Category Archives: family

Let’s eat out!

A couple of weeks ago on a random Friday night we had no idea what to make for dinner and no motivation to make anything, which is also when we realized that we haven’t been out to eat with kids since before Phoebe was born. We knew it could be risky making a last minute decision to go out for dinner after a long day at day care for the kiddos, but we figured if it we kept it close to home and stuck to “early-bird” hours we could keep it short and we wouldn’t have a long drive to or from home.

Maybe a little surprisingly, it actually went really well. Phoebe happily sat in her high chair and munched on a few snacks I brought for her since I wasn’t sure what the menu would be like (at her age it’s just easiest to have a pouch and some fruit and puffs in the bag). Enzo was a little squirmy, but was excited at first to be eating out. Thankfully the restaurant wasn’t busy because it was only around 5:30 or 6:00, so we did get food fairly quickly. We had a hard time getting Enzo to eat anything but fries, though. Can you blame him, though? We may have let Phoebe munch on one as well. It’s true what they say about 2^nd kids… I never would have given Enzo a fry at less than a year old, but now I’m like… whatever. One won’t kill her. 😉

Thankfully both kids made it through the meal before they started getting squirmy and rambunctious. Enzo got to a point where he did not want to sit still and started getting loud and tossing the cap to Phoebe’s pouch on the floor over and over as an excuse to get out of his booster. I guess we can’t really blame him considering at home he sits at his own little table usually and (to our chagrin) is up and down and all over. Next time we’ll be sure to bring him distractions… not that we go out all that often. When you live as far away from everything as we do, it’s just so much easier to stay close to home. Definitely homebodies.

*** Also, I seriously need to work on my posture… completely unrelated, but I notice it more now that I’m trying to pay attention to my alignment.

Not all that interesting, really.

Most of the time we’re really very boring people. I can’t completely blame that on the kids, simply because there were plenty of times before the kids came along where we would stay at home all weekend and nothing but play games and read. Relaxing and nice, but definitely not exciting. Before kids we were much more spontaneous, though.

I’m sure if we really wanted to, we could get out more with our munchkins, but so often it can be such a hassle to get us all out the door. Bottles have to be prepped, snacks must be made, diaper bag must be readied, and you know at least one of them is going to poop right as you’re getting ready to go out the door while the other one gets into some kind of trouble. Then there are strollers and baby carriers and deciding which would be better for this certain trip, and did we grab sippy cups and who knows what else the kids require that day.

Do we overcomplicate things? Maybe. I also hate being unprepared, though. As you can guess, I’m an over packer as well. I think that’s one thing I need to be better about, but I don’t even know where to start. Actually, in a couple of months it’s going to get much easier simply because Phoebe will be drinking milk and won’t need all the bottles and stuff. Plus, she eats solids, so that helps too. Now if we could only get Enzo potty trained. We’re trying not to push the issue, but he’ll be exactly a year and a half next month so it would be really nice. He’s also moving into a new room at day care and all of the other kids his age are potty trained. We’re kind of hoping that being in a room where almost no one is getting a diaper changed will do the trick.

Super exciting stuff going on, let me tell ya. We have plans to get out more before the winter hits, but then again, there’s a lot to be done at home – just none of it really all that interesting. It’s amazing how a quickly a Saturday can go by and it seems like all you’ve done is 4 loads of laundry (no joke), swept, and the kids are still in pajamas and you haven’t bathed, but it’s time to get dinner ready. I feel like I’ve entered an entirely different dimension of time as a parent.

At least I get to share it with some pretty cute kids.

A Maze ‘n Farmyard

A few weekends ago we decided to go somewhere new with the kids, so after a little searching online, we found something we thought would be worth checking out. It was a risk being an hour away, but the A Maze ‘N Farmyard ended up being a lot of fun for the kids. We actually didn’t even see or do everything that there was to offer, which is always a good thing. I also didn’t take as many pictures as I thought I would… whoops!

One of the big attractions was all of the animals, most of which you are allowed to pet and possibly feed. Enzo got to pet goats and feed them a bottle, but he also got to pet a cow, some bunnies, and most importantly – Bambi. There was the sweetest little fawn that Enzo got to pet. Call me paranoid, but I decided to just look at the animals with Phoebe rather than risk her petting everything and immediately sticking her hands in her mouth. Oh! Don’t forget the huge house of birds. Enzo was a little skittish, but one of his favorite animal experiences was the house of parakeets – they just fly all around you, and amazingly we didn’t get pooped on.

