wedding weekend {part 2}

(Nothing like a week off blogging.  Lots of crafty {paid}projects coming in.  Yay!  Hmm, where was I?  Ahh, wedding recap).

After an interesting night of kids sleeping in the same room (fail) we were up, repacked and on the road by 5:57.  3 minutes to spare!  The games, snacks, and presents were ready as were the kids!

 

Yes, ignore the fact that Ellie is not 2 yet and is forward facing.  No way was I making that girl rear face for an 8 hour drive. :)

Jenna may not have been quite as perky as the kids were.

 

We caravaned in three cars.  Us in 1.  My mom, Grandma Hoerr, and Grandma Pohl in 2.  And my dad, Grandpa Hoerr, and eventually Casey in 3.  For the next 7 or 8 hours, we drove.  We stopped a couple times for gas, food, and stretch breaks.  In general, the kids did awesome. Owen better than Ellie as he can be distracted by movies and activities more than Ellie can. We were all pretty excited to enter the small town of Emmetsburg, Iowa.  We all stopped for a late lunch at McDonald's and then checked in at the Wild Rose Casino and Hotel.

 

We got everything unloaded and failed at trying to get the kids to nap.  I was able to help get all my crafty things unloaded and start to help a bit with the decor.

Casey, mom, Phip, Kara, and Kara's dad

 

Then, we showered and headed about 15 miles away to the church where Kara grew up.  There was proof of this as we found Kara's confirmation picture.

 

can you find her? :)

The rehearsal went very smoothly, minus the bucket of tears my dad cried which of course made everyone else cry.  When he teared up welcoming everyone, I knew I was done for.

sibling heart to heart

Grandparents! - my mom's mom and dad's parents

rocking the coral dress

AHH - how cute are they?

Uncle Casey chatting with Ellie

the mailbox I decorated for their cards

 

After the rehearsal, we drove back to Emmetsburg for our fabulous dinner at New Sprouts.  It was an awesome space (especially for the small town that is E :).  The atmosphere was great and the food was delicious!  We met a super sweet couple at our table that had a 6 week old, so we bonded talking mommy-stuff.  Our kids were pretty obnoxiousness and ran all over the place the whole time, but luckily no one seemed to mind too bad.

 

 

 

brothers

my dad welcoming everyone

loved the lights

the couple of honor!

 

Towards the end of the night, I led a quick round of the shoe game.  Kara and Philip sat back to back holding one of each their shoes.  I would ask a question like "who was the first one to 'know' this was it?"  And then they would raise up the shoe of the person they thought would best answer the question.  It was a neat way to get to know them a bit more and get to hear more of their story!

After the great dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got the kids to "sleep."  Then I went back to the ballroom and helped do the set-up!

Finally, it was off to bed to get ready for the BIG day!

ready for the car trip {kid activities}

The big family wedding is coming up in just a few days.  And while I am really looking forward to the wedding, I was getting pretty nervous about the 8.5/9 hour drive.  My kids have driven to Chicago, but that’s about it for long road trips.  So along with wedding crafts, I’ve been busy making lots of little things to hopefully entertain them along the way. 

I found many of these ideas here.  She has 6 or so pages packed full of awesome ideas for car rides.  I wish I had found this page earlier so I could have made more.  I made all of these with things lying around the house, from my old teaching stash, or from the I.D.E.A. store here in town.

