My sweet baby girl is turning five this coming Thursday, I'll post about that later, but tonight we're focusing on her birthday party! We had it last Saturday at my work. It was really easy to put on, they ordered the cake, had the goodie bags, and we just showed up. My mom, the master storyteller, told a story to the kiddos where she told AR that she was a king of chickens, AR's reaction:
The chickens had to lay eggs for the king, here's Nanny trying to lay an egg.
Nanny even asked the dads to come up and help lay eggs! Thanks, Dads, for being such a good sport!
AR and the other kids thought this was hilarious!
Then Rapunzel even came to the party!!!
She loved her cake and having everyone sing to her!
Happy birthday, sweet girl!
AR took Rapunzel around the room and introduced her to all of her friends!
Matt and I celebrating our girl!
After cake, story, and Rapunzel, we headed to the pool! My sister and H got AR a mermaid tail that she absolutely LOVES! She's been asking for one since we saw one in January!
Me and the birthday girl!
This picture cracks me up! Doesn't look like any of us were too thrilled about the dumping buckets of water!
Unlike these two who loved it! Thank goodness H came to the party, it was great to have her help plus what five-year-old doesn't love being with her big cousin!
More pics of the mermaid tail, it was a hit with all the kiddos!
I'll be carting this around to all the pools this summer!
Her aunt got her some new heels and she was super pumped about that!
We asked her friends to bring change to donate to the local humane society instead of gifts. We wound up with $246.50 to donate to the shelter. We're going to go on her birthday to give it to them.
A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and who helped raise all this money for the humane society!!!
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!
Last weekend, they started calling for a huge ice storm to hit STL this weekend. Luckily, I'd already taken off work on Friday so when I picked AR up from school on Thursday, we went straight to the grocery store and headed home. There was a bit of a commotion in the park directly behind our house so it was an interesting way to start off our weekend but without going into detail, AR and I are fine and thank you to everyone that texted or called to check on us. After that, we hunkered down for the long haul, charging all devices, and expecting the worse.
Friday we woke up and nothing had started yet. Around mid-morning, the driveway started getting slick and we had finished watching our first movie. A friend of ours texted around 1 or 2, checking in on us and seeing if we needed anything. I told him we were all good but thanks for checking. A couple hours later, his girlfriend texted, asking if they could come over and hang out. So they came over with their dog, cooked dinner, salted our driveway, and watched AR's amazing dance show. Let me sidebar here and talk about this friendship. It was a completely unexpected one that has grown into more of a family bond than a friendship one. They have been a true blessing to us and just like God proved to me last year with the people he placed in our lives, they crossed our paths at a time that couldn't have been more perfect. We love J & D and we're going to miss them when they move in the next month(s). AR and I promise, J, that we'll take care of D until she leaves, too. We love you guys so much and are grateful for everything you've done for us! Just remember as AR says, we'll always be besties for life!
Saturday morning we woke up and the driveway, roads, sidewalks all looked completely fine. After being cooped up for 24+ hours, we decided to brave it. We headed to 7-11 then dropped a card off at the police station to thank them for their work at the park last Thursday. After that, we headed over to our friends' house to drop off a card which turned into a two-hour playdate and lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was exactly what the girls needed!!! I even learned that if CFA isn't busy, they'll let the girls make their own ice cream cones. Plus, we all need to pause and check out my little one's outfit she's got going on here...ice skating dress, high heels, and pants... God, I love her fashion sense and creativity!
Sunday we were supposed to get the worse wave of ice but the temperature had warmed up so it was just a muddy mess. Monday AR was out of school for the holiday and this momma said we're getting out of the house! Unfortunately, all my other mom friends had to work but our swim lesson buddy's nanny, TT, who we also love, loaded up all four of the kids and met us at Monkey Joe's.
This was our first time at Monkey Joe's. I'll be honest, I'd been avoiding it because I thought it was way too expensive. A couple weeks ago, I stopped in to buy a gift card for a birthday party and checked out their prices. Compared to the other inflatable place, it's really not that bad considering there's no time limit. I went ahead and purchased the 10 jump pass. It was 10 visits for $75 with no expiration date. With spring break coming up and the hot summer months, I figured that was a good purchase and something that Nanny can do with her out of the heat. There were also TONS of inflatables, lots of space, tons of places for parents to sit, and free wi-fi, that's always a win for me!
