No, we haven't changed our minds on moving houses but we are moving blogs. Our site limit filled up here last week (hence the silence) and we decided to move over to Wordpress for better service and products. It also took us a few days to come up with a new name for the blog since soon the adventures will be for more than just Lilli!
The new site is: adventuresoftwomonkeys.wordpress.com, so update your feeds!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Going Greek
Last weekend (Sept 9th) was so nice and fall-like. After we got home from church and were putting the groceries away Lilli said "It's a beautiful day for a bike ride and to feed the ducks." HA! It's hard to argue with that reasoning! Brent had also bought this new "GoCam" video camera thing he was itching to try out. So he strapped it to her helmet and off they went, with high def footage of his back and Lilli's chatter.
You really can't beat all the geese/ducks at Shelby Park. I loaded her up with our odds and ends of leftover bread and some old popcorn and they quickly gobbled it up.
I'd personally be happier if there were a few less, but until they attack it's the best place to feed ducks locally!
We also went to the Greek Festival that day. It's one of our favorite festivals around town and we had a lot of fun last year. It's free to get in and everything is so affordable (including the amazing food.) It's not too crowded to be enjoyable and the Kids area has a lot of variety. I think we spent a total of less than $30 for dinner for all 3 of us and lots of activities in the Kids zone.
They have a great petting zoo - it cracked us up that they brought the exact animals from last year. You can pet and play as long as you like. Lilli could probably stay in there forever.
Lots of wonderful authentic Greek music and dancing. Last year Lilli got out there and tore the floor up with her mad breakdancing skills, but at 3.75 she's a lot more reserved than at 2.75 years old.
The playground of the church - swings, slides and all kinds of fun things to do.
We even let her do the pony ride and she was in heaven!!
Her favorite thing of the night (according to her) was the $1 jumpie. I would've thought it would be the pony ride but she does love to jump!
My favorite part is hands down the food!! We had delicious gyros (cheese pizza for Lilli) and then she got a $1 snowcone while we split some yummy Greek pastries drizzled in honey and powdered sugar. SO good!!
Can't wait to go back next year as a family of 4!
You really can't beat all the geese/ducks at Shelby Park. I loaded her up with our odds and ends of leftover bread and some old popcorn and they quickly gobbled it up.
I'd personally be happier if there were a few less, but until they attack it's the best place to feed ducks locally!
We also went to the Greek Festival that day. It's one of our favorite festivals around town and we had a lot of fun last year. It's free to get in and everything is so affordable (including the amazing food.) It's not too crowded to be enjoyable and the Kids area has a lot of variety. I think we spent a total of less than $30 for dinner for all 3 of us and lots of activities in the Kids zone.
They have a great petting zoo - it cracked us up that they brought the exact animals from last year. You can pet and play as long as you like. Lilli could probably stay in there forever.
Lots of wonderful authentic Greek music and dancing. Last year Lilli got out there and tore the floor up with her mad breakdancing skills, but at 3.75 she's a lot more reserved than at 2.75 years old.
The playground of the church - swings, slides and all kinds of fun things to do.
We even let her do the pony ride and she was in heaven!!
Her favorite thing of the night (according to her) was the $1 jumpie. I would've thought it would be the pony ride but she does love to jump!
My favorite part is hands down the food!! We had delicious gyros (cheese pizza for Lilli) and then she got a $1 snowcone while we split some yummy Greek pastries drizzled in honey and powdered sugar. SO good!!
Can't wait to go back next year as a family of 4!Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Fun with Friends
Last weekend was mostly a pretty fun weekend. Except for this:
Friday morning when I left for work I couldn't get my car to shift out of Park. Since shifting out of Park is pretty key to driving I had a rather large problem. I leave a few minutes before Brent, and he came out and tried, but the dumb shifter wouldn't move and a quick visit to Google revealed it was likely a little plastic piece in there had broken causing it to no longer be able to move. He gave me a lift to and from work (not a big deal since Lilli's daycare is two blocks from my office) and then spent a good part of Saturday (off and on) fixing it himself. A few handy tips off the Internet and some common sense smarts on cars saved us approximately $700 in car shop repairs and literally cost us zero dollars. Of course we would have rather spent Saturday doing fun things instead!!
