5 Year Anniversary and Some Family Fun

Hello to you Plankerville.  I just finished doing my Wednesday produce thing and finally found myself some time to tackle an update on the 'ol blog while the boys are still napping...for now :-)...

We had some fun in these parts over the weekend.  Around here, we like to get the weekend started on Friday morning.  Why wait til Friday night??

We kicked off our morning with some fun in the kitchen making cookies to bring to a BBQ on Satruday night.  The boys were quite the little helpers...

...and very resourceful too if you ask me.  Lesson learned -- dumbbells double as stools when needed...

...we're definitely getting our money's worth out of that purchase.  Haha.

I got some very appreciated alone time later that day when the boys went to go play with some friends who were generous enough to offer their services for most of the day on our anniversary.  I owe them BIG time!!

Friday night, Mickey and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a little date night...

...it's always nice to get away from it all and spend some time with just the two of us.  Doesn't happen often these days...we need to work on that.  Mickey got me quite the gift... 

...custom-made with black diamonds he brought back from Afghanistan.  I'm a lucky girl!!  Can't believe it's been 5 years already.  We've had our ups and downs, good times and bad, but he's still my favorite person in the world and I can't imagine my life without him.  Not a day goes by that I'm not grateful I married him.

It was back to the family grind on Saturday morning.  We kicked it off with a little family run with the stroller to get some morning-after-date-night bagels before heading off to Lowes for somebuilding... 

...our superheroes were quite the little builders, as usual...I'm not biased or anything.  :-)   

And there's nothing like a shirt with a cape to make you feel incredible... 

...I'm pretty sure he actually thinks he has superpowers when he wears that shirt.  It's darn cute!

With our projects complete, we popped by Starbucks to indulge our caffeine and chocolate milk cravings before heading off to our next stop of the day-- MAXx's barber shop... 

...we finally found local haircut success.  So long bowlcuts from anyone but Oma.  Joanna rocks!

We spent a mellow afternoon at home doing the nap/workout/relax thing.  Nothing like a good PiYo session to help make you feel good after a few too many celebratory glasses of wine last night.

Before we knew it,  it was time to head off to a bbq with some of Mickey's work friends.  It was a fun family night.  After a late Friday night, we had no trouble calling it a night Saturday night and getting some good sleep.  

I woke up ready to run...not really, but I had plans to meet up with my running buddy and who am I to let her down?  I was actually glad she talked me into it the day before and loved getting out there to log some miles, get some girl time in, and catch the supermoon before the rest of the day got underway...

After Saturday's jam-packed morning, Sunday begged for a more relaxed vibe for our family time.  We obliged with a lazy morning and eventually a bike ride down to the green market for some local honey.  The boys were SO cute walking around just like this... 

...totally unprompted brotherly love.  Melt my heart!!

We made sure to find time to check for catfish and turtles...

...and got a refreshing morning pick-me-up too...

...the iced coffees at Stuart coffee company hit the spot ONLY on Sundays, when Blue Door isn't open in Downtown Stuart :-) They win out for us any other morning of the week when we're downtown.  

I spent some more time with my spiralizer on Sunday evening... 

...they did an excellent job with my candy cane beets which were DELICIOUS in this recipe you MUST TRY!!  Beets, goat cheese, pecans...what's not to love??  

Monday morning was back to business as usual with my little superheroes.  We hit up our last Monday play group of the summer. This time the sand table was a hit... 

...they made some cute crafts with the bug theme too... 

...the rest of the day was spent in typical Monday fashion with some errands and chores.  Nothing to exciting to report there.

Tuesday got off to a lovely start with an early morning run before tackling the rest of the day.  Story time was a hit with these books...

...it was a counting theme :-)  We followed it up with some time inside enjoying some beverages and practicing our letters with coffee stirrers... 

...take note parents of little ones.  It's easy coffee shop entertainment.  

We spent the rest of our morning at the library and had a mellow rest of the day.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Any now suddenly it's suddenly the middle of the week and time to gear up for Wednesday night story time.  We've got a farm theme tonight.  Here's to hoping the weather cooperates and we can have a fun night with our friends.  We're in the home stretch of the week...woohoo!

Settling In Again

Yesterday started off with a pretty gloomy morning which meant no story time...boo!  It also meant, extra time to enjoy coffee with my 3 favorite guys...yay!!

Yesterday was also "back to music class" for us.  It was so wonderful to be back with Miss Rabe.  We adore her!!

I am looking forward to a fantastic semester with her.  If you're local and haven't already, you MUST check her out for your kids.  What a treasure we have in our community!!  She's the whole package...music, enthusiasm, patience, loving guidance, praise, FUN, etc.  I think I love her classes just as much as my boys do.  

We followed up music class with a stop at the gym.  It's fun to have my man working out beside me!!  I hope that becomes a regular thing.

After our busy morning, we stayed put at home for the rest of the day.  Good stuff!

We finished up our evening watching a movie...

Funny stuff, I tell ya!!

This morning kicked off bright and early with a run for me and the boys...

Colton has decided he's not a fan of the camera...

They make 6 miles look so easy...haha!

While we got our fresh air and exercise, Mickey tackled fixing the lawn I destroyed while he was away...