Today was a great way for all the kids to burn off that pent up energy, look at how red their faces are. Thanks TT for coming out to play with the kids!
AR ran into a friend from school so we stayed a little bit longer. This author momma took out her computer and got some formatting done for her upcoming release. It's not the most traditional place to write but hey, whatever works, right? This is definitely multi-tasking at it's finest!
So there you have it, we survived the great ice storm that never was!
Last night AR and I got to invite our friends to have a party at Sky Zone in Fenton. Sky Zone Fenton offers open jump, 3 sky slam courts, skyrobics fitness classes, foam zone, ultimate dodgeball, sky hooks, and a challenge zone. Right now they are offering $5 off open jump or $50 off a birthday party with this coupon.
When we arrived, we were welcomed by this sign which made it easy for our friends to find us.
All the girls got checked in and got some awesome sky socks, which they were all digging the new pink colored ones.
As you can tell, we had a variety of ages which is the great thing about Sky Zone. The youngest in our party was 1 and the oldest was 12 but they were all entertained and had an awesome time.
AR was pumped to see Soph and Emma and we're so glad they were able to come out on a school night to hang out with us.
Haley was happy to skip Girl Scouts and bring her friends to jump.
While the big girls were great about hanging out and helping with the little girls, they did sneak off a few times to jump on their own... these two didn't notice though because they were having such a great time!
The girls were all over the place! They were jumping on the trampolines, doing flips into the ball pit, and doing cartwheels up and down the long trampoline area.
As you can tell, it was hard to get them to stop playing to snap this picture!
We got to jump for an hour then we headed up to the party room where we had pizza, drinks, and cake. All I had to provide was the cake and Sky Zone took care of the rest. It was super easy on this momma's end!
There was plenty of room in the party room and it didn't feel crowded at all. The party hostess was super polite and very helpful.
And Haley finally gave me a shoutout on the Snap! #auntwin
Now, straight from the mouth of the girls themselves, I think it's safe to say the foam pit and trampolines were the major hit of the party!!!
Thank you, Sky Zone Fenton, for having us come out and check out your party!
Like many things this past year, yesterday was a first for me. It was my first Thanksgiving without AR. Like most of the time when she's gone, I did my best to stay busy and not just around thinking about how much I missed her. We Facetimed first thing in the morning and she made me get her stuffed monkey because she's thankful for her and needed to tell her that, silly girl!
For lunch, I made spaghetti with homemade meatballs then headed over to my friend Deven's. She was on call and stuck at home all weekend so we decided to binge on The Office, eat a "traditional" meal of spaghetti and meatballs, and then have some of her grandma's pumpkin rolls for dessert. I have to say, she's a much more talented cook than I am to make those pumpkin rolls and they were delicious! Her dog Charlie celebrated with us, too!
I headed home after lots of girl talk and pumpkin rolls to check on my Shadow dog who is currently wearing a cone. No worries, nothing major just majorly expensive!!! My friend Shannon texted me and said they were hitting up Target at 6 so I decided to brave my first ever Black Friday (but really it was Thursday). It wasn't bad at all at Target or Wal-Mart. I didn't get anything major, just marked some items off my list. I did get an Elsa castle that AR had been asking for but I have no idea if it's the right one or not so I've got to figure that out somehow...
Fun story from the night: When I was at Wal-Mart, there was a Tahoe parked in front of the store. There were lots of people and they all had lots of items. Parked behind them was a cop SUV and some of the people from the Tahoe were climbing in with items from the store. My best guess is that they ran out of room in their Tahoe so the cop was giving them a ride home???
