Life right now feels like it's moving at one hundred miles a minute which is being driven by my workload. I'm in the midst of planning two large video shoots at our European headquarters in Munich, Germany putting me out of town all next week. And leaving behind Jeff and the kids at home has me on hyperdrive organizing things before I leave. Right now I'm relying heavily on the benefits of coffee, crockpot meals and grocery delivery services. Speaking of Shipt, did you hear you can now use mPerks with Shipt!? Amen, my friends.
And while things at the office are heating up, home is beginning to settle down. Our nights and weekends are freed up for the popular neighborhood $5 pizza night at Harmony and the ever so coveted Saturday morning Fulton Street Farmer's Market strolls for fresh produce and those tasty frigg'n cookies. Give me all of the Gluten.
Last weekend we enjoyed the Eastown Streetfair with friends. Four-strollers-wide we roamed Wealthy Street seeking food, trinkets for purchasing and face-painting - for the kids for the kids! We started with happy hour on our porch followed by more happy hour on our porch - living the dream! Kids went to bed unbathed and later than normal bedtime because, well, summer is still alive and well on Rosewood Ave.
Some of the gals from Women's League. They make Wednesday nights very memorable.
Also last Friday night I took a few hours off as Mom and Wife and went out with some girl friends from golf league to celebrate a birthday. We ate dinner at Wheelhouse, my fist time, followed by dancing at the Back Forty. Talk about Moms gone wild... birthday girl Amber took the (birthday) cake with impressive moves on the dance floor and stellar onstage presence. I think we took the whole 'dance like no one is watching' slogan to the next level.
All the pretty ladies celebrating Amber's birthday last weekend at Wheelhouse.
Jeff and I have been fortunate to golf together (we usually golf separately during our own league times) the last few weeks with some last minute Sunday afternoon rounds during the kids nap time (thank you babysitters!) and we even paired up with my in-laws two Fridays ago at Thousand Oaks for a change of golf scenery. This kicked off of Labor Day Weekend. Golf was followed by happy hour on the Reds patio and later that night, a date with just the two of us at the newly opened Noco Provisions in Forest Hills. We were very happy with our dinner and think the place will do great in Forest Hills neighborhood. Jeff had the ribs and I ordered a very tasty salad and we shared the Calamari for an appetizer.
The Calamari at Noco Provisions, tasty!
The rest of the Labor Day weekend was spent both with friends for a day at their pool in Ottawa Hills watching the Michigan game (so fun!) and then with family at the lake in Rockford. The weather was great and per usual, the hospitality of my mother-in-law Mari left us with full bellies and happy hearts.
The kids are doing fantastic. Here's a fun fact, Thomas is now in the same size diapers as Natalie. Which tells us two things: 1. Thomas is a BIG, healthy boy and 2. Natalie is still not 100% potty trained. Which is super duper cool. Potty training drama aside, we've got good babies who make things easy for us and that makes us very grateful.
Thomas Christopher at 5 months.
And outside of prayers of gratitude for this excellent summer we're having, we've certainly got plenty of other things to pray for lately: hurricane disasters, friends with serious health challenges and some with sick grandparents. The Kladder house may very well be a chaotic one (at times), but we've always got plenty of room. We've got room for your needed prayers, room to make you meals and buy you bagels, and room to just listen over coffee or a cocktail. Call on us and we will be there. Grace and peace.
POSTSCRIPT - Things we're into lately...
- The Donut Conspiracy!!! Ohemgee... so so good. We had them on set at one of our shoots last week and I could not stop eating them.
- Happy Hour at Reds at Thousand Oaks Golf Club. Discounts on apps, wine, beer and cocktails!
- The Cobb Salad at Wheelhouse. Pretty much two bites of lettuce and then 2 times the amount of Cobb Salad toppings!
