Author: stephaniemags

I am stay at home mama to three beautiful girl, trying to keep it all together! Journey with us through life and learning to live with less so we can experience more!

First Day of School {daycare}

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Starting daycare as a toddler (yikes)

Ada started school this week (aka daycare)! Grandma is going to Florida for the whole month to visit Dan’s brother who is expecting their first baby in March. They just bought a house, so she’s going down to help them get all set up. Since she watches Ada 3 days a week it was time to look into daycare. It was just as well, we have been spoiled with 2 years of free childcare, and I really felt like it was time for Ada to start school in a more structured and educational environment, make more friends and of course pick up tons of germs!

She was so excited because her friends Abby & CJ go to this school. I don’t think she knew what it was entirely, but she was excited anyway!

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The drop off went really well on the first day because I don’t think Ada understood that I would be leaving her there all day. The teachers said she was on and off with being happy and sad all day. She threw a couple fits throwing herself on the floor, which isn’t typical behavior for her and she wouldn’t really nap or eat much. All very normal for such a huge change. They warned me the second day would be worse dropping her off and it was. It was an all out kicking and screaming shit show trying to leave. They just pulled her off of me and basically kicked me out. I cried a little once I hit the car. When I came back to get her Miss Kim said she was like a different girl, she participated in everything, she napped, she ate all her lunch. She only had a hard time at the very end of the day when the other kids moms and dads were starting to pick up. Today, the drop off was still rough, she cried a lot but the kicking and screaming subsided. The end of the day report was great though, she had another great day playing and learning.

To reward her for finishing her first week I made her favorite dinner (spaghetti) and then we went to White Rabbit for some FroYo, which she loved because they had red Mickey Mouse sprinkles, which obviously is the best thing ever!

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I’ll report in a couple weeks as to how the transition is going. I’ve been reading a lot about starting school at this age and most comments are very similar. Its a huge change for a kid at this age, I just tipped her world upside down, removing grandma completely and forcing her to stay with strangers all day long. After a  few weeks they start coming around, some kids take longer than others, but I am hoping that since she has her two friends Abby & CJ with her that she’ll get used to it quickly. Time will tell!

 

My husband the millionaire

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I mentioned a few posts ago that Dan has been working a lot for a big event he was competing in.  And now I couldn’t be more proud or excited to share this post!! If you live in Buffalo you’ve probably read all about it in the paper or online by now, but my husbands new company that he has been working tirelessly on for the past year entered the 43 North Business Competition this year. This is the largest business competition in the world awarding $5million in prizes to the top start-up companies in the world. (You can read more about it on their website at 43north.org.)

There were 11,000 companies that entered this year from 117 countries and all 50 states, and my husbands company, ACV Auctions, WON THE BIG MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE!!! The past few days have been a blur, probably more so for them than me, but still so very exciting! They’ve had media interviews, parties and meet-ups galore! I should clarify that his start-up company won the million, not him personally. Everyone is asking me if I put my two weeks notice in at work or teasing me that it’s time to upgrade my costume jewelry for the real stuff. I wish it was the case, but we personally aren’t seeing this money any time soon. His company however is now able to grow tremendously with more staff hires and they will be able to expand the reach of the markets they are entering.

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If you want more information on the competition or ACV Auctions you can read one of these great articles below that have been published within the last few days.

SelectOne Article

Times Union Albany

Buffalo News

I am so proud of him and his team-mates, they deserve this so much for all their hard work and dedication. It’s not everyday someone gives you a million dollars to help make your dreams come true, but these guys are reaping the benefits of hard work!

Halloween recap and lots of photos

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We had a lot of fun celebrating Halloween this year! Ada picked her own costume and I made it myself, which you got a sneak peak of from the Boo at the Zoo. Since she was Cookie monster, she wanted “Baby Vanna” to be Elmo and since they were coming over to trick-or-treat with is on Halloween my sister had me make a costumer for her too. They made the cutest little Cookie monster and Elmo I’d ever seen!

