Rabu, 24 Juli 2013

Wednesday

This past weekend we visited Violet's Grammy and Grampy at their house.  It is always a nice time because we can search for buggies in their yard and enjoy the peace and quiet of the wooded area.

I like being in my childhood home with my girl. 

And she loves the attention from her grandparents!

Before we hit up the 'rents, we stopped at the park!

Go Violet!


We found a little inch worm.


Can you see it on my hand? It was very small and wiggly.

"Can you keep it safe while I play, Mommy?"



When we arrived at Grammy and Grampy's place it was long before the bug hunt began!

We found so many bugs and also, Salamanders!
 



After a yummy lunch, Violet made Grampy run through the sprinkler with her.



Wednesday: Park Days

We visited another park that I had listed on my summer-to-do list, "Kid's Cove", which is about 20 minutes from home.  I always love these playgrounds with the wooden structures, so cool to find little hideaways and such.

It was great fun!




We packed a picnic!
 


We even followed the trails behind the park!


The river was pretty high due to recent rains.

Lots of bridges made the walk pretty and interesting.




Queen of the mountain!


On our way home we stopped for ice cream - Violet got a chocolate frappe!
 

Senin, 22 Juli 2013

There Are No Shortcuts

I've spent the last couple weeks learning this good old lesson the hard way. Why do I always choose that route?

It all started when we decided to go to NYC for our anniversary. We kept trying to think of where we wanted to go, and finally we thought, "Why go anywhere, when you can go to NYC?" So we decided that was our 8th year anniversary destination... even though we went there for our 7th anniversary ;)

So of course, I thought, "I want to be skinny for NYC!" Last time we went, I was 196. I felt fat the entire time, and I promised myself that next time we went to NYC, I'd be thinner. It was pretty frustrating knowing that I'd be going pretty much the same weight I was last time.

This is where I let the mind games start. I thought since my diet was going so well, I could kick it up a notch, and lose some serious weight before our trip. So I tried juicing for all of my meals, and when that didn't work, I tried the 17 day diet again. Even though I swore I would never, ever, ever get sucked into that silly diet. Of course, I couldn't stick to it, so I would try again the next day... but not before going to grab some grub first. It ended up being two weeks of preparing to go on a silly diet, and eating unhealthy crap in the meantime. 

DIETS DON'T WORK.
I know that. Why can't I just remember it?

Good news is, I only tried to stick to a crazy diet for 2 weeks, and only gained 2 pounds back. Unlike last time, where I tried for 6-12 months, and gained all of my weight back. 

Lesson learned. For good this time.

I'm back to living my deliciously healthy lifestyle, with a goal of losing 2 pounds a week. Slow and steady wins the race, and I'm finally okay with that. My patience will pay off when I am 160 on Christmas morning. I can't wait! I just need to focus on my goals, and stop letting silly things like trying to get skinny for a vacation, get me all flustered  and off track ;)

Sabtu, 20 Juli 2013

Saturday

Often times I have to find a cheap way to keep Miss Violet entertained.

This can be difficult when there are so many awesome summer places open (summer places = big $).

But we do find fun all of the time ... usually being very silly!

Check us out:

This is where PLAYDOH comes in!

Messy but fun.

"Mama, I 'mustache' you a question!"





Kamis, 18 Juli 2013

Thursday




Thursday

At our local theater this week we saw the youth production of Rapunzel.  It was a mix of Disney's Tangled and the original Rapunzel story.

It was very well done as usual.

We waited to do the meet-and-greet at the end of the show:






Thursday

This week with Violet we...

Took advantage of our local library because it is FREE and fun.

We used their blocks to build this sweet block village.

And we also found these cool Ranger Rick magazines. She was intrigued by the animals on the covers.

We also swam at our local pools a few times.  The heat has been so crazy.


And we also played at the park with Violet's BFF Noa!