Adventures of Evie

  We had a mini vacation this weekend and it was so much fun! On Saturday morning we went downtown to see Trolls Live! Evie wasn't happy about how high our seats were and, much like she did at the JOJO Siwa concert she spent the better part of the time before the show started crying and asking to leave. However, after the show started she calmed down and we had a lot of fun. She got a fancy lemonade with a flashing ice cube and a really cute Poppy headband too!  After the show we headed up to Columbus to grab some lunch. Our first choice restaurant had a one hour wait so we walked up the street to a different one. Luckily it was a really pretty day so the walk was pretty nice and everything is so green and pretty since it's Spring. Definitely getting us really excited for more road trips this year!    After that we headed to West Virginia to my cousins wedding reception. The reception was beautiful, the food was good, and there was plenty of good company...but Evie's...

  Today was such a pretty day so we decided to spend it playing outside! Evie really wanted to play with Barbies and I had some new printer ink cartridges I needed to test out so I worked on making some mini games and stuff for her Barbies to play with and we took the whole thing outside to have some fun!  First they played some UNO and ate some Doritos... Then they cleaned everything up and watched some movies, and lastly they played a few rounds of Monopoly! After we finished up playing the games Evie spent some time running around, playing with her chalks, jumping on her trampoline and singing and dancing -- her favorite! In the summertime we spend almost all our time outside and I can't wait to spend more days just enjoying the sunshine. :)

  Today was a busy day for us! Since the earlier part of the week included appointments and we spent our weekend enjoying the summer weather we didn't have much time to get any errands run. Today we decided to knock some things off our checklist before dance class. After I got off work we ran to a few stores and then came home and had lunch. Of course Evie wanted to get in as much jumping as she could before we had to go to dance class in the evening so after lunch I let her go out and jump some more. We also got her spring cover on finally. Next up is a safety net but that's a project for another day! After that we headed off to hip hop! Evie really loves to dance but she's not been super keen on being told HOW to dance. She started off really loving this class and having so much fun and now she seems really resistant to going. While she's doing great and following along the moves really well she just says it's not fun for her anymore and she really wants to just d...

  Today was check up day with Evie's ophthalmologist. We had to see a different doctor this time because her usual one had no openings until August and it wasn't the smoothest visit. The doctor part was fine but the previous nurses we've seen were very patient with Evie and gave her plenty of warning when potentially uncomfortable or painful things were coming up. This time her nurse seemed impatient and annoyed and didn't warn either one of us that her dilation drops were going to sting. So Evie was pretty upset in general about it. I am pretty used to pulmonology appointments and what will happen and how it may feel but this is only our second time with ophthalmology so I didn't recall the painful drops from the previous time and I felt awful that she was uncomfortable.  After she was finished up I asked her what she wanted to do since she had done such a good job and she said all she wanted was to have a mama/Evie day. So we went to a "fancy" restaurant...

  We had a super busy weekend and today was so overcast and grey that we didn't end up doing much! Evie got up late and we had breakfast together and then she ran to get dressed so she could get in as much jumping on her trampoline as was possible before the rain rolled in.  After it started, she waited by the window for breaks so she could run back out and jump until it started up again! We have been working on getting rid of some of the things she is too big for and making space for things she can use so today we also got her sandbox ready and got rid of it. I still have a little pool and some sand for her to play in but the box was so hard to keep clean and the little picnic table that was attached was way too small for her.  It's been a little sad. We've had her swingset and her sandbox for about three years and we played on/in them so often over the years. But I'm so happy she loves the new trampoline and I'm sure we'll have fun making new memories as she g...

  Today Evie woke up in a sad mood and what better to cure a sad day than a SPA DAY?! I told her to hang out in her room for a few minutes and then I set up a little tray for her with a face mask, rainbow eye masks, cucumber patches, a bottle of water mist, and a jade roller. Then I brought her a pair of slippers and a mask, a cat band (to hold her hair back), and bathrobe and led her to the spa! We started with an Orbeez pedicure complete with a choice of snack and juice to eat while she soaked in the rainbow tub... Then we moved on to the face mask and she took some time to relax while she let her eye masks do their thing. When we were done she ran to grab some dolls to give them the royal treatment as well.  After we finished up I figured, what better way to complete the day than a picnic... ...in Italy! Full disclosure the ambient background in the photo is actually The Shire because our Italy one got locked up and wouldn't reload. But we STARTED in Italy and frankly, a ha...

Today we learned about the human body ! This was a really fun activity and it opened up conversation for a lot of topics about how our bodies work. Evie was especially interested in how we digest and use food.   We have a lot of conversations about food and we have a very easy going approach to it for the most part. While I try not to do the "healthy/unhealthy" game, we do talk about how foods fuel our bodies differently and why some food are going to give us more energy and make us feel better versus others. So today she had a lot of questions about how and why our bodies need that fuel. While Evie sewed up a little heart, stomach, and brain we talked about what each organ does and why it's important to our bodies. We also talked a bit about bones, muscles, and the cardiovascular system.  When that was all done we made a REAL working stethoscope which Evie used on all of us, even the cats! It was a fun activity and I love it when we find fun things to do that open up co...