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We’ve had week filled with Halloween stuff, we painted a pumpkin for the kitchen table and made a special snack to share with our friends. Ada was so proud to walk them down the street and deliver them.

 

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We also carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween, which Ada loved, for about 5 minutes, then I had to do the rest.

 

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My sister’s fam came over on Halloween night and we met up with our friends and took them all trick-or-treating. The kids really got the hang of it by the second or third house, so it was a lot more fun this year.

 

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We concluded our night by staying up late in anticipation of daylight savings and hoping that we wouldn’t have to wake up at 4:45am on Sunday. Ada helped Uncle Dan give Savannah her bottle before calling it a night! Happy Halloween!

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Some more Fall fun

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We took Ada to the Pumpkin Farm again this year this past weekend. I was a little underwhelmed this year. It was a little expensive to get in. Ada was free but Dan and I were $7 each, and we weren’t doing anything but walking around. Then we had to pay another $13 for a pumpkin which I thought was a lot. There were tons of activities and food, but again nothing was included and we would have had to fork out more money for carney rides, food and drinks. Sorry kid. Ada enjoyed the pumpkins of course, as she is still obsessed with them this year. She also liked the animals in the petting farm. The inside barn is all decorated with halloween stuff that you can buy. They have some pretty crazy, scary halloween displays for people who like to go all out with decorating. It started to rain a little, so we ducked in there to walk around for a little bit, but Ada was completely terrified of most of the stuff in there and wanted to leave. So we just headed out!

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I think next year we will skip the Great Pumpkin Farm that is getting a bit over-commercialized and we’ll make the drive out to the real farms like the one from my last post (link). It was so much more fun! It did help that the weather was much better that day, but in general, it was a better experience.

 

Weekend Recap

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We had an extra long weekend thanks to Mr. Columbus! Saturday we took the kids to the zoo, for Boo at the Zoo and they got to wear their halloween costumes and trick-or-treat at each of the different exhibits. It was a beautiful day so luckily we didn’t have to wear coats over our costumes. The kids really enjoyed getting treats and handing over their card to get a punch at each stop, and then we got to look at the animals.

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We had a nice picnic lunch that we all brought from home and then it got close to nap time and we had some meltdowns and had to call it a day.

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Daddy has been working a lot lately because he has a big event coming up where he is competing for $1 million dollars for his new start-up company, so he had to work on Monday, my day off. Me and a couple girlfriends took all the kids to a local farm for some good old fall fun!

They had a great time and the weather was perfect. We got to take a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and pick our own pumpkins and then we took the horse drawn carriage back to the barn.

 

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The kids all got to have a pony ride, we had a picnic lunch in the small barn and then visited the petting zoo. On our way out we got some popcorn and some beautiful purple mums for our front porch!

 

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Ada had a meltdown when we had to leave and screamed bloody murder almost all the way home, until we were about 2 minutes from home when she fell asleep. (always) So I decided to leave her in the car and drive to my parents house for awhile.

It was a fun, festive weekend for us and we hope this great weather will last a little bit longer!

 

 

Baby Savannah {Newborn Pictures}

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I was pretty excited my sister trusted me enough to take newborn pictures of my new niece Savannah and while they aren’t as good as a pro, I thought I did a decent job getting some beautiful pictures! It was a lot of fun playing with her for the afternoon and she did so good, she slept for most of it and was awake for some so we got some pictures of both. We had to stop to feed her once at the beginning, but otherwise Savannah was a little doll. Right up until the end when she pooed all over my fur blanket. Still not really sure how I’m going to get that one clean! Here are a few of the finished edits I did! Enjoy!

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Ada’s birthday getaway

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Ada’s birthday was on a Tuesday this year and I couldn’t take the day off work, she was at my parents on her actual birthday. They ordered pizza for lunch and I came over to join them for my lunch hour. My sister and Savannah also came, so we had a little party! It was also the first time Ada got to meet her new cousin Savannah and hold her!

