This weekend was the last of our family time, probably for a long while, and we wasted it on the couch. Or at least, I feel like we wasted it, since I wanted to get out and Do Things. Make Memories. Have Experiences. Enrich The Children’s Lives. Instead we watched Disney movies and played “Runaway Evan” (in which Evan runs away and we chase him) and tossed ALL the toys on the floor and read lots of books and threw some tantrums (mostly the children) and wore comfortable pants.

I felt sort of bad about it but I’ve decided to not feel bad about it. Sometimes wearing comfortable pants is good for the soul. Dragging E out to Do Things with his kids when he will barely even see them for the next few weeks could end in a toddler meltdown that ruins everyone’s day and leaves us all disappointed. I’m not saying my children are terrible monsters or anything, but they are 2 and 3 so…sometimes they’re terrible monsters. And honestly I don’t mind using my solo-parenting days for outings, since staying home means the only adult I talk to is when I shout at the incredibly fit jerk-faces in my workout video. I’m going to forgive the lazy end of our lazy vacation and call it “recharging with my family” instead of “not wearing a bra again”.

Staying home doesn’t mean doing nothing. Family isn’t nothing – it’s everything.

And I can wear my comfortable pants.

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It’s not technically a snow day, since we were already on vacation, but it was definitely a day full of snow. OK, maybe 45 minutes full of snow, 40 of which involved someone crying and/or whining. To be fair, it was really cold and the wind on the sledding hill was vicious – I didn’t want to be out there myself – but when you’re 3 it’s hard to understand that you can EITHER be warm OR play in the snow. But once we got home to our yard both the boy and the dog had a fantastic time pushing snow around.

p.s. I do not know why Caroline insisted on the Tinker Bell backpack, but she did indeed INSIST.

p.p.s. I got Evan’s coat and snow pants from Zulily and they were pretty much the deal of the century. He loves them and they kept him totally warm and dry despite being covered in snow. Not bad for $40.

p.p.p.s. Happy New Year!

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We’re still on vacation, which means I’m light on the words and heavy on the lazily edited photos of my kids doing boring stuff. Luckily, my sister is here to do boring stuff with is.

At The Bleu Squid in Mystic – AMAZING grilled cheese and cupcakes

Do I have something on my face?

Tonight the plan is for E and I to do something AWESOME, since it might be our last chance for a loooong time to spend a New Years out alone…but it seems more likely we’ll go out for sushi, get tired, and come home to drink a bottle of champagne on the couch while we watch the last episode of Downton Abbey. Happy New Year’s Eve!

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Obviously I enjoy Elmo’s World too.

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I think all vacations should automatically come with one at-home recovery day, where no one is expected to do anything but the bare minimum of feeding/clothing themselves/dependents and lying on the couch checking email is a perfectly good way to spend 6 hours. Unfortunately, despite making wise choices before we went away for the weekend (all the dishes were clean! all the laundry was put away! the toilet bowls were scrubbed!) I’m already behind on my to-do list for the week so I’m wearing my running shoes and blast through these dirty clothes and floors while the kids fall asleep sitting up watching Disney Jr. Caroline begged for a nap starting at 11 am and has been asleep for 3 hours already. I’m going to throw dinner at them at 6 and then crash for the night by 8. (I feel even worse for my husband, who has duty today into tomorrow and gets ZERO couch-sitting-email-checking time – at least at home I don’t have to wear real pants.)

We had a great weekend at Sesame Place. The ratio of 4 grown ups to 2 kids is MUCH more relaxing that the other way around. Caroline realized Elmo probably wasn’t going to try to eat her and loved every character, every show and every ride. The weather was glorious – 60 on Saturday and close to 70 on Sunday.

But, oh guys, it was so so so so SO crowded. I wasn’t prepared for quite so many people. Large groups of people suck, since statistically speaking you are bound to run into more Jerky McJerkfaces the bigger the group gets. It’s science: Out of 20 people, maybe 1 is the kind of self-entitled a-hole who thinks cutting in line in front of preschoolers is cool. So if you have 40 people, 2 of them are a-holes. In a super crowded amusement park where everyone is tired and wrangling toddlers and there is absolutely no beer, that number soars to approximately 17 bazillionteen. The park wasn’t prepared for that many people – let alone that many jerks – so by the end of Sunday we were glad all the “fun stuff” (tm Evan) was over and we could go home where there were no lines to ride the King Sized Magical Bed To Sleepytimes.

Although on the way out I added Christmas to our season passes so obviously it wasn’t TOO traumatic of an experience. Maybe I’ll knit us all matching wool hats and we’ll plan to go when it’s freezing and miserable so we won’t have to wait in so many lines.

Caroline’s reaction to the line at the spinning teacups

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