This One's a Twofer
Day 16. I'm thankful for some pretty cool in-laws.
Yesterday afternoon around 2, Justin's dad, Alan, his stepmom, Vicki, his two half sisters, Lindsay and Alana, and their fiancées, Jon and Ryan, came over to hang out and give the kids their belated Christmas presents. It was a really nice time. The kids got a bunch of great gifts! All of the kids love Grandpa Jones and Grandma Vicki and their aunts and soon to be uncles. Deuce especially looks forward to seeing Jon and Ryan. It'll be great for him to have uncles that live a lot closer than my brother or sisters' husbands.
A fun part of the afternoon was when we played Pie Face. When I say "we," I of course don't include myself. I'm not opposed to playing, just not when I'm ready to go out to eat and am wearing makeup. Anyway, Josie and Margo played, as did Justin, Alan, Ryan and Jon. Deuce didn't want to at all. And I actually had Vicki buy him the game thinking he'd get a kick out of it. Josie and Grandpa Jones got whipped cream in their face, but everyone else lucked out.
After playing Pie Face, we all got packed up. The grownups were going to go out to eat while the kiddos were going to play out the babysitter's house. The restaurant we were going to was a lot closer to Skyler's house, so it just made more sense to drop them off their during dinner than to take her home after she watched the kids at our house.
So we dropped them off right around 5, and headed over to Tenuta's, a little corner Italian restaurant. It's a really great place. that we've been to multiple times. It's cozy and the food is wonderful! If you're ever in Milwaukee, and you want to go to a romantic and authentic (at least as far as I know) Italian restaurant, I recommend it. I tried something new for an appetizer: arrancini. They are fried balls of risotto. I had the soup - butternut squash soup. The server warned that it was spicy, and she was right. not at all what I'd expect from a squash soup! Still tasty though. For dinner I had ravioli, which is a favorite of mine. Justin ordered the seared ahi tuna, which looked perfectly uncooked.
In addition to the great food, we also had wonderful conversation. Over the years, I've grown to appreciate spending time with my in-laws. Much has changed sine Justin and I met. Alana was just 20 and Lindsay was almost 24, nine years ago. Over the years, I definitely feel more comfortable with them, and honestly love their company.
Anyway, we didn't dawdle too long at the restaurant, since the Packers were playing at 7:30, so we all said our goodbyes, talked about having a sibling get together, and left to get the kids. We grabbed some Leon's frozen custard for dessert, ate it at home, and then put the kids in bed. We watched the game (okay for parts of it, the game was watching us while we snoozed), and then went to bed.
Day 17. I am grateful for Unexpected Family Days.
This morning, I just wasn't feeling like going anywhere. So I told Justin that, and we ended up playing hooky from church. Every once in a while we'll skip church and just hang out at home. Some days I later regret it and wished I'd gone, especially when I hear the sermon was really good. Today, I didn't feel guilty, probably because we had such a good day!
In no particular order, this is what we did today:
* Decorated Melissa and Doug princess crafts
* (Justin and Deuce) Played baseball in the basement with his new ball and bat.
* Built zoobmobiles
* Played Piper's new matching game
* Made masks with a new kit
* Played catch with Deuce
* Played with fashion plates
* Looked at Josie's new Disney cookbook
* Played with Margo's new Djeco tap tap set (She didn't get the same one in the link (can't find it), but you get the idea)
* Made a new recipe with Josie (toasted oatmeal ice cream) for dessert
* Read stories
* Watched Josie cut up a banana all by herself so she could make "banana swirl" or as Margo called it, "banana squirrel'
Also, for part of the day, Margo and Josie played dress up. I also got a short nap in, which is always awesome. There was some screen time allowed, but we really spent a lot of quality time together.
I made one of my favorite vegetable-free meals: potato soup! My mom made it for years and years (and not even sure if it was a recipe that had been in her family or not) while I was growing up. It is one of Deuce's favorite meals. Sometimes I serve it with cornbread, but today we just had croissants on the side. I made a double batch, so we'll have leftovers for dinner.
We got the kids down pretty early, except for Piper. She is snuggling with Justin in the basement. And now that I'm almost done with this really long blog post, I'm going to see how they're doing. Last time I checked, Piper was awake and Justin was snoring away. Hopefully she's since fallen asleep!
