January Weekends

After our ski weekend up north, we've had two pretty uneventful weekends.  Which I am completely fine with.  It's been really nice to just have good old fashioned family time.  Lazy weekend mornings that start with a show On Demand in our bed to give us that slow start to the day instead of being rushed by an alarm clock and an agenda.

Mornings with time to cook up a batch of cinnamon french toast or Scott's famous breakfast stew.

Time for learning to color in the lines.

And to play barber shop in our kitchen and get haircuts by Daddy, complete with a post-haircut sucker and all.

Normally, this time of year we'd be snowed in, but we totally embraced the mild weekend we had and the lack of snow.  We actually broke out all the spring/summer toys like the velcro mits and ball, t-ball equipment, and the soccer net.

We were so inspired by the weather, that we did something totally uncharacteristic on a Saturday afternoon.  We took the kids downtown to the Box Bar, let them play on iPads, and ordered appetizers and beer.  A trip to the doggie bakery and to the cupcake station were in order too.  It was the perfect Saturday!  No tutoring for me, no obligations, no errands.

But even without nice weather and the ability to play outside, we took some much needed time to introduce the boys to some classic movies like Jumanji and Hook.  Clearly we were on a Robin Williams bender this weekend.  And shockingly enough, they both watched Jumanji from start to finish, loving every minute of it.

The movie captivated them so much, we were only able to pause it long enough to make homemade pizza and then we were back to the living room to resume watching the movie.

No carefree weekend would be complete with a trip to open swim at Aqua Tots on a Friday night.  And what are the odds?  Sean's friends, William and Natalie, from his class were there too.  It was so much fun to be on the other side of the glass, spending time with the boys doing something they love.

And it was nice spending time with the boys at the Michigan Science Center and introducing them to the DIA on a Saturday morning while Scott coached.

But, some of my favorite memories from these past two weekends were just letting the kids stay in jammies most of the day, letting them play with their toys and each other.  Look what can happen under the right circumstances.  Sharing.

As we close out January and welcome February, I'm loving our slow, but steady start to 2016.  January flew by!  Today we celebrate Bailey's 9th birthday!  Hard to believe we welcomed Miss Bailey into our lives 9 years ago.  Almost feels like another life.

That's the thing with time....people warned us that it would all go by so fast.  Being parents.  We acknowledged their warnings, but brushed them off.  I'm finally starting to realize they're so valid and so on point.  The kids are growing up so fast before our eyes and the days keep coming quicker and quicker.  While it's been a blessing to have months with jam-packed weekends and fun events on our calendar, the true beauty lies in those weekends where we can just be home, as a family.  Embracing all the little moments.