Someone shared this article about Grand Designs on Facebook last week and I’ve been binging the episodes available right now. I really need everyone to go watch it so we can talk about how bananas some of these houses are. I can’t even decide which one I love the most, but the very best part of the show is that it follows through ALL THE WAY to the end. The home flipper shows on HGTV drive me crazy when they say “if we sell it, we’ll make $100,000! So far, no offers.” WELL THAT’S NOT REALLY YOUR PROFIT YET, IS IT? The British have weird houses made out of mud, by at least they FOLLOW THROUGH.

That had nothing to do with this post, except it’s what I’ve been watching while I catch up. And now I’m caught up!

Sunday:

Easter bunny haul

He bought this with his birthday gift card and is SO pleased

Just chilling out, feeding myself a bottle as if that’s something I’ve EVER DONE BEFORE

Monday:

Super happy to be shopping with me!

SUPER over shopping with me

Oh you know, just letting the 2 year old run away (E is watching him from behind that tree)

Tuesday:

Gorgeous weather for a beach wedding!

My new glasses are…big

Did nothing else but edit wedding photos because I was so excited

Wednesday:

Staying hyrdrated

Toddler yoga

Lots of naps

Thursday:

Octonaut playdate was VERY much enjoyed by toddlers

This is called Nine Man Morris, they learned at Old Sturbridge Village and E made them a board

Starbucks date

Friday:

Puddle playdate

The futuuuuuuuuuuuure!

The opposite of the future

Saturday:

SQUIREL!

How to escape your children

The opposite of escaping your children

It turns out Grand Design does sometimes give up on people – the mud house never got finished. So I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about being terrible at following through with some things. I think tonight I’ll finish a whole pint of ice cream and celebrate my success. Hashtag goals.

This was The Bad Week. I’m going to do the most recent week’s post tomorrow so I bump it down the page quickly. I still don’t want to talk about it.

Sunday:

Mini sessions day 2

Photographer life means ALL the throw blankets

I have the best clients. This had Boston cream in it.

Monday:

He was so excited about the fake oranges he needed real oranges

These are not outside shoes

Hates everything

Tuesday:

Nope, don’t want to talk about it

They’re having fun, I promise

Wednesday:

He’s OBSESSED

I “found” Everest, if by “found” you mean spent a crazy amount to replace the lost one

His hair makes me happy

Thursday:

D0N’T JUDGE ME I CAN BUY CHRISTMAS STUFF

More appropriate bus stop shoes

Her response to “Can I take a picture?”

Friday:

Kid Chess has very different rules than real chess

Always so judgy

A bin of baby clothes I haven’t seen in 6 years

Saturday:

Another gorgeous day at the seaport

Outdoor nursing in November

Very focused on stacking

I need at least 3 more weeks of outdoors weather before I’m fully ready to commit to my winter hibernation. Or at a minimum, it needs to not be frigid until after we get the Christmas tree and the lights up. IT’S SOON. SOOOOOOOON.

This week is late and missing photos, but a last minute trip to Ohio for a funeral will do that. The kids really enjoyed seeing their cousins for the first time in a long time and it was great to meet my THREE new baby nephews, but the drive there and the drive back (in the snowstorm) was rough on everyone. Especially poor E, who drove for 12.5 hours straight since I was too nauseous to drive in the morning and too freaked out by the weather to drive in the afternoon. But I am super glad the Navy granted him emergency leave so we could all say goodbye to his Grandma Davis in person.

Sunday:

New baby props for a newborn shoot

Oh hello crazy awesome abandoned mill I really really want to take pictures of for real

I call this: Pregnancy Cravings

Monday:

Helping me clean her room

Old dog, 3 year old girl

Both kids passed out at 5 pm. No idea what happened.

Tuesday:

Not rain nor snow nor sleet shall keep the gingers from waiting for the bus outside

Thanks to a couple friends and a few (too many) trips to Wendy’s we have an awesome collection of these now. Evan made an Air Force.

Bedtime for gingers

Wednesday:

Nor fog. I forgot fog before.

Presents for myself, thanks to a MinuteClinic Christmas card. Love them. (That mascara is amazing, thanks to Laura for the suggestion.)

Second swim lesson: GOOGLES

Thursday:

V. excited for school

Show off.

Friday:

Endless driving.

Apple face

Saturday:

Enjoying some “cold chocolate” after sledding

Hand & Foot

The Marble Game. We were trying to fit as much Midwest into our visit a possible.

I can’t believe it’s already almost Wednesday. We’re getting hammered with snow right now and I doubt anyone is going to school tomorrow. I’m supposed to have an OB appointment and the kids are supposed to have swimming but that’s all sort of questionable too. Not that I mind a day off to recover from being out of town, although I doubt anything useful like unpacking or cleaning will get done. Probably just napping.

My husband has three siblings and two parents, all of whom really enjoy card and board games. They all play bridge and cribbage and this thing called Hand and Foot which is not a disease but a complicated card game you play with, like, eight different decks and points and a teammate. I’m less of a game lover. I play cribbage, badly, because my husband forced me to learn. I like Monopoly for the first hour or so and then get so bored I stop bothering to do math and just throw all my money at whoever has the most hotels.