We had a rainy, dreary morning so Lilli and I stayed pretty pajama clad and made a Mexican Chocolate Cake to take over to Adam and Julia's new house for dinner that night. It's one of my favorite cakes to make (and eat!) It's the traditional "old-timey" chocolate cake with hit of cayenne pepper and Cinnamon to make it spicy. Miraculously it turned out good even though I ended up having to make my own buttermilk, was a little short on flour, and I'm not entirely sure how much extra sugar ended up in the cake courtesy of my assistant. Her finishing touch was being allowed to put some of her princess sprinkles on one small end of the cake.
Lilli was super excited to see her little buddy Ella Kate "Roses". It's hard to believe how much she's grown since they first met!! I think she always likes to think of her as being "little", but I explained to her over the last couple of months since they've gotten to hang out that she's a lot bigger and can run now and Lilli was excited that she could play with toys now. HA!
The girls had a great time running around and playing and of course the adults had a great dinner and a lot of fun catching up and checking out their new house!! It really makes me want something new, too!!
Of course posing for a picture together went about as well as it always does - which is not good!!
Still cute pictures to accumulate for their big graduation albums one day, ha!!!
Friday morning when I left for work I couldn't get my car to shift out of Park. Since shifting out of Park is pretty key to driving I had a rather large problem. I leave a few minutes before Brent, and he came out and tried, but the dumb shifter wouldn't move and a quick visit to Google revealed it was likely a little plastic piece in there had broken causing it to no longer be able to move. He gave me a lift to and from work (not a big deal since Lilli's daycare is two blocks from my office) and then spent a good part of Saturday (off and on) fixing it himself. A few handy tips off the Internet and some common sense smarts on cars saved us approximately $700 in car shop repairs and literally cost us zero dollars. Of course we would have rather spent Saturday doing fun things instead!!We had a rainy, dreary morning so Lilli and I stayed pretty pajama clad and made a Mexican Chocolate Cake to take over to Adam and Julia's new house for dinner that night. It's one of my favorite cakes to make (and eat!) It's the traditional "old-timey" chocolate cake with hit of cayenne pepper and Cinnamon to make it spicy. Miraculously it turned out good even though I ended up having to make my own buttermilk, was a little short on flour, and I'm not entirely sure how much extra sugar ended up in the cake courtesy of my assistant. Her finishing touch was being allowed to put some of her princess sprinkles on one small end of the cake.
Lilli was super excited to see her little buddy Ella Kate "Roses". It's hard to believe how much she's grown since they first met!! I think she always likes to think of her as being "little", but I explained to her over the last couple of months since they've gotten to hang out that she's a lot bigger and can run now and Lilli was excited that she could play with toys now. HA!
The girls had a great time running around and playing and of course the adults had a great dinner and a lot of fun catching up and checking out their new house!! It really makes me want something new, too!!
Of course posing for a picture together went about as well as it always does - which is not good!!
Still cute pictures to accumulate for their big graduation albums one day, ha!!!Monday, September 10, 2012
Labor Day Monday
Labor Day Monday was a wet, rainy, yucky kind of day in Nashville. The remnants of Hurricane Isaac had been around all weekend and it was just one of those weekends where the sun was really never going to come out. After sleeping in a bit we decided to have a "Science Day" Monday and do something a little different on the rainy extra day of our weekend.
I had pinned several Science-y things on Pinterest so we followed several of those and she was having so much fun with it we did a few other things. Our first experiment was a "Dancing Raisins" experiment where you have raisins in one water bottle with just water and pour Sprite in another. The one with Sprite will make them "dance" as the carbonation moves the raisins up and down.
Our second experiment was with balloons, vinegar and baking soda. You fill a bottle about 1/3 full with vinegar and then fill the balloon half full with baking soda.
The "tongue of concentration". Cracks me up every time!
