hey mambo! mambo open that bottle night!

This is one of the very few nights a year that Matt and I have my parents watch the kids and we go out. Not just us two of course, but to a wine party! With other like-minded wine lovers! Now I know I don't drink as much wine as I used too, and I mourn the days of the good bottles of red that we used to enjoy. The tannin! The inevitable headaches! Getting older is fun people. 

living room shelves

It's the time of year where I have an itch and the only way to make it go away is make Matt do diy things. Lucky man. One such thing was adding shelves above our tv in the living room. We have the exact same ones in our master bathroom, just smaller than these, and even had leftover pipe from that project. 

I never really enjoyed this wall with the tv and I've tried a few different ways to fix that lack of enjoyment but it just wasn't working. I felt like before the room felt very weighted to the gallery wall side (which it was) so this I think helps remedy that. Of course I have an antiquing trip planned next month (you know, when it's not a no spend month) because those shelves are nowhere near where I want them to be decor wise. I just threw some things up there that I wasn't using anywhere else so they weren't nekkid. How cute is that tiny candle? It's from the Dollar Tree. I know! Same with the galvanized tub. A dollar!

I'll keep you posted on my antique finds, lest you fret.

the great pantry redo!

I'm not even the slightest bit embarrassed to show you this mess. You know why? Because it ain't my fault (did I do that?!). It's my chef's fault. But since he is the chef I don't really have a thing I can do about that now can I? I organize it. He messes it up. But! He agreed to redo the pantry for me just the same and even agreed to keeping it organized just the way I like it (aha aha). So this is the before, obviously. There was all this extra space between the shelves and soooo much room above the top shelf that is like, why are you there? Plus the walls were all scratched and marked up from all the things being thrown in there through the years. 

hopefully our last snow day

Please oh please let last week's storm be our last. Not only are we now working our way into the summer with make up days but I am just so over it. The kids haven't had a full week of school in forever. Maybe since December? I'm only slightly exaggerating. It's early dismissals and two hour delays and of course the closures. But as it so happens we cannot control the weather and a storm came and it dropped a whole lot of snow and then a whole lot of freezing rain that resulted in a day off of school.

Again.

skyzone!

I had taken Dom here in December and just felt really bad about the fact that the bigger kids were missing out because of that silly little thing known as school... And then for Christmas our Fitzs gave us a gift card for this place! So then it was just a matter of waiting for a day when I thought (based on my extensive SkyZone crowd knowledge) it wouldn't be that busy, which was this past Monday. Matt asked off work too so it was a family affair!

some valentine's celebrations 'round these parts

As a rule I don't really enjoy this Hallmark holiday. Romance is so not on my priority list (poor Matt). However, we do celebrate a little bit. Times three as it were, believe it or not. So I realize those sentences are conflicting but bear with me.

Traditionally, we get together with our old neighbors for Valentine's Day. If you've been around this blog since the beginning then you know that we started this tradition because we had little kids and didn't feel like going out and getting a sitter and wearing real pants all of that jazz. So Matt would cook something fancy and we would join forces and have quite the fun night. Last weekend we kept up with that tradition and had them over for dinner. Matt made the kids a heart shaped pizza, the adults had chicken parm and Steph brought her delicious heart shaped dessert. 

rollerskating night! with friends!

I am back from my little blogging break! Nothing intentional like, oh I need a break from the social media world or anything... just more like oh I don't really have anything to say so I'll say nothing type of deal. But I do love this little blog of mine so I am back. Like Arnold... With our church's rollerskating night!

Every Wednesday night I drive a bunch of neighborhood kids (and two of my own) to church. Think: youth group. They call it Quest and it used to be called Clubs but that's just all confusing to me. Anyways each year they take over the Mt. Gretna Roller Rink and have a family night. 

The past two years I skated as well but last year neither kid wanted to skate with me so I figured why bother? So I sat it out. And here David could have really used me. He didn't leave the wall for the first forty-five minutes or so and refused to even try and skate out into the rink. He got there though eventually, but it was painful to see. Letty of course took off with all of her girlfriends and had a blast. That girl just has the best group of friends! I know I've mentioned that before, but it's true. And David? He's got a good friend here or there but not like the tribe that Letty has. Maybe that's a boy thing? Is that a thing? He's the most social kid and knows everyone's names but it's just like oh everyone is my friend instead of oh this is my group. Maybe that's best? Too many sentences about your children's friends Laur, move on.

a david day date!

