Nine Day “Staycation”

Published by admin under In The Begining on August 4, 2009

My mom and sister really made the “staycation” worthwhile though. Visiting with them was a lot of fun, and I think they really enjoyed spending time with the girls.  They brought Vera a little baby doll with “Dr.” toys, and Naomi a glow worm. The girls loved their gifts, and I think that’s what they played with the majority of the time while they were here. We took my mom,sister, and the girls to Sea World that Wednesday. Everyone had a great time watching the shows together and going to the coral reef aquarium. Then Thursday we were planning on going to Sea World’s waterpark, but it ended up storming. The fact that it never rains here, and then it does when they came is hilarious. Apparently all it’s done this summer in Illinois is rain. I was teasing them that it followed them here. The storm didn’t stop us from getting a half hour or so of swimming in at our apartment complex’s pool though. We rented Coraline that night too. I’m going to have to write a review for that sometime soon. That was an awesome movie! Matthew cooked some awesome meals while they were here too. He tried this new recipe out that we hadn’t done before. You put pork-chops in the crock pot with apples and some spices (can’t recall which). It was delicious! It seemed like the week flew by because before I knew it I was driving them to the airport Friday morning for them to catch their flight back.  It wa a little sad for me because I rarely get to see my family. I wish we lived closer, but I don’t think I could ever move back to Illinois. For one I hate snow, and two I don’t enjoy being taxed out the wazoo for everything.  I could make an entire list of why I couldn’t move back. Mom and Haley had had a long vacation too what with Haley going to France the week before & Mom to Mexico. I’m sure they were somewhat happy to just be going home; back to their lives.

After my mom and sister left we had some massive grocery shopping to do because it was the end of the two week pay period. Then Saturday our friends’ little girl was having her 2 nd birthday party. It was such a cute party! I love themed parties. It just makes the party so much more fun and interesting. Themes work well for adult parties too, but no one ever listens to me. Back to their party: She had a cooking theme. I believe she called it “Lindley’s Bistro”, but I can’t remember exactly. Everyone brought her play kitchen toys as gifts(except us :/). They had little aprons for the kids to wear while they put together their own pizza bagels, ants on a log, and ice cream sundays,. All the little kids running around in their aprons was adorable. She also had her open the gifts before so the kids had things to play with in the lil kitchen they got their daughter.I wish I would have thought of something like that. Vera did enjoy her under the sea party though. I’m have to keep the cooking theme in mind. It would probably be a lot of fun when they are older and can do some actual cooking/baking too. They let the kids take home their aprons (bibs for the wee ones), and gave them peanut-butter play dough(recipe included on the bag) along with a fun shaped cookie cutter. 

After the birthday party we were going to swing by the hospital because Tracie had delivered her baby that afternoon, but we got caught up at home and then it was late. I am so happy for Tracie and Robert! Having a child is such a wonderful experience; especially your first. They named HER (totally called it) Chloe Nicole; such a pretty name.  Sunday we called Tracie, and made it out to the hospital to see them. She was so little….it’s amazing how you always seem to forget how little a newborn is as your child gets older and bigger. They grow so fast though you barely notice the changes until your presented with them. Nine months ago Naomi was a little thing too, and now look at her. I can barely carry her around for more than 10 minutes without my arm going numb. Chloe looked so peaceful. I hope for Tracie and Roberts sake she keeps that behavior up so they can get some sleep. I do not like hospitals. It was such a foreign concept to me that our kids couldn’t go in there to see her.  I understand about sickness and such, but it’s a hospital….the staff is probably crawling with more germs than the kids. Once Vera had had enough of waiting in the lobby we took off to Matthew’s mom’s. She was having an old friend of their family over to cook out. Matthew kind of invited himself so it was awkward. We were the only youngins there. I brought over my box of goodies though to entertain Vera.

Solo Goodie Box

Thanks to Mom Select I received this Summer Sponsored by Solo fun lkit  just in time for the weekend!  Solo is having a photo contest this summer that ends on the 14th . If you submit pictures of you with their squared cups you have the chance to win prizes. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to bust them out. It just so happens Bianca was out of cups too! I snapped some really great pictures. I hope I win the grand prize of $5,000.00. I think it would look nice in my savings account. Don’t you? We had a lot of fun with the kit. Vera thoroughly enjoyed the bubbles and animal crackers while me and Matthew munched on the Cracker Jacks. I was even being a good sport, and let her down a couple of pixie sticks (pure sugar!). We’re saving the sidewalk chalk and water balloons for another time. Here are a couple of pictures I took.

This is the one I submited (Real Men use squared cups)

 

The girls playing on Grandma Bianca’s floor

Vera enjoying her animal crackers

 I thought it was awesome that Solo sponsored these fun kits so that you could enter their contest. I probably would have went out and bought a package myself anyways after hearing about the contest. I really like Solo’s products for parties, and these new squared cups were no exception. They really held up. If my toddler only needed to use one the entire evening that is definitely saying something. That and there was only one spill. It wasn’t because Vera couldn’t hang on to it either, but because Naomi got a hold of it and tipped it over :).

I really enjoyed having family visit, and the time that Matthew got to spend with us. I would say that it was a great “staycation” . Wish that we could do that more often.