celebrating the end of spring recital season

working so many shows means working a lot of nights and weekends.  since we don't get traditional days off like saturday and sunday, we have to change our schedules and take our "weekends" on weekdays sometimes.  that's exactly what we did this week.  after working straight through long hours on friday, saturday, and sunday to finish out recital season, we took tuesday off.  it was so nice to be able to get caught back up on restocking the fridge, doing laundry, mowing the grass, and running errands.

we took a little time for us and treated ourselves to a celebratory lunch at the cheesecake factory to celebrate the end of spring recital season.  we had a tasty lunch of cauliflower tacos and vegan cobb salad.  we finished it off by sharing a slice of raspberry lemon cheesecake which was so refreshing on a hot day.

it was a nice little date and a great way to end the season!

love, laurie

muffin thief

my mom made blueberry muffins this weekend and gave us some to enjoy.  we sat down on the couch early sunday morning for breakfast before running off to the theatre to work the dance show.  we ate some cereal and then were ready to eat our muffins when a cute little orange muffin thief who was on ryan's lap leaned over and started licking our muffins!  goodness he is cute!

love, laurie

my cute breakfast date

leko was intently watching something the other day as i was enjoying some cheerios.  he's the cutest watch kitten.  a few moments later he was passed out asleep on the hassock under the window.  must have worn himself out!

love, laurie

we survived spring recital season!

we made it through lots and lots of dance recitals this season from april through june and boy are we exhausted!

we finished off the season with 3 back-to-back shows this weekend, 2 of which were recitals for my dance studio!  

my dance studio's junior show "back to the 80s" was a throwback to all of the greatest hits from the 1980s decade and all of the teachers had a blast dressing up for the 80s theme.  i pieced together a bunch of random things that we had at home.  i'm always game for an opportunity to dress up in a themed costume . . . even pregnant!

our senior show "i love the 90s" was a throwback to all of the greatest hits from the 1990s decade and all we also had a blast dressing up for the 90s theme for this show too!

love, laurie

silly kittens!

a friend of my parents gifted them some hand-me-down baby items when she found out that my parents were going to be grandparents.  she had a ton of great baby items from her own grandchildren that were in great shape.  

one of the products she gifted my parents was a pack-and-play.  we set it up to take a look at it when we were at my parents house.  a few days later my mom texted me these photos.  my parents found their kitties testing out the pack-and-play and putting it to good use!  i guess it's a fancy new kitten bed for them!  so incredibly cute.

love, laurie

spending time with butterflies

on saturday afternoon, we all went to a butterfly release before going out to dinner at stroudsmoor.  we were grateful that it didn't rain, but boy was it chilly!  it was shockingly cold and windy for the middle of june.  the butterflies stuck around a lot longer than they normally would have due to the weather.  so, it was nice to be able to see them for a bit longer before they flew away.  

a few of them didn't want to go and clung right to our clothing.  it was cute!

love, laurie

father's day 2022

we all got together on sunday at our house to celebrate father's day.  we had spinach/shrimp stuffed portobello mushrooms, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and grilled zucchini for lunch on the back porch.  for dessert, we had chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.  we originally made the cake for saturday's dessert, but we were all so stuffed after eating at stroudsmoor (and they included dessert with our meal) so we saved the anniversary/birthday cake for sunday.

the weather was gorgeous, so we spent some time outside walking around the neighborhood and our mom's played bean bag toss.  later in the evening, for dinner we threw together some bbq vegetarian chicken flatbread, veggies/dip, and cheese/crackers.  we finished off the night with build-your-own strawberry shortcake sundaes.  

it was a great day celebrating father's day!  now we all definitely need to jump on a treadmill to work off everything we all ate this weekend!

love, laurie

celebrating 50 years!

we were thrilled to not have a dance rectial to work on saturday and to have the whole day free.  so, on saturday, we all went out to dinner at stroudsmoor country inn to celebrate ryan's parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  

stroudsmoor is where we got married, and they always have such delicious food.  it's been several years since any of us have had a chance to go to stroudsmoor, so it was a nice treat.

it was a double celebration because saturday was also ryan's dad's birthday too!

everything was so yummy and we all left completely stuffed!

a very happy 50th wedding anniversary to ryan's parents!

love, laurie

baby's first bike ride

normally by this point in june we would have been on our bikes many times throughout the spring/summer.  however, we've been so busy and the weather has been so wacky that we never got a chance to break out our bikes.  it was so very nice to be able to take advantage of the beautiful weather and dust off those bikes for the first time since the fall.  it was also fun to take baby houser on his very first bike ride with mama!  proud of myself for biking 7 months pregnant with him!

love, laurie

happy father's day!

happy father's day to our two wonderful dads!  thank you for all that you do for us!  we love you both so very much!

and happy father's day to ryan who is the best dad to leko and baby houser!

love, laurie

happy birthday!

happy birthday today to ryan's dad!

love, laurie

happy golden anniversary to ryan's parents!

happy 50th wedding anniversary today to ryan's parents!

love, laurie

wake up, dad!

when leko wants me to wake up, he stands next to my side of the bed and screams at me.

when he wants ryan to wake up, he gently crawls up on his stomach and holds his hands.

cute, but not fair.

i snapped this photo the other morning as ryan was fast asleep.  look at that side eye i'm getting from kitten!

love, laurie

the tiniest baby bird

my parents found the tiniest baby bird in their front yard yesterday.  we couldn't believe how small it was!

love, laurie

leko's "vacation" week

while we were in disney, our neighbor and good friend (katie) watched leko.  she visited him twice each day and sent us lots of photos and updates.  the worst part of going away is leaving our fur baby behind, but we knew he was in good hands with her.  leko and katie always get along so well, it's hysterical how they talk back to each other.  here are just a few of the photos katie send us while we were gone . . .

love, laurie