I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again this week...though I have this post scheduled out since I'm out of town so I'll have to link up when I get home.
As this post goes live, I'm on a mini vacation with just my little family of four. We haven't done that in a while. It seems like all of our "vacations" are spent visiting family or going somewhere with other people. So I am so pumped about a vacation with just us...even if it is just for a long weekend....even if it isn't somewhere tropical...even if it is with two young kids who hate long car rides. We are going to the happiest place on earth. No not Disney! Mackinac Island!!! I think it is the happiest place on earth but I think that is mostly for sentimental reasons. It probably needs its own post...hmm. We went to this happy little island my entire life. My parents honeymooned there and took us growing up. When I met my husband I learned he had been going his whole life so it became a trip we tried to take yearly (so far only missed last year when I was pregnant with M.) The best part about this island is that it doesn't change...sure there are little changes like they added a Starbucks (the only chain on the island) but it is pretty much the same as it was when I was little. And there are no cars on the island. Everything is walking, bike riding or horses. So crazy but it makes for a slower paced and relaxing atmosphere. I'm so excited to take the girls. K has been but was too little to remember. On the way home we are stopping in Frankenmuth (another Michigan favorite of ours) for the most amazing chicken dinner you've ever had! I could go on and on but I'll save it for another post. Here are a few pics from the last time we were on the island. I never remember it raining on the island until I started going with my hubby and now I swear it rains or is overcast every time. Well there is 80% chance of thunderstorms on Saturday. I'm not happy about that since the appeal of the island is outside activities. We are going to go with the flow and that might mean we take an earlier ferry off the island and head to our next stop early.
And here is what I'm listening to this week....
So speaking of things I could write a whole blog post about...Tim McGraw. I have had a huge thing for Tim since college. Back then I was crazier and had far more time and money and saw him in concert a lot...in lots of different states....I'm not even going to tell you about some of the crazy fan stuff I used to do. But things have changed. I met my husband and my Tim McGraw obsession toned down considerably. And then we got pregnant with K and it toned down even more - like I didn't even know a new cd came out and we left a concert early because I didn't feel well. Unheard of in my younger days. Well, he had a new cd come out this week and I happened to see it on social media. Then I found out there was a live streaming concert with some of the new songs and I was hooked of course. So I debated for a day if I really needed to buy the cd or if I could wait another month for my birthday. Well I just downloaded it and am loving it. The old me would have bought it at 12:01am. The new me was a day late but that's okay. I've got it and I love it!
Well my labor of love that I've been working on since August is done. The kindergarten math centers for numbers 1-30 that I was working on for a friend are finally done. They are all posted individually and I just added them as a bundle tonight. I will do another blog post that shows what is in each center. And then some more posts once I visit my friend's classroom and help her get some of these centers started.
Pinterest Fail! Yep I had one. I admit it. I tried a recipe this week that I had pinned awhile ago and it was a fail. My husband and I didn't really like it. K didn't like it either and we couldn't really blame her. We normally make her eat whatever we fix but this time she got a PBJ! Now I need to tell you that I'm sure the fail is completely my fault. I altered the recipe so I take full responsibility for it tasting yucky. For starters we aren't big fish eaters. I try to make it more because I know it is good for us but we don't love the taste of fish to begin with. Next problem I think was that I didn't want to use honey because I wanted M to be able to try some and I know babies aren't supposed to have honey before they turn one even if it is cooked. Plus as it turned out I didn't have any honey on hand anyway. So I used agave and it was a bad choice. The sauce never thickened and it just didn't have a good flavor. Plus the brown rice I served it with just seemed chewy to me. I don't know. But I wasn't a fan. Again - I'm not saying this to discourage you from attempting this recipe. I'm sure if you followed the directions you would have better results.
On the plus side I had almost an entire can of pineapple juice leftover that I didn't want to waste. So I bought some coconut rum, had a flashback to college, and enjoyed a nice beachy concoction tonight!
Fall is here. I know part of the country is experiencing crazy heat but not here. Last weekend was chilly and all of a sudden I felt ready for fall. I generally resist especially when it is warm but as soon as the weather changed, I could tolerate all the pumpkin stuff on my Pinterest pages and was ready for cozy clothes. We even had our first visit of the year to the cider mill....do they have these around the country? Someone once told me not everyone does. We just have them in Michigan because of all the apples we produce. Not sure if that is true but that's one of the best things about fall. The past few days have actually been nice. Chilly in the morning and at night but nice during the day when the sun was out. We even turned the heat on one night because I convinced my husband that the baby was cold and that's what kept waking her up but I think it was actually a new tooth coming in.
Well I'm off to disconnect from the world for awhile and reconnect with my husband and daughters. I'm kind of looking forward to not having my computer with us and having limited cell service for part of the weekend.
