AKT plus kids playdate winter 2015

My two best friends are the greatest.  If you've been here before, you'll recognize them from when I've written about them before (our 30 trip, weddings, baby showers).  When my kids are asked who Mumma's friends are they answer my sisters and Katie and Karpy. 

We are all mommas now and about an hour separate Kate and I while multiple states separate us from Karpy (PA vs. NC).  So out of sheer missing each other and our kids and in an effort to be the kind of moms that do brave things (like drive solo four hours with preschoolers for a weekend getaway)-we met up halfway in Fredricksburg, VA for a playdate!  (my two best friends that know me so well joked that I only wanted to do this seemingly rather daunting trip for blog post material - hahahah, they were only half right!)  And thus, we've started a (hopefully) bi-annual tradition of our AKT plus kids halfway meet up playdate.  (Can we please continue do this when our kids are teenagers?)

Since it was the dead of winter and we were traveling with six kids five and under - we stayed closed to the hotel for the weekend to create our fun.  We stayed at the Residence Inn and it had all the amenities we needed!  Indoor swimming pool, double bedroom suites, mini kitchen areas, kid-friendly tv channels, pull-out beds/forts.  It was perfect for our weekend.  Don't you worry, we hit up that indoor swimming pool with serious enthusiasm that weekend - four separate times in two days!

Since we stayed inside nearly the whole time, the kids were pleased as punch to basically exist in their jammies all weekend.  As were the Mums too...or at least the Mom version of coziness:  yoga pants and comfy sweater shirts

...and we certainly enjoyed a fair amount (read:  excessive) of snacking and eating ranging from free continental breakfast to ordering in Chinese and pizza, to snacking on  gooey chocolate date balls and consuming approximately the kids' weights in oreos.

With six kids under six, understandably we had a few meltdowns during the weekend.  Kids uninterested in their paparazzi mommas, food and snacks that weren't exactly what they wanted at that exact moment, or as we were heading out on Sunday morning when Gemmi cried for 30 minutes straight about 'leaving her friends.'

But it was mostly about playing, being silly, and making new memories with old friends. 

On Saturday night, the four littlest kids went to bed, while the 'late night crew' (and by 'late night:' it was 8:30pm) stayed up and giggled endlessly about nonsensical things.  The kids on a mix of punch-drunk exhaustion and being temporarily allowed to make up songs with the word 'poop' in them.  While the moms were giddy from mini bottles of champagne and glasses of wine.

I'll tell ya, we had so much fun that weekend four hours away from home in a hotel room in the dead of winter.  It was just like old times between the three of us - messy buns, a giddy wine buzz, and all.

...well, sort of just like old times

old times plus our favorite six little humans.

Dear Sophia, Greyson, Gemma, Charlie, Andrew, and Violet,

A happy life is 90% about who you spend it with.

Be like us and spend it with people
who listen to you to understand,
who make you laugh and smile,
and who encourages you to be YOU!

You guys are so lucky and you don't even know it yet.

We love you forever and ever,
even when you get so big,

your mummas
(Allison, Katie, and Tab)

akt fo lyfe.

Senior Night calls for a kid interview!

In honor of the Blue Jays Senior Night game tonight (and last home game of the season, whew!  that went fast!)  I interviewed the Blue Jays two biggest fans about our favorite team and coach.

What is your favorite part of basketball season?
Gemma:  Going with my Dad on the bus (with the players after away games)
Grey:  Going to practice and going to the locker room like the players.

Who is your favorite player?
Gemma:  Jake
Grey:  Drew and Billy and Dante....well, all of them, Mum!

Do you want to play basketball when you grow up?
Gemma:  Yea
Grey:  Yes!  and then when I get done with college, I want to be a coach too.  Like Dad.

Who do you think would win a basketball game: Daddy or the Blue Jays?
Gemma:  Blue Jays
Grey:  Daddy

You or the Blue Jays?
Gemma:  Me!
Grey:  Blue Jays

What is something Daddy says as a Coach?
Gemma:  Let's go Blue Jays!
Grey:  Jays on three, 1, 2, 3, JAYS!

What kind of coach do you think Daddy is?
Gemma:  a Happy Coach!
Grey:  He's an awesome coach because he teaches the team cool basketball moves.