  

He said that after a year living in the desert, he was more than ready for some green grass and couldn't wait to get it done.  Thanks to his mad yard skills, our yard is looking awesome again.  Woohoo!  The boys had fun watching him.  I hope they were taking notes for the future...lol!

Time for some more family time and a couple of errands.  Counting my blessings big time!!

Sunshine Days

What an incredible day!

My day kicked off nice and quietly with my favorite coffee, just as I had hoped...

...especially when it's the GOOD stuff...

You better believe I had two cups and talked myself out of a third.  YUM!  I made another one of those grain free english muffins to go with it this morning.  This time I turned it into an sandwich with egg whites, garlic and spinach.  YUM!

The boys and I squeezed in a quick trip to the gym for some killer cardio on the elliptical before spending the rest of the day predominantly outside.  It was GLORIOUS!

The boys had a BLAST finally playing with water in this water table.  

I must say, it's a pretty darn cool toy and kept their attention for a LOOOONG time!  So fun!!



Once they tired of that, it was time to finally try out the finger paints.  The boys had fun with it and created a couple of masterpieces.

They still don't love getting their hands all messy so we had to wash them off frequently.  It's funny that they have no trouble making a complete mess at dinner time but are particular when it comes to paint on their fingers...

We also shot some hoops ...

and just goofed around...

 

Those charming smiles and smirks never seem to get old.  

We even waved hello to all our friends who read this blog.  "Hi there!  Thanks for reading!"

While the boys napped, I took advantage of the quiet time and read a little, listened to the Joyce Meyer devotional for today, and did some Fit2Be yoga for my core.  I also threw a chicken, some sweet potato wedges for the boys and some rutabaga for me, into the oven to slowly roast until dinner time.   After naps, we took a leisurely walk around the neighborhood before giving in to the impending darkness and our hungry tummies.  I should slow roast whole chickens more often.  YUM! I even took the time to make chicken stock from the bones after dinner since I had the time and energy to do it.  This rest day did us all a world of good. 

Now, the boys are snuggled up in bed, tuckered out from a fun day, and I'm having another glass of this wine I opened up last night, compliments of my dad who has a knack for finding all the good, cheap wines.  

Apparently it's from Aldi and I must say, it's surprisingly yummy!  Cheers!  Hope your Saturday was as lovely as ours.  

Just an Ordinary Wednesday

Don't get me wrong, Indiana was great, but we are SOOO happy to be home.  The boys thrive on routine and are happily back to theirs.  Now that they're finally in their own beds again, they're catching up on the sleep they missed out on while they were on vacation.  I love it when they sleep til 8:30.  Keep it up boys!

We had a pretty lazy morning before finally getting our butts in gear and heading to the gym.  In sticking to my mission to repair my diastasis, I'm on a 2 month hiatus from running but can still do the elliptical and can walk to my little heart's content.  Careful weight lifting is approved as well.  After 2 weeks away from the gym, it was nice to be back.  Since I had lifted weights at home while the gym was closed yesterday, today I caught up on some reading while I clocked 6 miles on the elliptical.  My current read is...

I am loving it so far.  Two different story lines are currently merging and it's fun to watch the story unfold.  

On our way home from the gym, we swung by Starbucks so I could get my first free coffee of the month thanks to this handy dandy mug my sister hooked me up with...

For the whole month of January, coffee from Starbucks is free with this mug.  SCORE!

We also made a quick stop my the Property Appraiser's office for what I thought would be a quick drop off of some paperwork but turned into a sit-down meeting to fill out some forms.  Next time I'll leave the boys at home.  God bless the lovely lady who was patient with the tree of us while we took care of business.

We made it home in time for a yummy lunch.  The boys love the comforts of home for meal times as well it seems.  They have been eating machines since we returned...

They devoured five chicken nuggets each, some dried cranberries and a mandarin orange...right after snacking on some crackers and fruit leather in the car.  Yesterday they ate an entire box of Annie's Mac N Cheese for lunch.  They love that stuff.  Thank goodness BJs sells it by the 12 pack.

We might have to upgrade to the family size box for them when they get older...

I enjoyed a lovely salad for my lunch.  My mom made some yummy food while I was home and had TONS of yummy snacks for me to nibble on ALL DAY LONG but it feels so good to lighten things up a bit now that I'm home.  Today's combo included dried cranberries, slivered almonds, skinless rotisserie chicken and honey mustard atop field greens with a side of baby carrots. 

After lunch, and once the boys were down for their naps, I had a date with this guy...

I can't get over how messy my house can get when I'm not even home.  We had dirty feet from being inside all day yesterday.  NOT COOL!  No more dirty feet for us.  I managed to tackle the crumbs in my car as well while the boys were napping.  The mess in there was getting to me as well.  I'd say that's enough cleaning for the day...maybe I'll tackle the outside of the car during tomorrow's nap time...maybe not :-)

I'm hoping to get some thank you notes written and do my 10 minutes of core exercises while the boys are still sleeping.  Once the boys are up, my mission is to enjoy some fresh air until the sun goes down.  It's gorgeous out there and we need to take advantage of it.

I'm making spaghetti squash with chicken and marinara sauce tonight...YUM!