Memorial Day Weekend - Family Stay-cation and Paul's 30th Birthday

Family hotdog and S'more Night

Lately, we have been so busy with to-do lists/commitments, extended family, going to friends birthday parties, etc, etc that we haven't set aside much time for OUR family of five to do things with just us.  One priority Paul and I have for our family is for good, quality, family time for us to strengthen the relationships within our family.  We are learning that it doesn't happen on its own - we have to be intentional or else it gets squeezed out by all the other fun things life has happening!  So....we decided that Memorial Day weekend would be set aside as time for JUST US.  That meant saying no to many invitations, which was really hard, but definitely important.  We called our weekend a "stay-cation", basically, we were "on vacation" at our own house!  Our goal was to do lots of fun things in the Twin Cities together, without having to pack any suitcases or stay anywhere else.  We also treated ourselves to eating out several times, which rarely happens at our house, and it was so nice to have less prep and clean-up surrounding meals and more time to have fun together :). 

Paul's 30th birthday was on Saturday, so we also had fun doing lots of birthday stuff!  The kids LOVE planning for birthdays - buying and wrapping gifts, decorating the house, and baking treats.  We spent much of Friday getting ready to celebrate Daddy.

Summer, Colton, and I made chocolate cupcakes for Daddy's birthday with blue sprinkles

Colton decorated Daddy's door all by himself and wrapped Daddy's presents :)

Summer wrapped all the banisters all by herself :)

She loves decorating!

When Daddy got home from work, we did the kids' current favorite family night - we ate dinner by the campfire, roasting hotdogs over the fire.

Paul's selfie :)

The tator tots are a staple of this family night...

They LOVE them and request them when we do hot dog night :)

Larkyn's first time participating in the food - she literally chowed her hotdog, tater tots, and strawberries!

Silly Summer and her celery!

Silly Colton with his carrots.

Silly Daddy and Summer

Sisters and S'mores!  (Larkyn just had a graham cracker ;) )

 On Saturday, the kids were literally ECSTATIC to help make Daddy's birthday breakfast in bed (I kid you not, we have been talking about and planning this for a month!).

Colton brewed Daddy's coffee and served up his pineapple.  Summer poured his orange juice and served up his bacon. :)

Of course, they BOTH helped him eat it...

Mmmmmm!

Larkyn loved the pancakes too!

We ended up down in the kitchen for more breakfast for everyone!  Daddy gave each of the kids a birthday "whip cream" shot!  Larkyn's face was priceless - I wish I had it on video!

Colton giving Daddy his card...

He made Daddy a picture of Lightning McQueen :)

Summer's card was so creative - she made Daddy, and his hat opened up to be the card.

In leu of a card, Loo gave Daddy lots of smiles :)

We headed of to Good Times Park, where the kids and Daddy bounced themselves silly on the large trampoline!

Good Times Park has tons of indoor park play things, soccer field, basketball court, and massive blocks.

Lunch Birthday dessert - Summer picked "3" candles because Daddy is "30"!  Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy picked to go to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner - El Azteca.

(As a sidenote, we celebrated Paul's 30th birthday two weekends ago with friends, going rock climbing at Vertical Endeavors and out for dinner.)

On Sunday we went to church.  It continued to be a rainy and cold, so after naps we did a family movie night and the kids saw Toy Story for the first time :).  I loved the cuddles!  Then we picked up pizza from Daddy's favorite - Red Savoy's as a belated birthday celebration :).

On Memorial Day, Daddy made us all waffles for breakfast!  Then we headed off to the zoo.  We were so excited to see the new Hawaiian Monk Seals as they made their debut!

We got there early to get seats for the show!

We ended the day with a visit to Chick-Fil-A and their playplace.  This weekend was PERFECT!  I love spending quality time with our family, and can't wait til we schedule another "Family Stay-cation" :).