  Today was a slow day for us. Over the weekend Evie did several egg hunts and we also spent a lot of time with family. We made some felt Easter eggs and since the weather wasn't too bad so we got to play outside some too. Because she had such a busy few days (and ate more candy than usual!) Evie didn't get up until 9 this morning. So after breakfast and some Cosmic Yoga I was off work and we set about cleaning the house and running some errands. Pretty boring day overall but sometimes that's how it goes! This evening there were a few food trucks in the neighborhood so Evie got this epic swirled cotton candy on a glow stick! The stick lit up with rainbow colors and flashed in various patterns. It was super fun and the flavors were vanilla and watermelon which oddly tasted like a summery drink. It was a slow but fun day. We wrapped it up with some Finding Dory, popcorn, and snuggles. :)

  Today we decided to have a little girls day. After work we headed downtown to hang out, see some fish, and grab some lunch. Evie LOVES to hang out downtown and it's a pretty short drive so once the weather warms up more we'll definitely be spending more time doing it. First we headed to the aquarium to see some of the fish. Evie really loved the shark tank and this huge turtle today. It kept coming back around and she was so happy watching it. We also played in the climbers and then she got to use the interactive aquarium. You color in a fish and then put the picture on this machine and it shows you your fish inside the aquarium. She did a few of them today since the coloring area was pretty slow for once.  After we finished up there we headed out for some lunch. Evie got some tomato soup and then we visited a small candy store on the riverfront before we headed back towards home. It was a really fun day and I can't wait until it warms up more and we can go more often. :)

Today was an exciting day for Evie...yesterday her new bed finally arrived, and she started begging me immediately when she got up to build it. I've been wanting to get her a loft bed for some time now. She has a lot of doll houses, and it makes it very difficult to have much space in her room to play with them sitting everywhere, so this allows her to have her Barbies under her bed where she can easily get to them and play with them but also still have room for her toy bin and Barbie house in the room. The slide was an unintentional bonus! I just happened to find a bed that was in my budget that had a slide on it. But she LOVES that slide. She spent most of the day after it was built taking turns with her dolls going down it.  Tonight she also had dance class. They are really starting to work hard on their recital dance now and it's so much fun to watch her get so into the dance. I can't wait to see the recital in June! Evie is a little disappointed about the fact that she...

  It's Tuesday which means it's family day! It was also a really pretty day outside so we spent most of our morning playing with chalks and making up fun stories outside.  Then we got to head up to Nana's house for an egg hunt and some egg coloring fun! This is not Evie's first time coloring eggs but it was the first year she seemed to really have fun and grasp the idea of it. It was cool to watch her create and make pretty eggs although she absolutely REFUSES to eat them. 😂 Maybe next year she'll come around.  Only a few more days til Easter is here! :)

  Well Monday is here again. This week our schedule is a little different because we had to move some weekend things around. Evie did a big easter egg hunt yesterday in the neighborhood too and got to see her Nana and her cousin which was exciting BUT it meant her excitement kept her up a little later than normal! So this morning she got up later and was dragging a bit. She ate breakfast and had a little independent play and then we headed up toward where Nana works. After we stopped in to say hi for a few minutes we headed out to Chuck E Cheese for Evie to see her dad for awhile. She had a lot of fun playing games and got to cash in her tickets for a slinky and a sucker at the end of her visit. I also managed to finally get her a purple bouncy ball out of a claw machine that she's been begging for. After we got home we had some dinner and headed to bed! It ended up being a long day but a pretty good one! :)

  Today we had a really chill play day. We've been taking little pockets of time each day to get the house back in order from our trip and get things set up for the next day but today we decided to just take a little break and spend some time together having fun. Evie spent most of the morning making videos with this super fun little kit I got from Toca Boca * awhile back. It comes with characters, props, and even a stand for your phone to take the videos.  The most fun part of this whole thing was that I could set her up with her props and background and then get a few things done while she made her video. She was SO excited to show them to me when they were finished. It was tons of fun and a great way to get her creative juices going! After we were finished making movies we set up a shop and played with her dolls. I had a little cafe and Evie opted for a tea shop. It was a fun day and it's always nice when we're able to slow down a bit and just take extra time with each o...

  It's been a weird week for us adjusting to being home and not being on the go 24/7. So today we decided to get out and go to the museum center. We haven't been in a little bit and it was a rainy day outside so it was a good alternative to playing outside and a great opportunity for some STEM play. Evie loves running around in the caves play area they have set up so we ran through some tubes and slides together before heading over to play with water currents. They updated the transportation part of the museum as well which we noticed during lunchtime so we decided to go check it out after the childrens area. Evie had fun playing with how wheels work... ...and then she spotted a train! She was so excited about this and asked if we could ride together to Salem. Of course we can't but we had fun playing make believe anyway. I think one of her favorite things about Boston was that she got to sit next to me on all the train rides whereas in the car she has to sit in the back in...

  Today we didn't have much planned out and we're still working on getting things back in order after our trip so we had a game day and played outside because the weather was finally pretty nice! While we were in Boston we found a game at the childrens museum called Pong Hau K'i and Evie loved playing it. The game is pretty simple but if you play it correctly you can play it for HOURS. So while we were outside today we made a little board and used floating candles marked with chalk for the pieces. Evie likes to win the game which is trickier than just playing for some reason...lol...but she also enjoys pushing the pieces around so it was fun to play for a little bit in between playing make believe and running out all her energy. When we finished up playing it was time for dance! They are all working so hard on their recital and I can't wait to see the final performance. Evie has gone from wanting to run around and be crazy and do her own thing to really grasping the dan...

Today is the day! This morning I got up a little early to set up this "jungle" for Evie to navigate. It was super easy to throw together...I used leftover crepe paper from her last birthday party to make vines and construction paper to make leaves. I also used some feathers we had to make a little pathway because the path is meant to lead to a little bird she will have to rescue. But first she will have to creep past a jaguar... ...navigate a snake pit... ...run through a meadow... ...avoid a nest of spiders... ...cross a river filled with crocodiles...AND of course for extra fun we used her costume accessories to dress up as animals and jump out at each other while moving through the maze of traps and vines... She LOVED this game and we ended up playing it for HOURS. She had a ton of fun finding the bird and also hiding it so I could run through and find it too. It was a fun way to spend a morning and the cleanup was almost easier than the set up! She was already asking if w...