A Day Off

My dear friend Deanna, who lives in Austin, was in town this weekend for her 15 year high school reunion. Ugh  - that makes me feel old seeing how my 25th reunion would have been this past summer! Needless to say she is the "baby" in my group of friends!

I ended up taking today off to spend with Deanna & my Mama Bestie Jen. Mason also got to enjoy a day "off" from daycare & spent the day hanging with Deanna, the Mama's & Miss Ava Jean as well.

Since Jen & I both have brand new houses, Deanna wanted to see them both so we started our morning by having the girls over to Casa de Taylor. I made homemade caramel rolls, brewed a pot of coffee with some yummy Pumpkin Spice creamer & awaited the girls arrival.

 

They came, they toured, they ate, they enjoyed & then we were on our way to spend the afternoon at Deanna Rose Farmstead.

Deanna had never been to the Farmstead so she had so much fun watching the "littles" walk around like pros showing her all there is to do there.

We saw the calves, fed the chickens, gave the baby goats bottles of milk, fed the ducks & the fish, saw the baby quail chicks, had ice cream together & enjoyed a beautiful day outside together all catching up.

 

After conquering the farmstead we all headed on over to Jen & Ava Jean's house. Mase ended up falling asleep in the car on the way over which was good because that boy turns into a grizzly bear if he hasn't had a nap.

Once we arrived, we enjoyed getting the tour of Jen's new home while Mase & Ava played in the playroom. We hung out for awhile longer visiting & then it was time to head back to our house.

Later that evening us three met up with our other girlfriends & had dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The kiddos kept each other entertained while the adult ladies got to eat, drink & catch up.

It was such a great day off during the work week! Just wish I was able to have a day off every week :( Seeing Deanna was awesome & definitely wonderful to spend the day with such good girlfriends.

Block Party

This evening we participated in our 1st block party in our new subdivision. This is an annual event sponsored by our builder & real estate agent for the subdivision & it was a great way to meet other neighbors in our 'hood!

The street in front of the office was shut down & tables were set up for all the food. A few of the neighbors spent the entire day out in the street smoking the meat to be served at the potluck. Our builder actually had bought all the meat & paper supplies/utensils which I thought was really nice. 

Everyone was instructed to bring a dish or dessert to share as well as a lawn chair. We bought a special lawn chair for Mason earlier in the week to take camping & he was so excited to try it out!

We joined all our neighbors who live in our cul-de-sac & enjoyed sampling all the yummy food people had brought. I chose to make my Oreo Pudding Dessert & it was a HUGE hit! There wasn't even a spoonful left when it was time to go home!

Neighbors from our cul-de-sac

 

We hung out with our neighbors until it started to get dark & then we packed up the wagon & walked the two short blocks back home. 

Mase had so much fun playing with all the big kids from the neighborhood & even met a few new friends that are his age! He did manage to stop for 2 seconds to take a selfie with Mama :)

It was a fun evening getting to know our neighbors better as well as meeting other people in our subdivision. Looking forward to attending this annual get-together every year!



Urban Air

I am always looking for fun places to take Mase to around the area - especially for the upcoming winter time where we are stuck inside with nothing to do. My friend Jen told me about this new place that opened up in Overland Park called Urban Air so we decided to check it out today.

Talk about SO. MUCH. FUN.

It is a huge building that has 2 wall-to-wall trampoline arenas - one for little kids & one for big kids, a trampoline runway, foam pit, slam dunk track, trampoline dodgeball arenas, Warrior Course and a 4 level indoor playground. Little kids & big kids of all ages are welcome to jump & play. We spent 3 hours there & Mason (& Mama & Daddy) had a ball.

Mase jumping into the pit

 



 

 Having fun jumping in the trampoline arenas

 "Swimming" in the ball pit in the 4-level playground

 

We went during the weekend & I felt this place was kind of pricey for a couple hours of play (around $14). Definitely much cheaper during the week but it is a great place for ALL ages & it will wear a kiddo out! We got home & Mase took a 4 hour nap so I guess you can say it was worth every penny - Mommy Win :)

 

We will definitely be going back to this fun place soon - especially this winter!



DS Walk

It's September 1st & that means two things in my little world: fall has officially begun & the fundraising for a very important event in our family has commenced!

As most of you know, that cutie right there is my 1 year old niece Dana. Crazy how much she has grown in a year!

One month from today on October 1st, my family will be traveling to Wisconsin to once again join my sister, her family & all her amazing friends (known as "Dana's Daisies") in helping raise awareness for Down Syndrome. We will all be participating in the Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin - Fox Cities 6th annual awareness walk.

The DSAW-Fox Cities has provided my sisters' family with so much support, education, resources & opportunities in the short time they have been a part of this amazing group. They have been a HUGE reason why Dana has done so well with her development & learning thus far. This organization & their events are really important to our family & I am working hard to help support them.

