Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Heart A Day in February

 Hey loves. Have you realized that February is just two days away? I am ready for a new month but feels like it is coming so quickly. Every February I do something a little special for each of my kids to remind them that they are loved and appreciated. Heart A Day!!!!!

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Family Favorite Games

***This post may contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through or make a purchase

 Hey loves. One of my goals for this year is to be more intentional and spend quality time with my kids. Sometimes this is easier said than done especially when my kids range from 3 to 11. Finding activities that they all agree on and/or fit their age ranges can be hard. We have been playing more games as a family. We have a shelf in basement with so many games, some have never been opened or played, some the kids have gotten a hold of and pieces are missing. We have been going through them, getting rid of ones that have been destroyed or to many missing pieces, and having fun with it. 

Here are some of our current favorites. First little disclaimer: with a 3 year old she is not always playing with us, or plays by her own rules or part of a team. Don't get discouraged when things don't always go as planned. Games are meant to be fun and enjoying the company you are with. 


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Fall Fun Weekend

I needed a day or two to recooperate after a pretty much non stop weekend. So did Audrianna. She was fussy, huggy, cuddly, hungry all day Monday I didn't get anything I was talking with a girlfriend this morning that Aubriella was well behaved all weekend. She reminded me we were barely at home and on the go doing a lot of fun stuff that didn't let her have time for an attitude or temper tantrum, which is right. It was nice and we had a lot of fun, but this will not be the norm for every weekend. 

We planned a fall fun family filled weekend. It is the last weekend that I have Aubriella before Halloween and we wanted to get a bunch of stuff checked off out Fall Bucket List. The weather was the perfect all weekend and Brian didn't have any work. We told the kids we had a bunch of "surprises" for them. We do this just in case something doesn't go as planned or we can change our surprise and they will never know and not be disappointed. 


~ Friday  ~
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Family Fun

Happy Monday. There are some weekends that I can't wait for Monday to get here, to get back to a routine, back to normal, have a schedule, and Ella back to school. Today I wish the weekend didn't end. I really wished for a snow day, but we didn't get all the snow we were predicted. For the most part we had an awesome weekend. Only one little tiff of attitude and tears. It is the best feeling ever as a mom to watch your kids grow up, and enjoy amazing quality time as a family together. Added bonus Brian didn't have to work any this weekend either.


Friday Ella was all excited to go to school with her JOJO bow and dress that another girl in class also had. 


Do you see an Austin? He stole a bagel and is hiding so we don't see him eating it.

Friday evening we had a low key night. Ella got her reward personal pan pizza for reading everyday the month of December and we just hung out at home and played.


Saturday Ella had a fun day with her Memaw. They started off by going shopping to find her a LOL doll, but had no luck . 


Ella got to pick where she wanted to go for lunch. She decided on McDonald's with a play place. 


She had so much fun and was being so good for my mom they were there over 2 hours.


While Ella was with Memaw, we dropped Austin off with his grandma and enjoyed a much needed day date. 


Brian sponsored the Smart Home aspect of the Cleveland Home and Garden Show student model design contest. Here is him with the winning team. 


Since we already had tickets to the home and garden show we spend the better part of the day walking around looking at all the exhibits. I saw so many ideas for designs that I fell in love with, but wouldn't work with our current house. They had a special exhibit of designed mailboxes from local celebrities, like newscasters and radio hosts. My favorite was this wine inspired mailbox. 

After the Home and Garden show we went out for a late lunch. (I packed veggies to have as a snack while walking around since I knew I would need to eat while we were out) We picked a local place that we love to go to. Unfortunately they state on the menu they don't do special requests and they didn't have any real healthy options, also anything vegan was deep fried, so I do the best I could. (even their salads are loaded with cheeses, bacon, dried fruit.. that all add up) I went with a grilled chicken sandwich. I ate half of it as a sandwich, then the other half I just had the chicken. 


Saturday evening we did a little bit of shopping and got coffee and the kids donuts. Austin stole Brian's mocha iced latte. He gave a dirty look then went back for a second drink. Brian finished his latte then added water to the mocha at the bottom of the cup. Austin really liked his mocha water. (He thankfully didn't stay up any later than normal) I tried the new Blonde Flat White with almond milk, no sweetener or flavor from Starbucks. It was really good and a nice treat. 


