kings of the road

 we made it home safely from our extreme spring break and are still spinning from the time we had!

although, being on the road with my two friends might just have been the highlight.

i love traveling with matt because he has zero road rage...and in moments when most would be giving gestures or pounding on the steering wheel he will make these funny little calm observations...("they're not using their turn signals...the whole lot of them")...it tickles me to no end.

we opted to not bring along any technology for max and traveled like days of old...with family sing a longs and snacks from home and a million rounds of the alphabet game.

max was a real trooper. he was inspired by the open road and decided to write and sing a spring break theme song...then boredom set in and he found a pair of safety scissors and gave his stuffed dog a hair cut, causing blue fuzz to fly and cover the car.

he only asked if we were there yet 40 times and was convinced that matt was driving in the wrong direction the majority of the trip. he has a sixth sense about these sorts of things.

chicago was amazing. and of course i took way too many photos...

i'll be back tomorrow with pictures and tales of white-knuckle cab rides, adventures 1,353 feet in the sky, and the city's best macaroni and cheese.

ohio, i'm gone...

we're busting out of this place for a few days of reckless spring break abandon in chicago.

max has a taxi cab ride, the sears tower, pizza, and the lego store on his check list.

i like his style.
clear the road, we're on the move!
be back in a couple days...

time in a bottle

yesterday we started work on covering up that big metal beam in the family room. 

one of matt's clients brought over some beautiful 140 year old barn wood for us to use. it's weathered and worn and full of knots and character. exactly what i was hoping we could find.

before we sealed up the beam, matt wrote a little story on the back of a picture of the three of us and hid it inside.

 i hope whoever finds it will be able to put a face to the hands that made this little place a home. and until then, there's a little open knot in the wood that we decided to keep for more treasure-stuffing.

and speaking of treasures...

max meditating and wearing goggles during taco night...to keep out the smell.

happy weekend, loves!

peas and petrified carrots

when i was a little girl i had all sorts of tricks up my sleeve to avoid eating green beans. from pretend falling asleep at the table to hiding them in my glass of milk. i was relentless. and to this day i've never met a green bean that i like.

max unfortunately has the same picky palate i had...only for whatever reason he really loves peas. he's surely not my son. but a sure-fire veggie around here is carrot sticks. he will gobble them up without any guff. he loves them! or so i thought....

the other day he came up to me with his slide whistle box and a confession. he's been stuffing his carrots in the box for months now.

inside was a treasure trove of little petrified carrots.

 (i guess he's mine after all)

my inner 6 year old was so proud of his cleverness.

of course, the slide whistle box! they never would have seen it coming.

but the difference between me and max is that i was quite comfortable with the guilt and the lies. it consumes him though and he always ends up letting me in on his deceit...whether it's hidden candy under his pillow, no underwear or socks on the way to school, or now gross old carrots in the slide whistle box.

hat full of rain

today i woke up and had to google search hamster hemroids. 

it's been that kind of a day...or set the pace, anyways.

but matt is back home safe and sound and it's been raining the best smelling spring rain.

max is with his dad...allowing me to take a quick thunderstorm nap.

i love how even the odd days out have a silver lining.

happy wednesday, friends!

Muzicons.com

long way home- tom waits

cheese z top

max and i invited my sister angie and her little ones out for pizza, panic and anxiety, and terrifying animatronics this weekend at chuck e cheese.

just to set the scene, a prison escapee was found hiding in the bathrooms there last week..and the last time i had been was years ago when a baby's diaper exploded leaving trace bits embedded in the carpet and on everyone's shoes and socks; a situation we now affectionately refer to around here as "the poop sock incident".

 but you never would have known we had such a shakey past! we took back to the place like ducks to water, or like little ones to tokens and skee ball.

time heals all wounds. 

 we laughed, we cried (literally), my nephew ethan had kidnaping concerns...rightly so i guess. 

but spending time with my beautiful sister and my fellow gingers was worth the risk...

 if only for this accidental picture of angie and me. 

