Firsts!

Last week was lil' guy's first day of Kindergarten!!!!  I'm a proud auntie!!  His mom sent this awesome collage, which I just had to share!




Lil' Snowboarder started a new school this year and her first day of 4th grade was this week.





She loves being able to walk to school too! So fun!!!

Me, I'm exhausted with a busy work week, settling into a school routine, trying to work out, and knitting!  So glad tomorrow is Friday!

And a 3-day weekend!!
Happy almost Friday!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

What a Week!

Last Saturday, we were celebrating someone's 9th birthday!





Then we stole a few days up at our family friend's cabin during the week.  I have to say, a midweek vacation is pretty awesome!  My family spent many summers up in Arnold, CA at Blue Lake Springs but I haven't been up to the cabin in at least 10 years!



I think it is because any free weekends were spent visiting Grandma, Mimi, and Cotty once they moved from the city to Reno.  So when my mom said Lil' Snowboarder and I could come visit while her and her best friend (my sister's godmother) were up there, we drove on up!

And it is just as I remembered...





Except most of the kids up there had gone back to school, so it seemed like we had the place to ourselves.





Lil' Snowboarder loved the lake!







And she was spoiled by my mom and Pat taking her out to the dock too!  By the end of the week, Lil' Snowboarder was swimming to the dock by herself!!



We packed those few last days of summer with tons of fun!

There were tattoos...



and frogs...





and so many dragonflies!



There were also FROZEN Jr. Mints!! Delish!



Of course there was knitting!









And dreams of winning the lotto and buying this cabin!



Right?!!

And it was kind of nice relaxing at the cabin in the evenings without internet.  There were lots of card games!





Lil' Snowboarder loves Pat as much as we do!! Thank you Pat!!

It really was a perfect week!!!  I hope you guys had a great week too!  This weekend is time for catching up...on pattern writing, sleeping, blog reading...etc!

Happy Summer!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

P.S. The blue and gray shawl pictured above is a new design by me...hopefully coming in the next few weeks!  It is a variation of the purple one I wore for my sister's wedding!

Can I jump off the dock?

She sure can!

Happy jumping!
Xoxo irishgirlieknits

Savoring Summer

A spontaneous trip to our family friend's cabin was definitely the right way to savor these last few days of summer.

My view this morning....





Then a day at the lake...





Knitting...





We spent our childhood summers here and it seems like it hasn't changed a bit....








Well, except the pool area has wifi! Which almost makes up for the lack of cell phone service!

Two more days of this seems like heaven, right?!

Happy Summer!
Xoxo irishgirlieknits

Good things.

1. Surviving another Monday.  I just don't like them.  Well, unless they are a holiday :)

2. Introducing Lil' Snowboarder to the Spice Girls during the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics!  And then her wanting to watch their videos on youtube this morning :)  Of course, I had to google their names last night for her...I had Posh, Sporty, and Baby... My coworker and I joked that we were both searching the internet at the same time last night as her 3 year old daughter was enthralled by the girls too!

3. Attempting to finish my shawl for the Ravellenic Games.  I didn't finish, but I figured time with friends and sleep this past weekend were more important.

4.  Working on the shawl while watching our Womens Basketball team win gold!!!



5.  I joined a fancy new gym, thanks to a good friend with a hook-up :)  I am loving every minute of it.  I went 5 days last week and it still feels like I'm at a resort! Lil' Snowboarder definitely thinks it is a resort with this water slide (crazy, right??!!).  I so can't wait to bring Little Guy there!



6.  I may not have met my knitting goals for the Olympics, but I did meet me workout goals! I swam a ton and it feels so good to get back into a routine!  I promised myself a medal if I was consistent.... it may not be gold but I LOVE it!!



It is a waterproof ipod shuffle!  You can find it here and it was worth every penny!  I love to swim and can go for 45-60 minutes, but it gets boring fast and I usually want to stop around 30 minutes.  Not this week!  I have probably been the happiest swimmer in the pool!

7. Making ice tea :)  Since kicking the diet coke habit (well, I'm down to one every few days), I've tried to be creative about what else to drink.  Water, water, water....sparking water, fruit-infused water, etc.  And there's plenty of other things I like to drink, but I really don't want to add extra calories in for drinking (well, unless it is champagne or margaritas and such!).  Ice tea with just a bit of splenda has been the trick.  And I've been experimenting with lots of different teas from the tea party and I'm hooked!  This week I'm enjoying Teavana Youthberry and this one.




8. 19 days until Notre Dame Football!!

9. I'll be watching this  this weekend!

10. Getting to bed at a decent hour now that the Olympics are done.  Well, after tonight that is.  Oops...up too late blogging.

Night night!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Conflicted

I have to admit I'm slightly conflicted over the Olympics.  I have loved watching every minute and I've tried to avoid spoilers so I could be fully surprised when the USA Women's gymnastics team won, etc.  From archery, to swimming, to synchronized diving and women's basketball, to gymnastics, I've loved it all!  When I've been able to, I've watched the swimming events live online.  I'm glued to the tv from 8pm-midnight each night, with my knitting in hand.  I love everything about the Olympics, even the segments where NBC tells me about some random, unbeknownst to me athlete, and then I'm cheering for them to win two minutes later.  And crying if they did!

But here's my problem.  I need to sleep.  The adrenaline of a Notre Dame football game, or in this case, the primetime Olympic events, makes it really hard to fall asleep at midnight.  I'm wide awake and then find myself watching canoeing events at 2am (Ok, not canoeing, but usually I'm falling asleep and can't retain the exact info of what the heck event I'm watching). I can't be the only one with the problem, right?

I also need time to do other things, you know, like cook dinner, exercise, study, socialize.  I've tried to jam it all in to 6-8pm.  Next week, I think I'll feel like I have so much free time in the evenings again. It was nice to move knit nite to the local Mexican restaurant that has big screen tvs and Sangria, perfect for Olympics watching.



I will say, it has been nice to motivate Lil' Snowboarder with, "Hurry up...shower, jammies, reading all have to be done by 8pm to watch the Olympics" and that kid gets it done!  She's just as into the Olympics!

Of course, I won't complain about all the knitting time! 



I think we have a winner with this color combination! Thanks guys! I've had to put it on hold temporarily so I can finish a design, but hope to get back to this soon.  I'd love to finish it for the Ravellenic Games.

In other exciting news, if you are in Portland, please stop by my favorite LYS-away-from-home, Twisted.  They are having an IGK trunk show and all my lovely samples are there on display!!  I sooooo wish I could have squeezed in a trip to Portland this summer.  Next year!

Here's to another awesome week of Olympics watching...conflicted and all!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits