We’re still on vacation, which means I’m light on the words and heavy on the lazily edited photos of my kids doing boring stuff. Luckily, my sister is here to do boring stuff with is.

At The Bleu Squid in Mystic – AMAZING grilled cheese and cupcakes

Do I have something on my face?

Tonight the plan is for E and I to do something AWESOME, since it might be our last chance for a loooong time to spend a New Years out alone…but it seems more likely we’ll go out for sushi, get tired, and come home to drink a bottle of champagne on the couch while we watch the last episode of Downton Abbey. Happy New Year’s Eve!

Tomorrow is Caroline’s birthday party. She probably won’t remember it since she’s only almost-two years old, but she is aware of what having a party means, who her friends are and that it’s her special day. “BIRT-DAY PAH-TEE!?!?!?” she says, “YAH PAH-TEE!” I’m hoping her head doesn’t literally explode from awesomeness when she sees the sheer volume of cookies available for her endless consumption.

I’m as on top of my 246 point to-do list as I can be at this point, and my self-induced stress level is hovering around a 3 on a scale of 1-10. At 10:30 on Saturday it will be at an 11, but that’s why I bought the BIG bottle of whipped cream vodka to put on the hot cocoa bar. Thank goodness my parents are here to help with everything. EVERYTHING. My dad has crossed more stuff off my “maybe someday we’ll do this” list than I’ve crossed out in months, including dealing with the basement freezer. I don’t even want to TELL you what happened to the basement freezer. But it’s OK now, and hopefully my nightmares will stop soon.

Besides the home repairs and shockingly clean kitchen, my parents are also kick-ass with the kids. Having them here gives me a tiny taste of what it’s like to live near family and I am wildly jealous of those of you who have grandparent babysitting services available all the time. My eyebrows would never look terrible again. I could get a lady doctor check-up without my children in the room. I might see a movie IN THE THEATER without it costing $120. The pitch black hours between 5 pm and 7 pm with no hope of my husband coming home might not seem so soul-suckingly dark.

Basically, I love my parents and I’m not letting them leave. There are a lot of ducks that still need to be fed, and doing it with Mormor and Bumpa is way more fun.

I’m not going to lie, things are not going great around here. We see E for less than an hour a day (which will happen every day for at least the next 36 days) but to see him at ALL means we have to skip our morning activities. Caroline has decided napping is for the birds, but so is going to bed before 8 pm (those last 2 hours in the evening are ROUGH). And Evan is still three, which means he recently learned the word “attitude” – literally, he now tells me all about his attitude – and I’m about ready to sell him to the circus. Our week felt a bit like Groundhog Day – the same things over and over and over – so I’m REALLY looking forward to the end of this coming week, when we head off to Long Island for an end of summer adventure.

Sunday:

Exhausted from a weekend with friends, THANK GOD.

HAHA JAY KAY MOM! I’m not exhausted I’m trying to give you a heart attack!

Hand washing device aka drinking fountain

Monday:

Fish through a fish-eye lens are fun

Giant Oreo cupcake is no match for two toddlers

Then I almost killed myself trying to do C25K Week 5 with a stroller on a hilly path.

Tuesday:

Cheeeeeese!

Filling out pre-k applications for NEXT year. Cross your fingers (it’s a lottery).

Dream big, little ginger

Wednesday:

I asked her to put her jammies in the laundry basket. At least she followed directions?

That blur in the middle is Evan jumping off the tumble track all on his own for the very first time!

Not impressed with BJ’s

Thursday:

Oh no it’s a ghost! A friendly ghost – It goes “woooooo!” and tries to tickle you.

Evan is obsessed with his shadow. Time to watch Peter Pan, I think.

Those popsicles were a mistake.

Friday:

So happy to be back at Stroller Strides!

Sharing!!!

I’m starting a diet challenge in 2 weeks. Guess I better order BOTH of these sandwiches NOW!

Saturday:

He says this is much more comfortable. Whatever.

Me: That’s you Caroline! The baby in the pictures is you! Caroline: *mind blown*

After ALL THIS she still refused to nap.

In case that last picture isn’t clear, it’s Caroline in MY BED with two dollies, two blankies, two stuffed mice, her water, her baby laptop, her sound/light machine AND Daddy’s iPad. She insisted I drag it all up to my room and then lay in bed talking to herself for 90 minutes (even after I turned off the iPad). It was a really long day. So now I’m going to bed – good thing I never took off my pajamas! – and hoping we can get out of the house tomorrow for something that takes a LOT of toddler energy.

I’m guessing since Amy had a baby (!!!!!!!) this week, the linky will be off for a while. But feel free to leave links to your iphone posts in my comments, I love looking at them!