Hop to It

Y'all Easter is only a week away. 




Although given that Littlest Miss is starting to understand a calendar and the ordering of events it seems as though it should have come an gone already as she's been saying "Easter's coming" for at least four weeks.  Yes, its the truth, but still.




But regardless of Littlest Miss's declarations, we hadn't done much to prep or celebrate Easter (except for attending Ash Wednesday services), until now.




I think we did enough Easter activities in one weekend to make up for the last thirty something days.


First, we kicked off the weekend with one of our favorite dinners: make your own pizza.  I love it because (a) the girls eat it and (b) it keeps them occupied and the rest of my house clean for the duration of dinner prep.

After dinner, we headed to a neighbors house for a bit before hitting the sheets early for our busier than normal Saturday: gymnastics, Eggstravaganza at our Church, and soccer.  All before one.


The Eggstravaganza is one of my favorite events -- toddler friendly egg hunts, games, story time, inflatables and a petting zoo.  Seriously, heaven for my littles.

Think they had fun?




Then it was off to soccer where we once again tried to get Little Miss to run.  and score a goal. 


Once again, we weren't successful -- but at least Littlest Miss and I had fun on the sidelines and Little Miss at least smiled for her "team" picture [it's in quotes because they legit take individual pictures of all the girls and then photo shop them into the team picture]

After some Bar Method and grocery shopping, it was off to a neighbors for dinner.  Sadly, I didn't get very many pictures of the girls -- they were too busy playing, while the parents were too busy talking -- but nevertheless we had a blast.  So much so that the decorate your own ice cream for desert was not the highlight of the night

Then the Easter festivities continued Sunday with Palm Sunday Church Services, a stop at the "Petting Zoo" afterwards, and then a neighborhood Egg Hunt followed by dinner with friends.

They really wanted to pet the donkey.  But apparently the donkey was being a bit of an A!S after being ridden on through the church as part of the Palm Sunday service, so this is as close as they man in-charge of the donkey would let them get.

Just some of the kids in the neighborhood.  One of the many reasons why we love our 'hood.

Cup of Tea

To say that I am NOT a morning person is a lie.  If anything, I am the complete opposite.  A true night owl.



I can stay up until the wee hours of the night easily.  But getting up in the morning is a completely different story.

Most days, I'd be lucky if I got up before the girls (despite numerous alarms).  Not only did this lead to frantic mornings, but it lead to stressful days as I'd be lucky to get into the office before 9.  And although my current job doesn't require a ton of overtime, getting in that late definitely doesn't mean that you are getting out early.  Which meant:

Leaving the office around 5:15

Sitting in traffic and praying that I made it to daycare by 6:30

Racing home in an attempt to feed and bath the girls and get them to bed at a reasonable time (and the lack of routine and mommy time throughout the day meant they weren't asleep until at least 9 every night)

And then I'd still have to workout, prep for the next day, clean, squeeze in my 20 minutes of me time (this, its legit y'all) and then go to bed for the night.

It was truly exhausting.  And made our already busy life seem that much busier.

But did you catch that...I said was.  See after having to get my Aunt to the airport at 6:30 AM for a 7:40 AM flight two Mondays ago, something clicked.  And knock on wood, I've been at the office by 7:00 AM every since.  Which means that I don't get to see the girls unless they happen to wake up before I go, but it does make the rest of the day run so much smoother.

Especially on days like today. 

Where I left at 4:00 PM, and despite heavier than normal traffic, was home by 5:00 PM.  I changed into yoga pants and headed to the girls school where we proceeded to head to their favorite park for nearly an hour.  Think they had fun?

And now, its 9:30 PM and they've been asleep for over an hour.  Not only did I get to spend quality time with my littles, but I have actual me time.  To do whatever I need to do for me.  And that is something that makes my heart happy.

So is getting up at 5:30 my cup of tea?  Not really.  But it's so, so, so worth it.

Life in Rewind: Loli & Pop Visit

Once again, I am behind.  Like seriously behind.  But because we've actually had several house guests (aka lots of fun and activities) I don't want to just skip those weekends and pretend that they didn't happen.



Thus, I figure I'll do a handful of posts to capture everything that I missed: Life in Rewind.


First up, our recent weekend with Loli and Pop!


Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from their first night in town -- but we had fun watching March Madness, eating dinner (and playing) at Central Market and then just hanging out.  After a much needed night of sleep (shorted one at that), we were off for a typically busy Saturday


Donuts. Gymnastics. and Soccer.  Duh.


