Our Last High Tea at The Isles

We visited The Isles for our very last High Tea a couple weeks ago, and it was a very sad day. The owner is retiring to Ireland, which is awesome for her, but super crappy for us. I probably sound like a weirdo, or at worst, a person who does not have their priorities straight because I'm devastated that a restaurant is closing, but really, this place has been a wonderful spot to relax and chat with friends, family, and enjoy cute surroundings, yummy goodies, and tea.

We've been patronizing The Isles for over three years and I can't count how many times I've gone, and the different number of people I've been with is over 20. I'm also very sad that I won't be able to take Evey there when she's old enough to appreciate it, although she has been four times, so that makes me feel a bit better. Anyway, I'm going to miss The Isles, and Tom, the awesome kilt-clad manager, and I'm going to mourn the future memories that we won't be able to make there.

On our way! And looking pretty cool doing it.

Minnie joined us, so that was a nice treat.

I don't think all guys would enjoy the high tea experience, but Chris was always game.

Cake and a bit of scone, that's all she ate.

I bought the rest of their bangers! We've already cooked up a package, but I gotta make sure I save some for my parents' XMas visit.

I'm a bit bummed after writing this post, but I hope you have a Bueltelful Day!

Memorial Day Weekend

This past Memorial Day weekend was magical, and it was magical because we took things slowly and didn't over book ourselves. We had picnics in the yard, played with water, had friends over for a BBQ, and managed to do the laundry and pack some things, but we didn't feel rushed or stressed. My goal is to have every day feel like this, although I know that some days are just going to be stressful, that's just how life goes, but at least I can aim for calm and simplicity.

Here's a sampling of our lovely weekend:

Twin mowers

She was so helpful that day

She's loving driving the car carts at Smith's now, which makes shopping easier for me!

Evey and Jane hanging out. It's so much fun to see them playing together now!

All kinds of cuddles

Have a Bueltelful Day!

Times, They Are A Changin...

Our impending move (we close in 8 days!) is definitely a huge change, and we're learning that when you move with a kid, even more changes need to be made. Evey started at her new daycare last week in Carson, which of course is a huge adjustment, especially since she'd been going to the one in Reno since she was 7 weeks old. She's adjusting pretty well, though, probably because the school is great, as are her teachers, so thanks to my friends for the recommendation! With this new school comes some adjustments for us as well, well, really, mostly for me:

• I've got to make her lunch! This might not sound like a big deal to many parents who's kids go to daycare, but her last school made lunch for the kids when they turned 1, and it was so wonderful! Evey's a picky eater, so it's always somewhat stressful making her meals. I've been putting in a multitude of foods she likes, sprinkled with veggies, which she never touches, but more exposure will help, right?

• I'm driving her to school now! Chris did the daycare drop off and pick up because he worked a minute away from daycare, but now her school is in my neck of the woods, so she's commuting with me until we move, and then we'll have a much shorter drive in the morning. I'm not a fan of driving our kid anywhere, I think I have PTSD from when she would scream her head off the entire time we drove anywhere when she was an infant, so I'm always on high alert. I prepare myself for the drive with snacks, water, music, and digital entertainment (oh yah, I succumb to the allure of Peg + Cat on the iPhone) for her. It makes for a much more peaceful drive.

I'm so excited to explore Carson with her and visit our new surroundings. She and I visited one of my favorite restaurants, LA Bakery (which is so dangerous, as it's within walking distance from my office) and we shared some cherry cheesecake. As you can see from the photo below, my kid does not know the proper method of eating cake, but whatever.

Who makes a crater in their cheesecake, honestly?

As excited as I am about moving, I'm going to miss being close to some things in Reno, like The Discovery, which we still plan on visiting, just probably not as often, and music class. I love music class, as does she, I'm just not sure if it's going to work anymore, but we'll see. I love that Miss Patti introduces them to so many instruments and songs. 

I'll keep you all up to date on the move and the trials and tribulations I'm sure we will go through during that time. 

Have a Bueltelful day! (A while ago I discussed coming up with a good bye phrase for wrapping up the blog, and that's what I'm going to use, darnit!)

