Wednesday, December 20, 2017

The Weekend Before Christmas



Well, you may have heard my three day weekend didn't start as spectacularly as I was hoping. Minus our Christmas Cheer Day (you can read about that fiasco of a day here), the rest of the weekend went (mostly) smoothly and we were able to have TONS of fun!


Friday night involved a lot of cat snuggles, Love Actually, and popcorn. It's interesting how sick kids can be so draining on a person. There's not much else I could do but lay around and re-group. That was much needed because Saturday was go, go, go from the moment our eyes opened. The minis woke up a half hour before me and examined the deer jaw bone. They decided to do a few other science experiments while I got ready for the day. This simply caused us to run late because they had a huge mess to clean up. 



Donuts for breakfast at our favorite donut shop (Donut Hut) followed by picking out cupcakes at our favorite cupcake shop (Scratch) for a treat later. Then we went hiking. When a fifty degree happens in December, you take full advantage of it! We hiked 3+ miles....actually most of it was ran.






This is the first time we've been hiking here where everything is dead. Usually it's full of tall weeds, poison ivy, poison oak, and TONS of mosquitoes. The minis were nervous at first when I gave them go ahead to climb on fallen tree trunks and explore....they actually refused to leave the trail until I tried it first. Then they were all about it and declared the area "the best hide n' seek place ever!"


I was cracking up watching Elizabeth run. I didn't realize until I watched the video later that night that she totally has the Phoebe run (watch what I'm talking about here).


It's crazy to think the middle child (the one in the far left in the pictures) was really sick the day before. Rarely does he stay down.






Elizabeth's best from the weekend:

E: "I'm going to be 5 1/2 soon," she said very proudly.
Max: "You turned 5 1/2 December 7th."
She looks to me for confirmation.
Me: "You did. Max is correct."
E: "What!?! I didn't get a cake or ice cream or presents. Not even cupcakes. So, where are they???!!?"
Me: "Where's what?"
E: "My presents and my party! Where is it?" 

We had a deep conversation about the difference between half birthdays and full birthdays (yes, we used those terms). We need to keep the diva at bay!


Harrison pretending to be the Abominable snowman. The best from Mr. Harrison (while we ate donuts):

H: "Mom, how old do I have to be to live by myself."
Me: "18."
H: "Mmm, no. No I don't." Turns to Max and taps his arm, "hey, do you remember when we went apple picking with grandma and grandpa?" Turns to look me dead in the eyes, "remember that mom? When you and dad left us for the weekend to go on vacation without us? You told us it wasn't for us. Yeah, well grandma and grandpa took us apple picking."
Me: "Okay...." 
H: "Well, we went by that huge house. That mansion. On the way home, we drove by it. So, I'm going to go live in that house."
Max interrupts.
M: "That's a huge house to clean! How are you going to clean it?"
H: "Oh I'm not. It's my house. I don't have to clean it. I don't really like clean things. So, yep, that's where I'm going to live. It's going to be filled with toys. All my toys. Oh and I want a car too. But not like a car like you drive, but one of those battery cars that you can buy me at Toys R Us. I really like that black one."

Dream big buddy. I had to stop eating my donut so I didn't choke from laughing.




No great quotes from the oldest this weekend, but he had a "spectacular" moment when he put his head through a wall. At someone else's house. Good times. Never a dull moment. This is why I have grey hair. 



We had such a great time on our hike and it was so warm out that we decided to head to the zoo right after we had a quick lunch. We got to the zoo right at the end of Santa at the Zoo. We got to see the reindeer, see Santa, grab a treat bag, see all of the other zoo animals, AND play on the zoo's playground. What an afternoon!










I got to be playground mom for a minute: sitting on the bench watching my kids run by. It was a refreshing moment.



We kept up our busy day by going directly from the zoo to my parent's house to decorate Christmas cookies. The kids were wound up on sugar (and pizza) and gave us plenty of laughs through cookie decorating, dinner, and playing.





And then the crash Saturday night....

She cried because the toothpaste was almost gone. Key word being almost. I put the kids to bed and then headed to do the grocery shopping and get a few last Christmas gifts. It was wonderful to have some time to myself, but I was more than ready for bed when I got home. I fell into bed at 10 p.m. and didn't wake up until 8:30 the next morning.


Upon wake up refreshed Sunday morning, we set out for a less busy family day. We had brunch at Star Bar (our favorite), a birthday party for my cousin, a couple of hours in the afternoon to do a family household cleaning session (the kids are actually helpful these days), and we ended the weekend with Christmas lights.




Max took our picture and was REALLY proud of himself that he got the dinosaur on the TV in the picture too!



Max was also the one who put his head through the wall. At someone else's house. I just can't with that kid sometimes.


Our favorite places to look at Christmas lights in Des Moines are Ashby Avenue (also known as Candy Cane Lane and is conveniently near our house) and SE Richland Ct. in Ankeny. We rocked out to Christmas music and the minis got a special treat (McDonald's) while we drove around.


Now that we had a full on playing weekend, we're ready for our four day Christmas weekend! 4 Christmases (one each day), family, friends, traditions, drinks. Bring it on!