Monday, January 31, 2011

winter in Westmorland

This is from a couple of weekends ago, but I forgot to post. Our neighborhood has a very nice park (as all neighborhoods in Madison do). And the park doesn't slow in the winter! A few Sundays ago was the winter playdate.


Hockey (not pictured), hot chocolate, sledding and ice skating. Fun!




Sunday, January 30, 2011

so...how many kids are you having?


Dave and I are now the proud owners of three strollers!

Yes, three. I know. Ridiculous. All for one baby! But here's the situation. We really only needed the ones on the ends. And if we had bought these for full price, we would not have gotten the one in the middle. But we didn't pay full price, or even close. We got these used from one of Dave's colleagues who is selling off all her gently used baby stuff at rock bottom prices. And we had a blast going through her stuff - kind of like our own version of American Pickers, but the baby version - Baby Pickers! Think the History Channel would be interested?

Well anyway, back to the three strollers. The one on the left (for those of you who haven't been reading up on strollers for the past two weeks) is a Snap and Go for when the baby is very small and can't hold her head up. So, you just snap in the car seat and away you go! The one on the right is for when the baby is older. It's a lightweight, umbrella stroller that every mom I've polled says is the stroller they use all the time. So those are the two I was planning on buying.

The one in the middle is more of a Cadillac model of stroller. It does what the umbrella one does but has more bells and whistles and reclines all the way back (so maybe you can put a tiny baby in there, too...not sure). And the handles are adjustable, which for a short person, is a big deal! This is the one I would have made do without, but like I said, for these prices, we couldn't say no!

So after our "baby picking" expedition, we came home with:

-three strollers
-crib mattress
-crib mattress cover
-baby monitor
-cozy car seat cover (important in Wisconsin)
-Boppy
-Baby Bjorn carrier
-vibrating infant seat

All that for less than half the cost of that Cadillac stroller! What is it about finding great used stuff that's so exhilarating? I really think I've been watching too much of that American Pickers show.

I can't believe I just wrote three full paragraphs about strollers. But I do want to add that this was Dave's idea that I blog about this.

Oh and look at how cute Sam is!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Ben Folds

We went to the Overture Center last night to hear Ben Folds.


It was a great show and a nice venue. The Overture Center has 7 stages, I think. I saw Ingrid Michaelson with the girls in October in the Capitol Theater, which is the renovated historic opera house that they built the rest of the Center around. Last night's show was in the largest - Overture Hall.

Here's Overture Center from the outside.





And here's the lobby.


And here's Ben!

Here's what the inside of the hall looks like.

And you can drink in the hall, but only in these coffee mugs. It's really weird to drink beer out of a coffee mug! No worries - I did that in October, not last night.


I love the lobby - beautiful views of the Capitol!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

craft project!

I made a bulletin board a la Carrie McDonald!



The fabric is Amy Butler's Midwest Modern in optic blossom. All of Amy Butler's fabrics are gorgeous, so it was hard to pick. I love it so much!
The board is just a foam board from a craft store. A yard of fabric staple-gunned around the board coverd it perfectly. I just hung it on the wall in the blank space above our desk.


While I was waiting for the command hooks to adhere to the wall, I set the board on the couch. The cats had to inspect it immediately!

And then protect it lovingly.

I love the fabric so much I'm not sure I'll be able to cover it up with paper and push pins!

sideways snow

It snows often here, but (so far) not in massive amounts like the feet of snow that keeps being dumped on the northeast. We get a few inches and it keeps piling up on top of the inches and inches already on the ground. So, this picture is from sometime last week. Snow on our covered patio is a new thing - this was our first sideways-blowing snow.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

walking on water...i mean ice

The lakes are frozen!

So we went out to walk on (frozen) water today.

We saw ice gophers,

and dinosaur bones,

and an ice fishing shack!

Look at this crazy crack in the ice near the shore!

See ya later, gophers!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

winter wonderland Wisconsin walk

Took a little walk around the neighborhood yesterday.


We had about a foot of snow on the ground all over the city before we left for Christmas. When we came back, a lot of it had melted and it wasn't pretty anymore. It's been lightly snowing since last night, so now we've got a pristine white covering over everything again. Ahhh...so much prettier.


This is Westmorland Park, the park by our place.


For winter, the neighborhood association builds and maintains a skate rink. Now that I have a camera, I'll need to come back on the weekend to catch the the kids playing hockey.

And in closing, a slush picture. Why not?

Friday, January 7, 2011

big blog news!

I got the most exciting thing for Christmas...a camera!!!

Here she is in all her glory.


I lived without a camera for a little less than a year when my beloved little Canon Elph was stolen out of my checked luggage in February 2010 (thanks LaGuardia TSA and/or baggage handlers!). Since then, the iPhone camera has done a darn fine job. I think these first two pictures of the new G12 look great. It's as if the iPhone is proving herself one last time since she's knows she's being replaced.

This new beauty is exciting, though, because I can be lazy and keep her in auto mode, or I can be brave and try to learn how to use all these knobs and dials in manual mode.

Luckily, my two favorite photographers (Dad and Brother) are Canon pros, so they can teach me everything I need to know, right guys?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

flashback 2010 post

I didn't get to post about this before we left for NC for Christmas, so I'l do it as a flashback!

The final concert of the year for the Madison Community Orchestra was a holiday concert in the rotunda of the state Capitol!



We played about a 45-minute set of holiday tunes twice through. People could come and go as they pleased.


There was a pretty good crowd!



And Dave got some nice shots considering he was using his iPhone. Can you find me in this one?

It was a fun afternoon and definitely got us in the holiday mood!