April Round Up

Things have ramped up around here and somehow two weeks have gone by since the end of April!

So what did we do in April?  Well, our cabin is FINALLY complete-ish so we have been heading out there on the weekends.  We spent three weekends in all out at Bryce last month and slowly but surely we're putting the place back together the way we like it.  It is a painfully slow process when you are also caring for 4 small children, as you can imagine.  Basically we are either preparing a meal, feeding someone, cleaning up, changing diapers, doing laundry, putting together furniture,  and/or cleaning AT ALL TIMES.  There isn't much sitting around and relaxing going on but if we can just push through this phase we'll get there soon.  I cannot wait to head out to the cabin on the weekends and have nothing to do but hang out with the kids, read, swim, do puzzles and play cards.  It. will. happen. I know I keep promising this, but this time I mean it - a post dedicated to the cabin project is coming soon.

June looks out the window at Bryce from her rocking chair

The boys on a box

June

Dylan

A walk in the woods

The last weekend in April, Matt and I traveled to Tennessee to stay at Blackberry Farm.  If you haven't heard of it, BB Farm is farm to table concept resort in the Smokey Mountains.  Amazing food. Amazing views.  Amazing spa. We had a wonderful time exploring the property, hiking, paddle boarding, getting massages, eating and drinking our faces off and playing with puppies. Yes, they had no less than 15 puppies on property that you could just go play with whenever you wanted.  Oh, and we hung out with Michael J. Fox, one of my best star sightings ever. If you ever have the chance to visit this place, go go go.

Kids are good.  Hank and Gus seem to have evolved their relationship beyond one of constant bickering and fighting over toys to one more like a friendship.  They are getting along very well and I think that Gus had really come into his own, which in turn has caused Hank to respect him more as a person (not just as an antagonist).  The girls are slowly starting to say some words and June has been taking some tentative steps.  The boys play very nicely with the babies which is always a pleasure to watch.

June with her baby

Gus

Dylan on the left, June on the right

Hank selfie (I have hundreds of these on my phone)

Dylan

Matt is super busy at work but it's all for a good cause so that makes it tolerable.  Between the house renovations, school activities, a couple of trips, and a nasty flu virus that worked it's way through every member of our household including the nanny, I've had my hands full this month.  I cried over Prince, bought my Woman Card from Hilary and continue to watch in horror as Trump keeps making his way towards the nomination.  It seems that there are more idiots in this country than I had initially thought, and that is saying something.  Speaking of idiots, these are the words now being said most frequently by my boys:  idiot, stupid, shut up and what the f*!k.  How did we go so wrong so soon?

Last but not least, recipes for this month included:

Pad Thai Salad from The Londoner - Really flavorful and healthy meal, now frequently in rotation.
Soba Noodle and Grilled Chicken Salad with Miso Dressing - from Goop.
Tarragon Chicken  - Food and Wine
Grilled Chicken Stuffed with Mozzarella and Sage - from Williams Sonoma Grilling

That's all for now - more from me soon! xoxo

March Round Up

Hello friends - hope you had great March.  We certainly did. We enjoyed record breaking high temperatures that felt more like summer and we had a phenomenal flower show thanks to it.  Spring is always my favorite time of year in DC thanks to all of the flowering trees around the city.  I don't know if I didn't notice them when I was living in Canada and England as a kid or if they just didn't exist, but the blossoms here are on another level and every year I walk around with a big dumb grin on my face at the sight of them.  Gorge gorge gorge!

The beautiful weeping cherry (I think) in front of our house

The best shot I could get holding both babies and trying to make sure Gus didn't fall out of the tree

Cherry blossoms in Kenwood

The month kicked with some weekend trips.  Matt took Hank skiing for the weekend in Park City for a Dad and me weekend sponsored by his company. They had fun on the slopes and hanging out at the house with all of the other dads and kids.  Hank is getting close to doing parallel turns and really seems to love skiing.  We are looking forward to the day that we can all ski together - shouldn't be long now.

The Kelly ski team

That same weekend I took Gus with me to LA to visit with Chanel's family and meet our new little lady cousin Henley.  Gus was a star traveling companion and compared to being with all four kids, it was almost like being on my own :) He is a just an easy going and content little dude.  Gus hung with Hayes and Greyson over the weekend and even showed some interest in the new baby.  She is a doll, of course, and I was so excited to hold a little newborn again.  Just love those little curled up peanuts.

Waiting for the bags after our long flight. He wouldn't take the free headphones off. 

The boys enjoying breakfast.  Chanel and family had moved into their brand new house only 10 days before the baby arrived - yikes! 

Henley

Being sweet with his cousin

Being groped by her cousin...

The following week that we took off for a fantastic week-long family vacation in the Dominican Republic.  Naturally, I approached the whole thing with great trepidation and anxiety.  Packing for 5 people, planning for every kind of worse case scenario under the sun and worrying about the goddamned Zika virus will do that to you.  So in addition to the regular stuff one would pack, we had about 100 pounds of sunscreen, bug spray and medicine along with with us.

All the worries melted away once we arrived at our beautiful house.  A gorgeous view, a lovely pool, lots of little spots to relax into and read or play cards.  Did I mention that it came with a full blown staff who catered to our every need?  It was heavenly.  I literally did nothing for 7 days straight but lie by the pool and read some books.  The girls traveled well and our nanny, Rohini, came along for the ride so that we were able to get some real rest in on the trip.  Oh, and Dylan really started walking this week.  With a vengeance. The boys had a blast playing with their friends Johnny and Devon who joined us along with their parents for the week.  The pool was used from sun up to sun down, as were the golf carts, which became the boys' first practice cars for driving.  By the end of the week Hank was chauffeuring us all around the resort entirely by himself.

Dylan

June

Dylan walking, modeling her Lily Pulitzer suit, natch

Gus in the entry way to the house

Beach boys

Casually climbing a palm tree

Me and the girls

The kids on their ride

Sun downers on the beach

Dad and Dylan (I think)

Gusser

The Easter bunny came to our house with lots of treats for the boys.  The greedy little candy monsters asked "What is the next holiday and when is it?" to which I answered "Mother's Day!" and cackled like a witch.

Boys and their baskets

"Are you kidding me with these outfits?"

This was not a month for cooking. It was a month for eating. I am pleased to report that I barely cooked at all and that I loved every minute of it. Sometimes you need to take a break even from the things you enjoy doing and just do nothing at all.

Last but not least, good progress is being made on the new house build and I am pleased to report that the cabin is 99% finished.  Expect separate posts on those little projects soon!

Much love and happy spring,

Maman
xoxo

February Round Up

February, here and gone in a flash, even with that extra day!  Here's what we were busy doing:

Hank's "feast"

Celebrating birthdays! Hank turned 6 and I turned 38.  Both mind blowing events "WTF!?" events.  Not sure how we got here but...here we are.  Since I've already covered Hank's 6th birthday celebration in excruciating detail, let's talk about mine here.  Normally, I don't take much notice of my birthday and don't really care to do much to celebrate it. A nice dinner out with Matt is good enough for me (which is, by the way, what we did).  This year, for whatever reason though, it kind of hit me.  It's not so much that I was upset to be turning 38, that doesn't really bother me, but rather that I was upset to be turning 38 without having the thriving and fulfilling career that I had imagined, and more disturbing, without a plan to achieve that goal. Turns out, taking care of 4 kids, while building a house and renovating another at the same leaves little time for soul searching, career coaching, "finding yourself" kind of stuff.  Shouldn't really be a surprise and yet, it was.  So after a good cry, I assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that a) I am in no way ready or able to take on a "real" job at this point in time so I need to stop feeling guilty about that.  In the next year or so, when Gus is in school full time and these houses are done, I can focus in on that.  And b) I need to make time to do some planning/research so that when I am ready, I have an idea of what I actually want to do.  And I'll throw in a c) here - bonus points if I can find a place to volunteer/contribute a few hours a week so that I have something other than my own kids and home going on in my world. I'm not normally one to indulge in sharing my innermost thoughts on a blog, but I feel like I just needed to put that out in the universe as a way of helping make it happen. Moving right along...

