Happy Birthday Dave

Saturday was Dave's birthday. We woke up and I whispered to Elinor to tell him happy birthday. It was the sweetest little sleepy voice. We didn't have any set plans. I made him his favorite tofu egg sandwich and he had used his birthday gift of an ice coffee maker the night before so we could have cold brew coffee with breakfast. Dave is forever obsessed with finding cold brew coffee where ever we go. I found the Hario MCPN-14B Water Brew Coffee Pot on amazon. It was pretty basic and had good reviews. So far he has loved it.

We ran a few errands, went to the mall to check out UNIQLO again. This time we bought some things. It is going to be hard going to the mall now and not buying everything from there! So many cute clothes for all of us. It's like H&M and American Apparel but from Japan. If that makes any sense.

and we met Hello Kitty!

Later that day we met up with Pop pop,Cindy and Grandma (Cindy's mom. Elinor decided all on her own that it was grandma) for a birthday dinner at Harvest. We have never been there but heard they had veg options. It is always a struggle going out to eat with any of our family members and finding a place that has anything for us to eat besides a salad. Harvest was amazing. We all were able to get something different and even try a few appetizers. Dave had the spicy tofu stir fry, Elinor had the kids spaghetti and I had the pan seared beet steak. Everything was so good. Dave wasn't into the beet steak because he doesn't like beets but I thought it was delicious. The kids portions were huge! Elinor ate a ton and still had leftovers to bring home.

We went back to Pop pops for vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods. Then Dave and I went to see Godzilla. We both liked it even though Dave wanted to see more of Godzilla. We came back to collect a very sleepy Elinor and went home. It was such a great laid back day.

Christmas Eve

I didn't mean to take a break but the last few days have been packed. Plus we have all these new cool toys around to play with and a new couch! Dave and I a few years ago decided to do a joint gift for each other. Something that we need/want around the house. This year was a couch. I will post pictures of it soon. But here is our Christmas Eve...

We spent the day at Dave's dads house. We had a huge dinner, celebrated Elinor's birthday and had fun with family. Ruby and Reid were there which made Elinor over the top excited. We have spent so many holidays with them in MA. They always invited us when we stayed home and didn't have anywhere to go, like last Christmas. It's so cute to see Elinor ask for her aunt, uncle and cousins now. She is finally remembering their names and loves to spend time with them. Makes me so happy to live closer to everyone now. 

look at the explosion of gifts under pop pops tree! 

leave it to Elinor to find a crown laying around the house and claim it.

Elinor was taking random gifts all night and trying to open them. She was good about putting them back when we said they weren't for her but that didn't stop her from trying over and over. I love Christmas so much more now having Elinor. Watching the kids get so excited about everything is so cute. They were even excited watching each other open gifts and passing out gifts. It was so sweet.

 These three are too funny. I love the pictures Justine took too.

Tomorrow will be our Christmas morning post!

Great Wolf Lodge

My brother had a great idea to plan a night at Great Wolf Lodge while we were all in town. We planned it on my birthday. I haven't had that much fun on my birthday ever! We got there around 2 that afternoon for check in. While I was walking up to meet my sister in law and niece, my parents jumped out from around the corner and surprised us! They had lied to me saying they were going to be in Tennessee that day.

oh my family...we are the worst at taking pictures together. No one wants to stand still for more than a second. Poor Dave didn't even make it.

We all checked into our rooms and got our "mama and baby soups" on right away. Our room there was awesome by the way. There was a little cut out with a bunkbed and tv/games for the kids. There also was a sitting area and a king size bed. That night when Elinor fell asleep in the kid nook, everyone came back over to our room to hangout and eat birthday cake that my sister had brought me. Elinor slept the whole time on the bottom bunk until 7am! I wish all hotel rooms had little kid sleeping areas.

Elinor sleeping in the wolf den

There was so much to do there. I thought it was just about swimming, but there is also blacklight mini golfing (which Elinor thought was Poo's house), a huge arcade game room, an interactive sing along/story time before bed, a magic quest game throughout the whole lodge and even bowling.

I don't like to swim too much and with Elinor being little I didn't know how much there would be for us to do at the pool. I was surprised to see she was able to go in all the pools and even a few small water slides. There were two huge shallow (1.5 feet deep) kiddie pools, a huge splash area for little ones and even a huge wave pool.   The wave pool she wasn't too sure of at first but ended up really liking standing at the shallow end trying to jump over waves. Also there was a lazy river was a lot of fun too. The water slides looked wild! There were roller coaster ones, one that went outside the building and even one that drained you down a hole in the middle like a big sink. Dave never goes on stuff like that, but my brother convinced him to go on them with him.   He kept talking about them and almost had me convinced to try. Maybe next time.

I didn't realize that even though check out is in the morning, you can stay until the pool closes. We had things to do the next day but we were able to get in some swimming and playing in the lobby till around 2. I will make sure to remember this for next time.

I've read tips about going here before but I didn't take them all in. There are restaurants and even a Starbucks in the lobby so we never had to leave. Sometimes it can obviously be difficult to find vegan options while we are out, especially in Ohio. One of the restaurants offered a Gardein burger which is our favorite kind and a hummus plate.

Have you ever been to a Great Wolf Lodge?

zoolights

I love anything Christmas/Holiday related. So for my birthday Dave took us to Zoolights. We go every year but I was so excited to see how Elinor liked it. We brought the stroller thinking she would want to sit at some point. Nope this little girl just ran and ran. She loved the lights and we even got to see some animals. 

 We were all alone. We saw one other family the whole time we were there.

It was FREEZING that night! I had so many layers on Ellie. She doesn't seem to mind the cold though. I love seeing our regular traditions through her eyes.

Nov 26th

It's my birthday today! I had an amazing weekend thanks to Dave and Elinor. We had a great Thanksgiving with friends and have been having fun going to a Christmas parade and cleaning out things don't need anymore this weekend...getting ready for a tree and some presents for that baby.

Yesterday I was trying to get pictures ready to print for Elinor's first birthday party and pulling my hair out. My computer is on its way out but I would never buy myself another one. This morning when I was seriously about to throw it while trying to open an email, Dave handed me a computer and said "here use this instead". I was so confused. He said "happy birthday! It's your new computer!" I was so shocked and excited. I had no clue. I honestly forgot my birthday was even coming up. I've been planning Elinor's party and just have had so much on my mind, I haven't thought about it.

So now I'm writing from a new fast computer. Maybe I will be better about going through my pictures and getting them up. I have a ton from our weekend!

Ruby's birthday

Last Saturday we went out to eat for little miss Ruby's 4th birthday! We went to Flatbread which we have never been to before. I'm now a big fan. They even had a vegan pizza full of yummy veggies. I stole most of these pictures from Justine...thanks Justine!

The birthday girl and Ellie. Ignore me, I was a wreck that day. 

Ellie and grandpa (Dave's dad)

having a serious conversation with Ruby. (again ignore me) 

The oven they bake the pizza in

hanging out with grandpa again

and the cake! I didn't have any but I heard it was amazing.

Happy Birthday Ruby!