Our Last Weekend As A Family Of 4!

Heading into this past weekend, naturally I wanted it to be "perfect" - it was our last weekend as a family of four, I had these great visions of creating special family memories before baby came, and all I wanted was to eat at Chili's and get ice cream at Jiffy Treat. Let's just say only one of those came true and my belly was happy afterwards =) Reality? Reality is I have a two and almost four year old. Reality is Emerson was sick all last week and woke up screaming and crying at 5am Saturday and 12:30am Sunday. Reality is my kids are too young to understand the emotional impact of our "last" weekend as just mommy, daddy, Ethan, and Emerson. But, by golly, I was bound and determined to get out and have fun!

We started off the weekend by heading to the Wonderlab on Saturday morning. The kids had a great time building forts with big cushion blocks, making towers with cups, going down the slide, and building things at the construction exhibit - Ethan's favorite! =)

That night we headed to Chili's for dinner - the kids were less than excited about chips and salsa, but Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed our meals. We hadn't eaten there in so long and it sounded great to me!

Sunday was pretty low key -  I took Emerson to the grocery while Ethan and Eric did yard work, the kids took a nice little Sunday drive in the Jeep and played in the dirt with their construction vehicles. After nap time we headed to Jiffy Treat for a much needed ice cream splurge! Eric laughs because I called it a "tradition" - two years ago, the night before Emerson was born him and I went to Jiffy Treat and I got the most delicious, memorable cup of goodness called a S'mores Campfire cyclone. It's chocolate chunks, crushed graham crackers, marshmallow fluff, and then I add Reeces. C'mon!! So good. I can't say I've had it since Emerson was born so it's literally the only thing I really, really wanted at the end of this pregnancy. It did not disappoint. Meanwhile, Ethan was so happy to get his chocolate ice cream with crushed Oreos on top and Emerson downed her cup of chocolate ice cream.

Even if the weekend didn't go exactly as planned, everything was redeemed on Monday. Literally, Monday was perfection. I had the energy of a crazed woman and put it all to good use. The kids and I met a friend for breakfast in the morning at Panera. We sat outside and the kids loved watching all the construction vehicles work across the street. They were so incredibly well behaved and I actually got to sit and enjoy a conversation for a hour and a half! Afterwards, the kids ran their little hearts out in this grassy area outside of the restaurant. I was getting ready to get them in the car, but they just wanted to play in the sun - and I wasn't going to stop them! They were chasing each other around in circles, laughing, and having so much fun. It was one of those moments where I just stopped and was like "wow, THIS is awesome." They were full of so much joy and it made my heart incredibly happy. We spent our afternoon at the pool and Ethan was so excited that mommy was swimming with him in the big pool. His confidence has grown a ton in the big pool with his floaties on and he loves kicking his feet and watching how far he can "swim." Both kids loved jumping off the side into my arms and then going up the ladder over, and over, and over again. We stayed for almost two hours and those munchkins were worn out after! There was nothing special or out of the ordinary about our day, but it was exactly what I needed. I've been trying to make sure we do all these fun things before baby comes and yesterday was a great reminder that sometimes the most fun things are the unplanned moments...like running around in grass! =) I felt like I had given them such a good day - they were happy, I was happy, and I felt very "in the moment" and connected with them. Made this momma heart very happy <3