Our 1st Kid-Free Vacation

Last week we took our first real vacation sans kids.  In the almost four years that we have been parents, I had only been away Evie for three nights total and I had never been away from Mitchell so this vacation, at least for me, was a BIG deal. To say I was nervous would be an understatement.  I typed out two pages of notes about the kids, made sure that the Medical Consent forms were filled out and notarized and typed out a will.  We made sure all the laundry was done, clothes were set out and meals were prepared.  I worried so much about being prepared for the kids that I didn't even pack my own bag until 11:00 the night before we left.  Getting on the plane was difficult for me.  I'm not afraid the fly and I've flown dozens of times before.  But this was different.  I was getting on a plane that would take me further away from my children than I had ever been.  I trusted my parents and Pat's mom completely and I knew the kids would be find, but it still hurt to leave them.  I equated it to ripping off a band-aid.  It had to be done, for my sake and for theirs, but it still stung. Pat didn't have quite the same reservations as I did because this was not his first time away from the kids.  He went to Portland for 4 days when Mitch was around 5 months old.  Even so, I know that he understood my worry.  Although he did tease me about being over-protective.

I still felt nervous and uptight when we stepped off of the plane in Key West.  The feeling of something not being quite right stayed with me through the taxi ride to Tim and Katharine's condo, through lunch at The Firefly Cafe and even while we were being shown around Key West that first day.  Everything was fine with the kids, of course, but I missed them and it was as if I didn't remember how to enjoy myself for an extended period of time without them. It wasn't until that evening, after a few drinks at Sloppy Joe's Bar (and after shedding a few tears that I had missed their bedtime) that I finally left myself relax. All of this sounds completely ridiculous now, but it was how I felt and I can't change that.

 Once I was finally able to relax, I really enjoyed our trip and I know Pat felt the same.  The rain of the first two days didn't stop us from exploring the island.  We ate delicious food, walked thru Ernest Hemingway's house, saw the Southernmost Point in the USA, bought sweet treats at a candy store and checked out a little of Harry Truman's Little White House.  After relaxing a little and waiting out a thunderstorm, we got cleaned up and headed out for our anniversary dinner.  We didn't have any place in particular in mind and we ended up being able to sit outside on the water and watch the sunset while having happy hour drinks.  Then we walked down towards a marina and had dinner at a seafood restaurant while sitting outside looking at all of the boats.  It was perfect evening!  We did a ghost tour of the island after dinner (very spooky!) and ended the night once again at Sloppy Joe's.

The next day it was finally sunny outside so we ate brunch outdoors at a restaurant called Blue Heaven and then walked down Duval Street toward the docks where the cruise ships are.  Later I was even able to spend a little time relaxing and reading at the pool.  We had dinner that night at a wonderful Spanish restaurant, enjoyed the sights and sounds of the Sunset Festival in Mallory Square (even if it was too cloudy to see a sunset that night) and once again ended the night at Sloppy Joe's.  It was so lovely to be outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!!  And it was so nice to just be able to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  Plus we really enjoyed getting to eat our meals at a leisurely pace and sleep for more than 4 hours at a time.  :)

Overall, it was a wonderful vacation and we can't thank Tim and Katharine enough for inviting us and being excellent hosts.  The kids enjoyed the time with their grandparents and Aunt Sha-Sha and did absolutely find without us.  Getting away for a few days was exactly what we needed and the perfect way to celebrate our 5th anniversary!!

First Snow Fall

After church today, Evie and I headed to the store for a few groceries and to pick up some Tim Bits.  The temp had started out in the mid-low 40s, but in the hour we had been at mass, icy winds and rainfall made it feel frigid outside.  As we drove, a few flakes started to fall.  While not much at first, the cold gusts of wind quickly turned the icy rain to all out snow.  As we ran in the store, Evie attempted to catch a few flakes on her tongue.  "Come on Mama!  Try it!" she exclaimed, but I was much more interested in getting inside as I had forgotten my coat.
We knew it would happen, but after such a mild winter so far, we were unprepared.  Such is our life these days.  We don't have snow suits for the kids or proper gloves or boots.  Looks like a trip to the store is in order.  After breakfast, I bundled the kids in coats and hats.  Evie squished her feet into last years snow boats.  I told her that they were probably too small, but she deemed them 'perfect' and that was that. Mitch wore two pairs of socks and rain boots on his feet.  Trying to find his mittens was a lost cause so he also sported two pairs of socks on his hands.  Once we were finally ready, out we went.  And you know what - neither kid cared what they had on because they were having too much fun.  This was really Mitchell's first experience with snow.  It was awesome to see his eyes lights up and his cheeky grin as he threw snow at me.  Evie threw herself on the ground with abandon, making dozens of snow angels all over the yard.  We marched around making footprints and caught snowflakes in our mouths.  Evie attempted a small snowman...Mitch demolished it.  Before long, their noses were red and their cheeks rosy, and we decided to go inside for some hot cocoa.  Such small things make for such happy memories.

