Our Spring Break "Stay-cation"

This week was spring break for our school district, so Tanner didn't have preschool. We decided to take advantage of our week without any obligations or appointments. We planned a different activity in the area for each day of the week.

Day 1- we went to McDonalds and got lunch. Tanner especially loves their cheeseburgers so he was thrilled with lunch. Then they played on the play place for about an hour.

Tanner devoured his cheeseburger so fast and then waited patiently for Bailey to finish hers. 

Tanner's favorite thing at the McDonald's play place is this wall of computers. They have lots of different games and he loves it. Bailey loves this jump/spring thing. They played really hard and then took awesome naps. 

Tuesday morning our playgroup met at Denny's for a "Superhero Breakfast". It was pretty adorable. 10 kids all dressed up- we got some pretty funny looks and comments- but it was so fun. 

Tanner and Bailey loved the costumes I made for them. 

Super Bailey to the rescue!!!

Tanner as "Captain America"

SUPER KIDS!!! 

The night before our breakfast Tanner told me that if I didn't have a costume then I couldn't come. Well I couldn't have that- so here is the extent of my costume. Tanner loved my "Super Mom" mask. That's what he called it- not me. lol. 

The kids ate so well. They ate their strawberry pancakes in record time. So fun!

On Wednesday we went to "Jump Zone". JZ is an inflatable bouncy house place. Lots of different inflatables and the kids love it. We played for two hours and then ate the lunch we packed. The kids were so exhausted after playing all morning. But they had a blast and that made it worth it, since the crowds were pretty bad. 

Thursday we stayed home but had a "Frozen" movie party. It mostly consisted of snowflake cupcakes and watching the movie. Tanner was so cute. He saw the cupcakes and said "Mom, you always make the coolest cupcakes!". That pretty much made the work worth it. They loved their  cupcakes.  

You've got to love these little faces. 

YUMMY!

We love the movie frozen but I'm pretty sure Bailey mostly just loves the songs and musical parts. She loves to sing the songs. 

Today, Friday, the kids went with Daddy to work and at breakfast with him. I had a doctor's appointment but then after that I picked the kids up and we went to "Barnes & Noble".

We walked into the store and Tanner and Bailey both got so excited. Tanner said "Wow, this place is awesome." and Bailey said "Soooo many books!!!"

We love books.

So we played for a while in the kids area and then read a ton of books. Before leaving both of the kids picked out one book to buy. It took Bailey forever to narrow down the selection. She finally settled on a "Pinkalicious" book. Tanner spotted a "Little Golden Spiderman book" and that was it for him. 

I love their passion for books and the excitement they had at the prospect of getting to buy one and take it home. 

Now our little "stay-cation" is over and tomorrow we are moving into our new house. So crazy. We are going to have a wild weekend. Stay tuned for pics of our new house, new van and eventually- new baby. 

My Birthday and St. Patrick's Day Fun

So I turned 27 on Saturday, March 15th. Seriously, 27!!! That seems much older than 26. But luckily it doesn't feel that different. My parents drove over Friday night to stay with our kids. Saturday morning Chris and I packed up and left for a weekend alone together. SO wonderful!
We went car shopping, got lunch at "Panera" and then went appliance shopping. Then it was over to the dollar theater for a matinee showing of "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit." It was pretty good. Then we went to dinner at my absolute favorite sushi place- Kobe. It was amazing. After dinner we did some shopping, grabbed some ice cream and went to our hotel.
It was such a nice day with just me and my sweetheart. 

My kids did not even notice we were gone because they were having too much fun with Nanny and Papa. They went to Chuck-E-Cheese on Saturday afternoon and spent 3- hours playing and eating pizza.  My Mom was gracious enough to send us a few pictures of the kids having fun. We missed our kids a little, but they could have cared less that we were gone.

They had so much fun! Tanner was so thrilled with the pizza. 

But Bailey sat on Papa's lap and completely out-ate Tanner. That-a-girl B!

Anyways, Sunday morning we slept in as late as our parental bodies would allow and then ate breakfast at our hotel. We woke up to rain, which soon turned into ice/sleet/snow.
With the bad weather, we decided to head home and try to get there before the roads got bad. 

When we got home, my mom was making a birthday cake for me. She's awesome like that. 

Eventually my parents had to head back to Mtn. Home. We didn't want them driving back in the dark with the yucky weather. 

After dinner, we ate my cake. The kids were so excited. It was so funny. Tanner kept commenting on how many candles there were. Luckily, he's pretty cute so I didn't get real offended. It was beyond cute when they sang to me. Love my little family. 

