Our Spring Break week was a seesaw of long days spent in the library with endless cups of coffee and articles to read, and much-needed adventures with my people, both at home and away from it. After a long day attempting to get somewhere in my current class, I asked Beau if he would entertain the idea of taking the next day off and joining us on a road trip to the Iowa Children's Museum, a little getaway to play and have fun with the kids. He joined us, and it was exactly what we all needed. We let the kids take the lead for hours, stopped for lunch, and did a little shopping and played with all the fun equipment in Scheels. My favorite moment was when Mila and I decided to have a little girl time while the boys played in the Lego room. Hand in hand, we walked through Forever 21, tried on hats and sunglasses, and a few summer dresses in the dressing room. It was my first time shopping with Mila by herself, and it's as if she knew just how to respond to the occasion. She watched with big eyes as I tried on the dresses, said, "pretty mommy" as she observed through the mirror, and didn't want me to put my jeans and sweater back on afterwards! I'm sometimes caught off guard when those little moments reveal something so much more special than I was anticipating, and I was overjoyed walking through that mall with her.
These pictures are so funny. Kids were caught in a wind tunnel!
Not to mention it was Mila's first big day being out and about without her diapers and she did SO GOOD. She loved the short little potties in the family restroom, and loved the independence of washing and drying her hands by herself. This milestone made our spring break all on its own!
We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with two sadly put-together outfits for the kids (I guess I don't buy a lot of green), but an Irish feast that made up for it Thursday night. We shared it with the Gabel clan, and drank green beer, watched basketball, and tied bandannas around the kids' heads when they said they were playing pirates. Cruz showed the girls evidence that a leprechaun did indeed sneak into our house the night before and cause quite a bit of mischief in our bathroom, which sent them into a frenzy and some pretty calculated plans to trap him next year. We'll see about that as that green paint didn't come off the floor as easy as I was hoping it would. :)
Friday, we celebrated a day at home with all my favorite things. We stayed in our pajamas until mid-morning, ate leftover Guinness cake for breakfast, ran some errands together, and spent the rest of the morning in our own corner of the library, conveniently located right next to the Easter books (and Christmas books, if Cruz was writing). Since it was pretty cold outside, we had a picnic lunch in the living room afterwards, listening to our favorite Lumineers' song Ophelia on our favorite patchwork quilt. Then, while Mila snoozed for most of the afternoon, Cruz and I had some special time together, building some legos, working on his preschool workbook, and painting our first dozen eggs for Easter. Mila soon joined in, then Daddy, and we ended our day with pasta, a bottle of red wine, and a very memorable Panther win.
Saturday, I was blessed with a girls' day to Funky Junk a Loo in Waterloo to hunt for some new treasures for the house. I went to this last year and was overwhelmed with so much local talent all in one place. We shopped until our arms were full, then had tacos and pomegranate margaritas at La Patron. I hauled home an aqua metal bin to set by our new desk, an old rusty kitchen scale I've been searching for for months, an old hardbound Cedar Falls city planner, a wooden cheese box for a table centerpiece, a six pack of blue mason jars and the neatest wooden crate to hold them, and a few old coffee tins to plant spring flowers and succulents in. But most of all, I scored a fun day away with sweet girlfriends while Beau held down the fort at home.
The rest of our weekend was filled with a birthday celebration for Hayes, a memorable Palm Sunday service at church, some yard work, a second visit to Funky Junk a Loo, this time with Mila girl, some afternoon egg dyeing fun, and one devastating Panther loss Sunday night. It was a much needed reset week for us, with a renewed sense of motivation to barrel through the rest of the semester. Six weeks to go!
