The Fisher Family!: May 2014

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Twinkle Toes!

We had Chelsea's dance rehearsal today and I was such a proud mama!!! She did very well during her dance and danced along to everyone else's dances! It was a struggle to get her out of there after her dance because she kept asking to watch "one more dance PLEASE!" I took a few videos of my little dancing diva :)

Here she is grooving with another class

AND another class!

Friday, May 9, 2014

Parks, Friends, Shopping and Guitars :)

We biked to the park Easter Sunday early afternoon. Ben pulled both the kiddos behind him on the bike and I was able to enjoy a leisurely bike ride :) It was so nice to be able to get outside and enjoy a nice sunny day.

Tyler following me across the park!

Weeeee!

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa! I can't remember exactly when I took these pictures, but it was sometime in the past couple of weeks. We've been fortunate enough to have been able to spend a lot of time with my parents this past month.

Chelsea loving all the attention :) She loves being 'wrapped up like a burrito"

I have really gotten into reading about rock bands, learning about music and branching out with my musical tastes the past few months. I have discovered a STRONG love of the guitar. I am obsessed with listening to songs with a strong guitar presence. My favorite (of the moment) is Jimmy Page... who else?!

With that said I've started learning to play the acoustic guitar this past month. I know it's pretty crazy for a stay at home mom of two very young kiddos with very little time to pick up such a complex instrument to learn from scratch. I'm determined and I am patient. It may take me years to learn how to play songs, but I am OK with it.

I took this picture during the first week of my practicing. Thank goodness I was prepared for my fingers to hurt. I pushed past it and now my fingers rarely hurt and I'm building the calluses' needed for successful play.

I took this picture after my first guitar lesson. This guitar was lent to us by a friend (who now agreed to sell it to me so it's all mine!!!). Without him lending it to me I don't know if I would've pulled the trigger to play since it would've been a pretty big investment in a hobby that I wasn't sure about. I immediately fell in love and now know it's a passion I want to pursue.

Written on the paper are a few basic cords that my instructor taught me. Even though I have advanced since this first lesson I will always keep this slip of paper. If I ever get frustrated I'll pull this out to show myself how far I've come.

I was trying to practice while Tyler was awake. Not a good idea!

I took the kiddos to Kohls a couple weeks ago. I don't think I've ever really shopped at Kohls but wanted to check it out. It is GREAT for kid clothes!!! I can't believe I didn't discover it earlier. I even walked out with a few shirts for myself :)

Unfortunately there was a huge accessory area for Chelsea. It was very tough to get her away from the display empty handed.

I love the kiddo cart at Kohls. Most kid friendly carts are huge, but this one was so easy to manuver and Tyler LOVED being in the front!

Tyler raising the roof to some Ozzy :)

Chelsea at Maddie's house!

Tyler enjoying some yummy mac n cheese that Andi made for the kiddos during our play date.

yummy yummy!

The crew!

Tyler checking out Maddie's guitar. I have since purchased the kiddos their own toy guitars :)

Chelsea at her friend Katelyn's house. Chelsea dove right into Katelyn's dress up bin!

Katelyn joined in the dress up fun!

Just hanging out :)

A picture I took of Chelsea earlier today. She has been under the weather for the majority of this week but got a little energy today to play dress up. She got tired and decided that it was time to lounge on the couch in her bunny dress up clothes :)

Chicago!

Ben and I were able to 'escape' to Chicago last weekend! His company invited everyone out for a fabulous weekend. EBF really went all out and the weekend flew by way too quickly.

Without Ben's parents we wouldn't have been able to make it happen. They flew in from California to watch the kiddos for us so we could enjoy our first weekend away in over 3 years! THANK YOU!!!! Unfortunately we did NOT take any pictures at home with Jane and Barry. I am really bummed I don't have any to post. Jane ended up staying until the Tuesday after we got home from Chicago and we had a great time.

We flew out Friday morning and checked into the Park Hyatt right off of Michigan Ave. The hotel and room were wonderful and we felt very spoiled. Here is the view from our room!

Ben and I did a little walking around Friday late morning and then visited the hotel spa (compliments of EBF!) early afternoon.

After our spa visit we went to the hotel lounge and we saw one of Ben's coworkers and his wife so we joined them for a munchie and a drink. The blue cheese, olive tapenade and asparagus flatbread was amazing. So amazing that we ordered it several times during out two day stay! Ben also ordered, and loved a total "Ben Drink" made with Ginger Beer and Scotch.

The company reserved an entire restaurant for dinner on Friday for us. We had a two hour happy hour with endless cocktails and yummy appetizers. Then we sat down to a four course dinner that definitely did not disappoint.