Anyways, it was a great birthday and I feel very loved and extremely blessed!

Monday was March 17th, St. Patrick's day. I made sure we were all set to celebrate.
Sunday night I read "The Night Before St. Patrick's Day" to the kids so they knew what to expect the next day. 

While the kids slept I cut out and taped little leprechaun footprints all over the house. 

They led from each of the kids' rooms all the way to a little bucket of treats that our leprechaun left for us. 

There was also a path of "footyprints" (That's what Bailey called them) to the fridge where the kids found green milk. They were so excited about that. 

So we had "Lucky Charms" with green milk for breakfast on St. Patrick's day.

Tanner and Bailey are kind of HUGE fans of St. Patrick's day. 

And Tanner was beyond relieved that he had a green "Leprechaun" shirt to wear so he wouldn't get pinched. He's so funny right now. 

Besides the cereal, these are the other treats our leprechaun brought us.

The best part of the day though was watching Tanner "examine" the prints left by the leprechaun.
He told me that leprechauns are really small so he had to use his magnifying glass to find him. 

Pretty dang cute, right? He ran back and forth all day making sure the footprints were still there and that the leprechaun hadn't come back. He really wanted to catch him!

I think next year we will set a trap for our leprechaun. Tanner is really excited about the prospect of building a trap and catching one.
I'm enjoying this age so much. Tanner imagination is so fun right now. He has me laughing all the time. 

Anyways, Spring is almost here and we are so ready. Stay tuned for some Spring Break fun and our move into our new house. All happening next week... wish me luck!

Our Last Visit to Mtn. Home....At least for a while.

We spent the weekend in Mtn. Home and it was so nice.  We probably won't get to go back until after this baby comes, since we will be working on moving and then I will be too close to my due date to go on road trips... So we decided we needed to make this happen.

We left Friday afternoon and drove over in gorgeous weather and with HAPPY kids. They always get so excited to see Nanny and Papa.

We got in around 7 pm on Friday and the kids got to play for a while before bed. Clark and Danny were over so they all got to play together. Then the kids said they were tired and happily went to bed. (they love sleeping over!)

The next day Chris and Papa went on a guided fishing trip. The fishing trip was Chris' Christmas present two years ago and they finally got to cash in. It was the perfect day. Sunny and clear. They maxed out and brought home tons of fish. So fun.
I also got to sneak away and get my hair cut and colored Saturday morning. It was so nice to have a little
time to myself and I love my new hair. So fun for a change.
Here's a pic with my hair and the ever growing belly.  (33 weeks)

When I got home, the kids went down for naps and my mom and I made about a million bean burritos.
She has the awesome recipe from her sister and we make them and then freeze them. They are amazing.
I'm pretty thrilled to have some in my freezer right now. My mom is awesome. 

After naps we took the kids bowling with Nanny, Papa and Uncle Joe and his family.
There was a short wait, so we played some arcade games while we waited.
Tanner loved the air hockey. 

Then it came time to bowl. You can imagine how funny it was to watch 4 kids, ages 4 and under try to bowl. Yeah. It may have been the longest 10 frames ever!!! 

We took turns helping the kids. Look at this little stud. He loved this blue ball. It was light enough that he could carry it himself. 

Bailey, true to character, picked out a pink ball. 

It was so hard for the kids to wait for their next turn. Patience is so hard!

Love these kids. They are so funny. 

Even Papa took some turns helping the kids bowl. 

The funniest thing was Bailey running back and forth from bowling and Nanny's lap. Nanny was tickling her back and she hated having to stop to take her turn to bowl. She would bowl her first turn, then run back to Nanny for a quick rub-down before returning to bowl her second turn. It was cracking me up. 

After bowling, we went back to Nanny and Papa's and Chris fried up the fish they caught that morning for us. It was delicious. (Don't mind my sunburned husband. Silly man forgot to wear sunscreen!)

But here is Chris with our fish fry dinner. 

We made potatoes and broccoli to go with it. The kids even enjoyed the fish. Pretty impressive!
Chris says he wants a fishing trip every year for Christmas. He really enjoyed it!

The next day was Sunday. We went to church with Nanny and Papa. Then it was home for lunch and naps. And after naps we ate a birthday dinner for Julieta, since her birthday had been two days earlier. Then we ate cake.
I love these two people!

After cake we had to head home. We got the kids into their pj's and loaded up the car. The kids traveled great coming home too. So grateful for my happy travelers!

My parents are going to be spending quite a bit of time in Bentonville over the next two months and we are so excited. They are coming over on Friday for my birthday and the kids can hardly stand it. 

Can't wait!