Lansing Date

When my mom offered us a monthly date night, we opted to stay in Lansing.  Since we just drove down to Indiana and back within 24 hours, and then Billy worked a full week, it was nice to be staying nearby.

The Lugnuts were playing against the Great Lakes Loons, at 7pm.  When we planned it out, we decided to get dinner before the game, since our covid leery world has things closing down earlier.

We stayed at the Radisson, which has a great setup, but Michigan is still partially closed, so many of the amenities had not yet reopened. The skywalk from the parking garage was closed.  This isn't the worst news, but it was sad, since we had our coldest day in weeks (coming it at a high of 48F!)

We had a lovely view of the river from our room.

Our reservation was at 5, and we were right on time.  

Billy deliberating over the menu.

Billy ordered a Corpse Reviver that had a very citrusy finish, and I ordered a Bordeaux.  It was a nice smooth red wine.

We split a wedge salad, which is Billy's favorite. I thought it was really good, Billy didn't like it as much.  For our appetizer I wanted to order the bone marrow.  I had seen it when we previewed their menu, and had never ordered it (or seen it offered in my memory.)  

I looked up what it was and how to eat it.  So, you scoop out the meaty bit and spread it on the bread, then add the leafy green on top.  It was pretty good, I ate two breads worth.  Once you have the bone cleaned out, it makes a natural luge to do a shot of whiskey!  That part was really greasy and messy, but super fun.  

Our waiter said he'd never had a customer do it, and in reality, he had probably never heard of it, but was very supportive.  Not being much of a shot taker, or whiskey drinker, I had plenty left for Billy to try it too!  He agreed that it helped take the 'bite' out of the shot.  The rest of the shot I had mixed with coffee for dessert. lol.

We ordered the filet mignon to split.  It was so so so good.  One of the best steaks I'd ever had, if not the best.  It almost melted in my mouth.  So so good.  We ordered asparagus and fries as the sides, but over ordered to the point I couldn't even finish my portion!

Despite being crazy full, there is always room for dessert!  We got the beignets with blueberry, chocolate and caramel sauce.  They were huge!  But oh so good.  I didn't have much in the way of expectations, but Bowdies blew them out of the water.  Everything was delicious, beautifully served and excellent service.  5/7* would recommend.

As we made our way to the stadium, we spied the world's largest lugnut!

Once we got to the stadium, I realized that I had forgotten the printed tickets, though we were able to pull them up on my phone.  Then, I learned that we couldn't bring the food into the stadium!  So, I trekked back to the hotel, put away the food, and almost forgot the tickets again!

I only missed one inning, and since no scoring happened, I didn't actually miss much. We were up in the clubhouse, which gave us a free food, access to a private bar, and indoor seating!  The temperature was dropping, so we were quite thankful for our warm seats.

Big lug even came to visit!

The game was low scoring 2-4, we lost. = (  We left a little early, but had a nice conversation with the ticket checker.

Our next stop was the nuthouse.  We'd driven by many, many times, but never been.  We made it in the door, but sadly, they were closed! = (

So, we bounced down the street to Tin Can, which was the bar we were denied in East Lansing, so we were happy to try them this time.

We played beer pong (my first time!) but the cups were full of water.  Then we played doubles with some kids, but their rules were different than the movies (and whatever Billy had played.)

At 11 they closed up for the night, so we headed back to the hotel (a late night for us old folks!)

I do love the view of the capital.

The night view from our room.

The next morning, the restaurant has not been reopened, so they have a list of items that you can choose.  It was not the best substitute for the free hot breakfast that I was anticipating, and I would have chosen a different room rate had I known that the restaurant was not in operation. = (

We forgot to leave a set of keys** with my mom, so we made a quick trip home to drop off keys, food, and luggage.  Then, we continued our date with a trip to the Lansing mall.  It has many closed stores, but we enjoyed in-person browsing at the ones still open.  

We started our Christmas shopping, but found an adorable bag with all the named constellations for Emily.  Since it tied back into our curriculum, I didn't want to wait to give it to her, when it would have less meaning.  So, we scrambled to find something for Juliet, which turned out to be a 'blind bag' from Claire's.  I hoped that she would just love at least one thing, and she loved almost all the things!  Alice got a cat ramen bowl, William a Scooby Doo Pez dispenser, and Grace a collection of Hello kitty jewelry and hair pieces. = )

For the first time ever, my Kroger order was not ready during my window, and was pushed back an hour!  Since we had time to kill, we went to get Billy's car washed.  We were early for the next window at Kroger, but they had it ready at 3:45, so we picked it up and headed home!

Putting away the groceries and unpacking simultaneously is not my favorite, but adding on the gifts that had packaging that added to the mess was not my favorite.  Next time I'll have to plan it better. = )

With the warmer weather came the sun, and even in the cold we had a great time!  So happy to spend all of my dates with my favorite!

later days

*there is a wild internet meme that I sincerely hope is a real exchange.  It is a troll on someone's facebook page that the user comments that a movie was "perfect" and then later rates it a "5/7."  The troll then brings this up multiple times on other posts, and it is super memorable.  In this case, I would rate them 10/10: change nothing. 

**there was a rummage sale at JLC that my mom took all 5 to!  She said that only William and Grace found a treasure.

Visiting the Atkinsons at the Indiana Dunes

Last week, I got a text from one of my dear Houston friends (who currently resides in Florida) that they would be staying at the Indiana Dunes National Park over the weekend.  This was one short stop on their long family cross country RV trip, but it was only 2.5 hours away for us!  Naturally, I sought accommodations immediately, which was limited to a Quality Inn about 6 miles away.  Two days later we packed up the car and headed to Indiana!

We checked in just after the 3pm check in time, since we forgot about the time change from Eastern to Central.  Which meant that we got to spend a little extra time chatting and playing on day one.  Our hotel was not particularly nice, but all the kids were excited to stay in a hotel, since none of them remember the last time (which was California circa 2013/2014.)

It was super exciting to see Lucille (the RV) in person!

All the kids were in love with Edie, named for Thomas Edison,

Juliet in particular.

The kids were not sure of one another at first (they hadn't seen one another since 2014!) But once Samara broke out her inflatable tumbling mats, they were fast friends.

The twins adored Samara.  She spent time braiding their hair and teaching them flips and stretches on her mats.

Back at the hotel, Grace and Juliet and William were all excited to sleep in big beds.

William had to share with me.  And, since they put us across the hotel from one another (and on separate floors)  I don't have any pictures of the big girls settling in for the night. = (

At about 11:30 I got a call on the room phone asking for the wifi password.  I am not the nicest person when woken up (as any of my children will corroborate) so I'm not sure how I responded, but it was probably not very nice.  At that point I would have unplugged the phone from the wall, but I wanted to make sure that the big girls could call if they needed me. 

The next morning we were up early, since the time change was in our favor, ate the free breakfast and checked out.  

They were fast to get out the mats for more jumping (and stretching.)

Girls admiring the flowers on the path.

Samara put a bow flower in Emily's hair.  It really completes the outfit, don't you think?

The beach was about a mile and a half away, but part of the way was a busy highway.  So, we all loaded up and drove to the Indiana Dunes.  As we followed them, Billy read their custom plates (which are a play on their name) as "Attack Fam."  It was really funny. ; )

William was not feeling well after physically exerting himself, and Alice just kind of felt this way about the beach for the first hour or so.

I did not want to deal with wet suits and towels, etc.  So, mine just wore clothes that they could get wet.

The water here was very gentle compared to the two other Lake Michigan beaches that I've visited.  The sand was much rockier though.

Garrett and Billy took turns skipping rocks with the boys.  It was a fun time had by all.

The most surprising of the friendships was when Mitchell and Juliet started playing together.  They both seemed to have a good time, but Juliet especially.

Once Alice acclimated, she scoured the beach for Petoskey stones.  She didn't find any, but enjoyed finding a few other interesting rocks.

Everyone was a fan of the seagulls, until Mary Jaqueline informed us that they actually prey upon baby sand pipers. = (

Emily photobombing William.

Alice and Emily took turns taking over my phone.  This left me with lots of pictures of Edie, 

many pictures of trees, off centered pictures of Lucille, and a few posed pictures of children.

Samara found and inch worm, and they were all entertained as it made its way along her hand.

And Emily found a Northern Spring Peeper.

It was very cute.

We stayed past our 'leave time' and ended up eating dinner at the wood burning pizza food truck.  It was very good.

The kids had fun dancing to some 80s music.  The videos are even better.  = )

Billy drove us back, and we ended up driving in the dark (and rain) but got home at a respectable 11pm.

It was so good to see them.  And I'm so happy that now all of our children can remember them, versus just hearing their names mentioned every now and again.  Who knows, maybe we'll get to see them again, and it won't take 7 more years!

later days

Wrapping up the School Year

We finally found our stride with homeschooling, about 3 weeks before the end of the year. hahaha lol 

Now that the kids know the expectation, they are able to work without too much assistance on many subject, and so our days are smoother and shorter since we are not moving from subject to subject as a group.

With the extra found time, Emily has been sewing with my machine, and recruited Grace to do the same.  Here they are showing their matching "potato" stuffies.

William wanted a picture with the city he created.

Emily made a "mini avocado" and was disappointed when it was actually true to size. = )

We had what I thought was going to be some caterpillar drama.  One of the caterpillars was the first to become a chrysalis, and it looked like one of the other caterpillars was intentionally bumping into the j shape.  Concerned, I read up on it, and it turns out that sometimes the caterpillars will cannibalize one another, even if food is plentiful.  I was too tired to separate them out, so I went to bed leaving the situation for the next morning.  Luckily, they all "j-ed" that night, so I didn't have to deal with separating them.

One Saturday, the facilitator of the mural meeting was late, I took a picture of the crew standing around waiting (I love urban shots like this.)  We left before she arrived, because we had a list of errands to knock out.

Radio Company released their new album earlier this month. It's the first time I've bought an album on it's release day, in a long time, if not ever!  It is a good album, but short.

I met up, in person, with real moms!  We hit dimes and Charlie's, and closed them both down (8 and 9 respectively.)

 

Avia had all 5 kids overnight at Aunt Rocky's.  They were so excited to go!  Grace and Juliet were the first two ready!

A picture of our newly acquired caterpillars!

The kids wanted to play the game that went with "Rise, Sally, Rise" that they learned in Solfa, so they did.

On a different Saturday, the mural facilitator had us practice painting on the wall.  We were to paint a gradient. Alice was fast, and finished before I could snap her picture.  

Emily made a very pretty rainbow gradient circle.  I did purple in mine, but neglected to take a picture of mine.

In one of our books, we read about St. Lucia day, and how the protagonists' mom had made pig shaped cakes to celebrate.  Her recipe called for cornmeal and molasses apparently.  I couldn't find any such recipe, and the traditional Swedish version had recipes that would take around 2 hours (if you are able to focus on the task.)  So, I found a simple cake recipe that called for molasses, and only took a few minutes to whip up and bake.  I put little pigs made of confectioner's sugar, on top, but literally only Emily noticed.  It made me wish that I hadn't spent the extra time getting out my cutter to make the pig.  But, the cakes themselves were a big hit!

Billy was travelling for work that week, down to Dallas.  They are in tornado season right now, so I got to worry about that while he was gone, but thankfully he was back by Friday. = )

I started assembling our science materials for next year.  I spread out all my 'saved' plastic baggies on the floor, so that I could find the appropriate size for the supplies for each experiment.  Each list had items that I collected from all over the house.  I was almost finished when I realized that not one of my children had messed with my strewn bags the entire time I was working.  What a new season, from small children always trying to kill themselves, to school aged children who leave things alone (and sometimes offer to help!)

I'm awaiting the last of our ordered books for next year, and still need to clean out some binders from this year, but our school supplies are looking really ready for next fall already!

later days