Overnight Getaway

One of our favorite winter traditions is going to a local hotel to stay a night or two.  They have amazing discounted rates during their off season and lots of amenities.  We didn't do it last year while we were home for the holidays because we simply didn't have the funds but this year we squeaked out a night.

They have indoor basketball.

Hubby trying to guard Bubba who is 4 inches taller than him. Good luck.

Little Miss loves "playing basketball"

Princess actually did shoot some too but I was never quick enough to snap a shot of her.

A little help from Daddy

They have a nice kids play area in the pool area.

Little Miss taking a dip in the kiddie pool while the older ones do more basketball

On to the big pool. She had actually forgotten how to swim it's been so long.  She use to swim all the time when we traveled.  We were spoiled!

Princess was excited to join us.

Hubby trying to catch a nap.  He had worked that morning and has get up before 4am for his job.

This is why we homeschool her haha

Hubby got his second wind and was throwing the football around with the kids. 

The hotel has fireplaces throughout and we love to play games by the fire. Snuggle Bug talked us into Irishopoly(the Notre Dame version of Irishopoly). We never want to play because it's such a LOOOOOOONG game but we had a good time and ended up just setting a time to be done and whoever was in the lead was the winner(ME!).

The hotel also had a box of color books and papers along with crayons which kept the littler ones occupied. Oh, you might notice that Baby Girl is missing.  Grandma was kind enough to take her overnight so we didn't have to chase her around.  Thanks Grandma!!!!!

A little bored and upset she can't play the grown up game

Feeling better now that she got to roll on Sissy's turn for her.

She is always singing and dancing no matter where we are at.

Ping Pong is another amenity that we enjoy.

I'm not going to call anyone our but somebody actually spiked it on their 4 year old daughter lol

Not to brag but... I did beat Hubby in a game (but Bubba ended up beating me later on)

It was a great getaway after a really crazy last few months of getting the house in order and Hubby working long, tiring hours.  I have also been missing DOING stuff.  We were always seeing and doing new things on the road and now I feel like I just sit at home all day( we only have 1 vehicle) so I have been having trouble with that.  It's been a weird transition between the 2 lifestyles so this was very refreshing for me.

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Halloween

We really don't get too much into Halloween here.  It seems like just another reason to spend a lot of money to me.  Our costumes have always been homemade.  SOme years we have trick or treated around town, others we have trunk or treated, one year we handed out candy, and last year we just went to the RV Parks halloween party(in balmy Florida-ahhh).

So October 31st arrived and I still hadn't given much though to what if anything we were going to do.  It had been a hectic month since we had been home and Halloween was pretty low on my priority list.

But at the last minute we decided to go around our new town.  So we threw together some costumes and headed out.

Snuggle Bug was a ninja, Bubba was a Red Box(he had a red square taped to his shirt and some DVD's sticking out of his pocket)-he is always one for the understated, witty costume, Sissy was a doe, Princess was a baker(she is holding a tray of play cookies), Little Miss was Sophia the First and Baby Girl was an Oompa Loompa.

Bubba and Sissy don't get to trick or treat anymore( our imposed rules that once you get taller than those handing out candy you have to stop) but they walk around with us as the little ones trick or treat.  I do buy them each a little bag of candy though so as not to totally miss out.

Snuggle Bug even made his own paper sword and paper ninja stars.  They were really impressive. And yes we had that black hood thing laying around(??). Little Miss already had her purple princess dress so I just drew and stenciled the white design that is on Sophia the First's dress on to it and bought her the crown at the dollar store. 

I was Green with Envy.  Get it??  I am wearing green and Hubby's name tag says "My name is Envy".

  Green. With. Envy. 

When you have 6 kids to get ready for last minute trick or treating that's all you have time to come up with. Cut me some slack.

I did Sissy's make up for her doe costume. Super easy. I just looked at a picture we googled. We bought a brown head band at the dollar store and Sissy used some brown material from home and tan paper from a paper bag to fashion the  ears.  It's amazing what you can do with hot glue isn't it? We bought a pack of pipe cleaners to form the structure of them. The headband was actually a Christmas reindeer one so we just pulled the antlers off.

I sprayed Baby Girl's hair green( can't really tell here though) and put on some orange face paint that we already had.  She has this super cute outfit that always reminds me of an Oompa Loompa so I just stuck some pants underneath it and went with it. She didn't actually trick or treat anyhow since she is allergic to dairy(aka- almost every candy).

It was nice to meet some of our neighbors and we finished the night off with some pizza which has always been our Halloween tradition. 

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Baby Girl's 2nd Birthday Party

We have been home for 11 weeks now and it's been a little bit of a whirlwind.  It still feels surreal that we are not on the road anymore.  We stay connected to our fulltime friends and community through a facebook group and its a bit sad to see new families hitting the road that we will never meet and everyone else heading to new adventures(and warmer temperatures!).

But we are loving being close to our family and Indiana friends again.  There are things we really appreciate in our new stationary home too compared to our trailer and life on the road.  Bigger kitchen, 2 bathrooms, not having to worry if its windy out and our trailer will blow over if we are towing, things of that nature.

We just got to celebrate Baby Girl's 2nd birthday this past week.  My how she has grown in a year!  She is still tiny compared to most her age but what she lacks in size she makes up for in attitude and personality. Believe me.

Baby Girl loves Curious George so we went with that theme.  I use to do big elaborate parties but I found myself so stressed out that I didn't enjoy it and in turn the kids didn't enjoy it either(because mom was biting their heads off).  So I have scaled back quite a lot over the years, especially for a 2 year old.

*Thanks to Nana, Grandma, and Uncle L for letting me steal their pictures to use on here*

Baby Girl loved her new dolly

Little Miss can't help but strike a pose.

Baby Girl trying on her new dress and shoes from Nana and Papa

My mom told her to look up and she was very literal.

Sissy did the baking again this year and made Baby Girl a special dairy free cupcake to enjoy.

The new hat is owl the rage. hehe

We had banana splits but Baby Girl was happy with her dairy free option of a strawberry popsicle.

Princess got a kick out of the blowers

Doesn't Bubba look like Will Farrell in Elf in that little chair??

Aunt Jess got her her very own backpack

The light up necklace and bracelet from Uncle L was a definite hit.

Double Trouble

2 pretty ladies- Aunt Jess and Sissy

She was never going to win this one.  Bubba is too full of hot air.

I quick drew a George and cut out some bananas on poster board before the party for an easy party game of feed George the banana.

Baby Girl, Snuggle Bug and cousin Brayden

Snuggle Bug had his turn and there is my (almost)22 week pregnant belly.

There is Uncle L on the right

Grandma to the right in the back.  She will kill me for posting a picture of her but she doesn't give me any other options because she refuses to be photographed. 

Sissy did a fantastic job once again!  I just printed out the free cake toppers and Snuggle Bug glued them on to toothpicks for me.

We had a taco bar for everyone to enjoy.  Each dish was named after a character  on Curious George

Nana, A. Jess, and Uncle L

Papa is in the back 

Bubba, and now look at my face in the background lol

2 Monkeys

chowing down

It was a really nice evening and party. We are so blessed with a wonderful extended family. 

Many Blessings,

The Mama