Birthday Party

On Saturday Quinn turned 5!! I can not believe we have been parents for 5 years, it really does seem like a blink of the eye. We decorated the dining room for when she woke up and had bacon for breakfast (it was supposed to be pancakes too but I was running behind getting cupcakes ready!) and opened a few presents (all Monster High of course!). Then we all got ready to go to the kids bowling birthday party. Since their birthdays are so close together and they both have the same friends pretty much we had a combined party for them. I had ordered supplies for a construction party and monster high party but somehow the order never got fully placed (I still don't know what happen) so we ended up with Monster High things (that luckily I had ordered on amazon and they made it in time) and a dinosaur/construction birthday party (both things Leo currently loves). It all worked out in the end and was a party full of things they both really enjoy.

 

Geting ready for the party. 

 

Our dinosaur and monster high cupcakes. Quinn did a great job helping with her cupcakes! She is going to be a great helper, she loves getting involved with everything and is really attentive to detail. 

Our little birthday girl had a great time bowling and dancing with her friends. She said multiple times throughout the day, "this was the best birthday ever!" I loved seeing how much fun she was having. 

The bowling alley gave the kids bowling pins that their friends could sign, they both thought that was super cool. 

  

Blowing out the candles. 5 and 3 seem like such big numbers to me. They both still seemed so little last year and this year I feel like they are big kids!!! Time needs to slow down. 

Dancing the afternoon away. 

I think all the kiddos had a great time and the bowling alley made it pretty easy on me. It was also super nice to have all the other moms around to help out when needed! It really does take a village. We have been super lucky and have found some great families with kids the same age as ours since moving to Italy. It is always hard in the military to leave great friends behind but we always seem to find great people at each of our bases and we are so thankful for that! 

This little monkey had a great time eating cupcakes and running around the bowling alley. 

More cupcakes, Leo absolutely loves that T-Rex he got for his birthday. Since none of the decorations came in for the party, we brought him along. :) 

Quinn and Parker bowling. 

She is so big that she no longer wants to use the ramp anymore!! 

These girls have some serious dance moves. 

Quinn and Joey, she loves the Tolman boys. 

Everybody waiting on the bowling balls. They did a great job of taking turns. 

After the party we went home and relaxed. Leo took an almost 3 hour nap and Quinn got to watch TV and play with her new toys since it was her birthday. We finished the day with tacos (one of her favorite dinners), strawberry popsicles and a little Netflix and couch snuggles. She is growing up so fast and I just want it to slow down. I love watching her grow and learn but I miss my little baby Quinn too!! We love her so much and her sweet personality, our little momma is getting so big!! 

She passed out on the couch and it reminded me of her first birthday. We have this picture of her passed out on the couch with her "meme". I had to do a side by side comparison because I thought it was so sweet. I think that is a pretty good sign that she enjoys her birthdays!! 

Birthdays are good, life is good. 

Fun Friday Date Night

On Friday when I picked Quinn up from school she asked to go to the Cafe and get an ice cream. I would usually say no and find a reason we needed to go home but I have really been wanting to spend more quality time with the kids and less time doing house things, chores, etc. so we went to the cafe! I am so glad we did, it was a great time. Leo went to the daycare on base today while I went to a painting and lunch event on base (it was a great time even though I can not paint!) and refused to eat lunch so he was starving. The kids got ice creams, I got a cafe macchiato and Leo and Finely split a "toast" (meat and cheese on bread without crust that is heated up, actually pretty good!). We hung out, enjoyed our treats and everybody laughed. It might have to be a Friday tradition.

 

I do think these two are going to be a dynamic duo!

Also on Friday we had a super fun date night. We went with a group of friends to a cooking class and learned how to make traditional Italian lasagna (that does not have ricotta cheese in it! That is an American thing). We all loved this map of Italy that showed where the different shapes/types of pastas are from. I want to get one. Richard was a great volunteer. 

We learned about what ingredients to get and where to get them. All of the ingredients we needed to make 3 pans of lasagna, from the Italian store, was only 32 Euro. Some things  here are more expensive and then other things are so much cheaper (i.e. lasagna ingredients). Evelyn is cutting up the mozzarella. 

 

Pre-cooked lasagna sheets are my new favorite thing! It was super easy, we just had to layer them on and no need to boil or anything. 

Everybody was having a great time until Shannon used the spoon to mix her sauces! We were cracking up because Teresa (the chef) got on her about mixing her sauces with the spoon and we laughed about it all night. There is a white sauce (not really like alfredo at all) and a red sauce in the lasagna plus we put layers of ham in it as well. 

