A Christmas-ing We Go!

Last weekend we thought we should take advantage of the warmer temps (yes, that would be 40 degree weather folks...this past weekend we were lucky to hit the 20's and that's without windchill!) and go cut down our Christmas tree!

We found a new to us tree farm and I think this one might be my new favorite place to go every year! It was family run, very mom and pop, and so cozy and cute.

We road this pretty red tractor out to the trees...

{The biggest and the littlest of the family}

We ended up narrowing it down to 3 trees fairly quickly...and then finally THE one, it's amazing how good our kids are becoming at picking out just the right tree :-)

Once we cut our tree down we headed to their fire pit to warm up with some hot chocolate. I love that they had such a fun place to go while you waited for your tree to get shook and netted.

Then we paid up at their adorable life-sized gingerbread house...how fun is this! I sorta kinda want one in my backyard!

And then off to home we went...until next year!

PS...we finally, finally, finally have the lights on and the ornaments hung! It only took us 5 days after the fact!!

XOXO,

XOXO,

Mommy/Daughter Date: Picnic in the Park

At the end of the summer I was asked by Davidson's Organics and the Missouri Star Quilt Company to be a part of their Ultimate Picnic! program and to create a fun picnic theme to share. What fun, right! I love a good picnic. Remember this post here? Well, last week I decided it was high time I took my girls out on a little mommy/daughter date. It had been far too long since I had done anything with either of them that was just us. You know, without any errand running, after school activity pit stops, soccer games, heck, not even a brother in sight.

Since we've been having the most amazing fall weather, I thought a picnic at the park would be the perfect little getaway for us. I packed our picnic basket with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, animal crackers, apple slices, and some iced tea (caffeine free of course...my kids love when I let them have iced tea, I think it makes them feel grown up!)

I was sent a few boxes of Davidson's Organics have been loving all the fun brewed iced tea flavors they offer. I chose the Te de Hibiscus for my girls as it's caffeine free and they really enjoyed it, especially in their own little mason jar!

I was also sent an adorably happy fat eight bundle from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I used the fabric to make each of my girls a cute Ruffled Mason Jar Cozy (tutorial found here!) to use at our picnic in the park.

We had so much fun. It was so nice being able to talk to them without the interruptions of any brothers. Since school started it seems that they have both grown so much. They had so much to tell me about school, their routines, their classmates, their favorite parts of their days. I loved it all and relished every bit of the fact that they were both such open books :-)

Ellie seems so much older now that she is in preschool. She is learning about the weather, the calendar, days of the week, she loves all the songs they sing and giggles as she tries to teach them to us.

And Penny. Wow! I knew she loved school, but hot dog, she downright adores it. Every. Bit. Of. It. She soaks it all in and remembers every detail of every day. Right now her favorite class is art, she is learning about money and loves the fact that there is a song about the penny (which she thinks is about her :-) ), she memorizes everything her teacher does and is so pleased with herself to share the minute by minute action with us. 

I'm not sure who had more fun on this picnic date, me or the girls. I do know that I cannot wait to carve out time to do this with the two of them again...as well as I am trying to find something special to do with my boys. Even if only for an hour, it ends up being such a special time and such a great memory for all of us!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO, 

Family Adventures {Sip on Something Good with Capri Sun}

 

With school starting this week for two of my littles, I think it is safe to say summer has ended for us. We have had one fun-filled, memory-making summer though so it's okay that we are moving onwards. We spent a whole lot of time together doing things we love, trying new things as a family we may or may not have loved, and intentionally checking off our summer bucket list filled with ideas we came up with to get us outside spending quality time together.

Sure, we had some rough patches. It's hard to please 6 people at home on any given day let alone pinpointing an activity that everyone will enjoy at the exact same time. We had moments where Clif and I thought, what the heck were we thinking taking four kids 6 and under to do this, let alone a 14-month-old. But then some of our ideas for quality family time this summer were absolute home runs.  We hit a few right out of the park, and that is what it makes it all worth it. Trips where everyone got along, there were smiles all around, and little voices begging, Can we please do this again! Memories made for a lifetime.

