the lake

We had a great time at lake Oconee with our friends Allison/Torsten and Jin/Jason this past weekend. Tate and BeBe (10 months apart) are now old enough to play together, and had the best time riding in boat, running around the house, bouncing in the blow-up water park, driving their electric cars, etc. Allison's twins, James and Isabella, and Brady (6 weeks apart) enjoyed sleeping and looking at each other.

I took a lot of pictures - hopefully, I'll get motivated to upload all of them soon. Until then, here's a few highlights...

mommy confession

So, I forgot to pick up the kids from school yesterday. Completely. Forgot. I'm still a little in shock over it myself.

I worked from home like usual. Keith came home around 4:30pm and went upstairs to take a nap, and I jumped in the shower around 5:15pm so that we could meet friends in downtown Roswell at 6:30pm for the monthly Alive After Five event.

After my shower, I remembered that I needed to send one "quick" email. The "quick" email involved a complicated subject and I totally lost track of time.

I remember looking down at the time on my computer. And I remember thinking... "oh wow, it's 6:20pm. Let me run back upstairs and change clothes so that we can go."

I went upstairs, Keith was still laying in bed... and that's when it hit me: HOLY @%^#!! I FORGOT ABOUT THE BOYS!!! (Keith thought I had already gone to get them - didn't realize I was still downstairs. He was lying there waiting for me to get home.)

Keith dashed out the door like a madman and I called the school to let them know that we were, um, running a little late. He got there at 6:40pm (10 minutes after they closed) and retrieved our poor, forgotten babies who were standing by the front door with the teacher who was ready to lock the building and turn out the lights.


My guilt and self-loathing were somewhat eased when two little happy faces came through our front door. Tate ran and gave me a big hug, and Brady was all smiles, so I suppose all was forgiven.

But, seriously, what kind of mother forgets about these two?? A tired one, is my only explanation. I think the weeks of sleep deprivation are finally getting to me!!!!!!

keith golden!!!

I sent my dear, sweet husband outside on Monday night to grill steak kabobs for dinner.

He got a little distracted.


So, I guess we're getting a new deck!

little people

One of the perks of our zoo membership is special, members-only events throughout the year. This weekend, the Fisher-Price Little People musical was in town. Tate has several of the LP toys and movies so we thought it would be fun to take the boys. Tate was a little nervous during the show, but told us later that he really liked it....

perspective

when I'm tired...

when the house is a mess...

when I'm stressed out at work...

when I'm feeling fat...

when I can't be in 10 places at once...

when I haven't been to the grocery store and there's no food in the house...

when I have nothing to wear...

when I need a vacation...

I can look at this picture...

and smile.

And, suddenly, nothing else seems to matter.

the family bed

"Keep your words soft and sweet in case you have to eat them."

It's true. For those of you who have openly admitted that your child sleeps in your bed, I have scoffed. I have judged. I have peered down at my perfect and precious toddler while he slept soundly in his own bed from my very, very tall parenting pedestal and told myself that would never happen to me.

That is, until my perfect and precious toddler turned me into a liar. And a hypocrite.

Because, you see, the Golden household has been sharing a "family bed" now for weeks on end. Let me show you how it works.

This is our bed.





















This is our bed with it's usual occupants. Notice the human/cat surface area percentages.





















And this is what our bed now looks like. You may notice some variations in the surface area percentages.





















I'm sure this is just a temporary phase. I mean, I don't know any teenagers who still sleep in the same bed with their parents. (right?!?!?)

So, I guess in the meantime, I'll just be laying here...wide awake....eating my words...with a knee in my ribs and an elbow in my eye.

P.S. Dear Brady, don't get any ideas. Love, Mom

haircuts and chicken

We dropped Brady off at school this morning and Tate got to spend a few hours with mommy and daddy all by himself. He has been randomly begging and whining all week about getting a haircut, so we checked that off the "to do" list and then ate at Chick-fil-a. A good mommy would have known that today was cow appreciation day so that we could have all dressed like cows and gotten free food...oh well. Tate was terrified of the person walking around in the cow costume, so maybe it's just as well...might have been a scarring experience for us all.

4th of july

To celebrate America's birthday this year, we...

...got up early and drove to Big Canoe





where we played with friends...


rode on scooters...


looked cute...




...and ate watermelon.

"
”
”


Then, we headed to Atlanta...

where we went to the pool...

played on the porch during a thunderstorm...

dressed like mermaids for the neighborhood parade...







and stood under trees to stay dry from the rain.

And even though it rained on our parade (literally) and the fireworks were cancelled, we still had a wonderful day with friends and family. Happy 4th of July!

graduation party

We went to LaGrange last weekend to celebrate the graduations of our nephew Andrew (UAB) and niece Emilee (High School). Karen and Wayne outdid themselves and threw a great party for 200 guests, complete with homemade pulled pork, potato salad, etc, a full bar and bartender and a DJ and karaoke until the wee morning hours. I didn't take nearly enough pictures and I (sadly) have no pictures of the two honorees, but here is a brief glimpse into our weekend....

Meme (Keith's mom) and Brady




Our niece Meg and Brady


"Moo-oom, Tate has his finger in my ear!" (imagining what Brady would be saying)

lions and tigers and bears

We bought an annual pass to the zoo and have taken advantage of it a few times so far this summer. The pictures below are from May. This was actually our first outing as a family of four, but somehow we have no pictures of Brady at all to document the occasion. (poor 2nd child)