Wednesday, February 26, 2020

February This & That


February was a quiet yet fun month - we had a ton of birthdays between friends and family.  We loved our trip to Florida, celebrating Valentines Day and much more.  The day after we got home from Florida was the Super Bowl and last minute we threw a little party together with friends until halftime.


We finally got around to going to the library on a regular basis which I've been wanting to do for a long time now.  Tatum loves playing with the toys, goes for music and reading sometimes and we try to go once a week (sometimes a little longer) to get books to check out to read before bed that week!


Our big boy is working on his transition to a big boy bed.  We officially stopped his sleep sack about a month or so ago - he wore it as long as he could and loved it - luckily he gave it up without too bad of a fight.  Next step, the crib piece to transition into a training bed!


At the start of the month we celebrated Lovie's birthday!  We had the best time celebrating her with a full night of family time.  We all went out for drinks then dinner and then went back to their house for cake, presents and family time!


To finish out the last weekend of the month we snuck in a date night to celebrate Valentine's Day and then Derek's family visited to celebrate another special February birthday for Mimi!

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Valentine's Day


Valentine's Day has pretty much turned into a family holiday around here - which we enjoy since we never did anything crazy to celebrate anyway. We had a couple things for Tatum (and Stella) to open which we got to before dinner then he was so excited to play with his new items that evening (and all weekend long).


I had gathered a few cute activities I'd seen on Pinterest for him to do and they really kept him entertained for a while - the color matching hearts was his favorite and he did a fairly well job getting them matched up.  Stickers were fun and not only ended up on the papers but all over us also.  I think the color stamping heart we'll try again next year, that one didn't go too well!


We had been trying to decide what to do for dinner that night and last minute we just decided to do make your own pizzas and salads - it was very easy and fun to put the pizzas together - we had to sit the dough out for a bit to get it ready so we ended up eating pretty late but Tatum never objects to a late bedtime.


We finished the night off with a dessert charcuterie board and watching movies - it was a great low key day spent with both of my boys.


Friday, February 14, 2020

Valentines Day: This & That


Happy Valentine's Day!  I've had such fun this month doing little activities with Tatum.  This was his first year to bring Valentines to "school" at Mother's day Out and like the years before he made homemade Valentine's for family members - this year he was very into it - he put finger print dots onto his card then stickers on top of that!


Tatum's favorite thing at the moment is "coooookies" and since Mother's Day out kids can be younger I went with the cookie theme and then a little dunkin donuts gift card with candy for his teachers.


At the end of January I ran into Michael's for some crafts to entertain him throughout the month and by then they were already super on sale at I think 40% off so I just grabbed a bunch and made a note to do some each week. Painting on the easel was definitely his favorite!


Since he's finally almost old enough for some homemade crafts, I had fun browsing Pinterest - a few were flops but this "Love You to Pieces" was a hit.  I made the printable and then just cut construction paper into pieces, put double sided tape on and handed to Tatum and he put the pieces into the heart. A great keepsake and gift for grandparents.


Last night we had the best time making Valentine's Day cookies.  We always make so many over Christmas, I think I forget about other holidays but this Christmas we didn't end up using some of the roll out dough so I saved it for Valentine's Day... I think going forward I'll try to remember to do cookies for other holidays!  We equally had fun rolling out the cookies as well as decorating them!


Monday, February 10, 2020

Palm Beach: Part Three


Today I'm wrapping up our winter stay in Palm Beach.  I think I've said it before but Tatum's getting to be a really fun age to travel with - you can really see the excitement on his face and see him enjoying things.  One thing we really had fun with this trip was his little kids passport we got while checking in - he had to take it to a bunch of different spots around the resort to ask a question or do something to get a sticker and then he got a prize at the end of the week when we finished it.


Thursday we came up from the beach to have lunch at the Beach  Club - Derek and I each had salads that were delicious.  A new treat we added to Tatum's travel/meal activities for this trip was a "water wow" pack - he loved it and it kept him very entertained. 


That afternoon we had a couple quiet uninterrupted hours by the adult pool to read and relax - it was so peaceful.  When Tatum was ready to play we were off to the kids pool again for lots of swimming.


We stayed out at the pool until past 6, which is slowly becoming a new normal for us.  By the end of the day, Tatum had the pool to himself to jump over and over again.  


Thursday night we treated ourselves dinner over at Flager's Steakhouse - we took the trolley from the hotel across the street and ate out on the patio. We each had steaks that were absolutely delicious.

I will say this was not Tatum's best behaved night and he showed little interest in his food - which after all his jumping into the pool we could tell he was exhausted so we ate quick to get back to the room.


Friday morning we were up and out early for our last full day and the same morning routine - quick breakfast, playground and play center and a little basketball for Derek and golfing for Tatum.


We had a long morning swim session that morning and Tatum made a few friends on the steps of the kids pool as they all wanted each others toys along the side of the pool!  We went back to lunch at The Ocean Club and then it was back down to the beach for a bit to run around and pick a few more seashells. 


We finished up our day back at the pool for nap time and then a little bit more playing for Tatum.  Like the day before we stayed out later than usual into the evening time - we wanted to soak up every last little bit of sun because about a half hour after we left the pool it was a total downpour for the rest of the night!

We spent our last dinner back over at the Italian Restaurant - we ate outside on the patio but undercover so we listened to the rain while we ate.  We did a bit of playing inside the play center before heading up to bed.

The next day we had until about 2pm until we needed to leave - rain and colder air were coming in as the day went on but the morning was nice - we were all set to go back to the pool one more time but we decided to sleep in instead and take our time packing up.  We spent the rest of the morning adventuring around the property and then grabbing one more lunch at the Seafood Bar before heading off to the airport.