Yoga in the snow

How many footprints can you make?

Picture Post

December / Christmas 2015

The Christmas spirit was alive and well in our house this year.  As I said in a previous post, we started the season with a fun night at Wildlights at the zoo.   After that, I tried to so something a little Christmas-y every day.  We put up our tree and a few decorations.  We watched Christmas movies and classic Christmas TV shows, and read Christmas books.  We made snowflakes and hung them in Evie’s room and put Christmas clings on all of the windows.  We sang Christmas carols in car, in the bathtub and at bedtime.  We made a gingerbread house.  We wrapped shopped, wrapped Christmas gifts and went to lots of Christmas parties. 

We made an Advent Chain and I wrote down things on each link that Evie could do each day to prepare for Christmas.  Sometimes it was something fun like “Have got cocoa tonight”.  But most of the time, it was stuff like “Be kind to your brother”, “Say a prayer for a friend” or “Give your dog a snuggle”.  We tried to focus less on the material aspects of the season and more on the spiritual things.  It helped a lot that Evie’s preschool was also teaching her about the Nativity.  They even had a birthday party of Jesus.  We read the Nativity story at home and talked about why we are really celebrating Christmas.

We spent a weekend in KY and while we were there we visited the Krohn Conservatory with Kiki, Pops, Aunt Holly and Avi.  I was disappointed because I really wanted the kids to see the live Nativity there, but it didn’t open until the following weekend.  Regardless, we really had a great time.  In addition to the regular plants, the Conservatory has some beautiful Christmas poinsettias and amazing train displays.  Mitchell is really into trains right now so it was pretty awesome to watch him completely light up when we walked into the Conservatory.  His eyes were huge and he didn’t know where to look there were so many trains.  He just kept saying “Choo-Choo!  Choo-Choo!”.  Evie enjoyed exploring and wandering down the different paths and she even got to make a Christmas ornament.  After the Conservatory, we headed over to Findley Market.  There were Christmas carolers singing outside and a temporary Christmas tree lot set up in the front.  It’s been years since I’ve had a real tree and it was nice to breathe in that Christmas smell.  Pops treated the kids to a Belgian waffle treat and colored candy popcorn and they were in heaven!  After a quick lunch at Eli’s BBQ, we headed back to my parents’ house.  We ended the night with a surprise Christmas light excursion once the kids were in their PJ’s.  There was an amazing display a few streets over from my parents.  They had a place where you could donate canned goods as well so we did that and remind the kids and each other of our blessings.  Evie thought that was pretty cool.

We went to Village Lights in German Village with Grandma Rita.  Mitch was a bit of a fuss-bucket, but we still had a good time.  You can’t beat the ambiance of German Village.  They had some neat light displays and Evie even got to sit on Santa’s lap!
We made snowman Christmas cookies one night.  The break-n-bake kind because I thought they’d be easier.  But generally, nothing is easier with my kids.  :)  Evie took 9,000 years to actually put the cookies on the sheet, then Mitch wanted to help, Evie freaked out because he messed up her line of cookies and then I caught her trying to lick one.  I told her that she couldn’t do that and she stuck her tongue out at me.  I told her that if Punky the Elf saw that, he would report her to Santa and she may end up on the Naughty List.  She got upset and said (this is a direct quote) “Everyone else is nice.  But you ruined my Christmas”.  OMG.  What is she going to be like as a teenager if she like this now?!  While the cookies baked, we decided to write help Evie write her Christmas list.  Step 1 – Evie looks through the Toys R Us catalog and circles what she wants.  After about 10 minutes of circling every item on every page, I reminded her that Santa was only going to bring her a few toys.  At this point, the timer for the cookies dinged and, with that, it was like a switch was flipped in the kids. They went nuts.  Jumping, dancing, laughing, screaming.  Mitch started spinning around in circles.  Then he climbed on Pat’s back and threw up.  UGH.   What a way to end the night.  Needless to say we didn’t finish this list that night.  Evie was so excited when I suggested that she bring a few cookies to share with her friends at Titi’s house the next day.