I like playing video games as a family; Wii is fun, it gets us on our feet, and I’m pretty good at it. And I’ve learned to play Hand and Foot, even if I have to keep the cheat sheet in my lap. I feel like my game-playing skills have improved admirably and I should get points for effort. But when it comes to WINNING, E has no mercy. We also regularly play League of Legends on our smurf accounts from unrankedsmurfs.com.

To pass the time while I was in labor with our first child, E talked me into a few rounds of cribbage. He beat me every time. He couldn’t even let his wife who was literally in the middle of birthing his heir and namesake win a round of cards. Now we don’t play together as much as side by side (Candy Crush, anyone?) and he STILL gloats ridiculously when he beats my scores.

A few years ago, game shows came back as the big thing on network television. It was a good compromise for E’s healthy competitive spirit and my dislike of being soundly trounced at every game. We could watch OTHER people fail compete and neither of us went to bed grumpy.

The first time E and I watched Minute to Win It on TV, the show wasn’t even over before we’d gotten a beer bottle and a deck of cards to try playing at home. The game was simple: set the stack of 52 cards on top of the empty bottle and blowing the cards off, a few at a time, leaving just ONE card on top. It looked so easy! How come these idiots on TV couldn’t do it?! Jeeze, if that’s all it takes to win a game show these days, sign me right up, Imma be rich!

We never won. Not even once. Go try it, it’s way, way harder than it looks. And that right there pretty much sums up Minute to Win It. It should be their motto: This is way harder than it looks. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth checking out – and now you can, because Minute To Win It is back this summer on Game Show Network (GSN).

They got Apolo Anton Ohno to host, which makes sense since he’s one of the most decorated American athletes of all time. And not so hard on the eyes either, am I right? We got a special sneak peek of the show this week along with a list of challenges. The idea is they can almost all be practiced at home with stuff you have laying around…so of course we had to give it a try too.

There are various difficulty levels, and I figured we’d be pretty safe at Level 1. The challenge: stack 6 soda cans on a plate floating in a bowl of water. You’ve got one Minute to Win It. GO!

Here’s proof he eventually did do it, even if it miiiiight not have been for the 3 seconds required: And it wouldn’t be fair to post that without sharing my attempt, as unsuccessful as it was. GO!

The gingers wanted to give it a try too. GO! (Please note, I know my child is actually 4, not 3, even though I said he is 3.)

Teamwork!

Caroline looks like that because she’s Super Kitty Caroline. Obviously.

Since that game was a big failure, I picked a level 2 game I thought might be a little more E’s speed. I mean, it involves wine glasses, and he’s definitely experienced with wine. The goal: spin a marble in an upside-down wine glass to carry it across the room and drop it into a bowl. E’s got one Minute to Win It. GO!

If we ever get called to be on the show, I’m just going to cross all my crossables that E gets that game. $250,000, here we come! Every. Second. Counts. A new season of Minute to Win It premieres Tuesday, June 25^th at 8/7c on GSN. For more information, connect with Minute to Win It on Facebook and Twitter and visit the GSN website.

And to celebrate the return, Minute to Win It wants to give one lucky reader a $100 Gift Card. To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me about your competitive spirit. Are you cut-throat, like my husband? Or more its-all-in-good-fun?
Sweepstakes Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 6/18/13 – 7/17/13.

– One of Baby Evan’s favorite games is called “Try to grab the dog’s junk”. The dog almost always loses this game. I usually just laugh.

– When we’re having a really difficult nap time, sometimes I yell “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE GO TO SLEEP CHILD!” really loud…and he almost always goes right to sleep.

– Things I’ve used to wipe the baby’s nose include: my sleeve, his sleeve, his sock, anything I can grab from the dirty laundry basket, stuffed toys, felt at the craft store, paper towels, cloth diapers. Almost never used: tissues.

– When the baby’s nails get really long and he scratches himself I feel bad. When he starts scratching ME I pin him down and finally trim them.

– Anytime Baby Evan is awake I stare at the dirty dishes and the unmopped floor and the laundry to be folded and think about how much I could be getting done if he would leave me alone. And yet, every time he goes down for a nap I manage to waste the whole time on Twitter/email/knitting/USWeekly/picking my nose.

– I cleaned the rug my child plays on for the first time today. I shook TWO CUPS of dirt out…after I had already vacuumed.

– Baby Evan has fallen on his head approximately 3 billion times in the past two months and I have yet to call the doctor. No blood, no loss of consciousness, and yet somehow I feel like a good mother would be much more concerned.

– I am secretly and silently smug that my son is walking at 10 months because it reinforces my belief he’s a genius although I try really really hard not to bring it up unless someone asks. No one likes Smug Mommy.

– I do not check all our toys for safety and lead content online and have been known to allow my kid to chew on plastic rubber duckies made in China. I figure it’s better than his favorite thing to chew on – Mountain Dew cans.

– None of this stuff keeps me up at night.