This walk is fully funded by participation &/or monetary donations. All the money raised for this walk stays within the Fox Cities community & is used on the children & their families that live there. Better yet, it is also a charitable tax-deduction!

I am posting this today asking for your support in helping me reach my fundraising goal. If you would be interested in helping me reach this goal, you can visit my page & make an online donation here: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/account/328250

Thank you for taking the time to read this post & considering donating to this awesome cause! Please remember that no matter how big or how small the donation, every little bit helps these amazing children & their families!

Miss Dana & our family thanks you :)



Birthday Masterpiece

This morning we had another birthday party to attend & Mase was SO excited to get to go. I think he is quickly figuring out that with any birthday party comes cake - he is my child after all :)

His best buddy Greyson's big sister Brooklyn was turning 5 years old & she had invited Mason to her party which was being held at a place called Thirsty Palette. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you may recall a past post on a specific girl's night spent at this place? It included the game-night girls, wine & a sad rendition of a Van Gogh look-alike painting?? LOL

This place is so fun & such a great idea to have a birthday party here - for any age. All the daycare Mama's agreed to schedule a Mama's Night Out here in October so plans are in the works for that fun outing!

We got there around 10 am & were excited to see Greyson & Brooklyn! We also got to see Mason's friends Avery & Camden there from his daycare class as well as Miss Hannah!

The kiddos gathered around the easel's & were SO excited to paint on their canvas. The picture we were to be painting was Olaf from Frozen:

And this would be my little man's version of Olaf:

Pretty accurate don't you think? LOL

The older kids painted pictures of Elsa from Frozen & did WAY better than the 2 & under section!

After we were done painting it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Brooklyn & eat cake :)

Mason was kind enough to share a couple bites of his cake with his Mama & it was super yummy! After eating his cupcake he asked for 2nd's from the sheet cake - that's my boy!!

Next it was time to watch Brooklyn open all her gifts. Mason tried to "help" along with the other 2 year olds & I only had to tell him twice to sit down & watch - not help.

The party ended around noon which was a perfect time to leave & go grab some lunch....Chick-fil-A to be exact!

It was a super fun birthday party & we were so glad we were able to join in the fun!

Cell Phone Dump

My monthly cell phone dump :)

2 of my favorite co-workers: Namaan & Leann

 

 The feeling you get when you find McDonald's fries in the bottom of the bag - priceless :)

 

Washed my hands at work, felt something sharp, looked down & saw this :(
 Time for a prong repair, prong check & a cleaning.



Christmas shopping in August? Why yes - teaching my child it's never too early to shop for Christmas decor!

Paci? check   Hoodie? check - let's ride

Love this little goofball :)

 

Mase giving Aunt Jilly a ride around the hood

A typical Friday night at our house

 



 Ready to play Daddy's drums

 

 

My fortune at lunch the other day - hmmmm

Virus - Day 5

Well, we are on Day 5 & I am happy to report Mase is slowly starting to feel better. He still woke up with a low-grade fever but he said his ear felt better & the swelling seemed to be going down a bit in his neck. He also slept so much better than he had the past few nights. Shane left on his road-trip for work for a couple of days so it was Mama's turn to stay home with my little man.

I had decided if he was feeling up to it later that we would go run some errands, go out to lunch & enjoy the beautiful day ahead of us & that is exactly what we did.

He woke up around 8am & after some breakfast & a couple of episodes of Mickey Mouse I gave him a bath, got him dressed & we were out the door.

We hit up Kohl's & Sam's Club, went to Chick-fil-A for lunch & then headed to Deanna Rose Farmstead to enjoy the 70 degree weather we were having. You could tell he still wasn't feeling 100% as he spent a lot of time in the stroller but did manage to have a good time feeding the ducks.

We had a great day out & about together & headed home around 2pm. He ended up taking a 3 hour nap & seemed to be feeling much better by the evening & still no fever!

Hallelujah - I think we just might be on the road to recovery!

43 & counting

It is that time of year again. The summer is ending, fall is right around the corner & HT is having another birthday. My birthday festivities started on Friday. My sweet co-workers surprised me with lunch from Chipotle, a yummy cake & a birthday balloon - which I know Mase will love!

Today is my actual birthday but there wasn't much celebrating going on. Mason was still really sick so my day consisted of hanging out on the couch, snuggling with my little guy & watching every single Disney show & movie imaginable.

 

Having this sweet little hand resting on my arm all day long was pretty much all I could have asked for on my birthday. LOVE.

Shane ended up making me dinner which consisted of steak, corn on the cob & baked potates & bought me a birthday cake for dessert. YUM!