And that's what we were after to begin with, right?  Memories to hold on to.  Our kids are only little for so long and taking the time to create some fun, family-focused activities doesn't really take that much effort but can have such a lasting effect on all of us. Some of our activities were simple...a hike in the woods, making ice cream and snow cones, backyard camping, making s'mores, bike rides to the lake, flying kites in our tree-filled street and trying hard not to let them crash into the trees.

And some took a bit more effort...a trip to the zoo, a paddle boat ride around the lake, visiting a local fair for amusement park rides, heading up to Wisconsin to tour around some old haunts from our life before kids. But whatever the activity, we did it as a family. Creating memories for a lifetime.

Of course any activity in our home requires food and lots of it. Picnic lunches and snacks galore were a must for our summer bucket list activities. We always need to pack enough sustenance to get us through the hiking, biking, strolling, paddle boat peddling, and chasing.  Easy things to pack that we love include dried fruit and nuts--my energy bites recipe is always a hit--string cheese, fresh fruit, cut up veggies...easy to grab is always good!

And of course cold drinks are a must. My kids love juice box-type drinks and as we are a water at home kinda family, I indulge them for special outings.

Capri Sun has a great drink called Capri Sun Super V Fruit and Vegetable Juice Drink that healthy-minded mommas everywhere can appreciate. It has 1 combined serving of fruit and vegetables* so I feel better about giving this to my kids than a lot of other juice drinks out there. A juice drink minus the artificial colors, additives, and preservatives and tastes great and is a win/win for both of us!

Good food, good drinks, good company, and good times. Definitely our recipe for fun family memories this summer. Well, that and patience, a good nap, smiles for miles, and some of our favorite family songs :-)

Hope your summer was full of memories too!

XOXO,

*Each pouch provides 1/2 cup of fruit and vegetable juice. According to US dietary guidelines, Capri Sun Super V Fruit and Vegetable Juice Drink contains one combined serving of fruits and vegetables--3/4 from fruit juice and 1/4 from vegetable juice. Be sure to feed your kids a variety of whole fruits and vegetables each day.

Mall of America: Our Family Weekend Getaway and $100 MOA Gift Card Giveaway!

Not too long ago, I got to visit Mall of America with my family thanks to a BlogHer opportunity. I was so excited! I just love, love, love the Minneapolis area! Growing up just a few hours away in Wisconsin, I made lots of trips there with my family and friends as there is always so much to do. Being that we live in Chicago now, Mall of America (in Bloomington, MN which is about 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis) is about six hours away...a perfect distance for a long weekend family trip! We have wonderful memories of our last family vacation there so when this opportunity came along we knew we had to jump at the chance of creating fun, new memories with our completed family of six (last time we only had two kids!).

We were lucky enough to stay at the Radisson Blu.  This is a brand new hotel (it opened in March of 2013) that is actually connected to Mall of America! I can't tell you how much we enjoyed that! We parked our car in the parking garage and didn't have to use it for the entire three days we were there.  If you have small children you know how great that truly is--no in-and-out of car seats 2-3 times a day going back and forth from your hotel.  Staying at a hotel that is connected to MOA also meant we could maximize our time there every day.  We could go into MOA as soon as it opened and Clif or I could run back quickly to get Oliver down for his naps or rest time with Eloise.  While one of us stayed with the younger two the other could take a quick elevator ride down to the second floor with our other two children and walk right into MOA to enjoy it! 

The Radisson Blu is a really beautiful hotel and we loved its modern style (it was so pretty!).  The staff was super friendly and went out of their way to make sure we (and our gaggle of kids) had a great experience in their hotel as well as in MOA.

The rooms were so nice...we had two rooms with an adjoining door which was so wonderful for naptimes and Oliver's earlier bedtime.  This way the other kids could watch TV, have a snack, etc without disrupting his sleep!

And we had the most delicious cupcakes waiting for us when we arrived (courtesy of MOA™!).  I loved the "Dirt" cupcake with chocolate pudding frosting that was dipped in crushed Oreos...it even had a little worm peeking out of it!

As you can see, my kids just loved the comfy beds!

