Illinois bucket list

As an Army family we move ALL the time and this gives us a great opportunity to explore and learn new places but the fact is we're not on vacation. By that I mean we are living life in these new places...school, work, life. All those things get in the way and we get so into a routine we leave each place wishing we had gotten out more. I still regret not visiting more places in CA. It's so easy to get in the mind set of knowing we have time but before we know it orders are up and we are moving again.

While we were living in the hotel waiting on our house I took to Pinterest looking for all things St. Louis, MO, IL. I created a rough bucket list. The picture above is the first draft and we have been adding to it but I wanted a place to list, and a place to link blogs back to, what we have done while we are stationed here. Accountability, memories, a list for others...who knows what this will become but we have a pretty big list going so we better get going!

St Patrick's Day 2012

I love St. Patrick's Day! It may be one of my favorite holidays actually. This year it fell on a Saturday and on a day Ft Irwin was expected to have horrible weather including 20+ mph winds. I knew we were going to be spending all day inside and I knew that Jason would be home which sometimes means that the normal schedule goes down the drain :) I spent a decent amount of time Pinterest (this time with a direction other than time wasting) looking for fun, easy, indoor St Patty themed activities. 

Clayton started the day with a glass of ice cold green milk with a rainbow Fruit Loop straw 

Then for morning snack we did a graphing project using Lucky Charms. He was surprising great at graphing and grasped the concept immediately. Maybe math is his thing?

For lunch I made the kiddos a fruit rainbow. it was gone super fast. They love fruit!!

I love those chubby little fingers

We went out to dinner so I got a few hat/ bow pictures before we left.

 

All in all it was a great day and Clayton loved the extra sugary snacks plus dinner out!

10...1 Happy New Year!

Last night we rang in the new year with some great friends and yummy food! Our neighbors Jolene and Micah came over as did our friends Don and Andrea and their two littles Anora and Anya. We had a great time! All the kiddos (6 total) past out in various locations and beds and the parents got down to some fun times :) All I can say is thank goodness for video monitors!!! This was the first year in over 5 years that we hung out with people our own age and actually stayed up past 12 to toast and kiss.

We were going to cook the traditional New Years Day meal and have people over on the 1st but seeing as how I am not a fan of that menu we switched to NYE and did an appetizer meal instead. I made pretzel ham and cheese bites, queso dip, fruit and veggies with dip, sausage balls and chocolate coca-col cake. Andrea brought over some deviled eggs made with avocado instead on mayo and zucchini bread. Jolene brought her peanut butter balls with raisins and coconut...it was all delish!

I have to stop for a second and say that Pinterest while it is a time suck sometimes it is also so useful in finding recipes, gift ideas etc etc! I have used that sight so much during the holidays this year and honestly can say could not have pulled off half of what I accomplished without it...is that of me to admit?

{I promise she never had any near her mouth and it was only sparkling cider!!!}

I hope everyone had a great NYE and a memorable 2011. I know so many people that have had some major struggles in 2011 and I am thankful I myself have sort of slid through this year without many hiccups. May 2012 be what we all want and make it to be!