Although I think Little Miss had more fun blowing dandelions after the game than playing (I mean standing) soccer. 

Side note, we've tried everything to get her to run (even bribing her with Toys R Us trips)  and nothing seems to work.  Thus, this season may be the last of our soccer weekends for the foreseeable future.  Any suggestions on how to get her to enjoy it would be greatly appreciated!

Then it was time to head home to grab a quick bite of lunch, shower and head out for the afternoon.  On the agenda: a trip to the Fort Worth Water Gardens and then to Casa Manana to see The Little Red Ridinghood. 

The girls LOVED the water garden.  Especially the "Mountain" and the "Bowl"  When they saw the "Mountain" they literally took off running. I laughed, followed close behind and tried to snap some iPhone pics.  As soon as the husband realized what they were doing, he freaked and bounded up after them.  They all survived (clearly) and made it to the top!



Then it was off to the "Bowl" (unlike the Mountain I don't think this is really its name).  And the girls were obsessed with it.   The Husband and Littlest Miss made it down about 3/4 of the way and then turned back, whereas Little Miss insisted that we make it to the bottom and go all the way around.  So we did. And not gonna lie, this momma was a bit scary.  Not only because you are surrounded by water but also by crowds and crowds of people. 

However, Little Miss and I did it.  And in honesty, I was so proud of how brave she was!  Sadly, Littlest Miss at this time started to cry because now she really wanted to do it -- but given that we had to get to the play and more people kept coming, she didn't get her wish.  Next time for sure!



For anyone in the DFW area, we highly recommend Casa Manana.  For the girls Christmas gift this year, we got the family season tickets and have enjoyed each show so much that we plan on buying them again next year.  They truly do an amazing job on each show -- and they are the perfect length for littles, entertaining for all ages, and even serve adult beverages on the chance your child is misbehaving and you need a liquid relaxer :)

The girls actually fell asleep on the car ride home (at 6:45 without dinner nonetheless) and slept until Sunday morning.  Thus, the adults grabbed some take out and relaxed at the house. 

Sunday morning, after deciding to skip church, we headed to the park and back down to Fort Worth as we were all really wanting to try the Woodshed Restaurant. 

We had initially tried to go Saturday evening after the play, but after being told it was a 3 hour (yes, 3 hours y'all) wait, we sadly got back in the car and head home.  However, it looked like a fun place that would entertain my children and serve the adults yummy food.  Thus, we tried again.  And let's just say we were all (even the girls) happy with that decision.

Great food, sand and toys for the girls, live music, and a beautiful Sunday day.  What more could you ask for.  My one "compliant" is that for being as kid-friendly as a venue as they were, there wasn't a kids meal and wasn't really anything that my kids would remotely eat.  Thankfully though they had their Sunday brunch and our waiter let me snag a biscuit for each girl and some berries.  Little did they know that my girl could probably eat $25 worth of berries

Girls hanging with Loli

Girls playing in the sand

Just some of our yummy food

The girls and their brunch

Littlest Miss being silly with her berries

Tipping the band and getting their own guitar pics

At the end of the day, it was a great weekend and a great visit with Loli and Pop!  Hope to see you soon (but if not, we'll see you in a few weeks in San Diego!)

Three cheers for...

...cauliflower?

Yes.  It might sound a little bit strange, but seriously, as of late its made me so happy.

See, for the last six months or so, I've been trying to cut out grains in an attempt to lose the gut.  Well, that clearly didn't happen as I'd still sneak them in (and my sneak them in I mean over indulge).  However, about two weeks ago, I finally caved and signed up for Isagenix and their 30 day program in an attempt to lose the gut before San Diego...

...and so far, I a really loving the convenience of Isagenix.  But when two of your three meals of the day are shakes (and please don't think I am complaining, as I actually love the taste and how great I feel after), the third meal really needs to be good.

And that's were cauliflower comes in.

In the form of Cauliflower Paella.

 

Recipe here (and photo credit too!)

Sunday night dinner for the win.

I made a few minor tweaks (most notably omitting the chicken, subbing mussels for oysters, and cooking in about 25 minutes not the supposed hour) and it was SO good.  So good in fact, I am thinking about eating the leftovers, which I normally won't touch with a ten foot pole, for dinner tonight.

And while we are talking about the amazing-ness of cauliflower, here are a couple other "go-to" recipes using this star ingredient.  My only tip is to cook the cauliflower a bit more than most of the recipes call for as in my opinion it makes the cauliflower a bit softer, more rice like and more flavorful.