Centering Group Wonderfulness

Our Centering Group is amazing. No, really, great people all around. If you don't know what centering is all about, check out this link: Centering Pregnancy It's an amazing model, and the 16 adults in our group make up a wildly diverse and wonderful mix of people who just happened to be pregnant at the same time and decided to go for group appointments with our midwives. We will all admit that it didn't seem very likely that we were going to become friends while we were pregnant; we just didn't talk very much and we didn't hang out after appointments. But man, after those babies came, we were clinging to each other like we were on a sinking ship! Cause, you know, being a new parent is rough.

Anyway, we started to get together every month and we have continued to do so, and our kids are now 2! We're all going camping next month and we're going to celebrate our kiddos birthdays as a group at the same time and it's going to be crazy awesome!

One of our last get-togethers was at The Discovery:

We're so grateful for our group and all of the support we've gotten from them!

Carson City House Update

We are moving in two weeks!! Ahhh! Everything is going extremely well paperwork, money, and inspection-wise, so yay! This experience has been mostly painless for us, thank goodness because it seemed so daunting from the start. But really, the hardest part is going to be moving into and renovating a house with a two year old;) My goal is to get a lot done during our five day rent back of the Reno house when she's at daycare, but we'll see how that actually works out.

Life at the moment is a bit crazy, understandably, but honestly, it could be nuttier. I've been packing for a while, so I don't feel crazy pressure there, I'm really only worried about transporting Chris' torn apart El Camino and parts...it'll happen and there's so use in worrying about it, I know this! 

But in the midst of packing and cleaning, we've been able to enjoy the lovely weather as a family by having picnics in the yard, playing with water, and just hanging out without any plans, which is a lovely thing and something I hope we are able to enjoy more often with our impending move to a smaller place. In that vein, I've now got a plethora of photos to share!

Evey wearing a backwards pirate hat and saying "Arrrr"!

Fixing a pipe with Dad

Playing with her new water table. This thing has gotten so much use from her and all the neighbor kidlets

Eating a giant chocolate chip cookie and shopping for books is always a fun time

We hosted a small birthday gathering for our buddy Chris the week after Evey's party

Evey "writing" her thank you notes

We donated some old towels to the Humane Society, so Evey and I visited the cats and dogs. We was quite excited, and she was constantly saying "kitty"! She's also rather bossy when it comes to animals (and her parents, actually) and she told the kitties who were lounging on shelves to get down and told the noisy dogs "no! shhh!"

Minnie needed a diaper change

This photo is awesome for multiple reasons: She stuck the stickers to both of their heads and then puts her hands on Achilles and says "cheese!", so obviously, I had to take a photo

She loves her playdough, and we love how the play dough occupies her time

Mother's Day 2016

This Mother's Day was a mostly relaxing day...we were still cleaning up after Evey's party from the day before, but nothing too crazy. Chris made a card for me from Evey that had a picture of she and I that we can color together. Daycare made a cute hand print "flower" picture, which is now hanging up at work. We went to breakfast at Squeeze In and I had an awesome mimosa, because mom's day, and the restaurant staff gave all of the moms a corsage, so sweet!







After breakfast we hung around and played with some of Evey's new birthday toys. For dinner, we went to Starbucks and then met Jen at Firkin and Fox in Carson, where I enjoyed some lovely bangers and mash!

It was a very nice and relaxing mom's day!

We're Moving!

So we're moving to Carson City, you know, a whole half an hour away from where we currently live. We'd been looking at houses in Reno for almost a year and a lot of things were overpriced and if we did find something we liked that was decently priced, it had a million offers on it and we had no chance of getting the house. It was discouraging, and we decided to put a stop to our search.

But we really wanted to simplify life and ditch our 2070 square foot house which sucked away our time and money. We needed something smaller that would be easier to clean so that we would have more time for important things, like spending time with each other, other family, friends, and travel. And we really focused on the family part and decided we wanted to be closer in proximity to the McLaughlins. So we started looking in south Carson and found something very quickly!

Our new home is 1089 square feet and has large front and back yards. It's got an open layout, which is what we wanted, and, I believe, necessary in a smaller house so that it doesn't feel as small. We're going to change out the cabinets in the kitchen as well as get all new flooring; these projects will be a pain, but we can handle it!

We just received an offer on our current house yesterday and the close of escrow is at the end of June, so we've got mounds of paperwork in our future and more packing. I hope that the offer doesn't fall through, I'm so ready to start this new adventure.