Monthly Archives: October 2023

I was chatting with my brother today and I said, “we just got back from the cabin and the boys are playing with neighbors, and I’m going grocery shopping and we are going to an anniversary party at 4:30 this evening.” And Danny said, “Whoa! You guys do a lot.” I know man, I know. But there are a lot of fun things and I can’t seem to say no to anything.

We’ve had 2 pretty typical weeks. We’re in a good daily and weekly routine. The boys are obsessed with Pokemon cards and pretty much start talking about them first thing in the morning, after school, until bedtime.

Nate is busy studying for the CFP exam (which is at the beginning of November). The boys are enjoying swim team and are both getting so fast! I’ve been making lots of cookies and recently got a very exciting surprise gift from my neighbor- a bulldog welcome mat!

In the morning, I make the boys breakfast, pack lunches and snacks. I make them an afternoon snack when they get home. I make dinner every night. I am pretty exhausted by the amount of cooking I am doing, but instead of trying to do less, I have found myself spending a lot of time with cook books and pinterest, looking up new recipes. I’m on a Julia Child kick, recently making potato leek soup, scalloped potatoes, and red wine braised short ribs over mushroom risotto. New recipes is helping me feel less stressed about being stuck in the kitchen.

Now instead of just meal planning dinners for the week, I am meal planning lunches too. The boys are not interested in taking school lunch and from the sound of it, it’s not great. I have thermos bowls that I fill with boiling water and let them sit. I make them lunch- something like chili, soup, mini corn dogs, pasta, chicken, pancakes, meatloaf, etc. I dump the water and dry the inside, sometimes add a paper towel to the bottom (to absorb the moisture and keep things crispy), and the boys tell me that lunch is still hot by lunchtime. So far, it’s going well and I’m figuring out what works well. But I am cooking nonstop.

This weekend was MEA break. Thursday was just a day of rest, pokemon cards, screen time, and me trying to both work from home and parent 2 children who were home. Those days are exhausting.

But Friday the boys and I packed up and went to my uncle and aunt’s cabin for the weekend with the Nelson crew. Nate opted out so he could study all weekend. Christine and I were very excited for a fun weekend and planned ALL the fun food, activities, and also a little time for relaxing.

We had festive Halloween-y snacks- caramel apples with crushed up candy, mummy brie, mummy stuffed peppers. We made a nacho table, which the children were a little apprehensive about (“no plates?!) at first, but it was a table covered in nachos, so they adapted quickly. We ate freshly baked cookies, hot apple cider, s’mores over the fire, and Derek went into town for fancy coffee drinks for Christine and I. We played a lot of games. The kids ran around outside, got wet and sandy at the beach, traded pokemon cards, and collected and smashed about a million acorns. It was so fun and also gave us a lot of time to relax.

On Friday night, Derek took all 5 kids to a nearby park while Christine and I prepped dinner. We had a ravioli tasting dinner extravaganza. Christine and I each prepared 3 different flavors of ravioli- I made sausage/mozzarella in a cream sauce, mushroom ravioli in a red sauce and butternut squash ravioli in a brown butter sage sauce. Christine made a lobster ravioli in lemon cream sauce, a burrata ravioli in red sauce, and a pumpkin ravioli in butter sauce with parmesan cheese. We served each type of ravioli on a small plate and then rated the texture, flavor and overall. We had a rule that everyone had to take at least a bite of each one. Butternut squash with brown butter and sage was 10s across the board for the grown ups and 1-3s for the kids (with a few bites getting spit into napkins), so it was both a clear winner and a clear loser. There were several requests for seconds on the sausage/mozzarella as well. After sampling 6 raviolis, we served more of each based on what everyone liked best and also had a charcuterie board with baked brie, cheese curds, chicken nuggets, and several fancy cheeses. It was a very fun meal.

On Saturday, we went to Pinehaven Farm for a day of fall festivity. There were literally one million activities to do- I think we could have spent about 12 hours there. There was a corn pit, a zipline, a very fun playground with giant slides, a corn shooter (you literally shot corn cobs across a field), an apple cannon (the apples exploded on impact, which was as spectacular as you might imagine), tug of war, a place to buy rubber ducks and race them, a big bounce area, and things to climb on everywhere. And so many more activities we didn’t even have time for. I highly recommend it and we will definitely go back in the future.

On both Friday and Saturday, I had special group pirate time activities for all the kids.