Travel pillows/trays

I bought super cheap travel pillows and cookie sheets at Wal-Mart.  I used sticky velcro and attached a strip to the pan and the pillow.  Now the kids have little lap trays for all the games I’m bringing and their snack.  Then, take the tray off and flip pillow over for nap time! Matching pole – I made several of these.  One with pictures, one with letters, and one with numbers.  Not sure he’ll be able to do it, but worth a shot!Clothespin match – I grabbed a few paint swatches at Wal-mart.  I cut off a small edge of them and glued them to clothespins.  I stuck to matching 2 shades, light and dark.Matching Nuts and Bolts -   Love this one!  I simply raided William’s stash of nuts, bolts, and washers.  I pushed the bolts up through a piece of cardboard.  Under the white paper is a magnet so the washers stay put.  I put another piece of cardboard under it to hold everything together and duct taped around it.  That’s Ellie’s hand modeling it in use.Threading Can – he has to put the right color of pipe cleaner in the correct hole. Geoboards – he can make shapes with the rubber bands.  I have shape cards, but not sure he’s ready for that yet.Animal matching  - I took these adorable animal flashcards and created a velcro matching game.I grabbed a ton of old VHS cases at the IDEA store for $.05 each and have them stashed with blocks, crayons, etc.  They make great traveling cases. I found these lacing cards at TJ Maxx.We also have a huge stash of DVD’s from Grandma and the library, tons of books, favorite cars, new toys, and awesome snacks.  We can do this. . .right?!  And thank to Kimberly who sent my kids tons of little toys all wrapped up for the ride! 

Our Weekend Without Owen

So I’ve been a slacker blogger this past week because we were getting ready for a big weekend!  This past Thursday afternoon, I drove Owen to meet my parents in Bloomington.  And then I drove home. . .without him!  They kept him from Thursday until today for a Big Brother weekend.  We timed it to fall on our anniversary so we could have a little fun (you have dirty minds if that’s where you went first) without our little man.

Our anniversary present to ourselves was getting a little painting done.  Now in the past, we have always done our own painting.  But I’m scared to say that we may never go back.  Haha.  One of my roommates in college’s husband (Mark) does painting on the side and let me tell you, call him if you need something done.  AMAZING work.  Perfect cutting in.  Quick and very competitive price.  Seriously good stuff.

Anywhooo, he came Friday morning so Ellie and spent all morning running errands.  Holy cow that’s easy to do with just one kid.  Isn’t that amazing how time and perspective will change ya.  We got back and here’s a little preview of what was done:I spent the entire afternoon hanging out with Ellie and crafting.  It was some glorious time I tell you.  Friday night, William went to help some friends move, so I just went right on crafting.  Got all kinds of fun stuff done.

Saturday morning, we got on the road early to head to IKEA.  My parents needed a few things for church and their house, so we decided just to get out of  Mark’s way and have a fun little road trip.   We spent a little over 4 hours there, just dreaming of what we'd buy with unlimited budgets, eating lunch, and picking out a few fun things for Owen.   Ellie did awesome and enjoyed her first trip to IKEA.  Today, we drove over for church and to pick up our little man.  We missed him terribly, but as you’ll see by these pictures  my parents sent, he didn’t miss us a bit!  Thanks so much Mom and Dad for a fabulous, toddler free weekend.

he ate this entire container of raspberries

Grandma gives me 2 popsicles!

lining up the cars with Grandpa

really - he was enjoying Grandpa's panckes 

Children’s Museum!

Late Wednesday evening I got a text from Aubrey asking if we wanted to venture on a road trip to Bloomington the next morning. While I have been to the Children's Discovery Museum several times with classes I've taught, I've never taken Owen there.  We ended up having a really large group with six adults and eight kids.  We played all morning and then did Noodles & Company for lunch.
If you've never taken your kid here, you need to. We could easily spend the entire day there. The first floor (there are 3) is an awesome toddler/younger kiddo space. There's play forts to climb on.  The water table area is like Owen’s water table on steroids. There is an grocery shopping area, pizza “cooking” station, a delivery truck to ride on, and a place with you can pretend to be a dentist or doctor. And of course Owen’s favorite area was the car table and the big train area!
On the second floor is Owen’s 2nd favorite area.  There is a huge agriculture section.  When he saw the cows, he literally ran off the elevator.  There's two big tractors to climb and a place to “grind” grain.  There’s a huge two story climber of course always a little too small for him to do right now.
Also on the 2nd floor is an area to learn about the wind.  You can put balls and scarves in these tunnels and the “wind” going through them makes the balls fly through the tunnel.  Owen loved it!On the third floor there's a painting room and lots of places where they can discover things about music .  There’s a stage where they can put on a play or puppet show.
If we lived in Bloomington, we would absolutely have a season pass to this place. We'll be going back soon with William so that he can check out all the great stuff too!