Richmondy 5th Anniversary

Last weekend the Officer and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss. We like to really celebrate our anniversary (or as the Officer calls it every year our Honeymoon), and this year it was my turn to plan it. The Officer and I met and dated for 2 1/2 years in Richmond, and we think it is one of the best cities. Even though we spent 2 1/2 carefree college years dating in Richmond, there are so many awesome Richmond things we have never done. We are the kind of people who find something we like and keep doing it over and over again. Boring? We like to call it loyal and committed. So this year I planned a Richmond anniversary full of all kinds of fun Richmondy things that we hadn't done yet. I'm also the frugal one in this marriage, so most of this day was cheap or free (we splurged on dinner). 

We started the afternoon with lunch at Joe's Inn (we had actually both been there before, but never together). Richmond has so many great little hole-in-the-wall places, and the food at Joe's Inn does not disappoint. The Officer enjoyed a Richmond brewed beer to continue our Richmondy theme. 

Then we headed to the Capitol, which I'm ashamed to admit it, but neither of us had ever visited the Capitol before. It was wonderful. 

The Capitol, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson, is beautiful, and so many of our founding fathers stood in those rooms making history. The Capitol has free tours every hour, which we hadn't planned on doing, but I'm so glad we did. The tour was really interesting, and everyone in Richmond should go do it. 

Then we went to the Canal Walk, which I had always wanted to do. The weather was perfect, and the path was pretty empty. I love that Richmond is never very crowded. 

5 years and 5 babies later (1 in that growing tummy, 1 in Heaven, and 3 I get to hug every day), and we are much happier than we were the day we married- and we were pretty stinking happy at our wedding. Wow it's been a busy 5 years, but we wouldn't change one second of it.

We walked down to Brown's Island and hung out there for a while before walking back downtown. When we first started dating the Officer and I got to know each other during long walks around the Fan. It was so nice to go on another nice long walk around Richmond for our Anniversary. 

We ate dinner at Millie's. Neither of us had ever been there, and we thought it was great. I got the steak and oh my goodness it was delicious. It's a small and pretty expensive place, but it is a cool atmosphere and the food was great. If you're looking for a nice dinner in Richmond you should try it. 

We stayed in a hotel downtown and walked to the 3rd Street Diner for breakfast. The food was good, and there were still college kids out drinking there at 8am when we went for breakfast.... so Richmondy. Then we went to pick up our kiddos who had been having a great time with their Aunt and Uncle. 

We had another fun Anniversary and here is to many more happy years of marriage! 

Hide and Seek

The girls love playing hide and seek, and it is awesome the watch. Belle and Bug are always so good at hiding. Sometimes they even tell each other where to hide. The other night they played with the Officer, and Lettie and I enjoyed sitting on the couch watching. 

Can you find Bug? the bins of summer clothes that I was organizing helped hide her a little.

Next round I think Bug improved her hiding skills slightly

there aren't many good spaces where the Officer can fit

Next round Belle was very original in her choice of hiding spot

Daddy's camo is very helpful when blending into the kitchen floor

I love these kids and all the fun we have.

Six Miks

Guess what?! Little Lettie is a big sister! She might not look too excited in our Easter picture, but she will be thrilled. She is a little social butterfly, and she will love having another playmate. Lettie will be 15 months when this baby is born, which is a bigger gap than between Belle and Bug. We think it's been pretty awesome for our kids to be so close, so I'm excited for our newest set of buddies to grow up together. 

We are now a family of 6. The strangers who see me pushing my crew through the grocery store might not understand having 4 kids so close (or ever), but goodness look how cute our babies are! We sure do love our little munchkins, and when we lay eyes on this little babe I just know I will think, "wow I can't imagine our family without this child". I know I'll think that, because it's the exact thought I've had 3 times before, as each newborn was put in my arms. We are so excited to meet this newest blessing in October! 