On Friday, I gave the kids a map of the cabin and yard that I had drawn (and also crumpled, burned to look authentic). There were 7 hidden scrolls and they had to run around and collect all of them (everyone also had to wear an eye patch for the whole activity). One the scrolls were collected, they opened them and had to complete 7 challenges- they had to use pool noodles to keep a balloon in the air for 20 hits, they used cups to build a tower, they unscrambled golden rocks to spell “pirates”, etc. Once all 7 challenges were complete, they earned a prize, which was a skull head pinata, which had lots of random prizes inside. The other kids did not enjoy the eye patches!

Day 2 pirate time, they had to use the map to find the hidden “elixer” which was buried on the beach. Using the dangerous chemical (vinegar), they dissolved the “bombs” (baking soda and water which hardened into a plaster like substance, inside of which were tiny skulls. Once they released the skulls, they had to go upstairs, which has a balcony overlooking the downstairs, where I had lined up buckets. Each kid had to sink a skull into a bucket. Once they did, they got to cut one of the “bars” blocking their prize. When all 5 bars were cut, they revealed the prize, which was all the toppings for ice cream sundaes.

We let the kids stay up way too late both nights. They watched movies and ate popcorn and played and laughed. Christine, Derek and I sat around the campfire, and played games and drank good wine and it was fantastic. A truly fabulous weekend.

Sunday morning, we had 5 very tired kids. We pretty much cleaned up and packed and headed home. Tired kids, how about tired parents?! It was a very busy, very fun MEA weekend!

Did I mention I was tired? Yeah, no time for being tired. The boys and I got home and unloaded the van, unpacked, and I started laundry while making lunch. I left the boys to go to the airport to pick up my brother. When I got home, the boys went outside to play with Sam and Abby (more pokemon trading time!) and I attempted to get organized for the week ahead. Then it was time to get the boys cleaned up and all of us into “snazzy outfits” for Sean and Rachel’s 10 year anniversary dinner party. Hosted at Mancini’s, it was fun to see the whole neighborhood (and MANY others) all dressed up. The happy couple renewed their wedding vows, we ate delicious food, and the kids drank ALL the kiddie cocktails. It was such a wonderful night.

By 7pm, I felt like I was going to fall over from exhaustion and the boys looked the same. We went home and while Nate handled bedtime, I ran to Target for a quick grocery pick up (I am so grateful for the ability to order groceries and just swing in to pick them up). I carried in groceries in my heals (that might have been the first time I’ve done that), snuggled 2 little boys, and then flopped onto the couch for the first time that day. Every day is like a marathon.

Now that we’ve successfully executed Xander’s birthday and MEA, it’s time to get focused on Halloween! Andy and Heather’s annual neighborhood Halloween bash is next Saturday and we need to be ready!!! I can only focus on one fun thing at a time, but I am ready for costumes, parties, trick or treating, pre-Halloween and pizza skull dinner. It should be a busy week!

Every night, this incredibly needy dog wants his face as close to mine as he can possibly get.

On Monday, our sweet little baby turned 8 years old! Time flies and we have a big kid! I didn’t mean to pump him full of sugar, but it was a day of treats! I asked what he wanted for a special birthday breakfast and he said chocolate croissants. We made a quick run to Bread & Chocolate for exceptional pastries to start the day! On Sunday night, I went went to Kowalski’s for sushi to pack in his lunch, and they have such beautiful tiny desserts. I bought chocolate dipped brownies for both boys as a fun lunch surprise. I had NOT realized that we were sending birthday treats for his class. That was not allowed at our old school, so when Xander casually mentioned that he was bringing treats on Sunday night, I was like, “wait, what now?” I quickly emailed his teacher for clarification and bless her heart for responding within minutes on a Sunday night! “No allergies! 20 kids in class.” Ok. Luckily I had made “worms and dirt” macarons earlier in the week- without actually having a plan for them, so I sent those and all was well.

For dinner, Xander requested Dominos pizza and a french silk pie. At that point in the day, I was afraid his day of treats was going to make him sick, but he was happy as could be. 8 years old!

Gussie is the most handsome 6 year old I’ve ever seen and his teeth are popping out nonstop. This is the face of a dude who is going to use this kindergarten year to learn how to sit still, which is proving to be the hardest part of school thus far. He’s so smart- he’s reading 4-5 word sentences/page books every night. He is curious and creative and so bright. But his body moves nonstop, sometimes without any connection to his brain. He is so so wiggly. And so he’s had a few tough days as he adjusts to the demands of sitting on the carpet without flipping, standing on his head, spinning, or turtling his entire body into his shirt.

On Thursday night, Nate took Xander to swim team practice and Gussie and I stayed at home. He wasn’t in a great mood during dinner and was not prepared to go swim for an hour. I managed to get him calmed down and after eating a quesadilla on the couch and snuggling for a bit, we talked about his day at school and how challenging it is to sit still. I am determined to help him figure out how to succeed in school without breaking his spirit. Luckily his teacher is really great and I think we will be able to partner to help him harness that energy.

