We've Done It All

Okay, so we haven't done it all, but it suddenly feels that way. The minis had MLK Day off from school and I took the day off so we could have a special Mom and Minis Day of Fun. Except, it wasn't really a day of fun. It was more like a Mom Tries To Talk The Minis Into Doing Anything That Involves Getting Out of The House Day. And that's why it feels like we've done it all.

I offered numerous suggestions throughout the weekend and Monday morning:

Coffee date, breakfast at a favorite diner, visiting the Capitol building, the Historical Museum, the Children's Museum, a movie, rollerskating, ice skating, going downtown, Jester Park Nature Center. I listed a good dozen things we could have done and I was met with:

"We've already done that before," or "We've already been there."

And I couldn't argue because we had. We've been to all of those places and have done all of those things.

Rollerskating 2016

Our "get out and do things!" lifestyle has happened due to a combination of reasons: my need to get out of the house since I work from home, us wanting to raise our kids with all kinds of experiences, and our love for our city and all of the awesome things it offers. How could we not want to do those things?? But now I kind of get what my minis are feeling.

We've been to all of those places that are now the "cool" places to take kids. I like to tell myself we helped make them cool years ago. The minis are still too young for a lot of the things the older kids are doing, but they're getting too big for some of the little kids activities. They've traded our Mom & Minis Days Out for time at home.

Rent a movie, order food from GrubHub so we don't even have to leave, play video games or on the Kindle, play board games, and stay in our pajamas half of the day. Don't get me wrong, that's a perfect day at home for me (although mine usually also involves writing or reading a book and laundry, because that never ends), but I can only do that for so long. I love our adventures outside of the house, especially hiking or being outdoors. It's a sad fact that those things are no longer at the top of their lists.

They're attitude towards our Mom & Minis Days Out has me questioning my parenting choices. Did we do too much when they were little that we now have nothing left to experience? Have we really done all (or all that interests us) our city has to offer?  I can only hope this is a phase we're going through and an adventure day won't be like pulling teeth to get them interested.

So, what did we do on Monday?? Well, we were home all day Saturday, a good chunk of the day on Sunday, so by Monday I was really hoping for some rollerskating action or really anything outside of the house! I made suggestion after suggestion and finally bribed them with clothes and candy to go to the mall so I could at least get a few items from our grocery list at Target. The entire "experience" lasted an hour and ended with me hissing at them that they were no longer allowed to speak to each other until we got home (a no touching or looking at each other was also applied in the car) and our favorite Chinese take out for comfort food (again for myself because I freaking deserved it).

It's only mid-week but I'm trying to gear them up for a weekend adventure somewhere. I have a list of things we could be doing and I plan to do them. Because I strongly feel that while we've done a lot, we haven't done it all.

Sledding Weekend

This weekend had one of those magical times that will always remain a fond memory. We hadn't seen measurable snow here in Des Moines, Iowa so as soon as I saw we had snow and it was semi-warm out (30 degrees in January is warm around here) we took advantage and went sledding! 

Friday night was family movie night. We got take out from El Michoacano (the vegan flautas were ah-maz-ing) and watched Christopher Robin. Then we waited for the snow.

Harrison had acting class Saturday morning, so Hubs took him and picked up breakfast and coffees from La Mie since I really didn't feel like going out (or leaving my bed). Most of the day was spent lazing at home, until mid-afternoon when we ventured out. We had a few errands to run and we had an early dinner at Teddy Maroons.

Harrison and Elizabeth made the most of our time inside and at home by mixing up their favorite sensory activities. This was baking soda snow colored various colors. I'm now out of baking soda and food coloring.

Since we dragged the minis along to look for dresses and shoes to wear for our upcoming Giggle Gala, we treated them to Scratch Cupcakes. Then the fun began. Even though it was nearing bedtime, we put on our snow gear and walking up to the school yard at the end of our block. The next two hours were spent sledding on the hill, sledding on sidewalks that had yet to be cleared, and running through the empty streets in sleds. 

It was a night I'll always remember! We had so much fun (minus one toy going lost in the snow that the middle mini had stashed in his pocket)!

1.) If you haven't tried the Just Dough! at Scratch Cupcakes, we highly recommend the Monster Cookie variety. 2.) Give a 6 year a little spoon to eat with her Just Dough!, she'll also use it to eat snow.

Sledding while snowing. It only added to our magic.

Yes I ran my children around on the sleds on the hilly roads around our house. Surprisingly I wasn't sore or tired after this.


Sunday morning I slept....and slept and slept some more. I was tired and the energy just wasn't happening for me. The minis had plans to go to our favorite sledding spot in Des Moines (Waveland Golf Course), but I just couldn't work up the energy for it. Instead I stayed home and worked on taxes for daycare, while Hubs took the minis for a 3 hour sledding fest. 

Clearly tax prep didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked, but at least I got to do it from my bed.



The socks said it all: SUNDAY FUNDAY!!