It was one of those weekend's where there was a little bit of this, a little of that, and everything in between. Friday night we happily went to Harrison's preschool Family Fun Night and had a blast. Saturday was a "home day" while the hubs worked. There was some relaxing, lots of playing, coloring, laundry doing, grocery list making, and Olympics watching. Saturday night we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday. Sunday we had a wonderful brunch at Hy-Vee, ran errands somewhat successfully (I consider only a handful of meltdowns and a few no's extremely successful), Matt and Max went to the new Lego movie while the other two mini's took naps and I cleaned, baked, cooked, took trash out, did laundry, and did some online shopping, watched the Olympics.
All in all, we happily took the good with the bad and had some fun, some family time, some relaxing time, some shopping, some running around, along with laughter and quite a few tears. I can't say much else besides this is life with a kindergartener, preschooler, and toddler and I'm loving every minute of it!
See that boy in the blue and red shooting baskets??? Yea, that's Max. We walked into Harrison's Family Fun and instantly Max fearlessly runs over and starts playing basketball. The best part of all of this: he still had his eye patch on (from his eye injury last week) and is shooting baskets with only one eye halfway open!
The boys and I doing the Cake Walk. They used the ABC's on the circles to walk on so the kids were being quizzed on their letters without even realizing it. I will be stealing this idea to do with the daycare kid....although I will be substituting stickers for the cake.
Harrison won a cake (he actually picked out cupcakes). Max and Elizabeth were super excited about Harrison winning cupcakes....more so than Harrison himself.
Ring toss game. Family Fun night had several games that I'll definitely be looking into and were great for all ages of kids.
The minis were excited to learn they were serving hot dogs, chips, cookies, cupcakes, and lemonade....no wonder they didn't want to go to bed!
Elizabeth LOVED the fish in Harrison's classroom and kept calling them "bubbles. Oh, bubbles. Kisses!"
Bup playing with the big kids. She informed us she would like to go to preschool too.....I am NOT ready for that!
The favorite room of the night: the black light room. Preschool Family Fun night was a huge success for all. We have been incredibly pleased with Harrison's preschool and just signed him up for the 4 year old program next year. We got home waaaayyyy past bedtimes Friday night, but the kids were still energized from their crap food feast...shocker. It should be of no surprise that the kids were late to bed and early to rise Saturday morning....
Elizabeth got a hold of the camera and snapped this picture of H and me snuggling on the couch....anything I can do to catch a few more minutes of shuteye!
Coloring cards for Grandma Harmeyer's 50th Birthday party. In the last few months, Elizabeth has gotten into coloring and doing art projects. She's always the first one to come running when I tell the kids "I have an activity for you!"
The minis broke out the dress up clothes/costumes.
Elizabeth tried out a super hero dinosaur, but settled on.....
Thor, while Harrison was Spiderman.
My parents stopped by with goodies for the minis and myself. The boys like playing Hide n' Seek with Grandpa.
After the hubs got off work, we made a drive out to my aunt and uncle's house where we celebrated "Grandma's birfday!!" Max and Harrison eagerly waited to blow out the candles on the birthday cake.
After another late night, a restless night sleep for three of the five of us, and two early risers, we decided on brunch at Hy-Vee. I got out of cooking a big breakfast and it got the kids out of the house. It was a win-win in my book.
After brunch, we did some grocery shopping. The kids love watching the lobsters in the tank....Harrison loves imitating the lobsters. When I asked the minis if we should get a lobster and eat it, they were appalled that I would even suggest it. I think they'll be disappointed when they find out what they're actually in the tank for!
There was a little bit of Cart Wars happening with the two littlest minis. Our good big boy Max helped Elizabeth steer her cart so there wouldn't be any displays knocked down....not that that's happened to us before....
Gotta keep em' happy and going somehow! The boys thought this was hilarious.
After our morning of brunch and errand running, the hubs and oldest mini Max went to Merle Hay Cinema to see The Lego Movie. It got rave reviews from both boys.
Max's first time at our favorite movie theater in Des Moines. Sadly, it will probably be his only time at Merle Hay Cinema. It's a locally owned theater, with good prices, a huge screen, and it's a step back in time as soon as you walk in (it hasn't been updated). Merle Hay Mall is getting a new multiplex Flix (it's also a brewery! Yes, I am excited about this). The hubs and I got a chance to speak to the GM of Flix in November and Flix will be a great thing for MHM and the Des Moines area (not only is it a brewery, but they have rental space for office meetings, and special family events and shows), sadly it means the closing of a great theater.
We ended our weekend building new Lego sets (if anyone would have told me ten years ago that I'd be happily playing with Legos on my weekends, I wouldn't have believed it) and digging into homemade chicken tacos.
We're making progress on our Iowa Winter To Do List. Slowly but surely. This weekend provided a bit of everything for us, but next weekend we're looking forward to a busy, fun-filled couple of days "out on the town." Hopefully this week goes off without a hitch and won't be too busy so we can enjoy next weekend to the fullest. Life is all about having fun and that's what we do....with some success!