After Target and Wal-Mart, I drove back to St. Peters because I had to pick up something at Kohl's that I'd ordered online. Um... yeah, Kohl's was not nearly as quick and easy as the other two stores. Deven and I waited in line for TWO HOURS to checkout!?! That's insane! And the crazy part is that we didn't even get any big ticket items but after we'd waited for 45 minutes, it was like Grey's Anatomy, and we were committed! So, whoever gets my gifts from Kohl's had better LOVE them!
So it was after 10PM by the time we left Kohl's. I came home and what did I do? I got online and did some more shopping for the Adopt-a-Family at work. I'd forgotten the list in my car so I picked up a few things for them. I finally went to bed around midnight but I slept awful because I was thinking about everything I needed to do today like wrap presents to take to my dad's tomorrow, hit up Penney's because I had a coupon, find craft supplies for ornaments we're making, etc... When morning time came around, I was lying in bed, too tired to get up for the day when I heard the trash truck. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my kitchen trash, and tried to open the door but it wouldn't open! The doorknob just turned and turned so needless to say, I missed the trash truck but I did get this blog post written! Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and thanks to Deven, Shannon, and her family for keeping me company yesterday!
Wow! It's been an incredibly long and fun weekend for AR and me. Friday night we got manis and pedis with friends then had dinner at their house before coming home to pack for our big adventure at Holidays at Union Station on Saturday. Last November, we and two of our friends did the Polar Express train ride and had a blast! We thought what fun it would be to get a hotel room and stay down there the entire weekend. We bought the girls matching PJS, a set for their dolls too, and the girls were so excited. We had no idea what to expect since it was a different group putting in on this year but based off our experience last year and all the pictures of how they'd transformed Union Station, I think the moms were probably just a tad bit more excited than the girls.
After visiting NINE playgrounds on Saturday, AR and I met up with Lynn and Kenzie at Pieology in St. Charles. It was so delicious! I am totally loving these Subway-type pizza places like this and MOD Pizza. AR changed into her matching Elf on a Shelf pajamas, put on some tights, and her cowboy boots and they were ready to go! Kenz rode with AR and me so I got to listen to the first part of Descendants for the sixth time in the last two hours...
Side note: I'm introducing Elf on a Shelf after Thanksgiving so AR has no idea about the pajamas so hopefully once we get the Elf going, she'll get it. For now, she just thinks it's an elf on her PJs.
We arrived at Union Station and I actually got a pretty sweet parking spot right by Hard Rock Cafe so we were close to all the activities. It took a couple wrong spots before we finally found the place to check in then we took a trolley to the front of Union Station, got checked into our room, and headed down to get on the train. This is where it started to go downhill...
It used to be a restaurant, maybe Hooters, which is where you lined up to board the train. We had the first class Comet train, so not the cheapest but not the most expensive either. It said something about being able to pre-board but no one really gave us any details so we just lined up with everyone else at 6:15PM. It was a massive herd of people, no lines, no staff giving directions, no line barriers, nothing but it wasn't too bad. Finally, it's 6:15PM so we head over to the train, climb onboard and find our seats. In our train, we had tables and it was supposed to be decorated. Being that the lights were off the entire train ride, I could only see a few wreaths on the wall and that was about the extent of the decorations. When we went to take a seat at our table, we found out that our four tickets (that were purchased together in a four pack) weren't really together. Our four seats were not across from each other at the same table but four in a row so two of us at one table and two at the other. Luckily, the other table was in the same situation so we ended up just staying at a table together.
The train departed and we met dear, old Snickerdoodle the master elf and only "character" on our train. From telling the kids that we're passing the North Pole Industry District to whispering to me that if the kids were smart they'd recognize it's two different Santas, it seriously reminded me of Bad Santa or some kind of movie like that.
So the train ride started, it was dark the whole time with some holiday carols playing overhead. Snickerdoodle roamed the cart chatting with kids and teasing them. Our girls took our tickets and played a pretend game of Go Fish to pass the time... exciting, huh?
