Datenight Highlights and Some Other Stuff

CJ and I went on a date Saturday night.  It was great! This is not a common thing for us you see.  We are just now starting to venture out into the world of grown-ups again.  We have found a babysitter we love and so we are starting to feel more comfortable going out.  I know we are major weirdos -- it just took us a little while longer (than normal folks) to muster up the courage to leave the boys.

So for date night! We went to a phenomenal restaurant on Main Street in Franklin. My neighbor had briefed me on things I must order, one of which was a particular drink that she remembered had the word “pink” in the name and was wonderful.  When I checked out the menu I realize it must be the Pink Cougar, so I ordered one up! It was the yummiest drink I’ve ever had and so I ordered a second, ha!! What the hay! Dinner was so yummy and we think Tennessee is surely the most charming place on earth.  There’s an old movie theater on Main Street and it just so happened that they reopened it that night.  It’s one of the classic old theaters with bright red and yellow lights on the marquee.  The waiter told us it’s the first time it has been lit since the ‘30s. Neato!  There’s always a neat story around here.  The boys had a fun night with the babysitter and it just a great night all around.

Other happenings:

1.  Took the boys to “snip its” for haircuts.  It’s the first time I’ve ever taken them to get haircuts, isn’t that hysterical? Up until now I’ve been chopping their hair myself but my skills seem to get worse instead of better.  So “snip its” cleaned them right up. They are too cute.

2.  We ate at Five Guys for lunch Saturday. Turns out this guy was also in the mood for a burger.

Gary Levox, lead singer of Rascal Flatts. Hello!!!  Huge fan.  I didn’t believe it was him at first.   I love me some country music peeps!

3.  The boys rode the Gator and we all played soccer and enjoyed some great weather, finally! These boys are at such fun ages right now and we are having a blast with them:)

Little Drummer Boy

It's been a good week. We’ve kinda been laying low and not doing much. Working on some house projects, started painting cabinets, did some cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.  I actually cooked dinner every night this week! Hooray, that hasn’t happened in years. 

So today I headed to Home Goods to look for lamps and promised my CJ bear that I would buy him a drum. He’s been talking about drums lately and this was my bribe for good behavior.  We had time to either search for a drum or go to Monkey Joe's and he chose the drum!  There were no drums to be found at Home Goods today of course. Normally there are a million junky drums in the toy section!

SO, we headed to Target and found a great little drum. It came with a harmonica (a favorite for CD), a whistle, and a tambourine.  Awesome!  These guys are so funny playing with these instruments.  My husband thinks I’m crazy for buying noisy things and I may possibly regret this but I doubt it, ha! I will make that drum mysteriously disappear when I’m not feeling up to the noise;)

Have I mentioned my little ones share my love of this guy?  

CJ sat in the floor and played his new drum to Keith Urban!  And oh, you should see them dance, so CUTE!!! They both like the song "I Wanna Put You in a Song". Ha!!

Happy Friday:)

The Story of C's

Well here’s a little story about the name of this blog (since I can't think of anything else to write about and I’m dying to blog!). CJ and I got married in New York at a beautiful yacht club. He grew up near the water and loved to sail.  A very good friend of his gave us a burgee (the sailing club flag) as a wedding gift.  It was framed with the inscription “Fair winds and following seas”.  It’s a nautical blessing that wishes good luck when departing on a journey. I thought it was such a neat and thoughtful present!

Fast forward a few short years and two little boys later.  After naming our first little guy after his Daddy we realized baby boy #2 needed a “C” name too. We couldn’t leave him out, that might be cause for therapy in later years.  So we are a family of “C’s”, sweet right? And then my little blog was born, hence "Following C’s".  Have a great Thursday! 

Where to begin...

To have nothing to do we sure have been busy! We’ve done some projects this week – first, recovered my kitchen chair cushions, they were nasty, ew, with caked mac and cheese, milk, goo, etc.  Now they are fresh and clean and lovely. See pics below.

Painted the guest room AND bathroom. Yes, I did it. Completed. Hallelujah. Its not perfect but its WAY better. Unfortunately I fell off my ladder (please feel sorry for me;) and broke one of the bedside lamps. Now I need 2 new ones. Does it ever end?? (And I'm okay, by the way:)

We have wonderful built-in bookcases and cabinets in our family room (super storage).  They are SO dark though, but they are made of nice wood and we hate to paint them. So.. I covered the backs of the bookshelves with a light colored fabric.  Not a major change, but a little fresher. I'm still toying with the idea of painting them, but we also need to paint our kitchen cabinets, so these are now on the backburner.

I have read 2 books this month. This is a major thing for me.  I’m trying to read more and be all scholarly, ha, is that even a word? Anyhoo, I haven’t read enough in my grown up life so I’ve decided to tackle a bunch of books this year.  I read Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. I’m a fan of his. I like that his books are easy reads, are set in North Carolina (a place I love and where I met hubby), and when I finish them I feel happy and okay with the world.  Safe Haven had some cheesy moments (where people fall in love in 5 minutes and although I know its possible I have to roll my eyes sometimes because I’m picturing Fabio with his hair blowing in the wind on the cover of those old romance novels, okay I’ll stop).. but I thought it was a really good book overall and I enjoyed it. 

I also finished Little Bee.  This was a more difficult read for me, probably not a book I would typically choose, which is why I stuck with it and finished it.  Really, once I got passed the first 3 chapters I was hooked and had to know the rest of the story. It’s a book definitely worth reading, some spotty language that I didn’t care for, but it provoked thought and made me appreciate what I have all the more.

My 2^nd child is a slavedriver. He is ALWAYS begging for another drink because he CONSTANTLY loses his cup. So we end up going on treasure hunts for his cup all day because if I don’t find it then it will grow fuzz on the inside and then he’ll find it and drink fuzz! Yucky! 