Friday was cold and rainy and everyone was tired. So we had special dinner on the couch/family movie night. We wanted “Little Giants” from 1994 and the boys belly-laughed through the whole movie. It was so fun. Afterwards, we did showers, bedtime reading and had the boys in bed (and asleep) by 7:30!

After early bedtime on Friday night, we were refreshed and ready for a fun day on Saturday. Camp St. Croix had a Harvest Festival event. I thought we would be there for an hour- I figured we’d put in an appearance, grab a snack and head home. The boys were feeling very so so about going. So my expectations were low.

We had the BEST time. We were there for almost 4 hours and could have stayed longer except that I was freezing cold and couldn’t be outside any longer. We did all the autumn things. We haven’t been to a corn pit since they were toddlers and I didn’t think they would even want to go in it, but they were obsessed. I had to drag them out! We held chickens. They learned to lasso. We took a hay ride. We climbed on tractors. They played gaga. We made out own pizza. We got giant donuts. We drank hot chocolate and hot apple cider. We had so much fun!

On our way home, I got a text from my neighbor Melissa inviting me to “ladies sauna night” next door. Her timing couldn’t have been better- I was frozen to the bone! It was the perfect way to end a very fun day.

Today has been another beautiful fall day outside. We invited Xander’s class for a birthday playdate in the park. Low key- just cupcakes and hot apple cider (a last minute addition after really enjoying it the day before at the Harvest Fest) and playing. It was really nice to meet lots of parents and see the kids he’s been talking about. He smiled and played the whole time. The weather cooperated and it was sunny and warm. At one point, we watched as about 10 little boys ran wild with giant sticks in their hands. I was 100% prepared for the birthday party to end in tears, but somehow, they continued their “Lord of the Flies” esque game for a long time and no one cried, got mad or got smacked in the head. It was fun to watch them be creative and a little feral. It was a very fun day and I was happy to see him with his new classmates.

We’ve got a normal week ahead.

I thought I would have oodles of photos since I haven’t updated in 2 weeks, but we’ve had 2 super normal, laid back weeks. The boys are enjoying school and swim team. I think I can say we’ve fully adjusted to our new school-year routine.

Last weekend, the boys spent the night at Grandma Debbie’s on Friday night and then had a playdate with new school friends on Sunday.

I think if every week was like the last 2, I probably couldn’t find things to regularly write about. But I am also happy with the low key nature of the last few weeks!

But it couldn’t all be low key, so Friday morning, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of eating breakfast, getting kids ready, packing lunches and trying to get everyone out the door, I looked down to see a large puddle of blood on the floor. “Everyone freeze” I shouted, trying to figure out which kid/dog/me? was bleeding. Hudson. Blood- gushing out of his bottom. Ok….. He was happily running around, being his normal obnoxious self, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was leaving puddles of blood all over the floor. I managed to wrestle him into a choke hold to clean him up and try to access what was happening. It appeared to be pretty swollen next to his butt hole and gushing blood.

I called the vet who said it sounded like a ruptured anal gland. I quickly googled while still on the phone and once I confirmed it wasn’t life threatening, I calmed down a bit. The boys went to school. Hudson continued to bleed all over the floor until we got into my van (where he bled all over that floor) and we went to the vet.

He had not had any issues, showed no signs of discomfort, and we’ve never had any problems before. Apparently anal glands can just rupture. Great. So there’s nothing we did to cause it and nothing I could have done to prevent it. The vet did an antibiotic infusion into the gland and now he has 2 weeks of antibiotics. He appears to still feel 100% fine and the vet was very casual about the whole thing. So… I guess we’re fine after a whirlwind of bloody excitement on a Friday morning.

Sunday was a day of excitement as it was the first (of several) celebrations for Xander’s birthday! My tiny little baby is 8 years old!! How did that happen?!

Xander’s bestie from MPA is Sammy. We’ve been trying to schedule a playdate for weeks and I sent a bunch of dates to his mom. Sunday was the day that worked best. I realized it was the day before Xander’s birthday and that he wasn’t overly excited about a birthday party this year because he is still getting to know the kids in his class. So we decided to turn the playdate into a birthday celebration and so Nate and I took the boys to Mall of America for a day of rides and fun.

Xander was thrilled to have time with his dear friend. They were just glowing with happiness and having the cutest conversations. They rode ride after ride and ran all around. They were excited and happy and it was a perfect day. We stopped for a pizza break and later for an ice cream break, but really, they rode rides most of the day! We have more celebrating to do this week, but kick-off to being 8 years old was a huge success.