Sunday morning Brian did dishes then made protein waffles and sausage for the kids. Plus we had french press coffee, my favorite. I love relaxing pancake Sunday's. 

After breakfast I finished our menu and grocery list for the week. Ella and I went out in the snow and got all our shopping done. We may have gotten lost a little, we were only gone for 2 hours and ended up with a new card game. I came home put all the groceries away, cleaned and prepped what was needed then sat down and relaxed with a book.


Later in the day I got to find Ella in her bathing suit in the bathroom playing with her barbie pool. At least she wasn't making a mess anywhere else with the water. 


Brian and Austin just being silly before he left to go to his brother's house to watch the first half of the Super Bowl. 


After Brian left I decided to give the kids a little ice cream to try and keep Austin awake since he hasn't taken a nap. He ate his ice cream than crawled up in his sisters lap and fell asleep. They are just so precious.


While Austin was napping Ella and I did a face mask. This was the first time we did one you had to peel. I wasn't a big fan as it was clear and hard to see where the mask was. (Ella still had some on her face this morning that I didn't realize was still there)

After Ella went to sleep I took a nice relaxing candle lit bath and read some of my new book club book. I am loving this new routine of taking a bubble bath on Sunday nights, now only if we had a bigger tub and I could find a way to get a bath every night.

Hope you had a great weekend. Did you do anything fun?

Linking up with Lindsay from Lindsay's Sweet World for Hello...Monday!!!

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XOXO




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Friday Favorites: Family Fun

Happy Friday. I can't believe it is the end of the month. June has come and gone so quickly. Yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day. Spend the day with my kids then the evening with my immediate family. 


This month we have done so much fun family stuff. He is some of my favorites. Join in on the fun of Friday Favorites with Erika, Narci, and Andrea.



I took the kids to the library. This was Austin's first time out of the stroller and playing. He had a blast, but doesn't know what inside voices are. 


Ella also had fun at the library. We joined the summer reading program and got a few books. 


June wouldn't have been complete without the release of Live Action Beauty and the Beast on DVD. We had a fun movie night with themed "The Grey Stuff" for dessert. You can read about our fun movie night here.


This month Ella and I have had two mother daughter dates to Starbucks.


What is summer with out swimming, even if that means you jump in with your clothes and diaper on.


We have a Disney store five minutes from our house. Over the summer they have Disney Summer Play everyday. We go once a week and do a fun activity and earn a different patch.


A few weeks ago we had lots of family in town. We took Ella to mini golf twice with everyone. 


There has been lots of ice cream this summer already. I found one place by us that has Vegan ice cream that doesn't upset my stomach!!!


While all the family was in we had a birthday party for my father in law. All seven of his kids came home and had matching shirts.


We live close to Cedar Point and Ella is over 44" she can ride some of the rides. This is a new summer tradition we started last year. This year we brought our niece with us too. Ella loved having someone else to ride the rides with us. 


Regal Cinemas has a summer special every week on Tuesday and Wednesday at 10am to see a kids movie for $1. Each week is a different movie. We went and saw Trolls on the big screen. Ella loved it and I loved hearing all the kids singing along.


Homemade Strawberry Popsicles in this cool no mess containers. 


Nice weather calls for family walks at night. I love it when the kids fall asleep in the stroller too.


Austin had his first pony ride at my fathers company picnic. He wasn't so sure about it. (but he has no problem trying to ride my parents dog)


We live about 15 minutes away from Lake Erie but never seem to enjoy like I want to. We went for a walk there the other night. We however didn't go down to the water (lots of stairs, to cold to go in the water, Austin was a wild one)


Yesterday I let the kids play at the little play place at the mall. They had the whole place to themselves for 30 minutes. They were in heaven and didn't fight me to leave.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far. 

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Family, Fun and Fathers Day

The last 11 days have been crazy busy and went by like a blur. But there was lots of fun, love, get togethers, ice cream, and taxi written on my forehead. I am glad we are finally back to normalcy and have planned today as a rest day. However rest day doesn't happen very well with two wild kids. 


