Super fun weekend!

This weekend was jam-packed full o’ fun. I will try to keep this relatively short, but it’s not gonna be easy.

Friday night: Prom

I went to a party at the pub for our friends Heather and Neil (their birthdays are close to each other so they share a party.) The theme was “A Night at the Proms,” which most people took to mean “high school prom” but the upshot was, everyone was dressed fancy.

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I mean everyone.

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I was able to tailor my thrift store dress with mostly safety pins, and between that and every piece of sparkly costume jewelry I owned, I think I acquitted myself nicely.

  Tee and me and a metric ton of rhinestones.

And thanks to the slit, I was able to ride my bike to the pub and back home.

Saturday: The Fourth of July

The boys had been looking forward to the fourth for a while. I’m not entirely sure why. The fireworks, I guess.

We went to a friend’s house. Teresa and I made the watermelon jello shots, which were a huge hit. The kids were all sad they couldn’t have any, so we told them we’d make them a non-alcoholic version for the next party.

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I bought sparklers for the kids (as you saw in the monthly pic) so they had fun with those. Mostly. Until Ethan touched the hot part of his after it had gone out and burned his finger. Later, I burned my thumb badly lighting them. So now I think sparklers are evil.

It was a long day, and there were tears at the end of it, but overall, it was a great fourth.

I’ll save Sunday’s fun for the next post…

DVD cases, an obsession

A post my coworker Rachel wrote about her daughter carrying around a lemon with a face reminded me of when the boys were two and carried around DVD cases everywhere. They even slept with them. (In my memory, they called them “doobie-doo cases” but that might have just been Ren, actually.)

In retrospect, it was pretty cute, but it was maddening at times, for sure.

Chickpeas, jello, Wendell Pierce, and other random things

Got these chickpea snacks from Costco. They’re tasty, for sure. But the main thing is, the boys tried them, claimed they liked them, and Oliver (Oliver!) even asked to bring them to camp as his afternoon snack.

We got the sea salt ones, but I’m intrigued by the Thai coconut ones. May have to look for those…

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The state of my Achilles’ tendon:

It hurts.

Back in May, I went to the orthopedist and he prescribed physical therapy. I spent a lot of money on half a dozen sessions, and then we went on our trip to England. My ankle wasn’t really improving. To be honest, the only thing that helps are prescription anti-inflammatories, that my primary care doctor gave me for my back. I’ve also been icing and doing the stretches and exercises I learned in PT, but let’s face it. I’m not great about doing them all twice a day like I’m supposed to.

For now, I’m going to keep icing and stretching and taking anti-inflammatories. I’m also going to start doing yoga with the girls in the neighborhood soon. I am so inflexible, it’s insane. (Only physically, of course.) So hopefully that will help.

I am signed up for the Rocketchix triathlon later this month. I’ll just walk the run bit. Meh.

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Last weekend, Teresa and I went to a play. That was pretty fun. I haven’t been to many plays, but this was one thoroughly engrossing. It starred Wendell Pierce, which was pretty cool. We got to go to the afterparty with the actors and crew, but we didn’t stick around too long. I kind of wanted to tell him hi since he did a voiceover for a movie my brother made, but it was getting late.

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Saturday is the 4th of July and the boys are excited to see fireworks. I am excited to make watermelon Jello shots.

However, I may not be feeling up to eating said Jello shots since Friday night is a birthday party for some friends. I got a fancy beaded gown at the thrift store for $13. Only problem is, it’s about 13 sizes too big.

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Teresa helped me pin it and I’m going to take it in so it fits a bit better. It doesn’t really matter if I do a terrible sewing job. It was $13.

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The boys had a friend over yesterday after camp. They made mini-pizzas and all pretended to looove pizza sauce since Silas does. Peer pressure is great. Of course, once it came down to eating the pizza, Oliver was not thrilled with his choice to slather it with sauce. Oh well, kid.

