Not in College Anymore

We had a fantastic weekend…. (a few weekends ago now) I mean Jacob had a Reserve weekend this weekend and that was kind of a bummer but I got to see some great college friends and go shopping… seriously how could that be bad. On top of that the weather was beautiful and Aurora had a good weekend too… minus the shopping.
Now when the some of my college friends get together, we enjoy kid friendly activities. Friday we enjoyed the beautiful weather at the zoo with Courtney and Carla, some friends from Gannon, and Carla's 16 month old son Mason.  Unfortunately I had not seen Courtney and Carla since the spring some time maybe.  I was worried I missed too much but there is something special about friends who cannot talk often enough and pick right back up where they left off. I'm bad at keeping in touch, sending cards of any kind, especially birthday and thank you's, so I whole heartedly appreciate friends (and family) who accept this about me and pick up like nothing has changed.
I love having a zoo membership. We can go and only get through 1/2 the zoo… or less and I don't feel obligated to stay to get my monies worth. I know I'll be back.  The Pittsburgh Zoo had a great… fantastic kids area.  This takes us a couple hours including play time.

I didn't get them in the picture but this guy loved Aurora's sparkly shoes.   

Between my back pain from the pregnancy and the lack of caffeine I was feeling pretty worn out by the time we were done with the kids area. Also, my husband was at home making a fresh shrimp lunch for us. Although he did not take us with him on his work trip to Florida that week, he did bring home some fresh, huge Gulf shrimp.  Aurora however was not ready to go so we checked out the sharks and polar bear before heading out.

That evening, I got to do something I don't do nearly enough. We had a ladies dinner at Cheesecake Factory with Courtney, Carla and Ashley joined us as well.  I'm not big on chain restaurants but Cheesecake Factory is one of the few exceptions.  I have never had a bad anything there. I managed a somewhat modest dinner so I could indulge in cheesecake and an unfortunately NA beverage after dinner.  As usual, all delicious! I had originally thought I would go out with the girls for a drink or two after dinner, me having juice or water of course.  I even thought I was going to make it to my wonderful cousin's anniversary party.  But by the time dinner was over and we did a quick trip to the mall, heavens sakes, it was almost 9pm!  I needed to stop at Home Depot and run to Giant Eagle to grab milk on the way home.  My loser self was not even up for a quick stop at a low key bar or running into the city to celebrate an Anniversary. I had throughly enjoyed the company but I just wanted to go home and lie on the couch.  I'm totally blaming that loser moment on the pregnancy. So I stopped at Home Depot, got distracted by the 75% shrubs and plants outside, grabbed what I needed, ran into GE for milk and went home laid on the couch and I think I might have passed out before 11pm.  If I didn't feel old already, which I did, the realization of how lame that was definitely rubbed it in.

Halloween

I was pretty disappointed in myself while downloading hundreds, literally hundreds of photos from one of our cameras.  The other I didn't even get too. I can't believe I let this summer and majority of fall slip by with out documenting my daughters cuteness… and my belly which does seem impressively large.  Also, I'm upset I haven't shared some pretty kick butt recipes I've tried.  

I'm hoping that with shorter days, colder temperatures and gardening and harvesting (almost) over I'll stay up to date. I mean it is not like we have a whole upstairs to redo before Max MacGyver is scheduled to arrive in 8 weeks.  

Dance class has been exciting and stressful. Aurora learned she absolutely loves dance class and we have learned that she is not the prefect little angel we liked to believe she was. Turns out she has a hard time following directions, waiting her turn and keeping her hands (head and legs) to herself sometimes.  I have kept her involved socially with things like story and activity time at the library, play groups, swim class but I'm there for all them. We knew she was ready for an activity without me by her side but we didn't know how challenging it would be for all of us.  It has been 2 months of an hour once a week of ballet, tumbling and tap.  The first few weeks I thought it was just an adjustment period but it didn't get too much better after 3 weeks then Jacob had the opportunity to start coming and he was worried we were horrible parents.  So the next few weeks were filled with what to do and what not to do conversations before dance class and Aurora screaming like we had just beat her post dance class when we would not let her have the sucker they hand out after every class.  Risking jinxing all progress that has been made… the last couple weeks have been better.  The extent of not keeping hands (thankfully just hands) to herself is when she is trying to grab another girls hands to get her to dance with her. And the following the teacher (who is great) is getting better too.  These pictures are from last week when they had a Halloween party.

Look how well she is listening!

Attempting the wheelbarrow. 

Sitting on the bench waiting her turn!

Practicing tapping

Happy Halloween! Here is the cutest witch.