Every week I like to take a moment to showcase the moments that brought me the most joy. Sometimes they are awesome activities and other times it’s a sweet moment between the kids. There are always moments that can fill us with joy if we choose to see them with a thankful heart.
After the stomach bug hit six of the seven members of the house we weren’t sure if our spring break vacation was going to happen. We were supposed to leave on Friday the 10th but because of getting sick we didn’t actually get to leave until Sunday the 12th. I’m so thankful that the bug left in time for us to enjoy a few days of spring break rather than being miserable the whole time. It was such a great, even though it was short, trip!
1. Visiting Grampy & Nana
We visited my parents while we were on vacation and got to celebrate Jamison’s birthday. My brother and sister came by too so we had the whole gang together. It’s pretty special when all of us are in the same place since it happens so infrequently.
2. Ikea!
We love IKEA. We had a list of items to look for and while we didn’t get everything on our list because what we thought would work for our house doesn’t seem as useful or perfect when you see it in person we still found LOADS of things to buy. The kids were mostly helpful for picking out what we needed and were very excited when we let them push the carts once we made it to the warehouse, ha!
3. LEGO Batman masks
I’m pretty sure no words need to be said about why these pictures brought me joy. Gah! They are so stinking cute. Even though bringing these kiddos to the LEGO store means chasing them around more than getting to look at sets we’d still do it all over again. They get so excited seeing wall to wall LEGO, building minifigures, and playing with other toys that it’s worth every chaotic second.
4. Best friends
I’ve known this girl since kindergarten. 28 years we’ve been friends! We were the maid of honors in each others weddings. We’ve made it through me moving 30 minutes away during middle school, her moving across the country for college, and her moving to a different continent to join the Peace Corps. And every time we get together we pick up where we left off. Her little guy is in between Mercedes and the twins so we had a fun afternoon of crazy kids, pizza, and laughter. Hopefully it won’t be another year and a half before we get together again!
5. New fruit stand
One of my goals at IKEA was to find some type of solution for storing fruit. We have always kept it on the counter in a big plastic bowl. Not super cute (not that it really matters) and it takes up so much space. I wanted something easy for the kids to access and off our limited counter space. I found this whole set up (which is meant for closets, but who cares) for about $16. WAAAAAY better than the $50+ baskets I was finding online.
6. Craft time
I had some leftover wood from the string art project at MOPS and I got bit by the crafty bug. I pulled out my chalkboard paint and created a super cute weekly menu board so the kids can see what is on the menu each week. And I’ll be able to take pictures of it and post on Instagram 🙂 I’m really happy with how it turned out so I hope it holds up. Plus – yay for crafty time!
7. Date night
Our church youth group has started hosting monthly date night babysitting to raise money for their summer mission trip. This is FABULOUS! We don’t have to find a sitter, we get monthly dates, and the money goes to a wonderful cause. We are totally on board. We hit up our favorite all-you-can-eat sushi place (and boy did we eat!) then wandered Kohl’s. We found some great deals for Christmas already – we love clearance racks – plus found some new water bottles for the three littler kids that were desperately needed. We are already making plans for the next date night 😀
