Last week was pretty full. (When isn’t it these days? I’m ready for summer.) Monday March 26 we stuck around the house in the morning, so we could catch up on chores (I put away about six loads of laundry) and baby could take a good solid nap. After lunch we stopped at my favorite neighborhood bakery to pick up their Monday special, our favorite loaf of whole wheat bread for only $1.25. I stock up for a few weeks at a time. I also like to pick up their hamburger buns (from a local baker). They are so tasty with our hamburger night (a weekly tradition).
For whatever reason, on this day it seemed a lot later in the day than it actually was. When I looked at the clock at 2pm it really felt more like 4:30pm. So I decided to be spontaneous (not a word usually associated with me I’m afraid) and I asked the girls if they would like to go see the otters at the aquarium (something I had been promising to do for a few months). “Enthusiastic response” would be an understatement. The girls were thrilled!
Of course since it was last minute I didn’t have my camera, so I don’t have any fun photos. (Which makes me want to get a smartphone more than ever, so I always have a camera on me for moments like these.) But we had a great time. The otters were otter-ly adorable (hardy har har!) and we caught the penguin feeding, which was super cute. And since I had dinner in the Crock Pot I was able to relax a bit more and just enjoy the outing without thinking about my next task.
Tuesday was a gorgeous spring day and we took advantage that night by grilling out some steaks. Yum! I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to take to Emma’s nursery teachers at Bible Study tomorrow (and a bunch of frozen dough balls for later use).
Wednesday we enjoyed Bible Study as usual (and Emma’s teachers enjoyed their cookies) and we indulged at Chili’s that night for dinner (kids ate free and we had a gift card to use too). Then I realized tomorrow was Lily’s VIP Day at preschool and I was supposed to bring snacks. Well, that element had slipped my mind, so I got out some of the frozen oatmeal cookie dough balls and popped them in the oven. And burned them. Blech! Thank goodness for food storage and my stash of kid’s snacks. Fruit snacks? Check. VIP Day snack problem solved.
Elliott took Thursday and Friday off from work this week, in an effort to enjoy time off throughout the year rather than hoarding it until the end. So we arranged for Lily’s VIP Day to be held on the 28th so he could come too. Lily was in heaven that her daddy was there and the entire family had a great time seeing Lily in her element. (Emma found the other preschoolers completely hilarious and giggled hysterically when they would come play with her.) Preschool also had a visit by the Easter Bunny that day (since next week is Spring Break) so Lily combined the two events in her head and decided the Easter Bunny was visiting because it was her VIP Day. Go for it Lily!
The rest of the day was uneventful, a normal preschool day. The Easter Bunny also visited Ava’s class which she was happy about. Elliott picked up a couple of water storage barrels at a grocery store sale for a super cheap price (something that he had “been meaning to do” for a year and a half. Once again his procrastination actually paid off, darn it.) I did my usual grocery shopping (taking all the girls with me to give Elliott a little quiet time on his day off) and picked up 8 pounds of strawberries. At $1 per pound I couldn’t pass them up, but I don’t really have a use for them right now so I am freezing them for later use in jam or something.
Friday was a good day. I started off the day by sleeping in a little while Elliott got up and fed the kids some dry Cheerios to hold them over. When I got up I made waffles with Buttermilk Caramel Syrup. (I had wanted to go to Golden Corral’s breakfast buffet, but turns out it is only on the weekends. Las Vegas spoiled me.) Then I made sack lunches for the girls and we headed out to The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, otherwise known as The Dinosaur Museum. The girls and I visited last summer, and they have been dying to take their daddy there. So we went. And had a blast as usual.
There were hardly any people there, which made the visit all the better. The girls had a great time showing their daddy the dinosaurs they love and spending time playing in the water and sand table. Afterwards we ate their picnic lunch outside and headed down to Provo.
The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Elliott and I went to see The Hunger Games. I only finished reading the book this past week. I had been hesitant to do so earlier, because I have a weird quirk: I don’t like to do something if everyone else is already doing it. And everyone was reading it. And watching it. So it took me awhile. In the end I did it for Elliott, because he really wanted to watch it and have somebody to talk about it with. I am his somebody. So I read it. And I liked it a lot. Now I need to get books two and three from the library.
I digress. Back to the movie. We both liked it a lot. Of course there are things we can pick at that differ from the book, or things we would’ve done differently, but overall we felt it was a very good adaptation and kept the tone of the book without going all out brutal. And since some of you may not have read the book or seen the movie, that’s all I’m going to say. Go read it for yourself.
After the movie, on our way to dinner, we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa’s to pick up Emma. Who hadn’t napped all day. She took about a 20 minute catnap from the museum to Provo and I thought for sure she would take a good nap at Grandma’s in the crib after a bottle, but no. I think she is afraid she’s going to miss out on the action. She fell asleep for about 10 minutes at Grandma’s, but that was it. We thought for sure the background noise of Outback Steakhouse would knock her out, but alas. She stayed awake all through dinner, happy as a clam.
After dinner we stopped by the Cricket store, because Elliott heard they were giving out free Android phones with new lines of service. He decided to close his old account and open a new one(the way to get around “new line of service” stipulation) and became the owner of a new Smartphone. I admit, I am a little jealous. He has been playing with it all weekend long, but I am holding out. I want to keep my phone number (Elliott had to get a new number with his new account) and I am being a little more picky about what I want out of a phone, so I am going to just watch and wait. And see what other deals come along.
Emma finally fell asleep on the way back to Grandma’s (after being up almost 12 hours straight!) and stayed that way until getting back home. When we got to Grandma’s we stayed and visited awhile, letting the girls have their “naked time” (their favorite nighttime activity) and run off the last of their steam. Needless to say all four girls were asleep on the ride home (almost five, I was so tired).
Saturday we went to a few garage sales in the morning, but I made the most of those few sales. I found some great deals, including a large bag of clothes in Ava’s next size up for $12, two brand new gDiapers for $1 each, and three pairs of sandals for me at only $1 each. Yeah! After sales we snagged some lunch at McDonald’s and headed to Salt Lake to get our hair cut at Rachel’s salon (boy, did I need a shape up). The rest of the day we took it easy around the house. Although it was windy, the weather was nice and we left the house open and enjoyed the breeze. That night I made our hamburger and sweet potato fries weekend dinner and we watched Moneyball. Man, is that movie right up Elliott’s alley!
After church on Sunday we tried to go ice skating, but as of April 1 they are closed on Sundays. We found out the hard way. The girls were so let down that we tried to cheer them up and Elliott suggested going to see the otters again (which he wanted to do himself), which the girls enthusiastically agreed to.
It is impossible for them to go to the aquarium without seeing everything, so… we saw everything. It took a bit longer than I thought, and though we didn’t have any plans for later I was pretty tired and ready to go. The thought of then heading home and making dinner (when I had been planning on grilling out but the cold wet weather wasn’t going to make that possible and I needed to come up with a new plan) was just too much. So we went to IHOP for “kids eat free after 4pm” and the most popular Kay Girls’ Dinner. Ever. (Those girls love breakfast for dinner.) What a good decision! Later Elliott and I capped the night off with some educational programming – Frozen Planet on Discovery Channel.
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