I was hard at work trying to get our cabin completed in time for us to use it over President's Day weekend. Alas, it wasn't quite ready in time so we decide to take the opportunity to visit Matt's mother in Florida that weekend.  The boys came along and we had a nice visit with Mary.  She was happy to see the kids and we were happy to see her looking well.  We even managed to fit in a few hours at the beach and pool.

Matt showing Granny MAK some pics of the girls

Sigh, the boys. 

Hank is following the primary races VERY closely and it is the funniest thing in the world to see them through his eyes.  He ran into our bedroom on March 1st like it was Christmas morning shouting "it's Super Tuesday! it's Super Tuesday!" He runs around the house singing "Donald Trump is a liar liar pants on fire," loves to call him Donald Trump-et and has his whole class at school chatting about their candidates of choice.  He and Gus watch George Stephanopolus on Sundays with Matt and have about million questions about all of the different people in the race.  They know the candidates better than I do at this point.

"Doneld Trump is in Ferest Plasa" Translation, Donald Trump is in First Place

Hank was also in his first school play, How the Elephant Got Its Trunk, playing the infamous role of Lion #2.  It was very cute and all the kids did a great job of delivering their lines, seemingly without any stage fright.

The Kindergarten Class 

Gus has been enjoying having his very first best friend, a young man by the name of Walter.  Gus and Walter have been running in the same circles for some time now, having attended the same playgroup when they were just babies.  They are in the same class at school now and have really hit it off.  Walter comes to our house every week for playdates (his mother just had twin boys so she has her hands full at the moment) and has become a bit of a fixture around here.

Gus and Walter having fun at school

The girls continue to be the biggest babies ever.  They are 14 months old and wearing 18-24 month clothes, sometime 2T.  And yet, they take after their mother and have tiny tiny feet.  This may explain the delayed walking.  Their poor little feet can't handle their gargantuan bodies!  Dylan took her first steps earlier this month and was very pleased with herself. She now takes about 5 before tumbling forward.  June still isn't there on the walking front, but not to be outdone, she has taught herself how to climb up on the coffee table and couch, making is so that we can't leave them alone in a room for even 2 minutes.  Most exciting of all, their hair is starting to come in!  It is the most gorgeous red color you ever saw and there is now enough of it to have one little curl at the nape of their necks.  Deliciousness!

June

Raiding the pantry

Dylan

Bath time fun

And it was with much excitement that we welcomed a new little cousin into the fold this month when Chanel, Grant, Hayes and Greyson welcomed a little girl, Henley James.  Her gender was a surprise and we were all thrilled that she is a she.  Gus and I are heading to LA to meet her this weekend and we cannot wait!

Henley

Last but not least, recipes for February included:

- Pumpkin Enchiladas, from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. A nice twist on the classic and great way to use up any extra canned pumpkin you have lying around.

Pumpkin Enchiladas

- One Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice from Recipe Tin Eats.  This is a winner people.  Can't recommend highly enough.

Mexican Chicken and Rice

- Chicken Chasseur from Jacques Pepin.  This was a little too Pepin for even my tastes...super old school 1950's French, not in a good way.


- Skillet Lasagna from Keepers.  Great way to enjoy all the things you love about lasagna without all the things you hate (the mess, the lengthy prep time, etc).

Skillet Lasagna

- Vegetarian Black Bean Chili with Ancho and Orange from Food and Wine.  Very tasty veggie/vegan meal.  Would be nice over rice or a baked potato.

Black Bean Chili