A sunny walk at Grays Lake Park was just what we needed.
Coming back from vacation (if you haven't read about our New Mexico fall break getaway, check out parts uno, dos, tres, and cuatro) to cold and snowy weather wasn't the easiest. Thankfully, we had some fun plans to keep us busy and downtime for us to rest. Weekend #1 found us enjoying sunny weather in Des Moines and at TWO birthday parties. Weekend #2 had Hubs and I away from the kids most of the weekend, with a Celebration of Life, friends, and work obligations. They got to enjoy a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa Sheaffer and we all enjoyed a short dinner together before going our separate ways. Weekend #3 was a weekend prepping for our busy Thanksgiving week, seeing Frozen 2, and yard work. I was very thankful for a weekend of errand running and prepping things because it will make my busy life easier in the weeks to come.
Here are some pictures from these weekends:
Pretzels from the Mall after a quick run to the Museum.
Swimming birthday parties are the best!
Family birthday parties are the best because they have sooo much yummy food (and mimosas)!
Pumpkin bars gave them fuel for all those leaves!
I left myself very little time on this weekend. I slammed pizza for breakfast a half hour before going to lunch before the Celebration of Life. Quite the busy day this was! Also, I wore a dress. And make up. And I socialized with adults. Woah.
Meanwhile, the minis made some really cool ornaments with Grandma Sheaffer and played board games.
We tried El Barco for the first time. No margaritas since I had an igloo to build at the Children's Museum, but the food was delicious!
Elizabeth had a sleepover with neighbor friends and the boys had a sleepover with each other...or so they claim. I also call this 'going to bed' since they share a room, so every night could be considered a sleepover.
Making headway on the newest exhibit at the Museum: a Winter Wonderland. My programming and board member partner Liz had the idea for an igloo last year, while I begged for an ice floor. We both got our crazy ideas approved and in just a couple of weeks this exhibit will open. I beyond excited to share it with everyone, but it's taken up a lot of time the last few weeks.
Sunday's are for playing, getting into hardcore fights with your brother, and taking long naps. Or that's how we spent this Sunday.
My favorite moment of this weekend happened Sunday night. Sunday evenings are cleaning nights to get ready for our week. I was delivering clean clothes upstairs and as I came back down the stairs I saw a kid out by the trash can. I asked, "what is that kid doing out there?"
My husband replied, "emptying the vacuum." I proceeded to watch him drop the contents of the bagless vacuum all over himself, attempt to dump the rest in the trash can only to drop the container, which meant he had to climb into the trash can to get it. I couldn't contain myself. I laughed harder than I should have at his expense, but luckily he has a sense of humor and laughed at himself too.
The minis figured out different camera modes on their phone. They had some fun taking videos of each other. We had fun watching them.
The minis reward for running errands all day with us was seeing Frozen 2 at Flix Brewhouse. The Frostbite drink was delicious (and the movie was pretty good too!).
Sunday was a stay home day. A relaxing morning led to an afternoon of raking leaves and finishing the yard work before winter. Everyone's hard work was rewarded with an entertaining game of Scrabble after dinner.
Grandma Sheaffer dropped off their dried ornaments from the previous weekend. I kept coloring pasta.
Hamburger soup for dinner.
