Today marks four weeks at home for coronavirus. I've worked hard to keep the girls busy while social distancing, working, and trying not to have my own anxiety-filled panic attacks. This post is a compilation of some of the crafts we have done. If you are looking for ideas, hopefully one of these will help. :) #1: Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad Both of my girls have the Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad. They love it and we have given them as gifts multiple times. It comes with papers and pencils to get you started. I have just used regular printer paper to refill once they use up all the pa ..read more

St. Patrick's Day was our first holiday during coronavirus lock-in. I had purchased some treats in advance and was so glad that I did.  The night before, I decorated the table.  When the girls came down in the morning, they were excited to see a few treats on the table.   Caroline woke me up dressed like this :)  She's so bubbly and happy almost all the time :)  They wanted to eat their St. Patrick's Day cookies for breakfast and I said yes. They couldn't believe it.  Cookies for breakfast (and lucky charms).    I printed off a few St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities ..read more

This post is not sponsored, I just want to share my great experience.  Enjoy! The week of Valentine's Day, I entered a contest sponsored by USA Guided Tours. You had to submit a love story and like their post on Facebook and Instagram. I found out at the end of the week that I was one of two winners! Fast forward to March and I was able to pick up a dozen cupcakes and scheduled our tour. I have to say that Sprinkles Cupcakes is amazing! The tour company handled placing my order, and when it was time to pick them up, I pulled up outside their store and they brought them right out to my c ..read more

My annual girl's weekend away was the trip that almost didn't happen. The entire week before I was sick, Elizabeth and Ben had the stomach flu,  and Coronavirus was on the rise. However, at 10pm on March 6th, I was able to hop onto my plane, sanitize my seat, and take off towards Columbia, South Carolina! Reagan was pretty empty on Friday night. On my flight down, I scored free wine! My flight attendant was training a new flight attendant and used me as an example on how to "comp" a cocktail.  :) Landed in Columbia at 11pm and Stacy picked me up! I would love to tell all of you that we ..read more

Towards the end of February, Caroline was invited to a birthday party. The party had an amazing magician and ended with a cute bunny for all the kids to touch.  She had a great time at the party and thought it was cool to touch a bunny. So happy! Some of our favorite friends came over for dinner in February! One of my New Years Resolutions was to have a family over for dinner every month. We got January and February... I'm guessing the rest of the year we might not make it.  We celebrated Mardi Gras a few days late, but we did celebrate!  I get pillsbury cinnamon rolls and sp ..read more

While we aren't doing birthday parties with friends, we are still celebrating BIG TIME as a family. Elizabeth had requested a LOL-themed 8th birthday. Caroline had 5th birthday that was LOL-themed, and thankfully I saved some of those supplies.  Last year I started making the balloon arches for birthdays, and I just love it! This balloon arch is over the fireplace in our family room. I placed the large LOL balloons into gift bags filled with tissue paper to get them to stay in place.  I added the banner in the morning because we had a fire in the fireplace the night before. (The banner ..read more

Trying to catch up on blogging since I am at home. Going back to February... when we could travel. This year we decided to forgo birthday parties and take family trips over the girls birthdays. It started by planning a trip to Disney World during the fall (during Caroline's birthday) and then we added a ski trip at Elizabeth's request for her birthday. We took the girls to Liberty Mountain Resort for a weekend of skiing. I was still not feeling great and Ben doesn't ski, so the girls enjoyed skiing in ski camp for two days and then hitting the green slopes after camp. Caroline and her BF ..read more

At the beginning of the school year, we discovered a new restaurant called Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. The first Tuesday of every month is their kids night. With the purchase of an adult entree, kids get a free entree. They also get: a free frozen custard, free face paint, free t-shirt, and free balloons and coloring pages. Who doesn't love free everything?!? The girls and I went at the beginning of February and they enjoyed getting their faces painted while we waited for our dinner.   Caroline was patient and calm.  Caroline picked this colorful bird.  Elizabet ..read more

The girls have been very into Groundhog Day for the last couple of years... So I try to make it fun with a little craft and special snack. Caroline and I started the day by watching Punxsutawney Phil predict an early spring. Well, you guys, it was all over after that. Caroline insisted it was "now spring" and that I could pack away all of her coats. She didn't understand why it was snowing in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania since it was now spring. She also wanted to know why her grandparents were not with Phil since they live in Pennsylvania. I tried explaining how Phil's prediction work ..read more

Towards the end of January, we headed to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Ben's parents were visiting for the weekend and it was a chilly day, so we opted for some indoor fun with the museum.  The girls had not been to that museum in over a year and they had forgotten most of it.  It still amazes me how much kids can forget, even if they have been to something a dozen times.  We started in the Ocean Hall when we arrived at the museum.  The girls spent almost an hour in here exploring everything.    They were very into all the "animals that used to be alive".    Nana found t ..read more