This past weekend was so much fun. Saturday morning started off with both kids wanting Brian. This doesn't happen very often that they both want him. Ella is usually a mommy's girl. When this happens it needs documented. It was a great start to Father's Day weekend.


We decided we wanted to check out a local farmers market. We also had no coffee at home so we had to stop somewhere. Ella decided she wanted a donut so off to Dunkin Donuts we went. It was a treat and I promise you it won't happen again anytime soon. All around was a bad experience with drinks being messed up, rude customer service, donuts dropped in the bag so when you picked it up there was no frosting on the donut it was all in the bag. Brian managed a Dunkin for 7 years, I worked there for 6, this is no way acceptable. (this was not a location who we know the franchisee) 


Later on Saturday we had a huge birthday party for Brian's dad. He turned 85 and had all 7 of his kids fly in from all over the US. (Washington, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, and the other 3 are local) 


They had baseball tees made with their names and the year they were born. It was a cute surprise.


Both kids did great while we were at the party. Austin willingly went to his uncle Anthony who he normally doesn't like. 
The kids played in a blow-up pool, played yard games, and had fun. 


I tried this for the first time. OMG is it good but can get you in trouble. It goes down way to smooth and tastes like a red, white and blue Popsicle. 


Father's Day was another memorable morning. Again both kids wanted Brian. 


For fathers day Ella helped me make a mousepad on SnapFish. We just had family pictures done a few weeks ago so it worked out perfect. Ella picked out the layout, pictures, words, and background.


I ordered Brian this grill pizza pan from Pampered Chef from an online party I added a few weeks ago. I can't wait to try it out this Friday for homemade family pizza night.


Brian got two dad shirts. He got this Super Dad shirt and a Mickey Mouse #1 dad shirt also.


Last thing he got was a Best Dad Ever mug that Ella picked out all by herself. She can be very cute at times.
After presents Ella's father picked her up. Then Brian, Austin and I went out to a late breakfast with his family that was still in town. For dinner we were at my parents house. We ended the night at Brian's parents house for dessert before I had to pick up Ella. 
All in all in was such a fun, memorable, loving weekend. It was great seeing all of Brian's family which normally only happens once a year if not every other year. 



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Candy, Candy, Candy


Who doesn't love Candy??? Old candy that you can't find anymore, new candy, chocolate, jelly beans, a wall of PEZ dispensers, so much candy and more. B.A.Sweetie is a local huge candy store that you can find pretty much any candy your heart desires. We walked into this store the other night and didn't realize it closed in 10 minutes, we walked around real quick and said we would have to come back another time when they were not closing. I hate to be somewhere right at close, possibly making them stay open longer or keeping them from doing closing duties so they can go home. That's what happens when you work in the service industry for 14 years.
We did not drive to B.A. Sweetie just for the store we actually went there to try out their new Mini Golf course. When we got there they had a corporate challenge group finishing up, so we had to wait about 20 minutes before we could play. We checked out the candy store real quick then stopped in their soda shop and got some ice cream.



The Soda Shoppe is so unique with all their decor. Ella loves the seats that were made out of milk jugs. The table we sat at had a swing as bench and she loved that too, but wouldn't sit still and made it hard to eat and color. The tables were also lined with paper and had a bucket of crayons. 


I had an amazing delicious strawberry smoothie. 


Ella got her usual for anywhere we go, Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. It was very minty but she ate it all.


Brian got a rootbeer float. The soda shoppe has over 100 different sodas to choose from. (all of which come in bottles and you can buy from the candy store also)


We finally got to do our mini golf game. They have two courses, a easy and a hard. Since Ella was with us and this was her first time ever playing mini golf we went with the easy course. 


This was her first swing. Even though she is left handed she still wanted to swing with her right. She did awesome. 


Brian is also left handed and does everything right handed except eat and write. He helped her out with a few of the harder holes. 


She had so much fun and did so well for her first time. Towards the end she got bored and stopped really trying, but that was expected. It was also past her bedtime. 


Throughout the course the theme was candy. There was a PEZ water fall, a jelly bean tree, lollipops, ... it reminded me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. The staff was awesome. This really is a place I would recommend to everyone to check it out and we will surely be back. 



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