My children are there. There at that point where they are actually playing together but constantly screaming, “He touched me!” --“He took my tractor!”—“He touched my crayons!”   Share little ones, share, please! Sometimes they do, like right now, they are playing so well together and it is so precious and wonderful to see them chase each other and laugh hysterically. But a lot of times, we struggle with this sharing thing. Oh well, we’ll get there, right? I do have to say it is trying at times but so fun to have 2 little boys, I never imagined I’d have 2 little boys! Sometimes I think they are so cute I can’t believe they’re mine!

Well, its the start of the weekend, wooohoooo! Hope y'all have a great one:)



Yucky chair



New chair

bookcase before

after

and my beautiful children:)

Weekend Recap

Friday started off as one of those days. We planned to meet our pals at Krispy Kreme, but my truck wouldn't start! It was frustrating because I don't like breaking promises to my boys. Look at these faces, they were so disappointed! Luckily "old blue" just needed a new battery.

Gam-ma and Gam-pa arrived on Saturday.  We picked them up and headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame. What fun! The boys were a little less than impressed with one exception -- the cars! Elvis's old Cadillac was pretty cool looking and these boys LOVED it.  Aside from that, we kind of had to race through there pretty quickly.  My husband says, "If you've seen one sparkly suit, you've seen 'em all". HA! But for me it is a trip down memory lane. I remember listening to 8-tracks of Dolly Parton in my parents old van and my mom's old Ernest Tubb records that she played at Thanksgiving when she was cooking, great memories let me tell you!

Saturday afternoon the boys took their Gator for a spin. Sunday we headed off to Puckett's for breakfast, and then just relaxed for a while. Hope everyone else had a great weekend:)

Great Playdate

Today our sweet little friend Evie came to visit. This always makes for an exciting day for us.  The boys had fun chasing her around and giggling and it is just hysterical to watch!  Evie was sweet enough to share her fig newton with CD, and he was more than happy to take a bite!! I love this picture:)

This was definitely the highlight of our day.  When our friends had to leave the boys were already asking when they can come back. CJ likes to say that Evie is a "sweet grill", so funny, he calls girls grills. I love to hear him say it!  These boys make me laugh. CD took a great nap (halleluja:) and CJ and I played Angry Birds and colored. We tried to run a few errands this afternoon but frankly, it is just too cold to lug a stroller and 2 toddlers in and out of the truck!  We are so glad its almost the weekend:) When will this cold weather go away??

Funny Things

Today we stayed home and stayed warm. Baked some banana bread, played ring around the rosey, worked a few puzzles, etc.  Tough day at the office:) There were a few trying times.. CJ lost his favorite tractor and that was devastating, CD always wants whatever his brother has, that upsets CJ, oh boy, and so on... But at the end of the day, it is so sweet when CD says "I want CJ". He loves his big brother!

  Funny tidbit about CD right now:  He constantly tells me what he wants and when he ends a sentence with "Mom" it comes out "Om".  "I want juice Om, I want cacka Om (cracker), I want sanch Om(sandwich). He's so funny and he won't take no for an answer and if he wants something he wants it 5 minutes ago!

 And CJ has learned how to use the iPad! He loves to draw. Today he even played Angry Birds! I'm not sure how I feel about that, but oh well! These boys learn so fast!

Forgive me, I had not yet brushed their hair!

Great start to the week!

This morning we awakened to major snow! It's beautiful. Little CJ came down the hall and said "Look, it snowed out!" We got CD up and came downstairs for breakfast. I opened the blinds for the kids to see the snow and CJ said "Look! The bushes look like ice cream!" I love the things these little guys say.  They are filled with wonder and everything is exciting. My neighbor called and invited us over for a playdate. We suited up and headed across the street to play with Evie. At our house, Evie ranks right up there with ice cream and chocolate! The boys love to chatter on and on about Evie. We had a great time playing, I sipped some peppermint coffee and had a cinnamon bun, chatted with my friend, and had a great start to the week!
   Later when we got home and the boys were restless, we discovered the pure entertainment value of a laundry basket. It kept them entertained till Daddy got home early. Yay!

Sunday Sunday

Today we headed off to the early service at church, then to Trader Joe's.  Love that place!  Later around 4 we were off to Evie's 2nd Birthday party at Peek-a-boo Playtown. It was great fun, LOTS of kids running around having a wonderful time, cupcakes with sprinkles, fabulous. Peek-a-boo is a fun place and we had a blast. It is so fun when Big CJ can go with us to things like this and see the boys in action.  After the party we stopped by Carraba's for pizza. It is one of the few things little CJ will eat! My picky child. Then home again, home again, for baths and bed. What a fun day!

Weekend fun

Today was a nice lazy Saturday. I ran some errands and in the afternoon we went to a birthday party.  It was fun, love to see the kids run around and have a ball. Their little friend got lots of great presents.  It was fun for Big CJ to go with us, and it was helpful since keeping up with 2 boys is a handful!  After the party we ran to Home Depot for some supplies and then home.  The kids were still in party play mode and so they needed to burn off more energy.  We played, played, played some more and then called it a day!

Monkey Joe's

  Today we went to Monkey Joe's with the MOMS club. Monkey Joe's is one of those places with lots of inflatable jumpy things for the kids. It's the first time I've ever taken them to a jumpy place, can you believe that?! Well, they both LOVED it! Jumping around like crazy, they were. Flipping over, running, sliding, wow! It was great when we first got there, but once it got crowded I could see danger potential.  Wish I had some pictures but it was too hard to lug my big camera there. I can barely keep up with hats, mittens, purse, snacks, drinks, (and children, ha) as it is, but I do wish I could get cute pics everywhere we go! Oh well, here's a few others from the day.