we had a family over for dinner tonight--which we rarely do. they are a family of five but tonight were only a family of three--they only brought their little boy austin who is 5 because his big sisters had other plans. sadie was so excited --austin's mom--taught sadie's class in preschool last year and sadie adores her. dan and I love entertaining--it gives me a chance to dig through recipes and cook a meal I would otherwise not make for my family.
I made chicken marsala, spinach salad, green beans with honey and butter, and spinach and artichoke dip.
sadie, austin, and laken seemed to be having a fabulous time.... we only had a few incidents where the kids weren't getting along.
later when we were putting the kids to bed. dan asked sadie if she had fun with austin--she stated "no" he was mean and made me pull my pants down.--whhaaatt?? I called austin's mommy to make her aware--I guess he was curious and sadie didn't know what else to do, innocent yet really upsetting to me as a mom. I love my babies and it is amazing the emotions and feeling that can arise from an incident like this. I tried to explain to sadie ( who is 4) that her body is hers and no one can make her do anything with it that she doesn't want to.

practicing my rule of thirds with my camera--I just have to keep telling myself--I am smarter then my camera over and over

my ultimate goal is to use my camera in manual setting for every picture I take

we spent a lot of time outside today. the temperature was around 55 and overcast but still nice enough to hit the new park for a couple hours at lunchtime and then swing outside before dinner. My children would live outside if they could and the cold weather just wears on them--any opportunity to be outside we are all over it.

laken today--what a bad haircut but as his mom--I just think he is darling...

the kids this weekend

laken loves his man "purse"

Our house is located right in front of a retirement home--there are about 40-50 apartments for low income seniors--I don't mind it at all--there has been one issue tho...
people tend to park on our street instead of in the parking lot.. this has been really troublesome for me--I have actually run into two different vehicles on two separate occasions while backing out of my driveway--between dan and my speeding tickets and my little incidents our car insurance has gone sky high!!
anyway--I met the man whose car I backed into the last time--his name is charlie and he parks in the street because he is only allowed one parking place at the center and he has two cars. what a dear man--he thanked me for leaving him a note on his dashboard after ramming into him. the car is finally fixed and he just wanted me to know.