Happy Birthday to Joey! Dempsey has been practicing singing “Happy Birthday” to him for two months but we finally got to do it for real this morning 🤍 And even though a Monday birthday is weird, I think we did a good job celebrating this weekend. It was WINDY on Friday but we had really beautiful weather on Saturday and Sunday. The boys had a lot of outdoor play time and it was the sweetest to see.

I picked the kids up at 4:30 and we got a quick visit from Aunt Bean! Afterward, Joey picked us up ramen from Uncle and you have no idea how happy my heart is when I see Dempsey diving (almost literally) into a bowl of ramen and a plate of steamed buns. He absolutely loves that poached egg too and he’s getting legitimately good at using those chopsticks! Sadly, both children were an absolute mess come the bedtime hour. I was downstairs with a screaming Lydia and Joey was upstairs with a screaming Dempsey. It felt a bit insane. Eventually they both calmed down and went to sleep though and we watched Thursday’s episode of Top Chef then took ourselves to bed.

Saturday started with whole wheat banana waffles. Since I feed Lydia in the morning, Joey and Dempsey have been the ones to start our Saturday breakfast lately but they had time to finish these waffles before I was done, so I got to just come sit down to a fully made plate of waffle 🥰 They were really good! Afterward, a little play time with Sis and then Joey and Dempsey went to Home Depot for their monthly craft time. Dempsey already knew he wanted to paint his birdhouse blue, green and white! It turned out so cute 🤍

Such a nice Saturday afternoon. Lydia doesn’t really have a set schedule right now because her nap lengths are a little all over the place but we got naptimes to line up and enjoyed a little kid-free afternoon time. I used mine to look into the SEVENTEEN mayoral candidates and filled in my ballot, so that felt good. Once both kiddos were up, we loaded them into the stroller and headed to the park, where every other parent and child in the neighborhood already was 😅 Dempsey showed Lydia how to go down the slide and then he let me push him in the swing for a long time. Back at home, Lydia took another nap and Dad and Dempsey played outside. I could see them from the front window and it was totally the cutest. They both looked so happy! Naanza for dinner and Dempsey did such a good job putting his and Joey’s together. He took a little bite out of every piece of pepperoni before adding it to Dad’s pizza 😂 After the kids went to bed, we watched a little bit of Poker Face then SNL and went to bed.

Sunday started with breakfast at Sassafras! Beignets are always A+ but I did not love my shrimp and grits. Good thing I can get a re-do in New Orleans when we’re there in a couple of weeks. Stopped back home to start laundry and change Dempsey out of his jam-covered outfit and into shorts and a t-shirt then headed back out to Bass Pro! Joey and Dempsey are going to give fishing a try this year, so for his birthday present, Joey requested a shopping trip. That place is huge! Dempsey picked out his own pole and then the kids and I wandered around and looked at the big fish tank and all the animals mounted around inside while Joey gathered up the rest of their supplies. Back at home, Joey took Lyds upstairs for a nap and I got Dempsey’s lunch together and tried to get him to eat it while he played outside. He kept ordering me to “rake!” 😂

Dempsey’s new toys arrived via Amazon while he was down for his nap, so once he was back up, he got to go outside to use his rake and hoe and gosh, the look of happiness on his face when Joey pulled them out of the box 🥺 I was inside tending to a little girl who didn’t want to go down easy for her nap, so I missed out on the outdoor time but it seemed like they had fun. Leftovers made for an easy-peasy dinner and then we put the kids to bed and watched a bit more of Poker Face. Some of the episodes I really really enjoy and others are just so-so. I think we’re down to the last episode, so we’ll see how they wrap it all up. We have a busy week ahead, so wish us luck and cooperative children! Happy Monday 🙂