She was telling us the ingredients for the red sauce and we all had a good laugh because she uses that much celery. So she wasn't sure how to write how much she used, she just showed us about the size. 

It was so delicious and I really want to try and make it at home. It really isn't that complicated just takes a little time with making the different sauces and then layering it up. 

Enjoying our creation and having some laughs. 

 

Dave is always a member of the clean plate club. 

Our group with Chef Teresa. It was an absolute blast and we had so much fun. I think we should do frequent date night cooking classes. It was a great way to spend the evening learning something new and spending time with friends. 

Cooking is good, new friends are good, life is good. 

Weekend in Ljubljana

A few weekends ago we headed to Ljubljana, Slovenia for the weekend. Dave had a long weekend because he was on call the week before and we took advantage of the extra day off! We decided to make this a relaxing weekend and focus on what the kids would like to do for most of it. Ljubljana has a pretty big indoor water park so we decided to spend the weekend at the hotel near there and go swimming each day. Before we left we got a fun box in the mail from Aunt Jen and it was great! I got a candle and a fun hat that I have been wanting, Quinn got matching hats and a super cute little ballerina outfit and Leo and Finley got books and stuffed animals (that Quinn actually took from Finley so her and Leo could have matching ones). It was perfect we got our hats right before we left for the weekend because it was super cold! 

 

 

Benny and Bonny. 

We took our time in the morning and then went to the cafe before hitting the road for the weekend. It is a short 2.5 hour drive. When we got to the hotel we had to ride an elevator to the parking garage. This was a first for all of us. It was a little tight in the elevator but we fit so that is always good in European parking garages! 

The hotel was super nice and we had a suite because of our herd of children and European hotel requirements. The kids loved the hotel and had fun playing and reading books. We had a pretty high room so they loved looking out the window and trying to find where the water park was. We don't actually have any pictures of the water park because we didn't take our phones but it was great. It was not very crowded and there was a lot to do. The kids loved the water slides (they had a really big one and a kid one). Finley loved the warm kiddie pool but it took her some time before she really liked the water. We had fun swimming around the lazy river and just spending time together. We did learn about European coed locker rooms so that is always a good time. 

 

After the pool time the kids wanted "Old McDonald!". Dave did not want that but since it was a kid weekend that is where we headed and finished our meal with some ice cream. It was a perfect first day of our low key weekend. 

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel which was really good and then we went downtown to explore the city. There was a big outdoor market that we enjoyed walking around and then went to lunch at a burger place. There was no indoor seating so we ate outside, in January, it was pretty cold! They did have table heaters so it wasn't too bad. The kids loved playing in the snow while we waited for our food. I think that was one of their favorite parts of the whole trip. 

After lunch we went to the castle and did a tour. That wasn't the best idea because it was cold and the kids were tired so they cried pretty much the whole time. I really didn't pay any attention to what was happening but it was a pretty castle. They had different "actors" at various parts of the tour to tell you some of the history. 

 

There was a really old well that they are not sure exactly how deep it is because during WWII they threw things down into the well before they were leaving (I don't remember who was occupying the area.....) and they don't want to go too deep into the well and set something off. 

 

Ljubljana is the city of dragons and there are dragons all over, here is the castle dragon. 

The open air dungeon and the chapel. 

The kids got some really cute bookmarks made with their names on it. Quinn is wrapped in my scarf like a blanket and crying the entire tour because she was freezing. She does not do well with cold we are learning as we try and travel Europe in the winter! 

One of the views from the castle lookout. 

After we got back from the castle we headed to the pool and had another great evening of swimming.  We didn't even bother getting dinner because everybody was so exhausted. I had some things for sandwiches in the room and we gave those to the kids and then put them to bed. Leo fell asleep with his turkey sandwich in his hand, poor guy! We ordered room service and it was actually really good! It was a great relaxing ending to another fun day. 

 

The bathroom had a glass wall that the girls liked playing on each side of. 

 

On Sunday we got up and enjoyed another great breakfast and then headed for home. This weekend we found out Dave's "water resistant" apple watch really is not "water proof" and while we were swimming in the lazy river I looked down and Finley was playing with the face of his watch! We had to stop on the way home at the only Apple store near us (lucky for Dave it wasn't too far out of the way) and get him a new one. We had a great weekend and will be going back for sure.

 

One day these two were playing in the dinning room and laughing and laughing. It was super sweet. 

 

 

I love this picture of Finley. 

I was driving home one day and the sun was setting behind the mountains. It was beautiful. The picture doesn't do it justice at all but it was huge! 

Finley loves the baby stroller right now. So much so that I ordered another one so that her and Quinn could each have one to push. 

Low key weekends are good, life is good.