sssiiissstteeerrrssss!

or maybe that cheese z top poster below...

don't make me choose.

in the end, we made it out relatively unscathed...with clean socks and cotton candy and stories the kids could write home about...

max's teepee

friday night me and max hunkered down, ordered in, and hid ourselves away from the world for a night in our teepee. 

max has never been a co-sleeper, but ever since our move has had a harder time detaching at night. one extra goodnight hug or kiss becomes a death-grip head lock with refusal to let go. with this guy it's a slippery slope...i slept with him the first few nights living here to get him acclimated and it set up a pretty cushy standard. long story short, he got a taste for sleeping with mama and asks for it pretty regularly now.

(which is beyond tempting for me, considering during the day he wants way more guy time then me-time)

 

to tide him over, i've been promising him we'd set up a special mama/max sleep over but wanted to do it up right. i found this online tutorial to build a teepee...it seemed the most feasible for me to do, only i used wood closet rods and rope instead.

and so we teepeed! and, because i am who i am, i forced us to make feather headdresses and read cowboy and indian books. max isn't much for themes, but humored me anyway.

we started downstairs then decided to migrate our tribe up to his room...which you can imagine how silly i looked trying to take an assembled teepee up a flight of stairs. there was no way i was taking that thing down after it took me forever and a day to get it to sit up straight. plus i wrapped at least 500 feet of rope around the top.

when it came time for bed, max told me he would rather sleep alone but asked if i could lay outside his teepee for a little while. i guess there is just as much peace in knowing you have the option as there is in actually acting on it. 

so i laid there and slipped my hand under the tent and he held it tight for a few hours. i didn't dare fall asleep.

  i would build and wrangle up a thousand more teepees for a little bit more of that.

it might as well be spring...

i can't think of anything finer than celebrating the first day of spring on a lazy day sunday. 

it's been such a happy weekend with my buddy...just the two of us. getting into mischief together and feeling constant nudges and tiny reminders that we are cut from the same cloth and completely in love, he and i...regardless of how much less he needs his mama these days...or rather...how differently he needs her.

seasons change in all sorts of ways, i suppose. we adapt. we put away the woolens and fling open the windows....leave the picnic roses behind and remember to close the door behind us when our little ones want some privacy.

these seasons can bring about such sweet surprises, it may just take a little while for our winter legs to sun up a bit.

 

here's to embracing the new and shedding those extra layers..

happy spring!

...and dance by the light of the moon

max and i are awaiting the visit from the supermoon tonight...the very first for max!

we've been digging up all our moon books in preparation. 

 it was lovely last night...we sneaked outside after midnight to peek and our moon was full and bright and happy. i can't imagine how much more so when it's donning the word "super" with it. 

but really, is the moon ever anything but super?

bits and scraps

 i'm not much of a scrap booker, but i am a pretty paper collector. and i've fallen head over heels for sassafras double sided paper with the decorative trim (hobby lobby just started carrying them in my neck of the woods). their paper is so beautiful and old fashioned and full of character. i could never bear to cut them up...

i put the number grid paper in a frame for max's room. 

his little space is coming right along. we've been leveling shelves and hanging blinds and moving and shaking.

we found this cardboard taxidermy deer on clearance from west elm! it's pretty tiny...but fit perfectly in the odd corner of his room.

today is for errand running, gutter cleaning with my dad, and tee pee supply purchasing. 

me and max have big, wild, stay up and howl at the moon plans this weekend. 

happy friday!

tis' like a morn in spring

happy st. patrick's day!

me and my buddy had our first picnic date of the year in all our green state. 

(i had on this green dress this morning and took one look at myself with such red hair and was instantly embarrassed. too chichi for today, maybe? )

anyway, our picnic may have been a tad premature...but i was promised 68 degrees today and there was no turning us (read: me) back.

despite max ditching me for the swings and some mud 2 minutes in...it was a fine time. we turned our root beer green and laid under newly budding trees. well, mostly i did...max refused to come back after i pulled roses out of the basket.

xoxo