Mexican Cauliflower Rice

Recipe here (and photo credit too!)

Shrimp & Grits

 Recipe here (and photo credit too!)

Do you have any recipes that you are loving?

Enjoy!

Weekend Recapping

Y'all.  I totally meant to post about our weekend on Monday.  I went so far as to upload my awful iPhone pictures into the Blogger app.  I just never got around to writing. 

Not Monday.

Not Tuesday.

And not this morning.  Even now, I should be working.  But something in my brain is nagging me.  Nagging me to write.  Nagging me to share.  Nagging me to blog what we've been up-to, which of course is lots.  Nothing earth shattering (I promise) but lots of stuff going on in life.  Hopefully, I'll be able to do a better job of sneaking away a few minutes here or there to post (something).  Even if it's not a lot of words.

So that's what I am going to do today.  Post the pictures I previously uploaded.

All of them are from a birthday party that we went to this past weekend at the Sea Life Aquarium.  In the past, I would have said thanks but no thanks as Little Miss hadn't mentioned this particular friend a ton of times.  However, when we got home from our parents-weekend-away, she begged me to go.  I guess she's officially at the age whereby they "get" birthday parties and want to go.

So I RSVP'ed yes.  Even though I quickly realized that our morning of back-to-back-to-back gymnastics, birthday party, and soccer game was going to be next to impossible.

And it was.  Thankfully, the Husband agreed that we could skip soccer (under the strict agreement that it was just this once), which was so worth it as not only did the girls learn all about fishies, but they had a great time bonding with their friends.

Other than the party, we actually had a low key weekend -- a goodbye dinner with Papa, dinner with the family we went to Florida with the past summer, church, errands and hanging out together.

Weekend Recap

Before I recap this weekend, let me just apologize.  Y'all these pictures are awful.  For the longest time either I (a) took really good iPhone photos or (b) just thought they were really good.  But as I post these pictures and try to summarize our weekend, I realize just how bad these are.  Maybe this will finally be my wake up call to pull out the DLSR camera...hmmm...we'll see about that...


...it's just so big. 
...and bulky...
...and heavy...
...and let's be honest, I am lazy and its not at all convenient.  But at the same time I would like better quality photos.  Any quick fixes out there?


Regardless, I digress. 


Back to the topic at hand. Our weekend. 


It was busy, busy, busy.  As in I took over 18,000 steps yesterday either cleaning or chasing around the girls.  As in nonstop and I need a day to recover. But never the less fun.  So here are just some of the things that kept us on the move

Friday

Because of rain Tuesday, soccer practice got rescheduled.  Not sure which Little Miss spent more time doing -- actually practicing soccer or practicing gymnastics.  Hmmm..

After soccer, we headed over to a neighbors house for some much needed friend (and wine) time.

Saturday

We were up and at them early.  Saturday morning gymnastics followed by the first soccer game of the year.  At least Little Miss (and apparently Littlest Miss) were excited to go.  Or maybe it was the excitement that they stole a Valentine's Day treat.  The husband was kind enough to give Mommy a much needed break so I can't let you how well she played, but either way, they were all smiles both before and after the game.

After soccer, we quickly piled into the car for a playdate with Little Miss's sweet friend from school  Not sure how she had the energy, but needless to say they bounced and played for the better part of the afternoon only stopping to take photo booth pictures and chow down on some dip-and-dots.

And then it was time to head home.  Thankfully, before heading off to work, the Husband was able to get Littlest Miss down for a nap, which gave Little Miss and I time to hang out.  Selfie party and volcanos anyone? 

We finished off the evening with a quick run to Target -- why, I am not entirely sure -- but in pure Target fashion we left with much more than we planned including Playdoh and several baskets for the laundry room.  (More on that later, but out of no where I had sudden motivation to finally finish that room!) -- dinner and some Disney shows.

Sunday

After the typical Sunday morning activities (i.e. church and grocery shopping), the Husband headed back to work while the girls and I went to a birthday party.  After a few frustrating minutes of them refusing to join in the fun, they finally did.  Needless to say, they had a blast doing various "sports" activities and burned off even more energy.

And then it was time to wrap up the day and get ready for the week -- which this week entailed more than normal as Papa is coming to town for the week!  So this coupled with the house cleaner coming today and my sudden urge to finally put away the Christmas sheets, meant a few extra chores for this Momma, but that's A-Okay...especially since its a couple of things checked off the to-do list and hopefully a fun few weeks with our visitor!