This was also the first time Enzo got to go on a pony ride. He was excited at first, until he had to get on the actual pony, and then he didn’t want to, but Josh went ahead and put him on and after a few seconds he was okay and started to enjoy it.

It may not look like he enjoyed it, but he did go back to ride again!

Aside from the maze (which we didn’t go through) there is also a very large slide, which Enzo was excited about from a distance, but a tad reluctant about once they actually got to the top.

Enzo started fighting Josh about going down, so finally he grabbed him, and off they went! Enzo didn’t really warm up to it right away…

That’s right… a GIF! I’m entering new territory here. 😉 As you can see, Enzo had a death grip on Josh’s arm the whole way down. He apparently enjoyed himself, though, because all he wanted to do was go down again… and again… and again.

Phoebe and I enjoyed the nice breeze and watched Enzo enjoy himself on the slide, until Josh suggested that mommy take him down. Honestly? I wasn’t all that excited about it, especially when I got to the top with Enzo and looked down. I won’t lie… part of me really wanted to back away. I pictured legs getting caught and broken (don’t you know you aren’t supposed to ride down a slide with a child?!?) and potentially rusty metal pieces slicing through legs. I couldn’t let him down, though, so we went… and it was fun.

We wandered around for a while until the sky began to darken and the kids got cranky. Apparently there is an entire bounce barn with several bouncy houses and castles we never made it to, but I’m sure we’ll go again this Fall.

How about one more slide gif of Enzo actually enjoying himself? Glad you asked!

Siblings.

It was a lovely long weekend with a bit more rain than I would have liked, but we still managed to be productive and have fun. That being said, I have photos and other things to sort through and organize, so no time to really write a lot. One thing, has become quite clear, though. Having two kiddos close in age has gotten easier and easier. I know they won’t always get along as well as they do now (Enzo gets a little irritated at how grabby his baby sister is), but I can dream, right?

Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk. – Susan Scarf Merrell

To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. – Clara Ortega

If you want to do really important things in life and big things in life, you can’t do anything by yourself. And your best teams are your friends and your siblings.

Deepak Chopra

MN Landscape Arboretum

It’s been a few weeks now, but we recently went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum… for the first time since we moved to Minnesota. I don’t know why we waited so long to go, but there you have it. I finally decided to take advantage of a Groupon so we could visit them while they have their butterfly exhibit happening because I figured Enzo would enjoy that.

He enjoyed it, but not necessarily the butterflies. He wasn’t a big fan of them flying all around him and they made him a tad jumpy and skittish. So, we spent a little bit of time trying to get him to warm up to them, and allowing Phoebe to watch them while in the carrier on my back before heading outside.

We also made sure to grab a few packets of milkweed seeds to plant next year to hopefully attract some monarch butterflies to our yard. I tried to plant some flowers this year to attract butterflies and bees, but for some reason my gardening skills this year were not up to par.

We thankfully went to the arboretum on what turned out to be a fantastic day. It was a little cool when we first arrived, but then warmed up to the perfect temperature for walking around. There were also a bunch of really pretty glass sculptures everywhere, so part of our goal for walking around was to see them all.

At first I was worried that with so many people it might get crowded, but there was actually plenty of room (even with the stroller) and Enzo was able to easily walk on his own without us worrying about him running into people or vice versa.

Despite there not being much in the way for kids, Enzo didn’t seem to get bored at all. He really liked looking at the different flowers and loved all the different walking paths that took you by ponds and little waterfalls and through shady trees.

I really enjoyed the walking aspect as well, and getting to look the different plants and flowers. I wish I was a better gardener and could more easily create an amazing garden, especially seeing so many pretty plant varieties.

I still can’t believe it took us so long to go to the arboretum. I think we thought it might be boring, and never realized just what a pleasant place it is to go to, to simply walk around. We also brought a picnic lunch with us, which made it much easier with the kids. There were plenty of areas to spread out a blanket (as well as picnic tables), so we ended up eating first before we did any exploring.

I even purchased more Groupon tickets for us to use before the summer is over, or the early part of Fall. I’m a big fan of getting the kids outside and there really isn’t a prettier place in the area to do so. Might as well go at least one more time this year, right? If anything, it’s a nice change from some of our other destinations, and while it’s a tad spendy to go there on a regular basis, it’s nice for now and then.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures