Play Date Thursday

Bella and I played host to our weekly play date with our group of friends. Despite not feeling 100% on Wednesday, I managed to throw together a pretty nice little play date. Most of our usual friends were able to make it, so we had a full house of little munchkins.

I made tortellini primavera, a recipe I found online and served it with a fresh salad. I made an apple pie Chex mix recipe that turned out delicious! It seriously tasted like apple pie. I also made cake cookies, which is a super simple recipe that involves using a box of cake mix to make cookies. We had all sorts of other goodies, including fresh fruits and vegetables. My friend Amanda brought THREE different types of tropical desserts to obtain our opinions and my favorite was the raspberry-lemon no bake cheesecakes. And I can't say I mind being the guinea pig for my friends' cooking trials, especially when they're amazingly delicious!

The kids played outside on the lanai for most of the play date. They loved the sand and water table, which was filled only with sand. The other moms thought I was very brave to have 8 sets of hands around so much sand. I suppose I didn't really give it much thought and figured I'd deal with cleaning up all the sand after our friends left. The kids also loved the Kangaroo Climber, which we've been keeping in the house (for reasons unknown).

We enjoyed playing and having lunch with our friends but before we knew it, it was time for everyone to go home. Bella pretty much begged me to go upstairs for nap time and I gladly put her down for a nap. During nap time, I worked tirelessly to clean up the aftermath of the play time at the sand table. Between the wet/dry vac and my Dyson vacuum cleaner, I must have vacuumed up every last grain of sand. I had sand all over the lanai and inside the house. My OCD kicked in and I didn't stop vacuuming until I knew there was only sand in the table and the vacuum cleaner.

I meant to snap a few pictures of the kids playing outside but I totally forgot. Fortunately Bella wanted to play outside after her nap so I was able to take a few pictures of her playing at her sand table. She loves that sand and water table... it was definitely money well spent.

Enjoying the beautiful weather after a nice, long nap.

Bella hard at work.

This must take a lot of concentration.

"Ta-da!"

Play date Thursdays are pretty much my favorite day of the week. Like I've mentioned before, I like knowing well in advance that we have plans every Thursday with our little group of friends. Hopefully we can continue with our weekly play dates once all of the little siblings arrive and once Bella starts school in the fall. But all of this activity makes for one tired mama... so goodnight y'all!

Love always,

Ian, Kim, Bella & Baby #2