Yesterday afternoon around 2, Justin's dad, Alan, his stepmom, Vicki, his two half sisters, Lindsay and Alana, and their fiancées, Jon and Ryan, came over to hang out and give the kids their belated Christmas presents. It was a really nice time. The kids got a bunch of great gifts! All of the kids love Grandpa Jones and Grandma Vicki and their aunts and soon to be uncles. Deuce especially looks forward to seeing Jon and Ryan. It'll be great for him to have uncles that live a lot closer than my brother or sisters' husbands.
A fun part of the afternoon was when we played Pie Face. When I say "we," I of course don't include myself. I'm not opposed to playing, just not when I'm ready to go out to eat and am wearing makeup. Anyway, Josie and Margo played, as did Justin, Alan, Ryan and Jon. Deuce didn't want to at all. And I actually had Vicki buy him the game thinking he'd get a kick out of it. Josie and Grandpa Jones got whipped cream in their face, but everyone else lucked out.
After playing Pie Face, we all got packed up. The grownups were going to go out to eat while the kiddos were going to play out the babysitter's house. The restaurant we were going to was a lot closer to Skyler's house, so it just made more sense to drop them off their during dinner than to take her home after she watched the kids at our house.
So we dropped them off right around 5, and headed over to Tenuta's, a little corner Italian restaurant. It's a really great place. that we've been to multiple times. It's cozy and the food is wonderful! If you're ever in Milwaukee, and you want to go to a romantic and authentic (at least as far as I know) Italian restaurant, I recommend it. I tried something new for an appetizer: arrancini. They are fried balls of risotto. I had the soup - butternut squash soup. The server warned that it was spicy, and she was right. not at all what I'd expect from a squash soup! Still tasty though. For dinner I had ravioli, which is a favorite of mine. Justin ordered the seared ahi tuna, which looked perfectly uncooked.
In addition to the great food, we also had wonderful conversation. Over the years, I've grown to appreciate spending time with my in-laws. Much has changed sine Justin and I met. Alana was just 20 and Lindsay was almost 24, nine years ago. Over the years, I definitely feel more comfortable with them, and honestly love their company.
Anyway, we didn't dawdle too long at the restaurant, since the Packers were playing at 7:30, so we all said our goodbyes, talked about having a sibling get together, and left to get the kids. We grabbed some Leon's frozen custard for dessert, ate it at home, and then put the kids in bed. We watched the game (okay for parts of it, the game was watching us while we snoozed), and then went to bed.
Day 17. I am grateful for Unexpected Family Days.
This morning, I just wasn't feeling like going anywhere. So I told Justin that, and we ended up playing hooky from church. Every once in a while we'll skip church and just hang out at home. Some days I later regret it and wished I'd gone, especially when I hear the sermon was really good. Today, I didn't feel guilty, probably because we had such a good day!
In no particular order, this is what we did today:
* Decorated Melissa and Doug princess crafts
* (Justin and Deuce) Played baseball in the basement with his new ball and bat.
* Built zoobmobiles
* Played Piper's new matching game
* Made masks with a new kit
* Played catch with Deuce
* Played with fashion plates
* Looked at Josie's new Disney cookbook
* Played with Margo's new Djeco tap tap set (She didn't get the same one in the link (can't find it), but you get the idea)
* Made a new recipe with Josie (toasted oatmeal ice cream) for dessert
* Read stories
* Watched Josie cut up a banana all by herself so she could make "banana swirl" or as Margo called it, "banana squirrel'
Also, for part of the day, Margo and Josie played dress up. I also got a short nap in, which is always awesome. There was some screen time allowed, but we really spent a lot of quality time together.
I made one of my favorite vegetable-free meals: potato soup! My mom made it for years and years (and not even sure if it was a recipe that had been in her family or not) while I was growing up. It is one of Deuce's favorite meals. Sometimes I serve it with cornbread, but today we just had croissants on the side. I made a double batch, so we'll have leftovers for dinner.
We got the kids down pretty early, except for Piper. She is snuggling with Justin in the basement. And now that I'm almost done with this really long blog post, I'm going to see how they're doing. Last time I checked, Piper was awake and Justin was snoring away. Hopefully she's since fallen asleep!
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