Going on Dates

We are having some warm weather now that we've hit the end of February, and although I'm sure we'll get more cold and storms, looking back on the wintry month of January, it sure feels like we've accomplished something just by making it through. Troy and I have been really making a conscious effort to be more active and actually leave our house with the kids, taking them on little outings and dates.  We've had some fun times over the past few weeks.

Here are a couple of our favorite excursions:

One fun evening was when Troy took the girls out to go spend their Christmas money from Grandma.  Skippidy couldn't make up her mind but Bitty only needed one glance at the BB8 mug sitting on the Disney store shelf before her heart was won.  We have since discovered that BB8 holds a very large amount of liquid.  It's really more of a family mug.  Bitty has found that a pint and a half of hot chocolate really is a bit too much at any one time.

Another really fun outing was the night that I ended up driving some girls to a birthday party in Draper and I brought Skippidy with me. I needed to find a way to kill two hours that wasn't staying with her at Boondocks because my brain would have exploded.  I'm so sorry if this comment is offensive to anyone but those indoor arcade game pizza party places test my will to go on living.  So. Loud.  Anyway, I decided that Skippidy and I needed to check out Scheels - the giant sporting good store in the south of the valley.  Not that we needed any sporting goods, it's just that that place pretty much has all the attractions of a mini amusement park.  A ferris wheel, a shooting gallery, a bowling alley (although the place is so huge I couldn't actually find it), a little restaurant, treats everywhere.  We had so much fun.

Skippidy finally spent her grandma money by picking out some Shopkins toys and this wretched little game called "Beanboozled."  We had heard it was a fun and daring game played by flicking a spinner and eating a jelly bean of the color it lands on, each color of jelly bean having the possibility of being one of two flavors.  One would be a normal flavor like pear and one nasty flavor like booger.  We thought it sounded silly.  The next day when we gathered around our new jellybean game with excitement.  We hit the spinner and each popped a jellybean in our mouth.  And then the game wasn't fun anymore.  My first bad flavor was moldy cheese and the only good thing I can say about this game is that the makers really went above and beyond to make some seriously nasty flavors.  This is not a fun game.  Do not play it if you ever come across it.

This is the gang of girls at the birthday party who were bravely enduring (aka LOVING) Boondocks

Another sunny but cold Saturday afternoon Troy and I really wanted to see ourselves as a happy active family who goes on outings together.  We were kind of thwarted as we tried to head out, finding a few destinations on our idea list to be closed.  We ended up bowling.  Skippidy beat me.  I am not a good bowler.  Of course, she had the bumpers up, but still.  We munched on french fries and fried mozzarella (a revelation of a snack to our kids).  The only sad part was that we didn't discover until the shoes were rented that our darling daughter Bitty really hates bowling and refused to participate.  She bravely endured the sidelines while the rest of us did our best to knock the pins down.

I have a feeling that some day she is going to really hate me for posting this picture.

So yes, we did our best to get out and about a time or two in the winter months.  Now the sun is shining and the kids are all off with friends and don't seem to need us to provide activity and entertainment quite as much.  I'm glad we put in a little extra effort during those chilly days!