Weekly Picnics

Who would have ever thought that I could be enjoying weekly picnics with my minis each week?  While I do miss my career and the adult brain stimulation that came along with it, I have to say that I've found so much happiness in enjoying the days in and days out spent with my girls.  Sometimes you just don't realize how quick the time goes and how you will never get that time back. 

I plan on soaking up every minute until my next career move! 

With that said, England has some lovely parks and places to take the kids.  While you can't always count on the weather here, one thing you can count on is that if it is sunny, everyone is outdoors!!!!!  :)

Loughborough park is the perfect spot for a picnic.  They have lots of green grass, a playground, a bird museum, an ice cream man, etc.  On that particular day, there were loads of Christian youth groups around providing free face painting and balloon animals.  It couldn't have worked out better!

Here's a few pics from our day out! 

My Little Explorers

One of the many wonderful things about living in England is all of the gorgeous parks and walking trails they have.  If I haven't mentioned it before, walking is somewhat of a past time for the English. 

I have never seen so many parks before in my life.  I suppose it's because all of the towns, villages and cities are so close to one another.  With that said, we ventured over to a park I've not been to before.  It was a beautiful country park in Leicester called Watermead Country Park.  It's a nature lover's paradise.  It had a lake, wetlands, flowers, bike trails and a life sized sculpture of a mammoth inspired by the mammoth, bison and deer bones found in the gravel workings years ago. 

Stella was a bit bummed that it was just a nature park and not an actual park with swings and slides, but she soon turned around when she saw the ice cream man in the parking lot before we left. 

Here's a few pics of a typical day out in England with my little family.  I love them whole heartily and am so very proud of my two best girls and so thankful I get to see this big world of ours with my best friend Steve. 

#familydaysout

 

Teaching Dad how to make a flower crown!

 

Stella destroyed her crown after all of Dad's hard work!  :(

Hanging WIth My Mini Coop!

Who would have ever thought that I'd be spending my days running the kids back and forth to school, working out like I've never been able to have the time for before, running to and from swimming lessons, Rainbows (girl scouts) and spending so much quality time with the kids???????? 

Not me, that's for sure.  I've always considered myself to be a career girl and retiring one day after years upon years spent in the legal profession.  While that still may very well be what my future holds, I will say that the months and pure quality time spent with the kids is something I will forever hold near and dear to my heart because at the end of the day, these kids are my life and everything Steve and I do is for THEM! 

With that said, this post is dedicated to my little mini Stella!  Stella surely is one of a kind!  Anyone who has ever met her always says the same, "She's been here before!"  She is so smart beyond her years and will always leave you in stitches!  She is clever, hilarious, most definitely mischievous and is constantly offending people!  I swear you can't take the girl anywhere! 

Here are a few examples.................

While walking through a parking lot after one of my mud races Stella yells, "HELLO" to a nice man.  He smiles and says, "HELLO" back.  She then proceeds to yell, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to your DOG!"

While at a soft play (bouncy house/jungle gym place) Stella proceeded to ask a woman who to be honest wasn't exactly very womanly whether or not she was a boy.  When the woman told her that no, she was in fact a lady, Stella adamantly declared that NO, she was definitely a boy! 

While at the park, a little boy ran over to play with Stella.  After repeatedly telling him that she did not want to play with him and that she didn't like boys, he continued to try to play with her.  Fed up, Stella yelled at the top of her lungs, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS KID?  I TOLD HIM I DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY WITH HIM!!!!!!!!!"  Yep, everyone at the park heard that!

Finally, we were at another soft play facility when a little boy with long, beautiful, blonde curly hair wanted to play with her.  She ran over to both his mom and I saying that she did NOT want to play with that little girl.  I explained that he was in fact a boy and she proceeded to argue with his mom that NO, she was a girl.  Literally went on a rant about how boys don't have long hair and that was most definitely a girl. 

Talk about embarrassing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She is a constant people offender and while as horrifying as it is at the time, I can't help but be tickled by it.  The girl may very well be an actress or comedian one day!  Whatever she may be, she will always be my little star!!!!

