Our Trip to Washington, D.C.

We just got home last night from an extended weekend in Washington, D.C. While it was nice to get away and escape the day to day life, the trip wasn't exactly one that topped our list as one of favorites. 1. AR was sick so we spent majority of Friday and Saturday in the hotel 2. Walking long distances and history isn't really a four-year-old's idea of fun. Either way, we made the best of it and still had a pretty good time. Here's our trip in pictures...

AR got her Elsa suitcase for her birthday last year. This was her first trip flying with it. It mainly housed extra snacks and our pajamas on the way there. On the way home, it was our dirty clothes. She did pretty well taking care of it all by herself.

We got there late Thursday night and it was a little chilly. Other than Friday night, this was the only day that we needed our coats. By Sunday, I was wishing I'd brought some shorts or at least short sleeve shirts for AR.

Like I mentioned above, AR wasn't feeling great on Friday. She and I skipped the Capitol tour and stayed in the hotel. Thank goodness my sister brought her Firestick! The hotel had a shuttle that drove us to the grocery store where we stocked up on oranges, water, bananas, and of course, AR's favorites cucumbers.

Friday afternoon we decided to venture out for dinner. You can see in her eyes that she doesn't feel good but she was going as stir crazy as I was in the hotel.

And when we found Sprinkles, she was a VERY happy girl!

Candace, the owner of Sprinkles, is the judge on Cupcake Wars! They even had little dog cupcakes that AR wanted to get for Shadow but I told her I didn't think they'd make it home in one piece so we didn't get any.

Friday night we did a Monuments by Moonlight tour. The first stop was Lincoln Memorial.

Right after Matt and I got engaged in 2007, we went to visit his friends on the East Coast and did a little day trip to D.C. I tried to recreate some of the photos the two of us had taken together with AR.

H took this pic and I think it turned out pretty fantastic!

I love this picture of the side of the Lincoln Memorial, very cool! Oh, while we were at the top of the stairs, this group of teenage boys came up. They had our back to us and were taking pictures of the Washington Monument. I looked over and they were all dressed in red, white, and blue patriotic clothes. I walked over to one of the boys and was like, "Hey, let me see your phone." He turned and looked at me like I was crazy. I assured him I wasn't stealing his phone but capturing an awesome pic. He finally gave it to me and yeah, the pic was awesome. I thought it might be a little too creepy if I asked him to send it to me so you'll just have to take my word.

Washington Monument and the reflection pond.

Battle of Iwo Jima which always reminds me of Mr. Reutzel. If any CHS Spanish alumni are out there, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The last stop on the monuments tour was the MLK Memorial. We also saw the Korean Memorial but there were seriously rats running through the bushes and across the sidewalk so I took two pics and ran the opposite direction.

Now, the whole reason we went to D.C. was because I had a signing for Lyssa Layne. It was Saturday afternoon in the hotel that we were staying in. AR took this pic and I have to say that she did a fantastic job! It may or may not be my LL profile pic...

My baby girl stayed with me all day because she still wasn't feeling too great. She did an excellent job handing out swag and we found an awesome book that I can't wait to read with her. If you're a mom to a little girl, teenager, or daughter in general, go check out Adjust Your Crown.

My biggest fan that I love sharing all of this with!

Saturday night, we stood in line for over 30 minutes for some Georgetown Cupcakes. It was worth it! I had milk chocolate buttercream frosting and it was AMAZING!!! The locals said if they had to rank the cupcake stores, it would be Baked & Wired, Sprinkles, then Georgetown Cupcakes. My sis and H had Baked & Wired and said they were good but OMG, I'm still dreaming of the GC frosting!

Sunday was our big day out because AR was finally feeling better! We checked out the White House, not that you can see it all that well.

She told a secret serviceman "thank you for your service" and he gave her this candy "straight from the President's desk." Don't mind her middle finger, it's not a political message!

This is the front of the White House in the distance. When I was there last, a decade ago, you could get a LOT closer, but I think a lot of the fencing and other construction was leftover from the inauguration.

We found a Shack Shake and had to indulge!!! Yes, I'm doing a weight loss challenge at work. Yes, I indulged in 2 cupcakes and split a milkshake plus more. But when you walk 2-3 miles per day, majority of that carrying a 45 lb child, well, then I'm not too worried about gaining. In fact, I weighed today and I lost a little so I'll happily take that!

AR wanted to do ONE thing and in the process of doing that. We passed through Chinatown where AR also sampled a green smoothie which she loved... and got pretty much all over!

AHA! The highlight of AR's trip!!! We found a playground! This was all that she wanted to do. So we walked a mile to the JFK Recreation Center and played on the playground. She was one happy little girl!

We also went to the Spy Museum. We did a game called "Spy in the City" which for older kids is really awesome. We each got a tablet with GPS on it. We had to go to different places and find clues. AR was NOT digging this at all so we only made it halfway through then later in the day, we walked through the museum some.

After all that walking, playing, and spying, it was time for dinner. Where would us STL girls pick? PI Pizza of course! I've never been to the one in STL so this was a first for us. For those of you that don't know, PI Pizza has all their specialty pizzas named after towns in STL. AR was starving and chowed down on this yummy Italian feast!

Monday, we visited Arlington Cemetery before we headed to the airport. Holy hills and even more walking! It's such a sombering place and makes you reflect on life in general. Here is the eternal flame for JFK.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Changing of the Guards

Then it was time to head home! D.C. is a great place to visit but I would definitely recommend waiting until your kids are old enough to understand/appreciate everything it has to offer.

AR's Super Awesome Valentine's Day Party

Today was the last and final party for the school year. All this Momma has to say is HALLELUJAH! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing them and looking at all the fun ideas, but it's a lot of work to get everything together and ready for the party. I spent the majority of two weekends prepping for this bad boy! Here's a run down of what all we did.

For snacks, I made love bugs out of strawberry applesauce. I also had a little candy kit together with a Minute 2 Win It worksheet.

I was so super pumped about the Minute 2 Win It worksheet, which you can download for free here. Then I got to class and Mrs. R told me that the kids can't have M&Ms because it's a potential allergen. None of the kids in her class have allergies but they're super strict with the preschoolers so no fun snack activity, the kiddos just got to take them home. That was disappointing but the kids didn't know any different. 

Now, these little love bugs...I spent the better part of a Saturday, burning off my fingertips to make these. Someone thought they were turkeys so I would recommend putting the pompoms on the antlers. I didn't because I knew the kids would look at them for about .5 seconds before tearing into them and yeah, that's what happened.

The whole clan of love bugs/turkeys watched over our kitchen for a couple weeks before the party.

Now, on to the games! We had Conversation Heart Catapults.

We had a Creation Station where the kids could build whatever they want out of heart marshmallows and toothpicks. This station ended up being a little bit messier than I anticipated so I would recommend having baby wipes nearby. Of course the kids wanted to eat the marshmallows but luckily no one did. I'd bought an extra bag so the kiddos got them after lunch later in the day.

We did a little bit of finger painting and made something for the parents. You can jump over here and download the poem for free.

I love these fingerprint poems because I remember one I did in first grade that my dad had framed. It was displayed in our living room and to this day, I have that poem memorized.

Of course a class party isn't complete without a photo booth! I always take one of each kid, edited them with a colorful border and words then print one out for each kid. When I decided to do this, I hadn't thought of it yet, but it's also helping me with our end of year present because I'm making a photobook for the teacher so now I have pictures of all the kids to include!

Another station was Musical Hearts. I found the idea here but it didn't show you what all the hearts said so here's all of mine. 

Here's AR when the music stopped, she had to do whatever was listed on the heart she was standing on.

After all the kids visited each station, we made a few love potions! This was just baking soda and red vinegar. I loved this because it fizzed out of the tube and the kids got soooo excited each time. Mrs. R even let them experiment some on their own with this later in the day during free choice because the kids had so much fun with it.

Our other love potion was slime made out of baking soda and red dish soap.

It was a great party that lasted about an hour. Then the kids handed out their Valentines to their friends. Mrs. R snapped a quick pic of me and my girl before I headed out. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day 2017!!!

Today was my first official Valentine's Day as a single woman in almost a decade. Instead of a day of professing your love to my significant other, I thought back over how I'd spent this day in the last decade. One thing was consistent until the last few years, we always went to Shogun's even when we had a third wheel because our friend's husband got called into work. There's one yogurt place that I've only been to for dessert after a Valentine's dinner at Shogun and I always think of that when I drive by. We ran races, photographed my baby bump, did baby photo shoots with lots of lipstick, and we had our annual play dates, with me playing air guitar, and our dinners morphed into heart-shaped pizza that looked like a butt.

They were never bad, Matt always did something thoughtful, so being that this was my first love holiday without a significant other, I had zero expectations for the day. The day ended up being pretty awesome and I felt TONS of love! I cannot stress enough how awesome my friends and family are and how the right people come into your life with no explanation but they make your life whole and right and happy and anything other good word you can think of.

Here's a recap of our awesome day!

Here's the set-up AR woke up to this morning. a sock monkey with candy, her love note, and a new placemat with her picture on it because the girl has gotten to be a pretty messy eater!

She was pretty pumped about the gift, especially when I let her eat a piece of her chocolate before breakfast.

She wore her love shirt and picked out the whole outfit on her own. Take a look at my girl, she was not feeling good today, really warm, no high fever, but just not herself, but still smiling.

I went to work and my awesome co-worker, April, brought me this and it totally made my day!

Monday when we got home from school, I started to unpack AR's backpack. I found two cards like this in it and left them in there. Later, I said, "Hey, I think there's something in your backpack that maybe you want to put away." She looks in her backpack, reaches in, and walks it over to me and says, "Here, Mommy." I suggested maybe she wanted to give it to me the next day and she was like nah. I finally convince her to give it to me in the morning. Cue Tuesday morning and I'm helping her get dressed, I see the card and ask if she has anything to give me. AR.... "no." *shaking my head* She finally gave me this super awesome card and I love it! I hung mine up at work so I could see it all the time.

I thought AR's card and April's chocolate was it but no! I got a text late in the afternoon from our friends in Arizona that said something was waiting for us at the Hallmark store. So we swung by and picked up this GIANT teddy bear, a Willow Tree figurine, and some chocolate pretzels. AR was pretty pumped!

This bear was so big that it needed it's own carseat! Thank you, J & D, for thinking of us and I'm glad you two were together today.

We had dinner at McAllister's then came home and got in our jammies. Matthew stopped by with a gift that AR had picked out for me over the weekend. She got to give her his card and the chocolate we got for him. He visited for a little bit and she got to snuggle with her daddy on Valentine's Day. AR picked out the Minnie cup so that we'd have matching ones now.

Oh! I totally forgot she made this super adorable LOVE sign at the babysitter's today. I am, well, so in love with it that I think I might get it framed and hang it up in my bedroom.

Me and my Valentine, the best one I could ever ask for!

After Daddy left, it was time for bed and seriously, that bear... it's almost as big as her!!!

For a day that I wasn't expecting much out of, I felt more love from so many different people. It was wonderful to be thought of so much and to realize how awesome our true friends and family are. They're our village and our village is so completely amazing! The real lesson here is that you can be single and Valentine's Day can still rock if you're got an awesome support system like we do! 

Hope you all had a Valentine's Day as fabulous as ours. We'll continue celebrating tomorrow with her class party!