Fun, fun, fun holiday weekend

What an awesome holiday weekend we had here in St. Paul! "Little Lucy" never once made an appearance and what a difference that makes for all of us! Friday Duane wanted to stop by the mall to order shoes and I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to meander through the mall. We had dinner at Panera because Liv insisted on "mac-n-cheese" and I'm pretty sure she recognized the Panera sign when we drove past it. As I was placing our order, Duane walked toward the side to make drinks and Liv loudly declared, "Daddy, I need lemon!" Needless to say, it caught us off guard and had everyone around us laughing out loud.

Duane went into work for a couple hours early Saturday morning and Olivia actually slept until 7:30 - it was great! We finally made it to the transportation museum in St. Paul and really enjoyed it. They have a lot of real train cars that have been restored and we even braved the cold for a caboose ride. Seeing as how it was about 10* outside and we stood in line for 25 minutes, I wasn't a big fan of the ride but I'll give it another shot in warmer weather.

this car clears snow off tracks....it was HUGE

Liv's in the purple coat....finally getting in the "boose" (as Liv calls it)

  

ended the museum trip with some toy trains

With the promise of lunch, we easily transitioned from the museum to the truck. We had lunch at the Rusty Taco and Olivia took down her chicken quesadilla and plenty of guac and chips. We sped through Trader Joe's and were home by 1:30pm. Thankfully Liv took a nice 2-hour nap and was rejuvenated for the rest of the evening. Duane picked up Punch Pizza and we had our 1st movie and pizza night! We started out watching Cinderella but Liv lost interest and wanted "Woody and Buzz." Duane and I agreed that this was an excellent way for us to savor our Punch Pizza....Liv is engrossed in her movie and we can stuff our pie-holes as quickly as possible! 



Sunday morning Duane finally was able to wash his truck and then we were off to Target. Before our trip to Target, I was putting away clothes of Liv's in her closet. She saw her "big girl bed" frame and mattress and wanted to see it. So, we got it all out and she kind of insisted on sleeping on it. (Is there a pattern here? She seems to insist on a lot of things and we always buckle under the pressure don't we?!") Olivia did not nap on Sunday but talked, sang, danced in her crib for 2 hours.

We first took down Olivia's crib and stuffed those pieces into our already overfull attic. Olivia had a great time playing with the mattress extenders, Styrofoam, essential pieces to the bed, etc. I on the other hand, was not enjoying the experience and almost cried a few times. I was not mentally prepared to put my baby in a bed?! I have an overwhelming urge to crawl in bed with her and just spoon....she is so snugly in her pj's and never seems to cuddle enough for me! Sorry, enough from the overemotional mother... So far, she's doing well and understands that she must call for us before climbing out of her bed.

putting her doll and bear to sleep on the mattress extenders

Olivia made a birthday cake of Styrofoam and nails Duane needed for the bed

I wasn't prepared with new bedding so I'm using Liv's crib bedding....see, I wasn't ready!

Thanks to our Presidents, we had the day off of work. Last weekend Olivia talked and talked about going swimming so we thought she'd love our plan - swimming at the Shoreview Community Center! We were in the pool for about 12 minutes and Olivia walked out and said, "I done swimming." Umm...okay, yes ma'am! We had a family pass for the day (free thankfully!) so Olivia chased some basketballs on the open courts and ran around the indoor playground for a little bit. We had a really good lunch at Panino's and Olivia wowed us again and completely cleaned her plate.

Liv skipped her nap again but stayed in her bed at least. We had an early dinner and had Liv in bed early to make up for the missed nap. We had such a lovely weekend and I'm sad to see it end. We hope you all had a great weekend!