April updates

This month has been a whirlwind! Partially because I was sick for a week, then on vacation for a week. But mostly because we are moving!!!!!!! I have officially accepted a position in Great Falls, MT, and we will be relocating in August. As a result, we have been busy decluttering, cleaning, painting, interviewing realtors, and just generally freaking out. :)

If you want to follow along with my Montana-related ramblings, I started another blog:  http://midlifemovetomontana.blogspot.com  (I've been numbering the posts there so they'll be easier to read in order.)

But this blog will still be devoted to family stuff... like Rose's birthday today!!!! Can you believe she's 5 already? We let her choose everything we did today, and she opted to:
-sleep in ridiculously late
-open her presents immediately upon waking
-eat both pancakes and cereal for breakfast
-go to the MN Zoo to search for a white tiger (no luck)
-eat at Noodles for mac&cheese for lunch
-play with her new Lego set after nap
-go to Noodles to get mac&cheese for dinner as well (!!!!)
-eat a piece of chocolate layer cake with chocolate frosting (decorated with chocolate chips and sprinkles)

She knows how to have a great day!!

She is such a delight! I can't imagine a better kid. She is a joy to be around, and I love her more and more every day. Can't wait to see what the coming year brings for all of us!

Bart's new favorite place to sleep

Great at 8pm, not so much at 3am!

To do lists

Rose went to a friend's birthday party today, and in the small gift bag she received she was given a pencil and a small pad of post-its. She was so excited and immediately asked to make a to do list, "just like Mommy." Awwwwww....
We made sure to do both things on her list: "play outside" and "play with cat" :)

staying present

I left work pretty late last night, but I was treated to this interesting cloud formation as I walked out to my car:

And then this lovely sunset as I stopped by Target to pick up more kiddie ibuprofen:

Today "little miss" and I are hanging out and watching movies as she continues to recover from being sick:

presidents day weekend

We all had an amazing presidents day weekend!

Mike and two of his friends left after work on Thursday and headed up to Canada for ice fishing. He's not so into blogging, but it sounds like they had a great time!

Meanwhile, Rose and I took a half day on Friday and then met up with my friend Megan and her two kids for a weekend in the Dells! Despite growing up in Wisconsin, I'd never been there before, so I was really excited to try out this classic midwestern vacation spot. Megan booked us a great condo on airbnb, which gave us room to spread out, the ability to make most of our own meals, and a break from the hubbub of this tourist town. She is such a great travel agent that she even found a deal for us to stay 2 nights and get the 3rd free, AND there were free two-day waterpark passes for all of us! Score!!

Here are the photo highlights from our trip:

I think I managed to pack more for two people over four days, than we did for three people over sixteen days last summer!

We went to a mac-and-cheese specialty restaurant for dinner on Friday, but Rose was not impressed.

One of the highlights was movies and sleepovers!

The three kids made themselves at home.

Three car seats in one backseat!

New Glarus on tap!!!

It was in the 50s each day. In February!

Fun in the kids' play room at the resort!

During "quiet time" I put up my feet, drank some wine, and read my book :)

We even found a delicious candy shop. Yum!

I didn't want to bring my phone into the water park, so here are a couple photos that I stole from the internet:

Imagine about 3000 more people than this photo shows.

Rose even tried this orange and black striped slide!!!

I can't even tell you how many times we went down the blue slide and the green slide!

As fun as it was, I have to admit that the water park was a bit overwhelming for this introvert who craves quiet. It was SOOO loud, and crowded and, um...., wet.  After about four hours there on Saturday and another three hours on Sunday, I was DONE. My whole body aches and I'm still just exhausted! And now Rose has a fever :(  I thought I had learned my lesson last year about needing to build in quiet time, but apparently I'm still learning that both of us need more quiet time than I would expect. Some day we'll find the right balance...

Hope you had a great holiday weekend!

Looks who's swimming!!!

we love Bart

Not BART like Atlanta's mass transit system, but Bart our new cat! He is settling in so nicely. But pretty much everything I said in my last post about him is completely untrue now.For example, (1) he is TOTALLY in love with his raw food now, and can meow for hours in excitement to be fed, and (2) he is shyster - now that he can jump (I think he had been kenneled for too long), he is all about counter surfing. Grrrr.... But we nevertheless love him so much!

And in other news, Rose and Mike have been taking over our living room with their love of Legos! We need a bigger house... :)