Good morning and happy Monday.
We are happy you're here! We had a fabulous weekend filled with sunshine, little adventures and taking advantage of our amazing new grill! I am a little sad that my relaxation time with the family is over, but we have things to look forward to this week as well.
I have to work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday this week, but I have my Drs appointment/diabetes test on Tuesday. While most people don't look forward to that appointment, I enjoy going to the Dr to make sure things are still going smoothly. Mia is very active now, so I think she's just fine but it's nice for the Dr to tell me that... :)
It'll be a busy week, but will make the weekend that much sweeter! Here was our past weekend.
Friday
We made a Costco run on Friday morning, trying to beat the crowd.
Later in the morning, Ella decided she wanted to paint her toes. I tried to trim her nails too, but that resulted in a full mental breakdown. Sigh. I did my best.
Ella asked to go ride her bike, so I took her on a nice long walk. She is soooo close to being able to pedal by herself. We stopped at the park because it was empty and Ella had some fun there too!
Ella ended up walking home, while I pushed her bike. I let Ella guide the way, as she often likes to stop 100x to pick flowers, observe bees/bugs etc.
While Ella napped, I helped Michael with some office work. He is mailing out the dental practice transition letters, so we had a TON of envelopes to wet, seal and stamp. I helped him with some in the afternoon while Ella napped. This is what was left for us to finish on Saturday (which he ended up finishing by himself.)
Michael had to go drop the letters off to be mailed, so he entrusted me with grilling our lunch. I was always intimidated by a grill before, but it seems super simple to use. Then again, I was only making hot dogs, which I can also whip up in the microwave pretty well... Haha!
We made hot dogs, and had potato salad and cucumber salad on the side. I also cut up some fresh fruit for us to enjoy.
I left around 3:15 to go look at a local Montessori school and ask questions about Ella's possible enrollment. I really liked the atmosphere and I feel it would be a good fit for our family.
The rest of the night went undocumented and was really unexciting. Just reading/playing @ home.
Saturday
We started our morning with some fun sensory play. We took advantage of Ella's amazing table, removed the top and used the inside for some water bead fun!
I cleaned up the water beads and then we transformed her sensory station into a 'kinetic sand cupcake' making area. Ella really liked this, and enjoyed using real sprinkles to make sand cupcakes for her Dad all morning.
Children's table | Water beads | Kinetic Sand
Michael had some more work to do for his office, so I took Ella out and we had a little adventure of our own... You may recognize this spot. I take Ella to this park often because it's usually pretty empty in the mornings, and she loves seeing all the wildlife. There's always tons of birds, ducks, geese, squirrels, and turtles.
Ella brought her little chick with her to show to the geese. They weren't nearly as excited as she was, haha.
I let Ella sort of 'lead the way' and she took us across this bridge and wanted to go to the playground on the far side of the park. She got a lot of walking in, and luckily the playground was empty!
Sweet girl wanted to hold hands for the walk back to the car.
When we got back, we washed up, changed and ate a delicious lunch outside. Our new grill is getting plenty of use!
Ella and I had made a Walmart trip in the morning also, and I found Ella this adorable outfit. The dress was $3 on clearance. I washed it right away because I couldn't wait for Ella to try it on. How cute, right? My girl is looking so big these days!
We took our water bead play outside for some fun at her water table.
Michael had to go to Dick's Sporting Goods for a couple things, so we tagged along. Ella paired her new outfit with her Summer hat and socks/sandal combo. I was laughing so hard at her outfit choice, but she was so proud!
We ended our night with pizza, TV and cuddles on the couch.
Sunday
We had oatmeal, strawberries and milk for breakfast.
Ella helped us clean the house. Too bad that vacuum doesn't actually pick stuff up.... She's been vacuuming like crazy with it!
But she also likes to swiffer! :) Mom hack- make the handle smaller so it fits your little one better.
I rotated Ella's shelf activities which I share on a separate post.
We took Ella to a local sculpture garden to explore. Our friends had told us it's a great place to bring kids, but due to the pandemic we have never gone. When we arrived, we both felt it was a little small and didn't think we'd be there for more than 15 minutes. We ended up staying an hour and a half! Ella had a blast!!!
There were no other people there, which was a huge bonus. It's not very big, so other people being there would have definitely changed our experience. Ella got to run freely and we just followed her lead.
She liked the children statues the most.. she kept giving them hugs.
We will definitely take her again.
Once we got home, Ella still wanted to 'go go go,' so I took her for a bike ride to the park while Michael grilled up some salmon and asparagus for lunch. I forgot to take pictures but it was sooo good! Grilled salmon is far superior to anything we can make on our stove.
Ella took a nap while Michael worked out in the garage with his new gym equipment. While he did that, I had the itch to get Mia's room set up. My friends told me I should do it now while I have energy and time vs later (when she's here) and when we'll be exhausted and our hands will be full.
Setting up Mia's room means Ella loses her 'playroom' and that is bittersweet. She really didn't play in there very often. She liked to do her arts & crafts in there, but that was about all. We were able to rearrange things well enough for now, but are still brainstorming what to do long-term for the girl's play area. We have our 'formal living space' which is the first room you walk into. It's the room that would provide the cleanest and most open play space for the girls... but it's the first room you walk into. For practical purposes, it would work best. But for the overall look of our home, it's not the ideal. Still deciding over here!
I used to have all of our activities and materials organized in the playroom closet, but I want to leave that for Mia's things and not have to go in her nursery everytime we're rotating toys. I was able to make room in our hall closet for everything and love how organized it is now.
All of our material bins are organized here. Math, science/cultural, sensorial, langage and practical life.
The other side holds all of my little bins- sensory bin materials, craft stuff, paint supplies, animal figurines and some larger materials. All of her puzzles and books are located underneath these shelves in the cupboard below. Everything is covered and enclosed, so it's out of sight.
Mia's room is slowly coming together. We will hang some curtains or new blinds... We have plans to buy a crib for Mia and use the bassinet in our room until she's ready for her own room. I just placed the bassinet there to get an idea of how the space will fill up with her furniture.
I went through some of Ella's old clothes and picked out my favorites outfits to hang in her closet.
Ella helped me clean up her room and set up her teepee play tent in there again. We had moved it into her room but she went through a stretch where she wanted me to rock her in the rocking chair. We are going to see how she does doing her before-bed reading in her teepee, but she if she really misses her rocker we may have to move it back again, or get her one of her own. Ella's room has a much cozier feel than the nursery right now. I'm hoping that changes once we fill Mia's room with furniture. But at least for the beginning, Ella does a lot more rolling around on the floor than Mia will.
We made a garlic shrimp, zucchini and broccoli pasta for dinner. It was really good!
Once Ella was in bed I spent a few minutes making some colored rice for future sensory bins. It was so easy to make and came out so good!
And that is where our weekend ended. Now I am scrambling to get everything ready for the day before I go to work. We hope everyone has a great day! And don't forget to follow us on Instagram if you aren't already...
xoxo
That looks like a fun and productive weekend!
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