Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Date 10: Late Night Date
My mom is here visiting for a week during our outage schedule and Mike and I were able to sneak away for a little bit last night. We needed to catch up on our marriage devotional we're currently doing with our church life group and planned to work on it over a coffee date for a couple hours. As we were driving over the bridge and into downtown I asked Mike he if he would rather have coffee or grab drinks by the river. Needless to say this was a no brainer because having a sporadic date like such was rare, so to the river we went. For a Friday night it was eerily quiet in our particular restaurant, but just a couple blocks away the streets were bustling with vendors for our local festival.
We decided to grab a couple appetizers and sips on the back patio. We sipped on gin + tonics, our go to cocktail, and enjoyed crab dip and oysters. Our waiter was chatty since we were one of the few parties in his section and shared he grew up in Maryland. Of course that sparked conversation and we mostly discussed how crab cakes are only tasty made the Maryland way, with very minimal filler. While recommending a few of his favorite items on the menu he said the crab cakes were okay and had some filler....that means you don’t order them.
As we finished our meal and headed outside we quickly realized we have become southerners. It was 60 degrees F outside and by any measure of a true midwesterner this is considered beautiful weather, but we were freezing! We felt so shameful as we ran to our car and quickly turned up the heat and the seat warmers. Our only defense is the type of cold here is very different, it’s a wet cold due to the being so close to the water compared to Nebraska. You may or may not find that a reasonable excuse, but that’s what we’re sticking with, ha!
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Date Night: 8, 9, 10, 11
I haven’t been good about posting the last few weeks, but our dates are still taking place although they’ve looked a little different since we only have one day off together as a family and more often than not most of our time is spent with the kids. We’ve settled in for more movies on the couch, but we’re still keeping it fun.
Date 8: Twister
Mike and I had the itch to pull out some of our games, but knew if we tried to play Monopoly or something of the sort we’d probably fall asleep. Instead we picked up Twister. Neither one of us had played the game since high school and trying to maneuver our limbs to the different colors was much less romantic as it was challenging, uncomfortable and funny. We had stretched our bodies in ways we forgot or knew how and woke up the next morning sore.
Date 9: Color Me Beautiful
We had heard good reviews about Passengers and knew it would be a great movie that would hit all our wants: adventure, suspense and romance. The movie was everything we had hoped for and in while watching we made some popcorn and pulled out Kensi’s colored pencils and our coloring books we had bought each other a year ago for Christmas. We love low key nights like this and coloring was so relaxing and good for our minds and souls. Here are a few of our favorite coloring books...
Date 10: Bowling with the Fam
This weekend we knew was going to be one of our busiest we’ve had in awhile. I ended up taking Kensi to see Beauty and the Beast (it’s amazing!!!) and we had been invited to go bowling for our friend’s birthday. We used bowling as a family day date and took the opportunity to introduce Finn. This was his first time and we knew he would either be thrilled or it would be a disaster. Finn is still little and he just couldn’t understand the concept of waiting for his turn and grew irritated each time he needed to wait for the pins to reset. Needless to say Mike, Kensi and I had so much fun letting loose with our friends, but Finn ended up hanging watching a movie instead.
Date 11: Last Minute Dinner Out
This past week felt like one of our longest. With Mike working six days it makes everything seen longer and we’ve been growing exhausted quicker with each passing day as we move through this outage. Going to bed is happening earlier and earlier. In need of just getting out of the house Friday we packed the kids into the car even though it was nearly their bedtime and headed out to dinner for chips and margs. Our kids were so well behaved and I think it was mostly due to just being tired of being at home all week long.
I cannot wait to settle back into our normal schedule in the next couple weeks, I’m really starting to go insane! Luckily my mom is coming this week and I will finally have some solid adult interaction again and Mike and I can sneak out of the house for a night of our own!!!
Monday, March 27, 2017
Easter Baskets
With only a few weeks until Easter I began looking for some fun goodies to fill the kids’ baskets this year. In years past I’ve been good about setting a theme for each individual basket, but this year it’s a little more frantic and I’ll be happy just to get something other than a couple bags of sugar. Less candy, more fun is my motto!
I love keeping the baskets simple with one larger item such as a doll or toy and filling the rest with a couple accessories for the warmer months like sandals, bows or sunglasses. I often use Easter as a way to refresh our outdoor play items like chalk, bubbles and beach toys especially when they’ve been buried in the sand or lost in the Atlantic. I always toss a book into each basket (usually what I create the theme around). This year I found the adorable bunny themed yoga book that will be perfect for rainy days inside. I love the BabyLit board books and I’m adding Treasure Island to Finn’s basket. I can already see him pretending to be a pirate and trying to take us down with his felt ball sling shot. Isn’t that the cutest and most fun little add in??? I have a feeling I’ll be ordering another one for Mike. To finish, I like to put Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks or Crackers hidden in these fun eggs and stick in the yummy and festive marshmallows from William Sonoma. They’re so good!
Building a basket with fun and practical items makes it easier and less overwhelming (for me!) and it doesn’t junk up our playroom.
Happy Hunting!
xo
Friday, March 17, 2017
Glitter Silly Putty
Happy Friday!!!! It’s officially my day off from babysitting, part time nannying, being a daycare provider....whatever we shall call it. Some may think I’m crazy, but I absolutely adore taking care of an extra little love during the week. Some days are a little crazier than others, but it’s a huge privilege to be able to help friends and watch their little babe grow. This week was has been more challenging than most due to our schedule change and the fact Olivia chose not to sleep for a good three nights in a row. By Wednesday night, nothing was going to keep me awake and any sleep was going to be good. Luckily, I finally felt refreshed Thursday morning even if Olivia slept with me most of the night.
With more time with the kids this weekend we’re hitting the dining table and kitchen with some fun spring DIYs. If you caught our Insta-story yesterday (follow us @rachbraden) the babes and I made our first batch of homemade glitter silly putty. This concoction played triple duty for fun, math and science. Kensi and Finn took turns measuring, pouring and mixing our ingredients together to make an activity that held their attention for a couple HOURS!!!! Mom points here! The loved making it, but have really enjoyed playing with it. They ran over to our art basket and pulled out a few different play dough tools to use for moulding, pressing and cutting. The one downfall i’ve learned is when it sits by itself it begins to melt into whatever shape its confined to, which is really cool in itself and normally fine, but our carpet goes right up to our kitchen cabinets where our stools sit. So any little pieces that escapes and makes it’s way to the floor is an adventure for me to find and pick out of the carpet. We totally need new floors, this is just getting old. Kensi was so excited to make this silly putty glittery by adding different glitter we found in the Target dollar bins. We got a little eager and added every color and now it looks more sparkly gray than anything. We recommend sticking to one color family per recipe.
Glitter Silly Putty
original recipe from pinterest
1 bottle of clear school glue (such as Elmers 5 oz)
5 ounces of water
1/2 teaspoon Borax
1/2 cup hot water
colored glitter
Pour glue into a bowl. Fill the empty glue bottle with water (5oz) and add to the glue in bowl. Stir until well combined. Add a couple dashes of glitter/sequins and stir.
In a liquid measuring cup add 1/2 teaspoon of Borax to 1/2 cup of hot water and stir until dissolved. Pour borax mixture into the glue mixture. Stir mixture until well combined and it will become thick silly putty! Use play dough tools to cut and manipulate. It can also be formed into a ball and slightly bounce!
Have so much fun!
xo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
