This year, for Jason’s 35th birthday, we spent the weekend in Chicago! I love Chicago! There’s just something about a big city… I just love it!  This was the first time we’ve been there since we moved to Michigan. We live only about an hour and a half away from this big, beautiful city now! Of course, It was a very different experience than the last time we were there, before we had children!

 Our first stop, after arriving in Chicago, was The Field Museum. I’m not a big fan of museums, myself. But this was for Jason’s Birthday and he LOVES this place, with all the dinosaur stuff!

The next day we just did a lot of walking around and exploring. We intended to go to the Shedd Aquarium after Cooper’s nap, but when we got there at 2:30 (the place closes at 4) the line to for general admission was out the door and all the way down the stairs. I don’t know why there were so many people there, but we decided that if we waited in line, we would probably get in just in time for them to close. So, we gladly said “We’ll go next time!” and decided to just walk around and view some more of the sites. That’s something we can say now that we live so close!

STOP!!!! Back up. Take another look at the picture above.  Is it just me, or is something missing?

MMM!!!! Deep dish for dinner!

Last day: A birthday-morning pillow fight before heading home!

With two young boys, me being quite pregnant, and Jason being out-of-town for a week – returning ON our anniversary, we weren’t able to do anything spectacular for this special anniversary. But, I was determined to make it at least a little special. Since the traditional 10 year anniversary gift is TIN, I got a little creative with some tin cans. (Thanks Pintrest!) I made an Angry Birds game by spray painting a bunch of tin cans green and then drawing the pig faces on them with a black Sharpy. I found the Angry Bird balls at a local supermarket. It’s a pretty fun game! Then I also made some lanterns, like the ones you see all over pinterest, to put on the dinner table. Let me tell you, they are a LOT harder to make than the tutorial makes it seem! When Jason got home from his long work week, out-of-town, he picked up some dinner from a very nice, nearby restaurant, we put the boys to bed and had a nice, quiet dinner.

And a few days later, my last-minute-shopper-husband, that I love very much, gave me my 10 year anniversary gift. It was NOT made of tin! I’m not complaining!

As his birthday approached, I thought long and hard about how I could make the day special. Since we just moved to Michigan, far away from all our family and friends, and we still live in a small apartment, I knew we wouldn’t really have much of a “party”… but I couldn’t allow that to keep the day from being special. He’s only two, so I felt it was best to keep it simple anyway. I decided to start out with something I found on Pintrest, called CLOUD DOUGH. Most of the recipes I’ve seen call for 8 cups flour and one cup baby oil… but then I found one that substituted the baby oil with canola oil because the mom wanted it edible. Since Cooper still tends to want to taste everything, I decided to go with the edible version. I bought a small, plastic pool and sand toys and quadrupled the Cloud Dough recipe. If you go to Pintrest and search for “Cloud Dough” you’ll find plenty of different blogs about it. Some of them will warn you just HOW MESSY it is! They are not kidding! It makes a HUGE mess! But it was totally worth it for the amount of entertainment it brought to this very simple birthday party! (However, this is NOT something I will do on a regular basis!)

We also made balloon animals, which entertained Jason and our friend Jenna more than the kids; and we got to video chat on Google Hangout with both sets of grandparents while we blew out the candles and ate cake and ice-cream. (Yes, I made the cake myself… thanks, Betty Crocker!)

Before I talk about Easter, here’s a quick pregnancy update: I’m now 26 weeks pregnant with the baby girl. Everything is going well and she’s a very strong kicker! 14 more weeks to go (or longer, if she takes after her brothers)!

EASTER! I know I’m a few weeks behind… sorry! Blogging has definitely been on the back burner these days! There are just so many other things to do! (Like now, I should be folding laundry)

This is the first year I really put forth an effort to make Easter baskets and hide Easter Eggs. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a bit of a health nut. So it should come as no surprise that I didn’t want to give my kids baskets full of candy! So I filled them each with bubbles, Play-dough, egg-shaped chalk, a boat (for the bath tub), Dinosaur tattoos, and a cheapo airplane that doesn’t fly very well. I did put some sweet treats in some of the eggs: Chocolate and yogurt covered nuts, Raisinets and animal crackers. And I put some small Dinosaur toys in the other eggs.

The whole experience was so much fun! First, the boys got their baskets, then we emptied them out and ventured out to the back yard for an Easter egg hunt. After we collected all the eggs, we went back inside to open the eggs, eat some treats and play with all the fun things that were in the baskets! It was such a pleasant, fun-filled day!  We’ll definitely do this again next year!

Thanks again to Amy Little for making adjustments to my announcement photo!

This recipe evolved from a slow cooker recipe that I found on Pintrest a while back. I’ve made many changes to it, so it’s a bit different from the original recipe. It takes me about 45 minutes, total, to make (note: my version of this is NOT a slow cooker recipe) and makes about 5-6 servings, depending on how generous you are with each serving. It makes GREAT left overs!

So, here it is:

Cheesy Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS:

4-6 large potatoes (I use Idaho Potatoes)
1 large onion - chopped (I like white onions)
1 medium stalk celery – diced
1 carton (32-oz) chicken broth (One of these days I will get around to making broth myself)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 cup milk
About 3 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (I shred my cheese because it tastes fresher and pre-shredded cheese has added preservatives)
Real bacon pieces (add to taste.)
Small bunch of green onions, sliced (add to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large pot, mix potatoes, onion, celery, broth and water.
2. Bring to a boil and cook 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
3. In small bowl, mix flour into milk; stir into potato mixture.
4. Cook for an addition 5 minutes or until mixture thickens.
5. Stir in cheese until melted. Garnish each serving with bacon and green onions.

The boys (this includes my husband) all had a blast! I only went down once. I’m not really a fan of super fast speeds, plus I’m a tired pregnant woman who didn’t have the energy to climb up that slippery hill multiple times! I only took a few pictures, but I’m glad I decided to lug my heavy 300mm lens along so I could catch the joyful expressions as Jason and Max flew down the hill!

We had a lot of fun and made some nice, new friends!