Here are a few pics of our days out playing and picnicking in the park!  Man, I love this kid!

Cane Creek Park

A couple of weekends ago, the family ventured out to Cane Creek Park.  I haven't visited Cane Creek Park since I was a pre-teen.  Let's just say that was many, many years ago. 

What a fantastic place to take the family!  Although, we went more for a "Let's check it out" type visit, we can't wait to go back to take advantage of all the activities they have to offer. 

It had such a nostalgic "camp" like feeling to the place.  In fact, you can rent cabins, pitch tents, grille, etc.  There is also a small beach, lake to swim in, paddleboats, playgrounds, shuffleboard, hopscotch and miniature golf. 

Here are a few photos from our short visit!  We most definitely will be back!

Weekend Wrap Up

This past weekend was one of those weekends you long for after being out of town the weekend before and after a long week of work.  Oh and not to mention my softball league started this past week as well. 

When Friday rolled around, I definitely welcomed it with open arms!!  Thankfully daycare slap wore my baby out on Friday.  She was done for around 7:15 p.m. which meant Steve and I had the night to ourselves (date night in).  I made sweet and sour chicken over rice, we opened a nice bottle of wine (well the $10 sort of nice!) and we played an awesome little couples question game that I found online!  Steve was THRILLED to say the least.  Yeah right!!!  But he embraced it and we had a few good laughs at some of our answers.  Let's just say I am way more in tune when it comes to paying attention and listening!  Steve's score was a typical man's score (about 10 points behind mine)!

On Saturday, Steve let me sleep in (thank goodness) and he and Lottie ran out to grab us breakfast and coffee.  The rest of the morning was spent relaxing, cleaning (or should I say picking up), etc. 

On Saturday afternoon, Lottie was invited to a 2nd birthday party for Brayden.  They had one of those giant inflated water slides and a sweet swing set to play on, not to mention tons of sweets, food and outdoor games for the kids.  It was a Cars themed birthday party - too cute!!  A bonus was seeing Bella and Ari (my brother in law's nieces) - they are obsessed with Lottie and love playing with her or should I say harassing her.  :)  Noooooooooooo - they are really great with Lottie!

 

CHEESE Ball Face

Big Girl Swing - She wants on!

Water slide with Brian - that was the first and last time she went down - a little too big for her!

Checking out the birthday boy

Ari

Laughing at Bella

She decided to plop down and have a snack that consisted of cheese balls and a chocolate cupcake

The girls feeding Lottie like a pet

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Check out that little bitty belly says Ari

Stuffed and Happy

My future softball player

Or Golfer

Lottie w/ her truck at the kid's table

Ari stuffing Lottie's face with more food and drinks

Lottie at the birthday boy's table

Cars cake

Lottie taking cars off a cake that is NOT hers - put it back please!!!  :)

Me & the girls

I think the birthday party wore Lottie out, she was out in 5 minutes after we left the party!  Done for!  My thought was that if she went to bed a little later that night, she would sleep a little longer in the morning!  Not the case whatsoever - the girl was wide awake at 6:30 a.m.!  DOH!!!!!!!!  After forcing myself out of bed, I fed Lottie her breakfast and we got ready for the day. 

Steve had some yard work that we wanted to work on so Lottie and I set off for the park.  It was a gorgeous morning!  And guess what, when you are up at the crack of dawn, you end up being the only one at the park so she had plenty of room to play, climb and enjoy herself. 

Lottie is a great little climber and adventurer.  She wants to climb everything and go down everything.  While I encourage her to explore and try new things, sometimes her little monkey ways scare me!  I think she thinks sometimes she is bigger than she really is! 

Yep, she ended up doing a mini back flip at the end of this slide - scarred me to death!

Resilient little bugger!

Another great weekend in the books!  Summer is here and I am soooooooooooooooo excited for the upcoming trips to the beach, the parks, festivals, etc.