Do Daddy's players listen to him?
Gemma:  Yes
Grey: (laughing)  um, No.

What's the coolest thing about basketball?
Gemma:  Playing basketball!
Grey:  All the cool moves, like when the player throws it up to the net and the other guy dunks it.  What's that called again, The Loopy Loop?  It's called an Alley-oop.  Oh yea, Alley-oop

What will you miss now that basketball season is ending?
Gemma:  The snacks
Grey:  I going to miss shooting hoops at practice.  I'm going to miss all the players too.  But they're invited to my birthday party, remember?

What do you want to tell the Blue Jays tonight for the game?
Gemma:  I'm Gemma, please can you bring me presents?  Thank you.
Grey:  I love you!  I hope you win today!  And I hope the other team doesn't win and you guys do.  So, can you please do the Alley Oop move?  Billy, you have to throw the ball to Charlie and then Charlie you pass to Drew and then Drew, you come over and dunk it...okay?  And here's what I have to say (deep voice):  Jays on three, 1, 2, 3 JAYS!!!!

Why I Blog

Let's be honest, I started blogging back in 2008 because my wedding planning -which had occupied most of my brainpower up until that point- had come to an abrupt end following our actual wedding (woohoo!) And I had just finished reading Julie & Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. And we were living three hours from our families in Erie, PA.  And we had little else occupying our days than work, trying out hole-in-the-wall pubs for their wings, and laughing at our sweet kitten Lola.  Blogging was a way for me to update our family about what was happening in our life and convert unused brainwaves into words.

And so it went for a long while; me just writing rambles in my brain about our regular life.  But then after some time in the blogosphere, I started writing about our 12 Months of Kindness and also writing some non-diary style posts and I started to see my little section of the internet as less of a journal and more of a collection of meaningful stories of my life and of me; who I am right in this moment.

In early 2012, two full months after posting it, my 25 Rules for Moms with Sons hit a tipping point (at this moment that one post of mine has been viewed 2,060,901 times:  un.believe.able.) and I experienced the bizarre feeling that happens when you suddenly realize people who don't know you in any capacity are now reading the linings of  your brain. It's both exhilarating and terrifying.

today, I blog for vastly different reasons and to a much larger audience (hello!!) than I ever could have imagined back in 2008 when I started in our little townhouse as a newlywed with hopes of becoming a mom someday.  Oh, sweet, little, clueless Tabitha, how I love to think of you sometimes worrying about how you'll spend up all the hours in a day.  lolololololololol. you're so adorable.

yep, current keyboard missing buttons thanks to toddlers.

today, I blog because I feel like I am part of a community, like I have discovered inspiring and incredible friends in other bloggers and readers.  I identify with these women; they are 'my friends' in whom my husband and sisters know them by name or back story.  They are a source of inspiration for me and of real connection.  A few weekend ago, I sat in my dark hotel room with my sleeping babies near by and openly wept for my instagram friend Beri and her son; their lives have been in my heart and on my mind for the past several weeks.  I see an update in my blog feed from Ashley, Shelly, Shellie, or Ellie and I feel actual delight that I get to read and learn more about my friends; like a new email from a friend in your inbox.

I blog because I can write about what I want to say so much better than I can actually say what I want to say (this, this, and this).  My brain thinks in paragraphs highlighted in quotation marks and setting references.  Ideas for blogs and scenes from my novel float and drift behind my eyes all day.  To not write would be to choose handcuffs.

I blog because it is a record of who I am in my life right now.  It tracks all the things that are bottled up in my brain that don't come out during my days filled with sippy cups, sticky toddler hands, and giggles.  Someday my kids will think I'm horrible!  The worst!  The very last person on the Earth who would understand what they're going through or be able to relate in any way.  Or worse (please no), for some tragic reason I won't be around - then on that day, maybe they can come here and read these words and get to know their mother.

It's been a weird and wonderful journey through blogging and I am so grateful to have found and stuck with it for all this time.  I'm still hanging around, despite my lack of posts in the past few weeks.  Winter and basketball season and sick kids and babies who refuse bottles have taken over my life...but I can see the end of the tunnel and I can't wait to be back to blogging as usual.  Thanks for sticking around.  I honestly appreciate you for spending any amount of your day with me and my thoughts.  thank you, thank you, thank you.