Little Sisters

Sisters are the best, and I love watching my girls be sisters to one another. Belle and Bug might as well be twins. They do everything together. They adore each other, and they argue like twins. They spend almost all day playing together...... 

Then a new little sister entered their lives, and wow they can't get enough of her. Now that Lettie is on the move she is already trying to keep up with her sisters, and so far her sisters they don't mind at all. Belle and Bug worked to build a lovely castle ("The Castle of Cair Paravel"), and Lettie happily played dumb two feet away from them..... 

I reminded Belle and Bug that Lettie loves knocking over Magnatile towers, so there was a good chance their castle wasn't going to last long. Bug decided she would run interference and protect the castle..... 

Lettie was not pleased that her plans were thwarted

So Lettie just charmed her sisters with her sweet personality. They were distracted..... 

Coast is clear..... 

I missed the picture of Lettie plowing through their castle. The best part was that her big sisters just laughed and didn't mind at all. I'm so glad these girls have each other. 

kid board games

The Officer and I have always loved playing board games, and recently we've loved playing them with our girls too. Belle and Bug have both gotten old enough in the last year to really enjoy games. I thought I'd give a little review of our favorite and not-so-favorite games for little kids. The preschool teacher in me loves all the learning that is done during games. Most of these games develop counting, one-to-one correspondence, memory, fine motor skills, and sportsmanship. Now I'll take my teacher hat off and review the games as a Mom who likes to have fun with my kids.

We started off our collection with the typical chutes and ladders and candy land. These are classics, but honestly not my favorite. I can't stand playing chutes and ladders with my kids.... it takes forever. Just when you think someone is close to winning, what do you know, there are slides strategically placed all around the end square so that nobody can ever make it to the end. The board is also not designed well, because the kids can never figure out which way they are supposed to be moving their piece. I almost always decline playing that game with my girls. Candy Land is slightly better since the end does not drag on and on and on. Still not the most exciting game, but the kids like the characters.

Here the Officer and Belle are literally wrestling over a Zingo tile.... not competitive at all

Okay enough complaining about games, here are our current favorites for a 4-year-old and 3-year-old. Belle's (4 year-old) absolute favorite right now is Zingo. You take turns sliding the Zinger to reveal picture tiles, then you race to cover your bingo board with the pictures. We all really enjoy this simple game.  It's pretty quick to set up and quick to play. Even the Officer and I are always happy to play it.

Bug's (3 year-old) current favorite is Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. This is another fun game that is quick to play, and it takes no time to set up. It's a cute game with a little squirrel that picks up colorful acorns that you put in your log. The first to fill their log wins, but watch out for the storm that takes all your acorns or the sneaky squirrel who can steal one of your acorns. Everyone has fun with this game.

Another family favorite is Busytown. This game takes a little longer to set up and play, but it's fun and the kids love it. This is a cooperative game, and I didn't know if our super competitive family would enjoy that, but we absolutely do! Everyone is working together to get to the end of the game board before the pigs eat all the food, so you are still competing against "the pigs". Nobody is counting, but we almost always win ;)

The girls received this Frozen 6-in-1 game as a gift, and they always enjoy it. It is perfect for their ages, and we like it so much we gave it to a friend for her third birthday. It contains matching/memory, which is one of my favorite preschool games. It also has Bingo, Crazy 8s, Dominoes, Go Fish, and Four-in-a-row. The games are all pretty fun, but matching is my favorite, and if your kids like Frozen they will love seeing all of the characters in this game!

The girls recently got this I Spy Preschool Game, and Belle really enjoys it. The directions have a few different game suggestions to use with the cards, but we mostly just play matching with it. We love matching games, and the girls enjoy I Spy pictures, so this is a good game for us.

So there is our game collection so far, and I would definitely recommend all of these favorites to families with young kids. They keep us busy in the evenings after dinner, and Belle is able to set all of them up by herself and play with Bug on their own. Did I miss any other preschool-aged favorites?!