 

Meeting Savannah

The weekend following her birthday we took her to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. (link) It was so much fun! Its about an hour drive from us, so we got a hotel room for the night, took her out to dinner and went swimming in the pool.

The museum was amazing, we could have done two full days there and still not seen it all. She loved the Wegmans grocery store, where she could push the cart around, shop for groceries and then cash out at the registers.  The Sesame Street set was great, she recognized all her favorite characters of course!

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After the museum we all needed a quick nap at the hotel and then  we took her out to dinner. We couldn’t find anything super child friendly that appealed to Dan and I, (we hate chain restaurants) so we risked it and took her out for sushi! She did great! She loved the edamame, I tried shelling it for her, but she found it more fun to try and eat the bean out of the pod, so that kept her busy, she also loved playing with the chopsticks, but who doesn’t??

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The following morning we checked out, took her to breakfast and drove home before the Bills game started! We had a great weekend celebrating my two year old and hope to make this a fun tradition!

 

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I’m an Auntie!!!

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My first little niece finally arrived last night!! We welcomed Savannah Marie into this crazy world at 8:11 pm on September 18th! Just 4 days before my Little Ada’s 2nd birthday, making them almost exactly 2 years apart! I am so happy Ada has a little girl cousin so close in age. It takes a little pressure off me wanting our second baby to be a girl, I wanted her to have a sister so bad since I know how special it is to have a sister you are close to, so at least now she’ll always have her cousin!

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She’s a tiny little peanut weighing only 6lb. 9oz., My sister and brother in law are doing great after 25 hours of labor. Everyone was very tired.

Today was Ada’s 2nd birthday party, (which I’ll catch up on later). Things were a bit hectic at our house this morning as I was preparing to have 10 toddlers, 2 infants and 24 adults in my tiny house. Dan’s Dad was in from out of town and fortunately they were staying with us, so we were able to leave Ada behind and run up to the hospital before her party and meet the baby! My sister was bummed she couldn’t be at Ada’s party, but Ada won’t remember, from now on we may be doing joint parties!

I am so excited for my sister to join the mommy club!! And so proud of her for enduring the longest labor ever!! I had no words of encouragement for her on that since Ada was born in a matter of about 7 hours, start to finish! (I got really lucky), but she did amazing and now she has the most exciting, tiring and rewarding days of her life ahead!

Apparently the pressure is back on me for the next baby again! Dang! Here’s a few more pics I took while we visited!

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Summer Photo Shoot

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Earlier this summer we won a free photo session with Shannon Glurich Photography . I was so excited about this for two reasons, I really wanted to do summer photos but Dan didn’t want to pay for them and I never win anything! We had the most perfect evening ever down at Beaver Island State Park. We did it before sun set and the light was amazing. Here are a few of my favorite shots! Thank you Shannon for the great family pictures!

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The happiest engagement ever!

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This was the 12th year we have been going to my friends lake house up in Batavia, NY. I wrote about our trip last year  when we took Ada. This year Dan and I decided to send her to Grandmas house for one night and we went up and spent 2 days and 1 night with our friends and I’m so glad we did!

Cody is one of my best friends, we’ve been friends since we were freshman in high school and have been through a lot together and Danielle and is one of my oldest friends, we’ve known each other since we were 4 years old and took dance together! I’ve never been so happy for a couple knowing I am so close to both of them!

This weekend trip has been part of our lives for so long, and this place has so many memories and stories it made perfect sense that Cody would pop the question to Danielle here. He let all our friends in on the little secret and had everyone play a part. The picture below I think is probably one of the most adorable and special engagement pictures I’ve ever seen. She was so surprised and we all felt so happy to be part of this memorable day for them!!

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Her twin sister did an amazing job distracting her while everyone got in the water and into position. (We made sure to do this right away before anyone had a little too much drink in them and misspelled something important!)

I think out of all the great times and amazing memories we have from this place, this weekend will go down into history as one of the best ones!

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