We made it to the North Pole which was a scene projected on the side of a tractor trailer with a small house that Santa stood on waving and laughing to the train. Santa's vehicle, not his sleigh, was also parked nearby and I wasn't quite sure why it couldn't be left behind the tractor trailer so the kids wouldn't see... Kenz asked Snickerdoodle if Santa was going to get on the train and he assured her he was. So the girls sat in anticipation of Santa, looking back and forth, straining their necks to find him. As we started to pull into the station, Kenz asked again if Santa was coming and Snickerdoodle said, "Well, he should be..." Finally, as the train was rolling to a stop, he came in and literally spent about 5 seconds with each kid. Our girls were grouped together but we still got a pretty awesome shot.
I have to say that I am in awe of our girls and quite frankly, I wish I had their mentality. Lynn and I were exchanging lots of eyebrow raises, lip reading, and doing our best to not let the girls know how frustrated we were with our experience. Honestly, AR loves Kenz so anytime she gets to be with her, she's happy and that was evident on this incredibly boring train ride. Seriously, I wish I could rewind life and keep the same outlook as I did when I was four.
The one thing AR was upset about on the train was that there wasn't hot chocolate. She'd been asking about it since we arrived at Union Station so she was pretty disappointed when there wasn't any on the train. Apparently all the activities from hot chocolate and cookies to actually seeing Santa himself are located inside Union Station. In theory, probably a good idea, in reality, you tell a four-year-old that we now have to go stand in multiple lines... yeah, super awesome!
So, we got back inside and went to wait in line for Santa. This was by far the best part of the whole event. Turns out, it was the same Santa who danced and sang and laughed with us on our train ride last year! This man is awesome!!! We went into a room with just our girls and they each got individual time with him. There was no rush, Santa posed for the professional pictures and for me with the phone, it was a really good experience.
After we saw Santa, we went out to an area where they wanted you to buy pictures then we were to exit OUTSIDE the building. So we went outside to head back inside. I should mention here that it was the tree lighting ceremony at Union Station on this night. We knew that going into it, we booked it for that weekend because of all the extra fun and festivities. This by NO WAY impacted our experience at Holidays at Union Station. It wasn't the crowd or the other people that made a sour experience, it was the actual experience itself.
Either way, Santa=awesome!
After Santa, we headed to Gingerbread Junction for our cookie and hot chocolate. When we entered, the girls went to get hot chocolate and a lady working there told them they had to get their cookie first. We went to get our cookie and another lady brought over a disposable cup of hot chocolate and handed it to Kenzie. I asked where we got our souvenir mug at and she asked to see "my papers." I was like, "Um... I don't have any papers. We just have this red wristband that they told us got us into everything past the front desk." She informed me that we were go to go the Elf VIP Lounge for our mugs, cookie, and hot chocolate.
By now, AR is begging her hot chocolate that she's been asking for for the last couple hours. I tell the lady okay and ask if AR could go ahead and get a cup here since she'd already given Kenz one. She told me no that I was to get everything at the Elf VIP Lounge. Now AR is crying because she knows she isn't getting one. I bend down and pick her up, muttering about how ridiculous it was that she couldn't give me a cup and now my child is crying,
We exit, find Elf VIP Lounge, get in another line and wait only to be asked for our papers again. I wanted to scream by this point that I am not a dog, I do not have any papers except for the wristband that they told us to put on. Turns out "papers" are really your tickets. We got our mugs, our hot chocolate, thank god for Kahlua to put in the mommies, and our Schnucks cookies... you know, the ones that your child can get for free when you go grocery shopping... The girls gobbled up their goodies then danced in the middle of the room under the disco ball and holiday songs. Oh, while we were waiting, the hot chocolate lady from Gingerbread Junction walks in looking for me. She apologized and gave the girls light up wands. I thanked her and told her that it wasn't her fault, that we were getting frustrated with the misinformation we continued to receive. This was another highlight in a series of unfortunate events.
