Thursday, July 3, 2014

Our "Stay-cation" Experiment

Our Summer vacations have always been spent with my family in Florida or with Steve's family up in Oscoda, Michigan. This year (because of a few different factors), we decided to try staying at home for Steve's week off. 

Our main motivation was how much traveling Steve does now, and how appealing it was to think about having him home for ten straight days. We figured we could take the girls to the zoo, play at the pool, go out to lunch - all of the things Daddy doesn't normally get you be a part of.

Our vacation doesn't officially start until next week, but Steve is working from home this week, so we've already had a chance to do some fun family things together!

I promised Steve that the entire vacation wouldn't be filled with projects, but this first week seemed like a good time to focus on some areas of the house. On Monday  we killed it in the playroom! It was a lot of work, but totally worth it! 

I didn't take any pictures, but my main project on Tuesday was getting all of our baby clothes out of the attic and purging them to sell or give away. It was a lot! I made a pile for Bella to keep as memories, a pile for Evelyn to keep, and everything else went into a pile to pass on. 

I was able to sell about $100 of clothes at a consignment shop to use as money for the Little Man when I see some things I'd like to have for the nursery, and I put together 5 trash bags for a friend at church who's having her first girl about a month after Little Man is due.

It was an overwhelming job, but fun to go through the girls' clothes and remember things like their baby dedication at church or their first Christmas dress. I loved seeing their tiny little outfits that they wore home from the hospital! (Or in Evelyn's case, wore to bed her first night home.)

The rest of the week...


The girls love their new playroom set-up and are playing really well. Steve caught Bella "brushing" Evelyn's hair and asking her, "Is that okay? Did I pull too tight?" It was really sweet.

We spent some time at the pool this morning and they loved playing with Daddy! 

I've never been pregnant in the summer before, but since this is out last baby, I decided to be bold and buy a bikini. It seemed like a good idea in the Target dressing room anyway...


I took this picture before we left and sent it to Mel for a confidence boost. (Excuse the teenage-girl selfie. And while I'm making excuses, we were about to walk out the door, which is why my sunglasses are already on; I am not auditioning for The Jersey Shore.) I mixed and matched green bottoms with a polka dot top. I have to admit that I totally love it and I like trying new things with this last pregnancy!


Taking turns to jump to Daddy!


Best jumping face ever! And I'm really impressed with her form!


Evelyn's idea of jumping is walking to the edge and lunging forward.


The baby bump is getting larger and I really need to re-do my toenail polish.


Have I said yet how much the girls LOVED having Daddy home? Today was exactly what I imagined when we first talked about the idea of staying home.


Silly faces before heading home for naptime.


Our post-nap treat was ice cream from Bruster's. Bella and Evelyn's favorite is "Our Favorite Purple Dinosaur" - it's basically vanilla ice cream colored purple.


We may not have thought this through...


Definitely a fun treat for them, and a fun chance for Mommy to clean up when we got  home!


"I'm okay, Mommy. I'm just practicing my dance moves."

So far, it's been a great week at home!

No comments: