A little Mommy/Daughter time

I have been wanting to take Ashleigh on a little Mommy/Daughter outing for awhile now, but hadn't quite figured out what I wanted to do, when Rick suggested taking her with me to get our nails done togehter. Now everyone knows how Ashleigh loves to have her nails painted, however, during school she is not allowed to have her fingernails painted. It is against school policy. Well, since this coming week is Spring Break, what a perfect time to do Mommy/Daughter time. I did not tell Ashleigh where we were going, only that she had to be a big girl or she would not be able to go again. Once, she realized what was going on, I don't think her smile left her face the entire afternoon. When we got to the nail salon, an older lady took Ashleigh with her to pick out her color and of course she picked pink. I sat down to get my nails done and Ashleigh sat down to get hers done. She was amazing. She sat completely still and was mesmerized, by the whole process. This is her right after the lady finished painting her nails. She sat underneath the dryer and allowed the nails to be completely dry. I think every couple of minutes, she had to take her hands out from underneath the dryer just to take a look.

She was so proud. Ashleigh could not wait to get home to show Daddy her nails. I promised her that I would take her this summer to get her toes done. I know she can't wait to do that! I loved spending time with just her! She is becoming such a big girl!

Trying to make it Spring

So even though day was offically the second day of Spring, it certainly did not feel that way in Illinois. With temperatures, looking like this.

It still did not stop us from trying to enjoy

the nice sunshine day

outdoors doing something

both kids now love to do!

It was cold and windy as

the bikes raced up and down the sidewalk and even through the snow!

Hopefully, we will start to see a lot warmer temperatures, so that AJ and Ashleigh can enjoy doing things outdoors again! They are really looking forward to being able to play outdoors without the winter jackets, hats and gloves!

A Blast from the Past

Rick and I have been talking about trying to find some different things to do with the kids during the winter months because it's either too cold or too wet to be outside. Yesterday, we decided to take AJ and Ashleigh roller skating. I remember going to the roller rink when I was growing up and just having a great time. I remember the music, the games they would play and just how much fun it was. Rick and I had a hard time actually finding a roller rink near us, but we finally found one about an hour away. We weren't sure if the kids were going to like it or not, but we thought we could at least give it a try.

Once we got to the roller rink, we walked inside and it brought back all of those memories from my childhoood. The loud music, the concession stand, all of the kids and their friends and the disco lights! It was great!!!!! When we got to the place to rent the skates, you could rent either roller skates or roller blades. We decided to rent the skates and for us we rented roller blades. You should have seen the AJ and Ashleigh's faces when they first stood up on the roller skates. They were smiling from ear to ear. We decided each of us would take one of them around the rink for awhile until they figured out how to do it on their own. I don't think I realized how hard it is to teach someone to roller skate. I think for the first hour or so, AJ and Ashleigh spent more time on the floor than on their feet, but they were still smiling even when they fell. Finally, one of the other parents came up to us and said that he thought it was easier for the kids to learn on the roller blades than the skates, so we traded in the roller skates for the blades. After awhile, AJ really seemed to get the concept, but Ashleigh on the other hand still struggled a bit, but did do much better with the roller blades. I think we ended up skating for about 2 hours and had a blast. It was so great to see the kids enjoy something that I used to enjoy as a kid. In fact, this morning when we woke up, the first think AJ and Ashleigh asked was if we could go skating again. We had so much fun doing it that we are thinking about buying some roller blades for the kids to use at home too. We have so many Forest Preserves around here that we could get a lot of use out of them during the summer.

As you can see from the pictures below, they had a great time!