Swagger

Over the Holiday weekend, I finished reading "Swagger" by Lisa Bloom. This book was recommended to me, and I don't usually read much non-fiction but this one caught my interest. I had read "Cinderella Ate my Daughter" last fall & this seemed like a similar book.

I have to say, I loved it. A lot. Lisa Bloom pretty much tore into the American culture, aspects from education to parenting to music to prison. It was compelling, gripping & motivating. I actually stayed up late to finish it because I didn't want to put it down. That usually only happens with books like "Harry Potter." :D

After I finished the book I wanted to share it, make others understand. I'm pretty sure I annoyed my family with the facts & ideas shared in the book. I absolutely recommend this book, whether you are a parent, a teacher - just read it.

16. Read 50 books (37/50) 

Jordan Lake

3. Go camping 4 times (4/4) COMPLETE! 


We went camping at Jordan Lake for the first weekend in October. It was our first experience at Jordan Lake, and overall we really liked it. We had a lake front site so we could walk right down for a swim. This was great with a preschooler. Glen & I took turns swimming with Caleb so the other could cook/clean. 

 Jordan Lake is beautiful. We drove to the dam and saw tons of hawks. There was a nice hiking trail. The nature center at the welcome building was really fascinating and we all enjoyed the displays there. The weekend we were there was their annual Heritage festival so Caleb got to make a corn husk doll, paint with marbles, get his face painted etc. It was a really well put together event. 

Now the part we didn't like about Jordan Lake were the facilities. Glen & I both grew up camping at State Parks so we know what to expect with campground bathrooms. Jordan Lake left a lot to be desired. The "convenience" bathroom had broken faucets, non-functioning hand dryers, no lights at night and did not appear to be tidied up daily. The larger bathroom with the showers had missing doors on the majority of the shower stalls. There were not enough lights to actually see when you were in the shower. When I took a shower, someone had actually taken a dump in one of the stalls. {Needless to say, I took a QUICK shower!} Neither of us were impressed with the way the facilities were maintained, it showed that the park staff/rangers cared little for the park. I'm not sure if the other camping areas were different, but I can camp at Falls Lake without having to worry about that. The rangers at Falls Lake keep their facilities great! 

So that probably concludes our camping until the Spring! We have found a great groove for our camping with a dog & a preschooler - I can't wait until our next trip! 

Pixar "Up" Party

I've been meaning to post this, since..February! Haha. Caleb is now 3.5 so let's say this post is in honor of his half birthday:)


I wanted to do something fun & original for Caleb's 3rd birthday. It was his first official party so it was very special to me. Caleb had been obsessed with the movie Up, and I decided it would be a perfect theme. I hit up Google & Pinterest for inspiration, and the best party was created!

The movie Up is about Mr. Frederickson - who uses balloons to fly his home to Paradise Falls. I blew up balloons and used a needle/thread to string them together. I criss-crossed them across the ceiling


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Disney has these AWESOME printables available on their site. I printed them out at Office Max, and enlisted the help of my husband to assemble them. They were A LOT of work! There is a lot of small cuts and folds, but the end result was so worth it! We put Russell and Mr. Frederickson on the table, and hung the house above.

I covered the coffee table with easel paper, put out some crayons & birthday stickers. This was a fun activity which stayed on my table for a few weeks!
 

We had the Up soundtrack playing on the TV, with a slideshow of a combination of Caleb's photos & shots from the movie. The cupcakes were my favorite part! I got the idea from Bakerella. I used colored toothpicks to hold the donut holes up. They were just so cute!

Party favors were Up Golden Books which I ordered from Amazon. I tied a balloon around each one. We also gave out Kool-aid playdoh kits (which were leftover from our Valentine's day party!). 








Here are just a few other shots of our party!

75. Host a theme party - Complete!! 

Getting my sport on!

We are spending this weekend at my parents' house, along with my sister and her kids. Today was a perfect day, starting off with sausage biscuits and coffee, and ending the day with s'mores by the river. I was able to get two checks on my 101 list today!

Catch A Fish -
This morning we went fishing at a local pond. Caleb {with the help of Grandpa} was the first to catch a fish. I kept getting nibbles and sneaky worm stealers, I didn't think I would actually catch one. But I got skillz! I snagged a little sunfish. We had a really fun time fishing!

Go Crabbing -
After an afternoon swimming at Emerald Isle Beach, we went to the Croatan Forest to cookout. While my dad fired up the grill, we hung out on the dock and caught crabs. We used turkey necks and strings. Since we forgot a net, it required a lot of skill to get the crab out of the water! Caroline seemed to be the best at it. I got a blue crab, we saw fish and Earl caught some shrimp. It was super relaxing and just as fun as I remember it from my childhood.

I felt like an accomplished sportsman as we headed home! What a day:)

I'm blogging from my phone so I'll update my sidebar later....

Pullen Park

94. Play at Pullen Park & ride a paddle boat 

First off, I gotta say I had no idea how much work it was to power a paddle boat. It has been years since I was on one! Caleb spent part of our ride "helping" while I sat in the back, so Glen was on his own. I don't know how he had the leg strength for that. Go Glen! :)

Anyway. Glen had an extra day off this week, so we headed over to Pullen Park to enjoy some time together. We rode the carousel, train, kiddie boats & played at the park. We finished up with a ride on the paddle boat. We went around the entire lake & under the bridge. Caleb had a blast seeing all the ducks and turtles up close. 

The Artist

"The Artist" is a film about a silent movie actor, George Valentin. The film shows how his life changes during the arrival of talking pictures. "The Artist" was released in 2011, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2012.

The movie is {almost entirely} a silent film. At first, I had my doubts to whether this movie would grab me. But it was mesmerizing. The music was fantastic, perfectly capturing each scene. The movie is classic, perfectly recreating the era of George Valentin. It was a simple, timeless story that was just wonderful. I was amazed at how much I connected with the characters, considering it was a silent movie.

This is a very different film, but I think its definitely worth watching! I watched it alone, and I hope Glen will watch it again with me:)

11. Watch 5 movies that have won “Best Picture” Academy Awards (3/5) 

Wine & Sushi

4. Visit a NC winery 
Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary. My mom has Caleb for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to visit Chatham Hill Winery in Morrisville. We did a tour of the winery & saw all the barrels of wine plus their fancy machines. It's actually a rather small place with only a handful of employees, but they produce a lot of wine. I learned that it takes about 3lbs of grapes to make 1 bottle of wine. We got to taste 8 of their wines. I bought a bottle of Peach wine, which is very sweet but it was something different I enjoyed. 

16. Read 50 books (36/50)
This morning I finished reading "The Girls." This was a fiction novel about conjoined twins, written entirely from their perspective. It was a fairly simple story, but the voices in the novel were fascinating, involved & well written. 

45. Update Caleb’s baby book 
Last week I took a few hours & finished updating Caleb's baby book. It had a lot of empty spaces, but most of the information was on his blog. I'm glad to say its finally done! I do have a few more pictures to put in from his 3rd birthday - but that's the easy part! 

31. Try sushi (again) 
For our anniversary dinner, we ordered take-out sushi from ShabaShabu in Raleigh. I've had sushi once before and wasn't a big fan. I definitely felt I had to give it another try. We ordered California roll, tuna roll, bagel roll & salmon roll. I tried all of them. The California roll was my favorite, but I still am not a sushi fan.  I ate a bit, then Glen finished my plate:) Oh well, at least I tried!