Okay, I think that’s about it for now.

Puppies and kittens 

We went to a birthday party at the SPCA yesterday. I was not optimistic about how the boys would do, considering they’re generally pretty terrified of dogs. But I was super happy about how they did. They got to give treats to dogs, they played with a kitten, and petted a couple of puppies. Not a tear in sight!

Automattic Celebrates Double Digits

Automattic turned ten!

Zandy's avatarRevelry Reverie

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I remember as a kid, the biggest deal was turning ten. We made a big fuss out of turning double digits. I remember being a little alarmed that while I would definitely eventually turn 10, I would not necessarily make it to triple digits (no one I knew had).

Automattic has turned 10, and it’s sort of an amazing thing. Matt writes a really lovely post here about it. Donncha, employee #1!, posted briefly here about his leap into the unknown (keep an eye on Donncha’s blog for gorgeous photos, by the way).

I have only been with Automattic for two and a half years, and it feels like a blink of an eye. WordPress has a mission to democratize publishing, and that is truly a powerful thing. It can sound sort of like a nickel slogan, but you have to realize: we mean it. We want to make it…

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Painting Skylanders

The boys are all into Skylanders, and also, strangely, YouTube videos where people paint the figurines.

I made a deal with Linus – for every two chapters of a book he read, I’d buy him a jar of paint so he could paint some of the duplicate figurines they had.

Yesterday, he earned three tiny jars of Testors paint, which he used to recolor Food Fight, an artichoke-shaped fella.

Just reminded me of the jars of Testors that my brother used to have. I don’t remember what he used them for. Rockets? Tiny movie sets? Hmm.

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Can you tell which is the before and which is the after? Ha ha ha!

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Laaaazy river

Last weekend, the boys and I met his friend Diego and his mom and baby sister at the Cool Zoo at the Audubon Zoo. I was reluctant to go because of the cost, but it ended up being a ton of fun and I’d say we got our money’s worth.

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There were bridges going over the river, water features, and it went right by this exhibit. Hey peacock!

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Floating selfie!

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Best buds.

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Love those smiles!

Friday five

1. I got the boys new water bottles, and boy, are they excited about them.

You can get some too, from JLD Designs2. Super reasonable price.

2. Shhh, don’t tell, but I’m taking the boys to see Inside Out after camp today. They’re kinda obsessed with it. I like to think because it looks like an intelligent film, but really it’s because they want the Disney Infinity 3.0 game and the characters are in that set. Or something like that.

3. I’m going to BlogHer in NYC next month! I’m so excited. I’ll be working at the WordPress.com booth, so if you’re going, be sure to stop by!

Dangit, why did I start this post with a title? I don’t have two more interesting things to say. Let’s see.

Oh yeah, this is cute:

4. There was a display for the new Peanuts movie. Linus was happy.

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5. Got a meal box from Blue Apron yesterday, cooked the first meal for George and I. While I appreciated that the mashed potatoes included a little bottle of heavy cream, I still think I prefer Hello Fresh. We’ll see how the next two meals go. (PS Use the code R7KT4K with HelloFresh and get $40 off your first box. Full disclosure, that would give me $20 off a box for me as well.)

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Meanwhile, back in the USA

While George and I were off gallivanting across Merry Olde England, the boys were spending plenty of Quality Time with their maternal grandparents.

I don’t know everything they did, but here’s what I do know:

They took a yo-yo class:

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They went to the beach, where they swam in a pool:

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They visited a naval museum:

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And ate the kinds of food only a grandparent can guiltlessly provide:

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I know they went fishing and walked on the beach but I don’t have photos for those. I know they had a great time.

I also know, poor things, didn’t have enough clothes and were apparently dressed like orphans because their terrible mama doesn’t know how to pack a suitcase. Apparently. I don’t know how they all survived. I really need to up my organization game.

I also assume an Oreo commercial is in the pipeline. Nabisco! Gimme a call!