We made the trip to see Santa at the Worthington Mall.  Evie was acting shy, but did talk to Santa a little. Mitch waltzed right up, gave Santa a high five and then said “I pooped”.  I was mortified.  Santa just chuckled.  No picture was taken.  Geez!  For the record, his diaper was clean and dry.  We attempted to get a Christmas picture, but the results were less that desirable.  I’m thinking of changing Mitch’s name to “The Blur” because that’s about all he is my pictures these days.  The child never stops moving!

We did our best to make this Christmas season a special one for our kids.

Christmas Parties

This year we went not one, not two, but SIX family Christmas parties.  Whew!  It was a whirlwind and we were exhausted by the time all was said and done, but boy did we have fun!  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself.  I want to be a part of the memories, not just take a picture of them.  Add that to the fact that my munchkins were spun-up, sugar-crazed maniacs that literally never stop moving, and well, I guess you can see why pictures were few and far between.  Nevertheless, I did manage to capture some of the fun that we had.   It was so nice to catch up with family that we hadn’t seen as much as we would have liked this year and Evelyn and Mitchell had a ball playing with all of their cousins.  I wish we could focus more on this togetherness than gift giving all the time.  It is so hard not to fall into the materialistic aspects of Christmas, but we really do try.  We want to teach our kids that presents are not the most important things.  Family and love are. 

Wildlights

We went to Wildlights this year at the Columbus Zoo in late November.  We ended up going on a Tuesday night and it was perfect.  Cool, but not too cold, and not crowded at all.  The kids were mesmerized by the lights and decorations. Christmas music played throughout the zoo and we enjoyed $2 hot cocoa and kettle corn.  One of highlights was getting to see Santa’s reindeer!  I loved watching the kid’s faces as they took everything in – it was magical!

Miss Fancy Pants

Evelyn loves to play dress up these days.  Her favorite books right now are the Fancy Nancy series.   She wants to be fancy whenever we go out now.  Jewelry is a must – beaded necklaces, bangle bracelets and multiple rings.  She usually has a pair of sunglasses and yesterday she packed a boa in her purse.  I didn’t realize she even had it until I noticed pink feathers all over the backseat.  Shoes are another big thing with Evie.  She owns more pairs than I do and she changes them multiple times a day.  Recently Aunt Sha-Sha gave her a pair of black booties.  She absolutely loves them and insisted on wearing them to school because they were ‘so fancy’ and she wanted to show her friends.  It’s not unusual to find her dressed up in a princess dress with not one, but two frilly skirts underneath in addition to her light-up Cinderella heels. 

As fun as it can be to play dress-up, sometimes getting her dressed to go out can end up being quite an ordeal.  Evie is a strong-minded child and so stubborn.  She has started wanting to dress herself a little bit more which has led to some interesting results.  For example, the other day she wanted to wear a bright pink dress with a purple skirt underneath, navy blue leggings and black boots.  One morning, I dressed her up in a grey and yellow polka dot shirt and jeans.  I thought she looked adorable, but she started sobbing because the sleeves of the shirt were too tight (they really weren’t).  Another day Pat got her dressed and she threw a fit because the sleeves of her shirt were too long.  There are days when she cries because her socks aren’t long enough (she’s tried to pull anklets up to her knees) or her pants don’t completely cover her ankles (they were capris).  We pick our battles and we don’t mind her having an opinion about her clothes, but it can be frustrating sometimes.  

Despite this, I do love having a fancy-pants little girl.  Getting Mitch dressed for the day is usually a lot easier and faster, but Evie really enjoys her clothes and extravagant accessories and that’s fun to see.  Heaven help us when she’s a teenager though!