The Cub Scouts had an ice skating day up at the Hersheypark Arena last weekend and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with my middle child! Matt would have been the ideal candidate for this but he has bad feet. After returning from Mordor they can no longer ice skate. So it was me. Happily. David gets overlooked in a lot of ways.... All our focus is either on Letty's academics... or all her activities... or on Dominic because we are just with him so much during the week and well, the squeaky wheel gets the grease right? It's not intentional, and I used to think Middle Child Syndrome was a farce but it isn't people. He has his Cub Scouts though! And he started a baseball clinic thing this week! And whenever he reaches a milestone with something at school (so smart that kiddo) we sneak him out to get him ice cream and such. We try!

But back to skating. He was hedging leading up to this. Did he want to go? Did he not? He has never skated before and he didn't know of anyone else going.... But two minutes before we had to leave he decided yes, I want to go. Annnnnd about two minutes after I paid he said he wished he had decided to stay home. Can we leave? I want to go home. Which is probably a little bit of why he doesn't get to do certain things. Like brother is not allowed to go to a musical or the movies anymore. Unless it is like the three dollar movies. He is unpredictable in that way. But I reminded him that I paid money for this and he was staying. Tough it out kid. 

It took a good forty-five minutes till he could let go of the wall and move about on his own... a few falls of course but no tears. And then he loved it. He kept referring to the penalty box as the break center no matter how many times I corrected him. At one point he looked at me and said so mom, what you're saying is I'm a professional? Far from it kid but hey I dig your confidence!

so what's new with you?

One month down. We made it! These cold months can just breeze on by if you ask me. I mean obviously not really because time going so fast is always something I loathe but I also loathe being cold. So that's what.

but does it spark joy?

You may know what my post title is referring to and you may not... so for those of you who do not know there is a new show on Netflix (and a book, apparently) called Tidying Up. And in this show the most adorable woman helps people tidy. There are so many hilarious memes I’ve seen that do give me a good snicker... but the truth is Matt and I have been going through our house slowly, getting rid of things we don’t use or need for a few months now... right about the time when we closed the pool and were like oh where oh where can we store these things? Annnnnd sorry Marie but I have been folding clothes that way since Letty was born. Minus the gratitude. I don’t thank my leggings. Maybe I should? But I don’t. 

audrey turned one!

Which I mean, I rarely call my niece Audrey. I say Aud. Like with a heavy (in my opinion) New York accent ala my Uncle Glenn referring to my Grandma, the original Audrey. Aaaaaaaud. Anyways. Baby girl somehow is one! That was probably the fastest year yet. Her birth just happened am I right? Poor girl wasn't feeling quite herself the day of the party so she took it all very seriously, but at least there were no tears! She even took a nap and then came back to the party. It's her party and she'll nap if she wants to. Girlfriend likes her sleep.

My brother and sister-in-law moved the party to my parent's basement just to give all these people more room. It was fun to see how Ash had the basement all decorated! She's so good with all that stuff. It was a Winter Onederland theme so there were lots of trees scattered about everywhere. And lots of photos. A photographer's daughter's party must have a lot of photos!

There was appetizers and drinks before gift opening. There is never a lack of helpers when it comes to gift time at these parties. Like moths to a flame, these kiddos. The super cute cake was delicious. I may have found my replacement bakery now. Somehow Aud allowed me to cart her around from family to family to get photos because that is just what I do at these parties. 

the polar vortex

Are we tired of hearing about this? I am so glad that it's now warmed up to like, the 50's as opposed to say, two degrees. And yes yes I am well aware it was soooo much worse in a great portion of our nation. I just hate being cold. I want to pick up my entire family and move them to a warmer climate. Palm trees would be a necessity. But sadly some members of my family don't want to move. Cough. Mom. Cough.

Anyways last week we had snow, obviously. The kids had an early dismissal one day and then a two hour delay the next day and then school was closed completely the day after that. What lucky creatures to be home with us all that time! And how lucky was I that I got to help them get dressed and undressed nine thousand times. So lucky, I'll tell you what.

I personally just like to let them play in the backyard while I watch from warmer pastures inside. The fence and all of that. But we eventually headed across the street to the baseball diamond which sits high up on a hill and let the kids sled. Half the neighborhood was out as well and we had a drink to warm our bones. I have fond memories of being outside sledding until the sun set and that is just what we did that night.