Moms sit at the table, enjoy our spiked hot chocolate, the hot chocolate was really good, and start to chill out... still feeling disappointed but the girls are laughing and having a good time so I'm starting to relax. A few minutes later, AR comes over and says she has to go potty. We walk to the front of Union Station where the bathroom is and I'm appalled. The trash cans are overflowing and there are literally MOUNDS of toilet paper all over the floor. By this point, I'm done. I take AR back to Lynn and am on a mission to let my voice be heard. I find the entertainment director and begin to tell him about my experience. He immediately rushes me to the front desk to someone with more authority that can do something because he can't. So I begin to tell my story to the lady, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Between being outside all day in the sun and wind, my frustration, and the little bit of alcohol, my cheeks were neon red by now. She listened, asked questions, let me talk, and then her boss came up. I sighed and asked if I had to tell my story all over again. The boss said, nope, just give me your last name, I'm going to refund you everything. I was kind of in shock. I didn't expect them to refund all of it, which included our hotel stay. The first lady thanked me for being so nice about it and letting them know the good stuff too. She even said that she wanted to give me a hug, thank goodness she didn't because all my co-workers can tell you, I am not a hugger. In the end, the boss lady ended up refunding our entire train ride and hotel ($300+), gave us a free gingerbread house, and four tickets for breakfast the next morning (I think about $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids). I thanked them for listening and making the situation correct and went back to the girls. They were still happily dancing, oblivious that I'd even been gone.
We headed outside to catch the Fire and Ice show but had just missed it so we headed back to the hotel room. For the next hour, we'd hear something, look out the window, see the fire, run out of the hotel room, around the corner, and it would be over. By run through the hotel, giggling and laughing hysterically, I mean both little girls and both moms too! We finally saw it on the third try and it was pretty awesome.
The girls were in heaven in the room! They took the notepads and played waitress, they enjoyed cookies, and they got to stay up past their bedtime!
We woke up at 7:30, which is sleeping in for AR and me, packed up our bags, and headed to breakfast. This was the first time she got to use her Elsa suitcase she got for her birthday so she was thrilled about that.
The lobby of Union Station was beautiful! During breakfast, they had a cool lights show on the ceiling that apparently they do every day of the year so it wasn't just for the event.
The spread of food was pretty awesome, the bacon was great. They had an omelet station. The first three bites of mine were good but the air was on so it was cold after that. They had a waffle station that the lady couldn't get to work and spent the first 30 minutes trying to scrape out the broken pieces of waffle. Overall, good food, yummy bacon, but luckily, we didn't pay for it because it wasn't worth the price it cost.
The girls thought it was awesome to eat on a couch and this is a pretty adorable picture so I had to throw it in.
One of the special parts of the breakfast was that you met one of Santa's master elves and one of his reindeer. Here is the Master Elf and Prancer... not what I expected... especially when I saw dreads hanging out the back of the reindeer's head.
They did get a cute reindeer that my child insists on calling Rudolph because I'm pretty sure that's the only reindeer she knows.
So now it was time to leave but the door we had used to get to Union Station the night before was locked. We asked at the front desk if the trolley was running and they said no, we had to walk outside around the building to get to the parking. As we walk outside, some random man, another guest, sees us walking toward the corner. He informed us that the sidewalk was closed due to construction. This was seriously just laughable at this point because it was just one mishap after another. On a positive, totally unrelated note, we ran into Louie as we were leaving the hotel!
We started our trek back to the car. Luckily, there was a tiny piece of sidewalk that was big enough for the girls so Lynn and I carried the suitcases on the street while the girls stayed safe. We loaded up the cars and saw people were tubing. We decided to go check it out. The door to the ice rink was wide open, all the tubes were out, but no one was there to take money. We decided to join the group of people and jumped on the tubes for a few slides down. The girls thought it was awesome!!!
Overall, it was not a great experience. I appreciate what the staff did for us after I voiced my concerns but the fact remains that there were hundreds of other families that were just as unhappy as us, trust me, I heard them all grumbling too as we waited in line after line. We did the Polar Express last year and while it was expensive, we definitely got what we paid for and I would do it again in a heartbeat. This year, we paid a lot again and it wasn't nearly the same experience, not even half of what it was last year. There were a few positives but far more negatives and the fact that the train ride was just plain boring, well, I'm not so sure that we'll take the risk of going back next year.
The bottom line though is that our girls had a great time because they were together. They really are the true definition of what friendship should always be.