The first day we arrived at Mall of America we walked around the first two floors just to get our bearings.  There are actually four floors of shopping in Mall of America--the fourth (top) floor is mainly dedicated to movie theaters, a comedy club, and nice sit-down restaurants. MOA is HUGE!  One lap around one floor is about half a mile; it's perfect because you can get in some exercise while you browse the stores :-)

Of course we had to hit up Build-A-Bear so each of our kids could get a bear or umm, a bunny (ok, and a Hello Kitty, My Little Pony, and a Monkey too, ha!). 

The next day was Sunday and we hit up the Lego store first!  Pssst! On a side note, can I tell you yet another great thing about staying at the Radisson Blu? You are connected to the second floor of MOA right next to the Lego store!  It's so easy to remember how to get back ;-)  

The kids loved looking at all the larger than life Lego models surrounding the store.  

And of course, the humongous Lego wall was pretty impressive too.

Pure Lego brick heaven in every color you can imagine!

We spent the majority of Sunday at Nickelodeon Universe® which is the big amusement park in the very center of Mall of America.  

It's a great amusement park for kids and adults.  There are rides for all ages.  They have some pretty intense roller coasters and twister type rides for adults, a really nice amount of rides for kids Noah and Penny's age (6 and 4), and a whole area with toddler rides which were perfect for Eloise, my 2-year old.  Everyone was happy, hooray!  

There is even a Ferris wheel!  My kids just adored this ride because you could see the whole park from the top.

Here is our view point from the very top. It's a pretty good sized amusement park.  I also love how the roof over the park is made of glass so you feel like you are outside without having to deal with the elements--no rain, no intense heat--perfection for our little family!

Most of the rides were named after characters of Nickelodeon shows.  This ride, Swiper's Sweeper, was a huge hit as the car whips you around as it goes around each bend.

Even Eloise loved it!

There were a few rides that Ellie wasn't tall enough for so she had to go on them with an adult which worked out okay for us since the other one of us just stayed back with Oliver and our stroller!

There is even a carousel in the park!  Carousels are a huge hit with our family.  Like, we need to do multiple rides on them, over and over again.  I'm glad we had an unlimited ride wristband for the kids :-) And on another side note, adults can ride for free with their kids, which is a nice bonus as parents don't have to pay to ride with a child who might be too small or slightly afraid.

They even had cute little kid bumper cars (as well as larger adult bumper cars in another area). My kids really enjoyed driving their own little car without us!

And just in case you were wondering what Oliver was doing the whole time since he is a wee bit too young to be on the rides, well he was enjoying being worn by his momma and nursed his little heart out.  He had quite a few cat naps in the ergo!

In the afternoon we took a break from the amusement park and headed downstairs (hmm, does that mean MOA has FIVE floors?) to the SEA LIFE Aquarium®.  This is a fully functional and pretty sweet aquarium in the basement of Mall of America. I had been here before and was more than excited to show this to my kids.

They had a whole exhibit of jellyfish which Noah adored as he just finished learning about them in school.  Isn't this picture I took amazing?! They are such beautiful creatures!

I think our absolute favorite part of the aquarium was the 300 foot glass underground tunnel.  There were sharks and stingrays just doing their thing and swimming all around us--it was so cool!

I mean, how crazy is it to see this above your head!!!

Our last day there was on a Monday and wow, can I tell you this is the time to be shopping.  The crowds were practically non-existent, it was really the perfect day to hit the Mall for some shopping with four kids and a double stroller!  We had to hit up the Sanrio store for some Hello Kitty goodness for the girls (and me!)

And this store, Typo, was just incredible!  It was like my Pinterest boards come to life! With oodles of fun goodies to browse through.

The last thing we did before we headed back home was get in a good game of mini-golf at Moose Mountain Adventure Golf, MOA's very own 18-hole miniature golf course. The kids were begging to go here as you could see it from the amusement park and it looked so neat with its rocky and rugged stone look.

We had an incredible family vacation at Mall of America and made so many great memories! My kids ask at least once a week if we can go back, ha! We feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to go. I can't wait to go back and do it all again when Oliver is a little older and can enjoy more of it!  

What are some of your favorite places to visit in Mall of America?  If you haven't been where would you go first?  Leave an answer in the comments below and you will be automatically be entered into a drawing to win a $100 MOA gift card! 

XOXO, 

 

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