Next, you put the balloon on the bottle and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar to create the chemical reaction and blow up the balloon. Brent got us all worried the whole thing was going to explode and pop in our face so he had us run off to the corner.
Maybe if you put a ton of baking soda it will explode, but ours certainly didn't. 
Even though Brent about scared her half to death she wanted to try it again, so I made Mr Over-reaction be the Science Helper. These experiments were great because they were easy enough she could do all the measuring herself. Pippin was super interested in everything. (not).
The balloon blew up to a nice size and we tied this one off and let her play with it. All of the chemicals/gases in it made it a slightly heavier balloon to play with, so that was fun, too. I didn't have much vinegar on-hand, so we were only able to do it twice, but I picked up some more this week at the store because I know she'll want to do this one a few more times as well as some other chemical reaction experiments I found involving vinegar.
We also did some simple "make your own lava lamp" type experiments. All you need is water, oil, salt, and food coloring. She always picked dark colors that made it hard to see the "lava", but had fun anyway mixing the ingredients and trying different colors.
Dropping the salt in creates the "lava" from the oil becoming heavier and mixing with the water.
Lilli had fun playing dress up in some of the new dress up clothes from her cousin Madison.
During a brief break in the rain Brent was able to take her on a trike ride over to see the firetruck. 
The firemen have put some new hanging rings in the tree outside the fire station. The little gymnast just had to try it out!
Home Sweet Home!
We had a great Labor Day weekend, despite the rain, and are planning to make "science" a more regular part of our down-time activities!
I had pinned several Science-y things on Pinterest so we followed several of those and she was having so much fun with it we did a few other things. Our first experiment was a "Dancing Raisins" experiment where you have raisins in one water bottle with just water and pour Sprite in another. The one with Sprite will make them "dance" as the carbonation moves the raisins up and down.
Our second experiment was with balloons, vinegar and baking soda. You fill a bottle about 1/3 full with vinegar and then fill the balloon half full with baking soda.
The "tongue of concentration". Cracks me up every time!
Next, you put the balloon on the bottle and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar to create the chemical reaction and blow up the balloon. Brent got us all worried the whole thing was going to explode and pop in our face so he had us run off to the corner.
Maybe if you put a ton of baking soda it will explode, but ours certainly didn't. 
Even though Brent about scared her half to death she wanted to try it again, so I made Mr Over-reaction be the Science Helper. These experiments were great because they were easy enough she could do all the measuring herself. Pippin was super interested in everything. (not).
The balloon blew up to a nice size and we tied this one off and let her play with it. All of the chemicals/gases in it made it a slightly heavier balloon to play with, so that was fun, too. I didn't have much vinegar on-hand, so we were only able to do it twice, but I picked up some more this week at the store because I know she'll want to do this one a few more times as well as some other chemical reaction experiments I found involving vinegar.
We also did some simple "make your own lava lamp" type experiments. All you need is water, oil, salt, and food coloring. She always picked dark colors that made it hard to see the "lava", but had fun anyway mixing the ingredients and trying different colors.
Dropping the salt in creates the "lava" from the oil becoming heavier and mixing with the water.
Lilli had fun playing dress up in some of the new dress up clothes from her cousin Madison.
During a brief break in the rain Brent was able to take her on a trike ride over to see the firetruck. 
The firemen have put some new hanging rings in the tree outside the fire station. The little gymnast just had to try it out!
Home Sweet Home!
We had a great Labor Day weekend, despite the rain, and are planning to make "science" a more regular part of our down-time activities!Sunday, September 9, 2012
Labor Day Weekend
We had a really nice Labor Day weekend. Nice and low key, and restful for us all. Exactly what we were needing.
That Friday night we went out to Opry Mills mall for dinner and to do a little shopping. We go there quite a bit now since they have a nice Motherhood store I can pick up some new items every few weeks in. My work dress code changed from being dressy (no jeans, ever) to being able to wear jeans every day, so a lot of my maternity clothes with Lilli are just a little dressier than what I prefer wearing now that we're more casual. And styles have changed so I've picked up several new things along the way. Of course Lilli only had one store on her mind - Disney:
She ended up with her "one" choice being a new Merida and Angus toy. They get you on the "value" of getting two of something. I was able to get some summer stuff on a great clearance for her for next year, and I snuck a Cinderella backpack (also a big clearance deal) into my bag to "surprise" her with for our trip to Disney coming up soon.
