Cadillaaaaaac Dinner

So! Each year, Isobel and Jude's school holds a big fundraising dinner and auction. This year I co-chaired the auction part with my friend Dani. We worked hard and learned a lot. Here are some of the things I learned:

• I'm not really a great leader, but I CAN follow directions
  
• I know nothing about planning events
• Local businesses here in Greensboro are very kind and generous in their support of B'nai Shalom
• Brooke is GREAT at getting out there and talking to people and asking for things. (I already knew this, but I was reminded.)
• I miss my kids when I'm away from them a lot.
  

But you know what? The dinner itself was really fun and successful. I loved seeing so many of my fellow mom friends lookin' fancy! I took advantage of the opportunity to buy a new dress (which I'll also get to wear to Brooke's cousin's wedding in April) and get a professional updo for the first time ever! Unfortunately Brooke was out of state for a food show; it would have been more fun if he had been there for the culmination, especially since he helped so much with all the preparation. Next year I hope we'll be able to attend together.

Don't you love that fabulous pin curl? (Thanks again, Hayley!)

Of course I can't write an entire post without mentioning and presenting photos of my children, so here are some recent favorites:



















See? They're still cute. Here are some tidbits about them: Jude has skipped his nap for three days in a row now. I'm starting to worry that the end is near for my long, quiet afternoons. :( On a happier note, Isobel can write her name! She puts a smiley face in the "O" every time, which I think makes her name an adorably accurate representation of her happy, sweet personality.
After watching videos of my niece, Amélie, I realized that it's been ages since I took a video of Jude. So a couple of nights ago I took this one of him and Stella. Enjoy!

Old Salem with the Little Guys

Remember when I mentioned Old Salem before? Well, recently Jude and I had a little playdate there with Amanda, a friend who has the hookups (a membership) and her little boy, Kingston. This was my first time getting to go in the buildings and see demonstrations of Moravian life. It was awesome!

I love old stuff.

Jude's Room

About six months ago I posted about Isobel's room. Then I wasted a whole bunch of time feeling guilty about Jude's, since I hadn't really put any effort into making it look like it belongs to him. I had lots of grand ideas: painting the dresser, painting the wall behind the dresser, a painted shelf to display Jude's name block...

None of those things happened.


But since we're hoping to buy a house sometime within the next year or so, I'm just going to leave Jude's room as is and call it good enough. We did hang a few pictures, and it already has a great color on the walls. Jude's is the smallest room by far, but it's my favorite (even though it always smells like diapers) because it gets the most natural light.


So anyway, here's the biggest project that happened in Jude's room: I painted three lowly Ikea spice racks to match a baby gift from Nicole that I wanted to use as the basis for the room's color scheme.

Here they are before books...

And after!

They were really easy and quick to paint and put together. My only complaint is that they aren't very sturdily attached to the wall (I just used nails because I stink at hardware-type things) and if anybody hangs on them they're going to come a-tumblin' down. They've been up for a week, though, with no unfortunate incidents. So maybe it won't be a problem. (Knock on wood.)
Here are a few more views of the room:

I love love love those yellow walls! How do you like the smears of white and blue paint? They're left over from when we painted Isobel's furniture in this room. Maybe it's because I'm used to looking at them or because I know I'm too lazy to do anything about them, but I kind of like the way they look against the yellow.
The prints above Jude's bed are from this awesome etsy shop, Collage-O-Rama. And the cars lined up on his dresser are automoblox: toy cars that are aesthetically pleasing enough that they deserve to be displayed.

Bathtub Rave!

Glowsticks in the bath, people! It's the simple things that end up being the most successful, amirite?

Christmasy happenings

This year we stayed here in Greensboro until Christmas day, when we drove up to Pennsylvania to spend the holiday week with Brooke's family. We did the same thing two years ago (before Jude was born) and I really think it is the ideal way to spend the holidays. Of course I miss my own family this time of year; we alternate, so we were in Colorado in 2010 and we'll be there again for Xmas 2012. But I love discovering new things to do around here, and I like having Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in our own home.

Here's one really cool thing: Christmas Eve LoveFeast at Home Moravian Church in Old Salem. It was a beautiful service, with a brass ensemble playing prelude music, coffee and delicious orange and nutmeg rolls for everyone, lots and lots of carols, and colonial-style hand-dipped candles. Isobel felt pretty grown up holding that candle.

Another cool new thing was visiting Burlington City Park with our friends! The carousel, train, visits with Santa and hot chocolate were all free for one special night.
We were also lucky to have Brooke's sister, Allison, come down to spend a few days and then drive up to PA with us. Having a guest made those days leading up to Christmas extra exciting. Here we are in Old Salem after the service:
We made the Greensboro-Carlisle drive in five and half hours (including one stop), which is the fastest it's ever been! Brooke's parents' house is especially homey during the holidays, with lots of little people running around and, on colder days, a fire in the hearth.
Don't worry! I didn't forget about the obligatory photos of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. In fact, we had two fairly unsuccessful photo shoots: one in front of our tree, and one in front of the Shifflers'. Here's what I got:



I always seem to have a terrible time getting good photos in front of the tree. They're either blurry with no flash or washed out with the flash. Anybody have a tip or solution for next year? Or am I just going to have to wait until my kids get old enough to hold still?










We've done a few cool project-type things lately, so stay tuned for another post sometime soon!