weekend at great wolf lodge

What a fun weekend. 

Friday morning we took off for Traverse City and Great Wolf Lodge. 

My mom and I played with Elise until the dads arrived after work.  

She loved this place. 

She was even brave enough to go down the big slides!  

She even got Grandma to go on them.  

It went like this:

Elise:  okay Gamma now you can go down with me!

Grandma:  No I think I will just watch you from the bottom. 

Elise:  But you love slides!

Grandma had no response for that.  

 We noticed we were pretty much the only people in there without tattoos - we must have missed that memo.  Quite the interesting crowd up there.


Saturday night we headed to North Peak Brewing for dinner.  So delish.  
Even if I couldn't have beer.  Although this weekend I started feeling this baby move like crazy.  So that's pretty cool. 

Hula hoops in the lobby proved Elise did not inherit my talent for rhythmic hip movements. 

She was pretty exhausted on the ride home. 

Thanks so much for coming with us Grandpa & Grandma!

butterflies are here again

We headed out to Meijer Gardens today to check out the butterflies. 

There were SO many butterflies - more than I've ever seen there before.  SO fun. 

We even wore our butterfly shirt. 

Me in a picture.  Yay.  Kind of.  

Elise slept so late today.  So I was totally ready when I went in to get her and the first words out of her mouth today were these, exactly:  "Oh Mommy you look so beautiful!"  I almost cried.  

There were still a ton of butterflies that still were going to hatch out of their cocoons. 

She would hold out her shirt hoping a butterfly would land on it. It didn't.

Giant blue butterflies.  

Grandma came too.  Of course. 

baby names: princess tiana or sally

So I finally got a new battery charger for my good camera.  

I lost it (who knows where) and then just lived without it for awhile hoping I would find it.  Nope. 

So Amazon delivered a new one to my door for a lovely $6 and here we are.  

Grandma picked this Minnie & Mickey art set up for her at Marshalls this week. Best $8 ever.   Kept her busy the entire afternoon.  

She really is too heavy to ride around on your leg anymore. 

So she's kind of dragged but still thinks it's hilarious.

We ran into Meijer for one quick thing the other day - which they did not have.  So instead we left with this -- and one super happy kid. 

This particular Costco trip involved a little ice cream.  

How can you say no when that giant thing only costs $1.75?

Also this might be a weird pregnant thing - but I can't stop thinking about the little tray of (non-raw) sushi that Costco used to have.  They DO NOT have it anymore.  I check every single time I go.  So say a prayer that Costco decides to stock sushi again.  Or don't, because if they do I will probably eat the whole thing in the car on the way home....

She wanted to wear my sunglasses.  

"hey mom, do I look just like you now?"

I think she likes me. 

Also in baby news - according to Elise if this baby is a girl her name will be Princess Tiana or Sally.  It's probably a good thing 3 year olds are not in charge of naming people. 

instagram update

I know y'all have been dying for some new material around here.  [sarcasm]

Here's some pictures from my phone this week. 

She still loves her dance class.  

This was part of a Kiwi Crate craft.  

She punched it out and said "Hey it's Jesus!"

It hit 42 degrees last week.  Don't worry, Michigan.  It's back into the 20s now.   She found a patch of grass, plopped herself down and said "Mommy!! Look it's grass! We can have so much fun right here!"

Sunday afternoons usually involve a little movie snuggle time.  

Who am I kidding...every afternoon involves movie snuggle time. 

When there are no more naps you take what you can get. 

An afternoon Winnie the Pooh viewing...

(I love Netflix.)

She's just so sweet.  She will just grab you and hug you.  

Last night we had breakfast for dinner.  You would have thought we starved the poor child with how much she ate.  4 pancakes, 2 eggs, sausage, and about a cup of syrup.  

Our friends came over to play today and after lunch we headed to our new favorite store At Home.  Really cute cheap stuff.  As soon as I find out what this baby is I'm going to town.  

a little honesty

I love snow.  I love snow.  I love snow. 

If you say it enough it might start to be true.  

We are dying over here.  Of the winter blues. 

This the current weather situation.  UGGGGH.

Last week we watched all three Toy Story movies in a row.  I may have taken a little nap during one of them.  Mom fail.  But seriously - one can only clean up play-doh so many times in a day.  And even Elise gets sick of painting.  It is too cold to play outside.  It's actually miserable to walk from your car to the grocery store.  I seriously have to put signs up on my pantry telling me "no more snacks" or the two pairs of pants I have left that fit me will be no more.  It's actually a good thing I'm not allowed to drink or none of my pants would fit at all.   

Elise will often say:

"Oh Mommy I wish it was summer."

"Look the sun is shining! That makes me so happy."

"Maybe if it rains the snow will melt."

At this rate my kid will be hunting for Easter eggs in waist deep snowdrifts.  

That is all.  Done complaining for now. 

Anyone else feeling the same?  (Actually that would be everyone in Michigan.)

"princesses dancing on ice!"

Thursday night we took Elise to see Disney on Ice. 

She loved it.  She knew almost all princesses.  

And she insisted on wearing her Rapunzel headband. 

She sat still almost the entire show - despite the crazy lady in front of us that took about 500 blurry princess skating pictures.  

Daddy even went to go get us cotton candy.  

I even got Elise to take a nap with me that afternoon - since we knew she'd be up til 10.   We snuggled in her bed and both fell asleep for an hour.  It was pretty adorable.