby and the Rollow family is expecting twin boys in January!  The funny thing is each of our twins are approximately 9 months apart in age.  Sam and Abby and Chloe and Brady had a good time playing with all the toys and I think all the adults had a good time eating pizza and watching the football game.  I can't believe we had everyone together and I didn't take a single picture! 

We have a lot to look forward to coming up soon!  Tomorrow morning we plan to meet Natalie and Sam and Abby at the Children's Museum for a lot of fun!  Also, Meepie is coming to visit for a week starting this Saturday!  We cannot wait, we are so excited for her visit!  Sunday, we plan to take Meepie with us when the babies visit Santa for the very first time.  I am eagerly anticipating the upcoming fun events we have planned within the next week! 

I will leave you with a picture of Mr. Brady, he is getting to be such a grown up boy:

Hello!



Have a great day everyone!

 

End of NaBloPoMo!

While we were putting the babies to bed tonight Chad said, "Do you know what tonight is?" and I said, "Um, Wednesday?" and he said, "No, guess again!" and I said, "Harry's Law comes on tonight?" and he was like, "Geez, woman!".  Finally it dawned on me today is the last day of November, and therefore, the end of NaBloPoMo, my quest to blog every day in the month of November!  I made it!  Yay! 

Blogging day to day you don't think much really happens to you in a month's time, particularly in the life of a stay at home mom, where most days have the same general structure.  But after remembering some of my blog posts this month I realized quite a lot has happened. 

A brief recap of this month:

* My mom wrapped up her visit for the babies' first Halloween
* Brady started crawling
*The babies turned 9 months old
* Brady broke through 3 additional teeth!  Nuts!  (I blogged about two, I forgot to mention a third one I noticed about a week ago)
* We made our first Christmas ornament craft
* I baked my first pie
* Chloe learned to clap
* The blog surpassed 100 posts
* I cooked my first Thanksgiving meal and first turkey
* My family lost a loved one

Just like always, there were highs and lows.  There were days when posts were just pictures or maybe just an "I'm tired!" post.  I think that what NaBloPoMo did for our family blog is it let you into a little more of our day to day life.  Usually I post when something unusual/momentous happens, whereas blogging every day meant that some posts were more general in nature. 

I would say the one main thing I learned from doing NaBloPoMo is that if you are committed to doing something, you will find the extra time or energy to see it through.  A lot of times nowadays I find myself saying "I don't have time to do x,y,z" and usually the thing I am thinking about doing is something for myself or for Chad and I to enjoy.  It is just a reality of parenthood that most of your energy is devoted to the well being of your children. 

There are several different things that we'd both like to get back into doing that I would like to see if we can set aside some time in our busy lives to do.  NaBloPoMo has shown me that this is possible if you commit yourself to finding space/time for your goals. 

Well, that's all I have for today.  Sorry no pictures!  I will definitely be taking a blog break for a while, not sure how long or I may just post intermittently as I feel like it.  We'll see!  Have a great night everyone!

 

Eeek!

The Blogger website is acting up right now and I only have a few hours left to post for today!  I have definitely NOT come this far with NaBloPoMo to miss a day because of the Blogger website breaking down!

I really don't have a lot to say tonight, I am still trying to process what has happened in my family so I'm just going to show you a few pictures of our day.

Mommy confession:  Every now and then when I could use a boost in the morning, I pack the babies in the car jammies and all, and we all go two minutes down the road to the McDonald's drive thru and I get a biscuit and a sweet tea and drive right back home.  This morning was one of those mornings.

Her pink boots are from her Meepie.  Thanks Meepie!

Brady was goofing around during one of today's feedings.  He thought it was hilarious that I used a baby wipe to get sweet potato out of his hair.  Chad calls these bibs their "lobster shack" bibs, LOL.

This picture was actually from yesterday.  The babies are really obsessed with remotes right now.  This is a toy one we bought for them, but they still prefer to play with our real ones.

That's all she wrote today.  Feeling very tired, please keep thinking of our family.

 

Remembering Aunt Susie

I got a call this afternoon that my Aunt Susie was involved in a car accident and passed away this morning.  This was very sudden and terrible news to receive.  Everyone in our family will miss her dearly. 

Growing up I had a lot of great memories of Aunt Susie.  She was often the host of McDowell family parties at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a lot of parties in the summertime too.  When you were going to Aunt Susie's house you knew you were going to have a great time.  Aunt Susie had a great laugh and a great smile, she was always the life of the party and she was always a great host.  She made the most amazing homemade macaroni and cheese and chocolate pies ever.  She was the main inspiration that made me want to include these items in my first Thanksgiving meal for my own little family.  Mom and I had a lot of great shopping excursions with Aunt Susie during family trips.  She and my Dad were very close siblings and they loved each other very much.

We all have our own special memories of her and we will hold them close to our hearts.  Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Sunday Brunch!

Today we had a very fun day out with the babies.  Chad's coworker and friend Monica invited us out to brunch at this very neat restaurant called Tiny Boxwoods.  It was an indoor/outdoor cafe that also had a garden/nursery attached to it.  They had delicious orange juice and cinnamon rolls, yum!

The interesting thing was that I don't think this is the type of place that sees very many babies, in fact, they had a total of TWO highchairs for the whole place, and of course we needed both of them.  I think some of the other diners were surprised we would bring our babies there, but in all fairness it was morning, not the more formal evening time and also our babies were extremely quiet and well behaved.  I also made sure to pick up any baby puffs we left on the floor. I was very proud of how the babies conducted themselves.  I do believe that there are places that are not appropriate to bring babies (movie theaters, concerts, formal dining places especially at night, etc).  I also believe that you can't let having children limit you from going most places and that babies benefit from a range of different experiences.  In any event, we had a great time at brunch with our friends and I think no one's dining experience was compromised by the presence of our little ones.

Today it was legitimately cold outside (in the 50s probably?) and we did have to wait outside for a table for a brief time, less than five minutes.  The babies were dressed fairly warmly, but I found myself wishing they had hats on.  So after brunch we went and bought them hats at Old Navy.  I know I am biased, but I think they sure did look cute in them!

Here are some pictures from our day:

Ready to go to Brunch!



Chloe says hi at Brunch!

In our stroller at Old Navy!

Poor buddy conked out while we were in Target!

New hats!

Chloe likes her new hat!

Brady didn't like his hat as much, but Daddy got him to laugh!

That is all for today!  Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! 

 

100th Post!

Today marks the 100th post for the Ringley Family Circus!  Since I've been blogging every day during the month of November for National Blog Posting Month I reached 100 posts a lot faster than I otherwise would have.  Posting every day this month has been an interesting undertaking, and there were certainly some nights where it was right down to the wire.  I've learned a few things from this experience, but that is for another day and another blog post. 

It was another low key day in our household since it was rainy and "cold" outside.  I took a chance and called my hairdresser to see if she had an open appointment today, and I guess the holiday weekend and terrible weather was working in my favor since she did have an opening!  I was thrilled to get a chance to go out and get my hair highlighted and trimmed.  I am very lucky that Chad was happy to watch the babies for me so I could go out and get my hair done.  It was one of the rare days that I had makeup on and my hair wasn't just pulled back in a pony tail!  I enjoyed my time talking with the ladies at the salon, but of course I also had to show off my pictures and videos of the babies from my phone. 

Speaking of pictures, I think I only took one picture of the babies today!  I looked through my older pictures and found a couple from a few weeks ago I never posted so I will leave you with those for today. 

Have a great night everyone!