Peter Max

Tim and I first discovered and began to appreciate Peter Max on our Honeymoon Cruise. Carnival teams up with Park West Art Auction House on board and Tim and I really enjoyed attending the auctions. We bought a few items on our Honeymoon and again on our 5 Year Anniversary Cruise this March, but just daydreamed about the Peter Max paintings, especially after noticing a significant increase in the price from five years earlier!

I particularly love his flowers, hearts, and angels.

Tim is drawn to Umbrella Man.

Tim saw that Peter Max was coming to the nearby Wentworth Gallery and decided to make an evening out of it for us and Timmy. My parents came along as well, and since it was their 39th Anniversary, we went to dinner afterwards to celebrate with them! We were hoping to get Max's autograph or at least take a picture of him and to see some pieces we had not seen before. We got to do all of these things and, unexpectedly, purchase a piece of his art!!! The Wentworth Gallery prices were much better then the Max prices on Carnival, and they had a nice financing option! We are so excited to own a piece by Peter Max!!! By purchasing it with him there, we also got a few additional perks, Max signed, dedicated, and drew a sketch on the back of our piece, took a picture with us, and dedicated a book of his artwork for us as well. It was very exciting! They had a proffesional photographer on hand and as soon as they email the pictures to me I will be sure to update this post, as well as when we get our piece hung! For now, here is a picture of a similar piece to what we bought!

22 Months!

Time is just flying by!!! I have started answering the "How old is he?" question with "Two in June" instead of the number of months... ahhh it's coming up fast! It's funny, I never understood why mom's answered in months after the first year, but now I know the answer, at least for me, I don't want to round up! I like him just the size, shape, and 'level' that he is at whatever given moment we're in! Anyways...

Timmy's current favorite show, book, toy, activity, past time, shoe, etc., is Thomas the Tank Engine! We watch an episode before bed every night, when he is getting sleepy he points to the tv and says "choo choo" and we all know he's ready to start our night time routine! He has a toy Thomas and several of his friends at both our house and my mom's. He has a floor mat with tracks on it, but he is happy to make a train track out of any line; window mullions, carpet borders, and most recently, the grout lines in my kitchen tile. He is so smart! Pictures below!

A Little Sewing Project

I am tooting my own horn in this post because I took on a sewing project for the first time since I took Home Economics in 7th Grade! We have not done much to our bedroom since we first moved in, right after getting married. We got our comforter and curtains as wedding gifts, not to mention our furniture. We have added art and prints to our walls from our travels to Rio, Paris and Edinburgh, but our room has never felt pulled together to me. I put bedroom lamp sets on my Christmas Wish List for 3 years before finally getting them this year, and that helped a lot! I have been searching for just as long for blue tabble runners to use on top of the dressers. They don't exist. At least not inside of my price range! So, I purchased a table cloth, on clearance, and with my Grandma coming into town I got brave! With her and my mom's help, we cut the table cloth down to the sizes I needed, stay-stitched it so the material wouldn't unravel, sewed the first hem, and then pinned the exact dimensions for the final hem. I won't claim that it's perfect, but I'm very pleased with it, and I love how it helps display all of the stuff on the dresser instead of it just sitting there.

BIG BOY!!!

My baby turned into a big boy on Tuesday April 6th, 2010. He officially has a big boy bed in his room, and he's been sleeping in it without any trouble! I had been mentally preparing myself for this night when he turned 2. I have been holding Tim back since we got back from our cruise, but he finally made the switch. I started to lose the battle after our visit to Connie's, when Timmy took a nap in her guest bed. The first pictures are when Timmy first saw his new room. The later are from after I was done spending my entire weekend reorganizing his closet, now that he has a dresser! The first night Tim laid down with him until he fell asleep, and we've had to do that for a few naps, but every other night he has gone to bed without trying to get out or anything. I'm kind of amazed, I guess he really was ready!

We are going to hold off a few more months on the redecorating, but if you can see what's on the little blue hamper in the corner, that'll tell you what the next theme will be!

Easter

For Easter we took advantage of a chance to sleep in before getting Timmy dressed and into his (first) Easter Basket. Then we met my family at PF Chang's, which has been a Machak family tradition for several years now. From there we went to Elena's for Timmy's nap and got him up in time to all go to church and dinner. We wrapped up the day with a visit at Tim Sr's.

Cherry Blossoms and Easter Eggs

My Grandma came to visit for about a week and a half around Easter. It was one of the longest trips she's made recently and we were excited to have beautiful weather while she was here, she's been freezing all winter in Ohio! We had planned to take Grandma to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms for her first time, but with the beautiful weather coninciding with the peak of the blossoms, Easter, and the local Spring Break, DC was mobbed. Instead of fighting the traffic and the crowds, we opted to go to Meadowlark Gardens to see the blossoms. Timmy loved getting to wander around on the paths and spotted lots of wildlife too! While we were there we posed for our first Four Generation picture with Grandma, Dad, Me, and Timmy.

Later that weekend we colored Easter Eggs at my parents. Luckily, Timmy was happy to color his with his crayons, and didn't question us not giving him the dye!

Visiting with the other Joneses

We've gotten to spend lots of nice family time with Tim's families in the last few weekends. We hosted his Mom, Al, and all of his siblings at our house to celebrate Elena, Jenny and Chris's birthdays (they are all the same week!) We had good Chinese food, cake, and some time for Timmy and Brayden to check each other out.

The following weekend we went out to Tim's Grandma's house with his Dad, Susan, and all the siblings to visit while his Aunt Dale was in town. We had an Easter Egg Hunt (you will notice Chris took the hunt very seriously because of an egg with a $20, but Timmy found it, and ran over to show it to him!) We also had a picnic lunch and played a few rounds of croquet. It was an absolutely beautiful day!