May, in photos

Here's some of the highlights of the past month. I love May-- the weather is finally getting nicer, there's a lot of fun things going on, more outside time, more SUN!! These are just a few pictures of what we've been up to lately:

Mom's 60th birthday party, in our backyard

Playing ball with daddyJoe and I at the Reds game

Quinn loves to sit on the front steps and watch the cars go by.Memorial Day parade

Donuts for breakfast at the parade
watching the parade

Skating rink birthday party for our friend, Parker. It was Quinn's first skating experience. He was unsure at first, but ended up having a good time!

Time Warp Prom pictures

Prom was, once again, a blast! I think it gets better every year.
The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. We got ready at the salon, had some pizza there, then left for the prom. (And yes, Brandy- the blonde girl in the black with the flower in her hair- is pregnant. That's not just a big pot-belly. haha)
The theme this year was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", so there were a LOT more Cyndi Lauper type outfits this time, rather than the prom formals we've seen in the past, which was a nice change of pace. The ban was decent-- same band every year, they're in need of some new material-- but the DJ was awesome. We danced all night, never went back to the table to sit down. What a great kick-off to spring and summer!
(if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can really see the 80's details in the hair and clothes!)

bye bye bird couch!

The bird couch has left the building. I know, I know....it's a legendary couch and all, but it was literally falling apart. The fabric was ripping, the buttons were ripped off, the cushions don't stay on it anymore, which makes it not very comfortable to sit on.... we've been debating getting rid of it for a while now and yesterday was the day.
Not to worry though, we still have the bird love seat. =)

and the sickness continues...

...Quinn has another ear infection.

sicky sick sick

Seriously, enough of the sickness around here! First Joe had whatever ickyness is going around, then Quinn had an ear infection, followed by 4 new teeth (lots of crying and drool.Ugh.) And now I have the never ending cold/sinus/allergy/whatever. So tired of it. I'm ready for summer and a lot less boxes of tissues around the house.

In the mean time, here's our little man on Easter, on the big-kid chair, drinking a CapriSun. He's so grown up!!

My very grown-up little boy

Quinn is feeling a lot better, pretty much back to his usual crazy self. He seems so grown up though! Just today, he's started answering "yeah" (he's been saying "no" forever, and nodding his head yes. Today's the first time he's said it though.)

He's decided he's outgrown his high chair; for the past few days he's thrown a complete fit at every meal, and I blamed it on the sickness, but then I thought maybe it was more than that...so I put his little booster chair on the big dining chair and he looked at it and said "yeah". Go figure. He ate all three meals in that chair, pushed right up to the big table with me, happy as ever.

Then this afternoon, while we were playing, first he walked over to me wearing my tennis shoes--such a big kid move!-- and then a little while later, he got up on his own, got a kleenex, and brought it to me so I could wipe his nose for him.

He just seems so grown up today.
Yeah.

sick day

So little Q got hit with all the ailments this weekend: major teething, croup, and an ear infection. Yesterday and last night were pretty miserable, but by this morning I think the antibiotics and cough medicine were starting to kick in and he was feeling considerably better. However, not well enough for clothes, apparantly....so he spent the day as diaper-baby. Here he is, hanging on the "big chair", watching Imagination Movers and eating graham crackers. Can he get any cuter??!

Salon re-do

Spring is finally here....which means spring cleaning and projects! The major project to be done this spring was to repaint the salon. It started with the need for some new styling chairs. Four years of wear and tear on the original chairs has made them worn down to the point of armrests held on with duct tape. Seriously.
So I bought the chairs, which led to the idea of repainting the walls. I decided on a shade of taupe-ish brown called "hitching post"; it's quite a bit darker than what we originally had on the walls.
With the new walls and chairs, I updated lots of other little things: a new clock, a magazine rack, new table and chairs for the "coffee area" (the back hallway where we always sit with our coffee when we're not busy), a little stool/bench that I found in the local antique shop, to use as an extra seat in the coffee room (it reminds me of the one in my Grandma L's bathroom! I wish I had one just like hers, but this is a close second.)

The weekend was a blur of cleaning. I spent Friday running around getting the last minute things for the salon, and hauling some of it to Springfield. After work Saturday Joe met me at the salon and we took everything off the walls, pushed all the furniture to the middle of the room, and took the old styling chairs home. We were there until about 8:30 Saturday night.
Then Sunday morning (after losing an hour of sleep due to the time change!) I drove down to the salon to let the painter in at 7:30 (real time, 6:30!) -- Yeah, I hired out the painting. It was SO worth it!!! And I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. :)

Then, after a quick stop at Tim Hortons to get donuts for breakfast (Quinn loved his first TimBits!) I went for a walk and went back home...I watched Xanadu online and waited for the painter to call me so I could go BACK to Springfield to lock up the salon when he was done.

Finally, I spent yesterday, along with 2 of the girls from work, cleaning every last inch of the salon. We cleaned, dusted, swept and mopped everything in the building. Then I went home, got Joe after school, and we went back to load up the new chairs and put all the furniture back, mirrors back on the walls, change lightbulbs, etc etc etc. We got home around 11:30 last night.

Quinn got the easy job of playing at Grandma's and at our friend Tracie's while we cleaned.

I'm exhausted (got up and worked for 10 hours today) but it was worth it. The salon looks great and I'm glad it's done. I took a picture with my cell phone of the finished paint, but it doesn't do it justice at ALL. It's darker in person and just all around better than you can see on the phone.

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I haven't blogged lately because:
1. it's winter and we are hermits in the winter so there's nothing much to update
2. my computer time is consumed by my facebook tetris addiction. I got my all-time high score tonight. Yay, me! :)
Happy winter, y'all!

haircut

Here's Quinn, getting a haircut. I was so impressed how he sat on his little stool and got his haircut like a big kid!

just checking in

Nothing to blog about. It's January, it's snowing, it's cold. I intend to add to this blog as soon as I have something semi-intelligent to write.

Sledding!

We finally got some snow here in our part of the world, so we took Quinn out to play in his new sled. I think he had fun, but the blank stare behind the scarf and hat didn't tell us much. I did hear him squeal a little bit one time, and I think it was a happy sound, but again, who knows.
I think he was unsure about the whole experience actually.
But it was fun, and if it wasn't going to be arctic temperatures the rest of the week, we could go again with the inches of fresh snow we got today. But that won't be happening so instead we'll stay inside where it's warm and watch the snow through the window and venture out again once the temps are back "up" in the 30's.

Another picture of Q in his high chair...

...here he is eating his "egg-free" waffle for breakfast, made in our new waffle iron. (Thanks Nancy!) In case you are wondering, I substituted 1/3 cup of applesauce for an egg and they turned out great. They actually tasted the same as a 'normal' waffle would. YUM. We'll definitely be having more waffles in the future.
By the way, do you like how he uses the waffle squares as finger holes?

Q's first corn on the cob experience

Who needs a fancy New Year's Eve party??

We opted to stay in for the big night, and this is what we did:
Quinn went to bed at 8-ish, and we made dinner (english muffin pizzas. nope, not kidding.) We ate our meal on the bird couch watching a stupid movie on Comedy Central; I fell asleep half way through it (the movie, not the pizza) and Joe woke me up at 11:51.
I brushed my teeth, went to bed, and turned on the tv in the bedroom at 11:58, where I watched the ball drop and ol' what's-his-face mumble his way through a countdown through his too-big, ill-fitting dentures....and I was asleep again by 12:03.
See ya, 2008.