Ice skating at night

Since the holidays are over (and yes, I realize it was the end of January, but things around here are finally settling down lol) our weekends are pretty much open to do whatever we want and last weekend we took full advantage of that!

First we stopped by Miller's for lunch...

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and I kid you not, the burgers were basically the same size are M's head. I couldn't get a picture because she tore into before I even got a chance. Girl was hungry!

After that, we stopped by some friends house to catch up a little bit and ended up playing some Just Dance.

I got my butt kicked lol

A few weeks ago, we found M a pair of basically brand new ice skates for less than $5 and she has been begging to use them ever since. So, we went to a skating rink the next town over for open skate.

It started off like this...

But eventually, she got the hang of it and had a blast! I hadn't been skating in years and I definitely forgot how fun it was. I also forgot how much my thighs and ankles hurt the next day lol

Aren't they cute?

I remember the first day

It's true.

And now, we are off to go celebrate that moment!

Got me doin' the dishes

Have you guys heard of Influenster? Basically, you sign up, fill out a few questions and then they send you stuff to review and try out! It's super simple and I've gotten some really great stuff to try out.

The last shipment I received was full of Palmolive Fresh Infusions dish soap. I was super excited about it because I get really tired of the same old scents of dish soap - they really don't smell that good and considering I feel like I'm always doing dishes, the scent gets real old, real quick.

I use Palmolive usually anyway, so I'm pretty familiar with the brand, but have yet to see this line of products. The three I was sent were Lemon Thyme, Lime Basil and White Tea Ginger. I gave the Lemon Thyme to my mother to let her try and kept the others - they all smelled so good, it was hard to part with them! There was also a few coupons so I gave a a couple to my mom, as well. I kept the others in case I want to rebuy after I run out.

I've been using the White Tea Ginger for a few days and so far, so good! I'm going to keep testing them out and see how they work on my toughest dishes!

*The products mentioned in this post were provided for review by Influenster, but the opinions are my own

Electric blue for me

Me untangling about 5 ft of wire and wrapping it around a spool while Jimmy reads the directions and puts parts together for her electricity science kit. His daughter? She was coloring haha

Why do the parents always end up with the hard fun parts? haha

I'm linking up with Mrs. Three in Three for Wordless-ish Wednesday!

To greet every new day that may come, like the first of spring

Kind of amazing that just a few weeks ago, we were sledding...

And this weekend, we hit almost 60. In January. In Michigan.

But we're definitely not complaining!

It's supposed to snow again soon, so while we had the chance, we took advantage of the warmer temperatures and enjoyed the playground by our place.

It was nice to get out of the house for a while and take in some spring weather!

Now, it has me excited for *actual* spring!

Man, that girl sure loves to fish

Jimmy's daughter has been asking for a pet for a while and since we're not allowed to have dogs, and we're not really cat people, we decided a fish would be a good starting point for the time being. For Christmas, I cleaned up my fish tanks that I had in high school and we told her we would go to pick some fish out.

The bigger tank is taking a little more set up than anticipated (apparently, there's a lot more that goes into these things than I realized...Jimmy doesn't believe that my fish lasted multiple years lol) but I had a smaller bowl that held my beta so while we are working on the bigger one, we filled the smaller one.

So, without further ado, I introduce to you...

Brian the Beta.

She seems pretty in to him so far...hopefully that lasts! haha

We going coast to coast

Have you all seen this yet?  Shane at Whispering Sweet Nothings has a Bloggers Coast to Coast map up so you can find other bloggers in your area! Isn't that awesome!?!?!
Go add yourself to the map and link up!

You're my favorite mistake

Source: pinkserendipity.tumblr.com via Amanda on Pinterest

A funny kind of way, A funny kind of day

 As per usual, there's been lots of great things coming out of Jimmy's daughter lately...

• Can you make me dessert, cause I used my legs a lot?
• If you go too fast, you'll pass the law!
• I didn't want to do a yawn. I just had to do a yawn for my brain!
• I'm getting sea sick of rain.
• Before you get old, and I'm only nine, will you teach me how to cook so that when you're old, you don't have to cook and I can cook for you?

We've also been treated to a never ending stream of jokes lately - some of them make sense like...

What do you get when you step on banana peels?

Slippers!

or

What did one glue say to the other glue?

We've got to stick together!

But some of them... not so much (they're still funny though!)

What do you get when there is a dog that's hot?

A hot dog!

or

What do you get when there is a tree on Christmas?

A Christmas tree!

One thing is for sure, life is never dull when she's around!

(This was on Halloween, she doesn't usually walk around with 15 pounds of yarn on her head haha)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The best part of growing up on a hill was by far the sledding. We lived on a quiet side street, so for most of the winter we would be outside, sliding down, often ending up in the middle of the road, before trudging back up the hill and starting the whole process over again. We'd usually break for some hot chocolate and then be out again until dark.

We used to get feet of snow...It wasn't that uncommon to wake up one morning and see 12-24 inches outside your window. We rarely had Snow Days though, because in Michigan, snow is just part of the deal.

It's been a few years since it's snowed like that, though. In fact, last year, it only snowed once and by noon the next day, it had all melted. It made for a nice winter to drive in, but I was starting to miss a Michigan Winter - complete with snow, ice, hot chocolate and some sledding.

Since Jimmy's daughter is only 5, she's never really been able to experience a winter like he and I remember them. In fact, she'd never been sledding! So when we had a few feet come down last week, we took the opportunity to take her out.

I just love the photo of them carrying the sled together

She had such a blast - and we did, too! We sledded for about two hours and she was not happy about having to go haha

Jimmy tried to be cool and go down on the sled standing up...

... it didn't really work out too well

I also just happened to catch this on camera when I was filming her - it gets little shaky at the end because I was literally doubled over laughing... you'll see why!

It was pretty much just like I remember is being... lots of fun and a little cold! But I think this picture pretty much sums up the day...

Love those rosy cheeks!