That Saturday morning we did a little yardwork before the rain moved in for the rest of the weekend. Brent got shrubs trimmed all around the house and we finally dug up our potatoes. 
All I can say about that is that our container (spray painted tires) was the cutest part of the whole thing. They were so tiny. I don't remember what I planted, so maybe that's all we should have expected.
Sunday was really rainy, off an on. As usual we had to pluck Lilli out of someone else's car before going home.
That afternoon she wanted to look at baby pictures and movies of herself, so we showed her a lot of her first days which she found hilarious. She absolutely loves watching video of herself, luckily we have about a million hours worth of footage!
I wasn't feeling great that day and ended up taking a 4 hour nap!! I'm not sure if it was pregnancy junk or some sort of stomach junk but I felt awful - but the nap REALLY helped!!!
More Labor Day weekend tomorrow!
That Friday night we went out to Opry Mills mall for dinner and to do a little shopping. We go there quite a bit now since they have a nice Motherhood store I can pick up some new items every few weeks in. My work dress code changed from being dressy (no jeans, ever) to being able to wear jeans every day, so a lot of my maternity clothes with Lilli are just a little dressier than what I prefer wearing now that we're more casual. And styles have changed so I've picked up several new things along the way. Of course Lilli only had one store on her mind - Disney:
She ended up with her "one" choice being a new Merida and Angus toy. They get you on the "value" of getting two of something. I was able to get some summer stuff on a great clearance for her for next year, and I snuck a Cinderella backpack (also a big clearance deal) into my bag to "surprise" her with for our trip to Disney coming up soon. 
That Saturday morning we did a little yardwork before the rain moved in for the rest of the weekend. Brent got shrubs trimmed all around the house and we finally dug up our potatoes. 
All I can say about that is that our container (spray painted tires) was the cutest part of the whole thing. They were so tiny. I don't remember what I planted, so maybe that's all we should have expected.
Sunday was really rainy, off an on. As usual we had to pluck Lilli out of someone else's car before going home.
That afternoon she wanted to look at baby pictures and movies of herself, so we showed her a lot of her first days which she found hilarious. She absolutely loves watching video of herself, luckily we have about a million hours worth of footage!
I wasn't feeling great that day and ended up taking a 4 hour nap!! I'm not sure if it was pregnancy junk or some sort of stomach junk but I felt awful - but the nap REALLY helped!!!More Labor Day weekend tomorrow!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The rest of the pics...
Brent took several other great pics yesterday for the big "gender announcement". Of course it would have been nice if he had been in one or two, but it was blazing hot, we were pouring sweat, tired, and Lilli just wanted to go see the ducks. But we did get several sweet ones of her and I.
This was when she was chanting "No boys, No boys, only girlies! And Daddy." I think she's pretty happy with an all girlie household.
We did our maternity pictures here a few years ago, in the fall. Hard to believe this little secret spot is less than a mile from downtown and the Titans stadium, huh?
The pink balloons turned out so cute! It's pretty much mandatory to come out with some clever way to announce gender these days. If I see one more picture on blogs or Pinterest of people opening a giant box with balloons flying out I'm pretty sure I'll gag. We just keep it simple with a pretty setting and pink balloons. And a cute 3 year old helped!!
She does not have a head injury. She bumped into our table Sunday night and needed a Band-Aid. There's no bump, cut, or bruise there. This is just one that helps her feel better emotionally and even though she's had multiple baths it's still on there.
Throwing pink confetti and shouting Sister....
We had no clue, but there's a helium shortage. Normally we have a small tank and make as many balloons as we want, but everyone is out of the tanks, and Party City isn't even taking pre-orders for balloons because they're not even sure when they'll have helium and when they won't. Our person on Wednesday told us that even at these GOP/DEM national conventions they've been using regular balloons instead of helium in all the displays! Now how has that not made the national news???
