Easter weekend!

I know I haven't been blogging very much recently. I'm sorry! I promise I think about it a lot. :) Hopefully this LONG, photo-laden post will make it up to you all! Last weekend we went to Peshtigo and Appleton to visit my side of the family. We left on Wednesday around lunch time, after Mike took (and passed!) one of his teaching licensure exams in the morning. I didn't check my email the ENTIRE time we were gone (we came home Sunday afternoon), which felt AMAZING. Granted, I had about 400 emails waiting for me on Monday morning (not to mention the hundred or so that came in during the day), but it was such a balm to my soul to be able to disconnect from work for so long. Here's what we did for our beautiful, long weekend:

Most importantly, we made a pilgrimage to Mickey-Lu's, which is the most AMAZING burger joint on the face of the planet. We joked about eating there for every meal, and there's a part of me that kind of regrets that we only had one lunch there. 

Rose was indifferent to the wonders of their burgers...

...but she was madly in love with their milk shakes!

On Wednesday night, we had to figure out the sleeping arrangements. My grandma has two guest bedrooms, one with a twin-sized bed and the other with a pull-out couch. Since her house is pretty much the opposite of child-proofed, and since Rose has never slept anywhere other than her crib (or a pack-n-play), we decided that I would sleep with Rose on the pull-out couch (with the mattress on the ground) the first night, and then Mike and I would switch beds the second night. Well, Rose barely napped at all in the car, which we know is always a set-up for a bedtime struggle. In addition, it was clearly SO exciting to be with "Gigi," and SO exciting not to be penned in by a crib.

In short, there was no way this girl was going to bed without a fight.

And fight she did! We tried our typical cry-it-out routine for a bit, but then totally caved since we didn't want my grandma to think we were terrible parents, and we didn't want to risk Rose hurting herself in a non-child-proofed room. So at that point I tried to lay down with her in order for her to fall asleep.  Well, that was also SO exciting to be IN BED WITH MOMMY! For about an hour straight, I heard "mommy! mommy!" coupled with little love pats to my face.  As sweet as this was, I eventually instituted a "no touching!" rule, which Rose dutifully reported to my grandmother the next day ("no touching mommy! touching tomorrow! no touching!"). Oy vey.

But she did eventually fall asleep, and she only woke a couple times overnight. (and each time she woke, she only needed one gentle "no touching" reminder and she went right back to sleep. Ha!) In retrospect, the whole situation just cracks me up, although it was pretty miserable at the time.

The next day, we basically just hung around the house. Rose did a lot of playing with my mom's childhood toys:

For awhile, Rose insisted on being naked, just like the toy babies.

On Friday we had breakfast with Gigi, then took off for Appleton. My parents we so excited to see Rose that they allowed Mike and me to go out for a child-free lunch. FREEDOM! :) The rest of the day was comprised of a walk around the neighborhood, a delicious dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes, and some quality time with the TV:

Then Saturday was Rose's birthday party! We took a few photos before all the guests arrived, and Rose was particularly interested in learning more about Peeps:

We also tried to take another family photo:

And then the guests arrived! Not only did we have all Rose's extended family there, but my dad also organized a visit from the local LAMB farm! So cool!!!

There was also an Easter egg hunt, which the "big kids" all helped Rose with:

And, because I still can't get enough of them, here are some more lamb pictures:

At that point it was time for lunch, and we STILL enjoyed the lambs then!

After the lambs left, it was time for singing and birthday cupcakes!

This is the only photo I got of anyone other than Rose and/or the lambs!

After that, Rose got LOTS of presents. She has generous family! And I'm so appreciative that my cousin Sarah took photos :)

We had the same expression! Must be related :)

At that point, Rose was ready to crash. Mike just about had her to sleep when someone needed a jacket out of her room. D'oh!!! Two hours later, she did finally nap. Sigh.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with some of my family, and it was a great time! Rose was a trouper after having had such an exciting day. She did, however, have her first full-scale toddler meltdown in the restaurant! She had been savoring the little bit of cranberry juice I had gotten to de-strengthen my girlie drink - the first time she had ever gotten juice in the evening, and the first time she had gotten juice that wasn't cut with 50% water. She would take a tiny sip, then eat a little food, then take another tiny sip, then eat a little more food. She had gotten down to the last little bit of juice, but before she could drink it, the well-intentioned waiter cleared all the "empty" glasses away. There was a moment of shocked panic in her eyes, followed by the loudest "MINE! MY JUICE!!!" scream I've ever heard. We tried to calm her down, to no avail. We definitely got dirty looks from many other diners, and some sympathetic looks as well. Thankfully my fast-thinking mom ran the three of us up to the bar to ask the bartender for another shot of juice. WHEW!

Sunday morning our lovely visit came to a close.  We had some last-minute quality time with my parents...

And do you think they might be related too? :)

...but then we had to hit the road :(

Thanks to everyone who helped us to celebrate Rose's birthday party! As always, I wish we could have stayed longer. Thank you!!