The Casanova Family: Valentine's Day Weekend

Valentine's Day weekend is going great so far...but first for a Millie update! Last week we took her to the vet for her 1 month appointment. She had a chest x-ray and still had a twinge of pneumonia so the dr. decided not to start her vaccinations yet. That's too bad because it prevents her from playing with other dogs and taking obedience classes. We are supposed to go back next week for another checkup to see if we can move forward. She had, however, gained weight. A LOT of weight. She's up to 26lbs! Her weight has more than doubled since we got her! We also got a pen for the basement to give her a little more room during the days when we are at work. As you can tell from the picture below, she loves it!

The eyes say it all. We came home from work one day to find her bed shredded and Millie with a triumphant look upon her face. Hard to get mad when she'd obviously worked SO hard. :)

I knew a cat could lay here but never thought a dog could! She LOVES that spot but is already getting too big for it.

Watching "Thomas" videos with Owen. So cute!

Ok, back to Valentine's Day weekend. Elsie's weekend started on Thursday. No school for parent-teacher meetings. Hers went well, everything is right on track and she's doing great! There was one catch though, we had volunteered to watch the class pet, a rabbit named "Pippa" over the long weekend. Elsie had been looking forward to this moment since before we got Millie! So, Sarah and I loaded up Pippa after our meeting with Elsie's teacher and brought her home. She's currently taking up residence in our spare bedroom. And yes, Elsie (and Owen) are really loving it. She's a cute little fur ball (see pictures below).

My weekend started on Friday. I took the day off to spend it with the kids because they were both out of school. Before going to work, Sarah went to the "pre-school" version of a parent-teacher conference. He's doing great too! Since they've been working so hard at school, I decided to make Friday a special day for them. We started off having a late breakfast, and after we got dressed we to the park at Lake Lenexa. I'd never been there, but heard it was pretty neat. However, I never expected that we'd have the ENTIRE lake and all three of its playgrounds to ourselves! It pays to brave the cold.

Sure, it was chilly but after chasing the kids for a few minutes I shed my heavy coat. We played dragons and I chased them (sometimes at a dead sprint) all around the playground and the woods. Not sure I would have done that if we hadn't had the place to ourselves. ;)

It's a beautiful park

We threw rocks in to break the thin ice. What fun!

The dam is in the distance. We were going to hike to it but we had to save our hiking legs for later, after lunch.

Owen had been begging for McDonald's, so that's what we did. The kids both ate well.

After lunch we went to the Overland Park Arboretum. It's a fun place to go, and I especially like going during the week if I can because there's hardly every anyone there. This time was no different; we saw about 4 people. By this time the temperature was about 40 or 45 degrees and it was sunny, so it was actually about the perfect temperature for hiking in the woods and that's just what we did!

Our hike was delayed for a little while so that Owen could play in the giant sandbox and look at the train stuff., which was totally fine as we had all afternoon.

We hiked the "brown" trail which followed the creek and then worked it's way back up through the woods in a big circle. It was about a mile. We got to enjoy some nature, see a deer run right in front of us, and get some exercise. All in all it was a great way to spend an afternoon. No rush, no place to get to. Just taking our time and enjoying the sunshiny day. Wish Sarah could have been there with us...

By the end of the day my Vivofit said we had walked nearly 8 miles over the course of the day. No wonder I was tired!

Waiting for us at home was ice cream and the kids tried Magic Shell for the first time. They were amazed and thought it was one of the best inventions ever...as do I. ;)

Valentine's Day morning started off with purple, chocolate chip pancakes!

Elsie had been planning a Valentine's party for the last few weeks. We ate cheese and crackers, did crafts, listened to music, and drank water. It was really cute.

Elsie brought down her colored pencils and we all had to draw something Valentine's themed. I think we did pretty good. After that we exchanged cards and a few small gifts for the kiddos. It's been a great weekend so far!