I'll try and get some actual baby ultrasound pictures scanned in over the weekend. I can already tell this little girl looks different from her big sister. Lilli already had my more pronounced lips in her ultrasound at this stage, and this baby has a profile all her own. I'm sure this is just the first of many differences between the two!
This was when she was chanting "No boys, No boys, only girlies! And Daddy." I think she's pretty happy with an all girlie household.
We did our maternity pictures here a few years ago, in the fall. Hard to believe this little secret spot is less than a mile from downtown and the Titans stadium, huh?
The pink balloons turned out so cute! It's pretty much mandatory to come out with some clever way to announce gender these days. If I see one more picture on blogs or Pinterest of people opening a giant box with balloons flying out I'm pretty sure I'll gag. We just keep it simple with a pretty setting and pink balloons. And a cute 3 year old helped!!
She does not have a head injury. She bumped into our table Sunday night and needed a Band-Aid. There's no bump, cut, or bruise there. This is just one that helps her feel better emotionally and even though she's had multiple baths it's still on there.
Throwing pink confetti and shouting Sister....
We had no clue, but there's a helium shortage. Normally we have a small tank and make as many balloons as we want, but everyone is out of the tanks, and Party City isn't even taking pre-orders for balloons because they're not even sure when they'll have helium and when they won't. Our person on Wednesday told us that even at these GOP/DEM national conventions they've been using regular balloons instead of helium in all the displays! Now how has that not made the national news???
I'll try and get some actual baby ultrasound pictures scanned in over the weekend. I can already tell this little girl looks different from her big sister. Lilli already had my more pronounced lips in her ultrasound at this stage, and this baby has a profile all her own. I'm sure this is just the first of many differences between the two!Wednesday, September 5, 2012
And the winner is.....
We are thrilled to announce a little more Pink will be joining our house in mid-January!! Lilli is thrilled to know (for sure) she's having a little sister since she's already been telling people for months that's what "she" was having. Whew!! Let the purchasing of matching outfits begin!Monday, September 3, 2012
Summer Living....
Pics from August 18th - 20th - getting close now!!
Brent is sooo close to being done with the new front fence. The ridiculous weather this summer has been the biggest hindrance. From the building phase where it was literally 110 degrees outside and wood was warping instantly, to the on and off rain since early July making it impossible to have dry wood to work with, this has been the never-ending project. On this particular Saturday morning, he got a nice start with the final coat of paint while Lilli and I went off on a nature walk around the neighborhood. Around lunch-time we stopped for some hot dogs and.....
a storm all of a sudden popped up. It was just a drizzle at first, and luckily the area he painted is protected by the large cypress in our front yard. The downpour started. Fortunately his paint had had long enough to dry, and been protected enough during the drizzle, not to have any damage. Lilli and I had gotten her paints out and were making cute little pictures on the pile of scrap lumber. We really had some fun little designs going - but our art project and her washable paint didn't make it at all. We were too late running out to save it.
That evening we surprised her with a trip to the "big movies". We hadn't been since June and she hadn't seen the new Disney princess movie Brave yet. She loved it, but I have to say if your preschooler doesn't handle some "scary" violence then I would avoid it for a bit. There's a few fight scenes between bears that are fairly intense - a couple of kiddos who looked similar ages to Lilli had to leave during that scene.
Our mandatory picture after the movie with the poster. I don't feel like we go to many movies (this is maybe her 5th or 6th?) but with our free Regal Rewards card we just earned a free movie ticket, and we've already earned a free drink and free popcorn in the past. Definitely worth taking the time to sign up for the card and it does keep us loyal to this particular chain.
Afterwards we went to Michaels to check out what new crafty fall stuff they might have out. She loves, loves, loves these weird little animal and people figurines.
She is so obsessed with these car buggies at the grocery store. Since I'm a good mom I try to find one when I can. The turn radius is awful and it's a bear for me to push (and the car itself is smaller), but how you can deny this happiness?