 

Mason's Motrin had kicked in & he was feeling good enough to sing Happy Birthday to Mama, smile for the camera, help me blow out candles & have a bite of cake:

 

The cake was a Snicker's chocolate cake & it was just as delicious as it looks in this picture:

To some of you it may sound like I had a completely boring & uneventful birthday but to me it was absolutely perfect. I got to spend the entire day snuggling with my little mister on the couch & I wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

Virus - Day 1

After the super fun birthday party last night I was putting Mase to bed & he felt a bit warm to me. Call it Mama's intuition but I knew immediately he had a fever. I took his temp & it was 99.4 degrees. He has been cutting his very last tooth - a monster of a molar - so I attributed it to this & went about our usual nightly routine.

We all went to sleep as usual & I was awoken by a crying/whimpering little boy around 3am. Went in to check on him & he was burning up hot! Took his temp to find this:

Ugh - way too high of a temp to be cutting a molar! He was also complaining of his left ear hurting so I assumed he was getting an ear infection & we would be making a trip to urgent care in the morning. Why oh why do illnesses have to happen on the weekends?? Weekends are supposed to be our family-fun-time! Poor little bubba.

 

I dosed him with Tylenol & he came into bed with Mama & Daddy & the little guy slept until 10am. He never sleeps past 7am so I knew he was sick. He continued to have a fever & ear pain when he woke up so off to urgent care we went. The nurse practitioner seeing him said she really couldn't see his eardrum in that left ear due to too much wax so since he was complaining of ear pain she went ahead & sent us home with an antibiotic & told us to follow up with the pediatrician on Monday. For whatever reason I was unsettled by this diagnosis. He has had no cold, no congestion, no drainage, his neck is extremely swollen & ends up with this acute ear pain? Doesn't sound like an ear infection to Mama!

 

Well the weekend continued on & Mase seemed to be getting worse. Not only did he still have a high fever, still had the ear pain, the left side of his neck was still extremely swollen & super sensitive to touch. He couldn't lay flat to sleep so he slept pretty much sitting up. We battled this ALL. WEEKEND. LONG. My gut told me something wasn't right. After being on antibiotics for 48 hours he should be starting to feel better but instead he was feeling worse.

Monday morning came & we all headed into the pediatrician's office to be seen first thing in the morning. Turns out Mama's intuition was right! He didn't have an ear infection after all but an infected lymph node on the left side of his neck. It was the size of a golf ball & was putting pressure on the ear canal which put pressure on his ear drum causing him horrible pain. We were instructed to come back the next afternoon if his status was unchanged & still had a fever. I went ahead to work after the appointment & Daddy stayed home with our sick little guy.

Tuesday afternoon he was still running a 100 degree temp - for the 4th day in a row. Back to the doctor we went. Ended up switching his antibiotic to something a bit stronger & instructed to return to see an ENT doctor on Thursday if he wasn't getting better. Daddy stayed home with him again today while Mama went to work. When I got home this is how Mase was :(



Ugh - I can not tell you how seeing this little guy sick & in pain will hurt your heart. Most. Painful. Thing. Ever.

to be continued... 

Minions

This evening Mason was invited to a birthday party at the Blue Valley Rec Center & he was so excited to get to go. Not only because birthday parties are so much fun but because with every party there is cake. Mase loves him some "cay-cake". He is my child afterall ;)

The birthday boy was Brody & he is turning 5 years old. He is the big brother of Mason's friend Hannah so we would be getting to see her as well at the party.





Birthday boy Brody

We got there & made our way to the party room which was all decorated in Minion party décor. I could tell right away that Brody's Mama had been on Pinterest & she did an awesome job with all the details! The Minion hats were SO cute!

Mason & Hannah

 

Everyone sat down to eat pizza & a few minutes later Greyson & his Mama walked in. Mason & Hannah were SO excited to see him. I had no idea that he was coming so that was a nice surprise to get to visit with his Mama while the littles enjoyed the party.

Everyone enjoyed their pizza & then it was time for cake. Of course Mason walked right over to the cake table & grabbed himself a cupcake before it was time to eat cake but no one seemed to mind. We all sang Happy Birthday to Brody, ate cake & then it was time for some games!

There was a Minion piñata that everyone took turns hitting & they had SO much fun beating the heck out of that thing. After about 20 minutes of hitting & no breaking the adults decided to just rip the thing open & let the kids get their candy. Definitely a fun activity for the littles & one I will have to remember for Mason's birthday party!

Next everyone headed over to the gymnasium for free play. There was an instructor there that kept the kids entertained with teaching them the equipment, running races, tumbling, jumping on the trampolines & then fun with a parachute. The kids had a blast & it wore their little butts out!

Greyson & Mason

 

I enjoyed talking with Greyson's Mama & catching up with her while the kids played. They are building a new house also so we swapped all kinds of info & details with each other as well as talked about getting the boys into swim lessons next summer & coming over to each others houses to play during the fall/winter months.

The birthday party ended around 8pm which was a perfect time to head home. We thanked Brody's Mama for inviting us & said goodbye to everyone. As we were walking out Mason got a balloon & a Minion goody-box which he was super excited about.

Such a fun party & what a great location to have it. Will definitely have to remember that place in the future!!