Let's Pretend It's Summer Weekend

Walnut Woods State Park

Super, super fun weekend! I wanted to make it special for the minis since it was our last weekend to spend together for a few weeks thanks to events and trips. We started the weekend with a low key Valentine's night. Hubs ordered take out, we watched America's Sweethearts, and we ate more chocolates than we needed. It was the perfect night.

I was kind of hoping for space on Valentine's night. It had been one of those weeks where everyone had to be touching me, needing me, and making sure I was within sight at all times. Of course, that didn't change Valentine's night, but I also didn't mind the relaxed cuddles and back stratching while we watched a movie I hadn't seen in years.

Saturday we gave grocery shopping another go, this time at Aldi's. I wasn't a fan and the minis agreed Trader Joe's is where it's at. As Elizabeth declared, "they just have all of our favorites stuff...and even if it isn't our favorite, it's still pretty good." Same mini. Same. 
It was a warm and sunny Saturday and I couldn't let it pass us by. We hiked at Walnut Woods, explored, and then followed it up with our favorite Ecuadorian food from Mi Patria. 

Break for lunch in between grocery shopping and hiking.

I fully expected the trail to have snow, but was surprised to find that it was also ice packed. We still enjoyed our river rim hike and there we no falls on the ice. Of course, they did manage to find all the mud along the trail and stomp in it because, why not?

It wasn't until I was going through pictures that I noticed the middle mini's gloves didn't even match! In fact, they're two different sizes because one is his big brother's and the other is his from last year.

They clearly have my grace....

The minis were obsessed with the ice on the river. They kept trying to convince me to let them walk on the not-very-frozen river. Sigh. I obviously kept them from killing themselves.

It wouldn't be a family hike without one pout about how tired her legs were.

"Are you sure we can't go walk on the ice down there?" Pretty positive children. Que more sighing from me.

Nice enough for the windows to be open! I've managed to keep the winter blues away this year, but it really helps that we have had a mild winter compared to last year.


My favorites on my plate: plantains, hominy, llapingachos, fritada con mote, and arroz con pollo. I highly recommend Mi Patria if you haven't tried them yet!



We rose early on Sunday morning, made breakfast, and then went to the pool. Yes, the pool. An indoor pool, but still a pool. Adventureland Inn has cabanas that you can rent in four hour time blocks or all day. We chose a four hour time block since it's Sunday and we had plenty to do, but I had been waiting to do this all winter! I'm so glad we made time for it because the minis had a pool to themselves most of the time we were there! Plus, I got to have a drink and sit in the hot tub. Perfect Sunday in my book.

A summery fruit salad with breakfast for our pool day. The minis are so ready for melon season, playing outdoors all day, and swimming suits. Basically, we're just ready for summer vacation!

Okay, so I'm going to tell on myself here. I totally didn't pay attention to my reservation time when I made it. I meant to make it for 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. but I accidentally made it for 4 - 8 p.m. I was crushed because that time didn't work for us, but the person working the front desk said, "let me make a call." Instead of telling us to come back (which he would have had every right to do), he had housekeeping quickly clean a hotel room for us to use while we were there. So, we actually didn't get to use the cabana rental but an actual room. The room was very nice and overlooked the pools. I am so very grateful they went above and beyond for us! It was greatly appreciated and saved the day.

Of course, we spent all of our time in the pool area and not in the room.

The hot tub was glorious.

One little girl in a big pool all to herself.

The reason for the funky blue lighting: the skylights. 

Lunch from Spectators: nachos and pretzel bites. The boys hogged it all down.

We went back to our room to change and have a quick snack. The minis thought they were starving. So much so that we picked up pizza on the way home too and they ate an entire large pizza. Woah.

Along with pizza, we also picked up last weekend's pottery that was painted at Glazed Expressions. So proud of my seven year who painted a shot glass, "for you and me Mom." I haven't decided yet if this is a parenting win or fail...


I loved having this fun weekend with my minis! My next two weekends will be spent hosting an event and traveling, so it really was our last weekend together until the first full weekend of March. Luckily, we have an excellent support system who will make sure the minis have lots of fun the weekends we're not with them. Being at Adventureland Inn just made us more anxious for summer weekend afternoons spent at Adventure Bay. So, so close!

A Week of Valentine's Parties

This year's Valentine's art project

There's pros and cons to having quite a few part time kiddos. A con would be not having all kids at one time, which means we can't have just one Valentine's party because someone would miss it. A pro to this would be we get to have multiple parties in one week! The kids had a blast with heart shaped snacks and meals, coloring, Heart Game, and of course passing out Valentine's to one another. Here are a few things we did that are kid approved:

The sensory bin was a hit (clearly). There was white rice, red and pink flower petals (fake), mini hearts that the kids counted and buried in the rice, then re-buried and re-counted over and over again.

We completed the heart shaped pancakes with chocolate sauce and a heart shaped strawberry on top.

Nothing beats heart hats during lunch! The kids colored them, then watched in awe as I cut them into heart shapes. "Hey! It's a heart! How did you do that??!!?" They kind of believe I'm magic.

Working on Valentine's for school.

I call this photo Battle of the Wills. They're both trying to tell the other one what to do, but they're both bossy so it doesn't work.

Paper bags were perfect for their Valentine's. The kids loved the stickers and using oil pastels to decorate their bags.

Another winning lunch: heart shaped grilled cheese, veggies, and pretzels

Baby friends are about the cutest thing ever. Sometimes your friends tries to get away, so you chase after them anyways. They can't get away that easily....there's not that many places to go in daycare!

Daycare had a late start one day (due to weather). The cat was seriously concerned why the sun was up and fully out and the house was quiet. He patiently waited for kids to come.

One of my favorite stages is seeing a baby become a toddler. Sure, things can be difficult, but things can also be easier. Like when they take off their socks and instead of hiding them in toys they hand them to you. When this happened, I told the one year old to put them in his shoes. He put them in the eleven year old's shoes instead. So close! It made me smile though.


Practicing ABC's, counting, and learning Disney Princesses. All of the important things in life.

"Oh no! Help her, she's dying!" --words that are spoken that make my heart stop. Thankfully it was part of their game.

I noticed in the afternoon, after all daycare kiddos had arrived, that my husband left his six pack of beer in the breezeway (also known as the daycare room entrance). Somehow, parents didn't notice, a kid didn't grab one, and my husband got spoken to (oh-so lovingly, as you can imagine). I wanted to die in that moment though! Thankfully, I have amazing families who didn't think anything of it (they're probably used to our oddities at this point).


One look at my counter had me giggling. Bleach cleaner, the kid's favortie green beans, Goldfish crackers that we couldn't live without, beer bread mix (that was amazing! Good ol' Trader Joe's), a pouch of food, and formula. Typical and random.

The kids took passing out Valentine's very seriously. Even putting stickers on each other very carefully.

Of course the highlight of the week was a heart version of our Find It game. I cut out various shapes, colors, and sizes of hearts and hid them around the daycare room. Once they were all found, we counted them out (all 17 of them), sorted them into colors and sizes. The kids had a blast with this and requested the game over and over again.

Looking hard for those hearts!

I was lucky enough to have my own Valentine's party Friday night, complete with take out and cuddles. While, after a week of humans and animals constantly touching me, space would have been welcomed, the cuddles and a relaxing evening was a great end to the week.