Here is a picture of us at dinner. Ignore my lovely hair. Chicago definitely fits the description of the Windy City and I'm not sure why I even attempted to style my hair!

We started out Saturday morning by going to breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Most of the menu options were pretty 'fancy' and I had no clue what they were. I ended up ordering a goat cheese mushroom frittata and it was AMAZING! I normally don't like eggs but eggs with a dressed salad and goat cheese on top is to die for.

Ben and I walked around the city for a bit after breakfast and made our way down to the lake. We didn't have enough time to visit Navy Pier, but have it on our list for next time!

Ben chose to go to the Cub's game on Saturday afternoon (compliments of the company!) and I chose to stay back and enjoy a few hours of Trisha time. I walked around a bit, went to an Argo Tea Café to hang for a bit, then visited a few stores on Madison Ave. I even enjoyed a leisurely shower and had an entire 45 minutes to 'get ready' for the evening in peace! Unheard of!

A picture Ben took at the game.

Some of the guys hanging out at Sluggers towards the end of the game. I do wish I would've been able to see this bar. Ben said I would've loved it. PLUS - you can hop in a batting cage there!

EBF hosted an optional happy hour on Saturday night at the hotel bar so we swung in for a bit. After the happy hour we went to the John Hancock Tower and wanted to have an appetizer and cocktail at the Signature Room since several people recommended it to us. We had to stand in a line for an hour before we could sit down. Once we were seated the view was amazing but that is about all I liked about it. The appetizer and the cocktail were good... but the entire experience felt very basic. Dinner in the restaurant may be a different story.

We weren't able to sit by the window, but this was the view from the ladies bathroom :)

We took a selfie :)

Our hummus plate appetizer

My pomegranate champagne drink

Ben and I decided to go wander around the city some more after going to the Signature Room. We wandered the city for at least two hours and decided we were both hungry and our legs were tired! We went into the hotel lounge for one more drink and some food before hitting the hay.

We walked down to the river during our night time wandering. Gorgeous.

I know it's odd to take so many pictures of food and cocktails. The reason I did is because I am generally not a 'fancy person.' I'm a beer / captain drinker and enjoy basic foods. I was overly spoiled on this trip and couldn't get enough of all the consumables being thrown our way :)

My nightcap was a raspberry sparkling wine drink of some sort. I'm not sure exactly what was in it, but it was very tasty.

We ordered the flatbread one last time and Ben also ordered some Sushi.

Easter!

We celebrated Easter at our house this year. I had a good friend's bridal shower in town on that Saturday so it made the most sense to stick around for the holiday. Steve came to stay with us that Saturday night and continued on to Humboldt, IA on Sunday and my parents were able to come visit Easter afternoon and stay with us that night. The kids were spoiled, we had great company and it was 70 and sunny. We couldn't have asked for much more!

Tyler and Chelsea both received Crawling Mini's as an early Easter Present on Saturday. Tyler fell in love with Mini Mouse a few weeks back so I knew it would be impossible to buy one for Chelsea and not Tyler.

Here he is with his new crawling Mini and Chelsea's old Mini doll. Tyler is in Mini Mouse Heaven!

one house can never have enough of Mini!

Sunday morning Easter Egg Hunt. The kiddos were good this year so the Easter Bunny hid eggs all over the back yard. They each had 15 eggs to find. Chelsea's were pink and purple and Tyler's were orange and yellow.

Ben explaining the egg hunt

Tyler was more interested in opening and closing the first egg he found than searching for the rest!

Chelsea did a great job finding her eggs and helping Tyler find his eggs

Mina and Molly enjoyed the sunny morning as well!

Tyler still focused on his first egg :)

A video of Chelsea looking for eggs and helping Tyler look for his

Me trying to help Tyler find his eggs

He started to get the hang of it!

Tyler climbing the deck stairs. he was over the egg hunt!

Chelsea showing Steve the eggs that she found

Great Teamwork!

The guys just hanging out

Tyler chowing down on some chocolate!

Chelsea and Tyler's Easter Baskets!

Balls!

Presents, Presents and more presents! Now it's time to open the gifts that Grandma and Grandpa Fisher sent.

Books and stickers!!!!

A video of Chelsea 'reading' the book that they sent to her. She loves it!

Time for some more spoils! Grandma and Grandpa Loveland came bearing presents as well!

Look at that loot!

yummy!

Dinner time! I didn't feel like cooking and Tyler is still a disaster going out to eat so we called up Applebee's carside to go (like usual!) to feed us :)