We hit the pool up, maybe for the last time this summer. We hadn't been in forever because of the rain and cooler temps in August. When we got there the kiddie pool had just been closed for thirty minutes because some kid pooped in it (don't even want to know how that happened....) but thankfully they kept it open a little later than the regular hours since it was near closing time. The poop incident really cleared out the crowd so we had so much space when it reopened!!
Our after swim treat - Taco Bell and frozen strawberry lemonade!!
We're still trying to get in as many weeknight playdates with Serif and his parents before it starts getting dark so early. These two have so much fun running around. And I think the dads have a lot of fun shooting hoops.....
See how dark it was already at 7:30!! Crazy. For some reason Serif had the idea that he wanted to be up inside the little basketball goal and of course Lilli needed to be up there too. They're both so light and small they had plenty of room to hang out up there together and yell for their daddies to look at them. Silly kids!!! She'll miss playing with him this week while they're gone to the beach for their fall vacation. She asked if we could go to "our" beach house and see him. HA! 
Back to work and school for us all tomorrow, boooo!
Brent is sooo close to being done with the new front fence. The ridiculous weather this summer has been the biggest hindrance. From the building phase where it was literally 110 degrees outside and wood was warping instantly, to the on and off rain since early July making it impossible to have dry wood to work with, this has been the never-ending project. On this particular Saturday morning, he got a nice start with the final coat of paint while Lilli and I went off on a nature walk around the neighborhood. Around lunch-time we stopped for some hot dogs and.....
a storm all of a sudden popped up. It was just a drizzle at first, and luckily the area he painted is protected by the large cypress in our front yard. The downpour started. Fortunately his paint had had long enough to dry, and been protected enough during the drizzle, not to have any damage. Lilli and I had gotten her paints out and were making cute little pictures on the pile of scrap lumber. We really had some fun little designs going - but our art project and her washable paint didn't make it at all. We were too late running out to save it.
That evening we surprised her with a trip to the "big movies". We hadn't been since June and she hadn't seen the new Disney princess movie Brave yet. She loved it, but I have to say if your preschooler doesn't handle some "scary" violence then I would avoid it for a bit. There's a few fight scenes between bears that are fairly intense - a couple of kiddos who looked similar ages to Lilli had to leave during that scene.
Our mandatory picture after the movie with the poster. I don't feel like we go to many movies (this is maybe her 5th or 6th?) but with our free Regal Rewards card we just earned a free movie ticket, and we've already earned a free drink and free popcorn in the past. Definitely worth taking the time to sign up for the card and it does keep us loyal to this particular chain.
Afterwards we went to Michaels to check out what new crafty fall stuff they might have out. She loves, loves, loves these weird little animal and people figurines.
She is so obsessed with these car buggies at the grocery store. Since I'm a good mom I try to find one when I can. The turn radius is awful and it's a bear for me to push (and the car itself is smaller), but how you can deny this happiness?
We hit the pool up, maybe for the last time this summer. We hadn't been in forever because of the rain and cooler temps in August. When we got there the kiddie pool had just been closed for thirty minutes because some kid pooped in it (don't even want to know how that happened....) but thankfully they kept it open a little later than the regular hours since it was near closing time. The poop incident really cleared out the crowd so we had so much space when it reopened!!
Our after swim treat - Taco Bell and frozen strawberry lemonade!!
We're still trying to get in as many weeknight playdates with Serif and his parents before it starts getting dark so early. These two have so much fun running around. And I think the dads have a lot of fun shooting hoops.....
See how dark it was already at 7:30!! Crazy. For some reason Serif had the idea that he wanted to be up inside the little basketball goal and of course Lilli needed to be up there too. They're both so light and small they had plenty of room to hang out up there together and yell for their daddies to look at them. Silly kids!!! She'll miss playing with him this week while they're gone to the beach for their fall vacation. She asked if we could go to "our" beach house and see him. HA! 
Back to work and school for us all tomorrow, boooo!
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