San Antonio Whirlwind Weekend

This past weekend we took a trip to San Antonio. We crammed a lot into three days! We saw grandparents, great grandparents, aunts & uncles, friends from college and friends from Cove! Thursday we started with a visit to Mimi & Papa's house and dinner with Grandma Julie (no pictures, sorry.) This is the only picture I did snap that day: My stubborn toddler who refused to swallow his last bite of lunch. He was so tired he fell asleep in the car with a mouth full of slobbery cheeseburger. Bleh!

Friday we got up early and met our friends from Cove who were in town on their own. We played at Hemisfair Park and went to lunch at EZ's. Hemisfair was so fun until hoards of school children descended upon us. Poor Colin was wearing a cute blue polo shirt but as the playground filled up he became impossible to spot because all of them had on matching t-shirts that were the same shade of blue. For her sanity and his safety, Laura took his polo off and had him run around in his under shirt. (If you can't tell from the pictures Connor just adores Ryan who is 5. He loves to play with Colin who is just a bit older but he adores Ryan.)

No Dad, I don't want to stop playing to take a nap.

And on Saturday my sweet friend Hannah got married! It was a beautiful spring wedding.

Check out those adorable little yellow ballet flats!

Hannah, Elizabeth & I were roommates in college and when I moved out, Bonnie moved in. I had a great time reconnecting with old friends & learning all about life as moms now.

By the way, Cameron did go on this trip. I am a terrible mother who somehow only photographed one child. Ugh, guilt.

For more pictures from the playground check out Laura's blog.

My Handy Man at Work

Matt and I are not the handiest of people but recently have had a bug to try more adventurous projects. He started with adding and expanding the shelves in our pantry - which I LOVE! And most recently had the idea to build a sandbox. We sketched our plans, googled some tutorials and headed to Lowe's. Here's how it turned out...

Mr. Mike came to our rescue with his very capable tools & knowledge.

As I've said before, if tools are involved, so is Connor.

Juice Break

End of Day 1 (we couldn't get the lattice roof in the van with both the boys seats up.)

We couldn't stand to have an empty sandbox so we got 2 bags at the local hardware store until we could figure out having it delivered in bulk.

It was apparently a little "bwight" for Connor's liking. Nothing a good hat and some shades can't fix!

The BIG delivery!

We told Connor to touch it...

After about 8 trips with the wheelbarrow, it was FULL! (Matt actually took about half a wheelbarrow full out today.)

The final product!

Connor-ism of the day

At breakfast this morning:
Me: Connor, we have 3 meals everyday. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Matt: Which meal is this, Connor?
Connor: Oatmeal!

Teekoll

Sorry for the wobbly start I was running to catch my sweet boys tickling each other and wrestling this morning.

Super Easy Stir Fry

I am a big fan of all Chinese food. I am not however an all star chef. This is how I make stir fry for my growing family.

Ingredients: (Sorry, no pictures)

2 bags Minute Rice (I use brown rice)

1 bag Steamfresh Stir Fry veggies (carrots, broccoli, snap peas, baby corn)

2 eggs

2 chicken breasts

1/4 C(ish) diced onion

2 Tbsp butter (or more, just eyeball it!)

1 tsp minced garlic

soy sauce

Cook rice & set aside. Cut chicken into small bite sized pieces and set aside. Scramble eggs and set aside. In a large skillet melt about 1 T butter. Add onion and allow to clarify. Add garlic, remaining butter and then chicken. Allow chicken to cook through. While cooking chicken follow the microwave directions on the veggie bag. Once veggies and chicken are cooked, mix rice, eggs and veggies into the skillet. Add soy sauce and stir continuously until it looks ready to eat.

Cabinet Refinishing

Since we bought our house we have disliked the finish on our cabinets. After seeing how easily some friends re-stained theirs we mustered the courage to do ours. We started with the smallest ones, our hall bathroom. Here's the evidence:

Sorry I didn't get any before pictures.First Matt removed all the doors and hardware. Then we lightly sanded everything to create a rough surface.

If tools are involved, you better believe Connor is right there in the mix!

And if Big Brother is doing it, by golly so is Cameron.

Then I wiped off all the dust.

Next I painted on the first coat of stain and let it completely dry.

The instructions said to use a fine grade steel wool and lightly rough up the first coat. Then I wiped off the dust again and allowed it to dry. Last I painted on the final coat and allowed to dry for several hours.

Some re-assembling was required.

And the final product...