When we got there Ann's daughter Sylvia was napping. The kids were a little quiet and shy at first, but it didn't take them long to tear into Sylvia's toys. They played with this toy called a "Polar Coaster" and the kids were in their glory rolling the balls down it for quite some time.
Thanks Sylvia for letting Evan & Emmaline play with your toys. Once the kids got warmed up to their new surroundings (which didn't take too long), they were ready to explore and Evan had lots of questions for Ann & Jason. Ann has a room upstairs that is orange and Evan was all about checking it out. If I haven't told you before, Evan's favorite color is orange. He was loving that room and let us know that now he wants an orange room. Since we have a small mural painted on Evan's wall that's not going to happen for awhile. I'm not ready to paint over it yet! Some day though maybe. To me, orange is one of those colors I would be hesitant to paint because I would be afraid it would be too bright! This orange was not that, and I told Ann she'd have to let me know the color if we ever do paint Evan's room down the road. I think you might need to post a picture of your home office Ann so I can show Evan often because he really did love that room!
After we toured the Luke's upstairs we headed to their newly finished basement. Of course Evan had to check out all parts (storage area included) and this happened to be one of his favorite spots. (I hope you don't mind Ann, I'm borrowing your picture.)
Emmaline enjoyed it as well. This is Sylvia's little nook to play in when she gets a little bigger. It's the perfect size for little ones, and like a little hideout for kids. I told Greg he needs to cut a whole in the wall in our basement and do that under our stairs. I think the kids would be occupied for hours playing in there! I've seen these little under the stairs nooks in a lot of Parade of Homes and there's so many possibilities of how to decorate them for kids.
Ann & Jason grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch for us which was a real treat. Normally we don't get a good lunch like that on a Saturday. Usually we're just eating PB&J! We also had a delicious pasta salad and fruit, of which Emmaline was totally into the grapes. Of course Emmaline managed to make a mess of her place setting so I'm sorry Ann she got your beautiful place mats so dirty. (Ann had the table set so pretty that I was hoping the kids wouldn't trash it too bad with the food.) Everything tasted great so thanks Luke family for making lunch for us!
After lunch Sylvia woke up and we got to meet her. She's a little doll. The kids loved her and were all over her. We hung out on the patio for a little bit and Em had a blast with the bubbles while Evan chased their dog Tucker around in the yard. Here are the kids having fun! Check out Evan's expression, he was determined to catch Tucker!
A huge thank you to the Luke family for having us over! It was so nice to visit and we had a great time! Thanks also, for answering all of Evan's little questions. (Being in a new place Evan had to ask a million questions when checking things out!) That's a four year old for ya!
After our visit, we headed off to HomeGoods, IKEA, and Trader Joe's. Ann & Sylvia went with us to HomeGoods and IKEA so it was nice to spend a little more time with them. The HomeGoods store was awesome! Love that place! I could spend hours upon hours in there! So much to look at, and thanks to Ann for entertaining Evan while they played with the shield and sword from the toy section while I looked and looked. I found a few things, some lamp shades for one, which Ann spotted for me. I do like them, but I'm trying to decide if I like them with the lamps I had gotten. I'll let you know when I decide. I also found a few other things, this growth chart for Emmaline's room is one of them.
After our shopping excursion at HomeGoods we headed over to IKEA. It was super busy with it being a Saturday, which didn't even dawn on us ahead of time. We hit a few of the departments, not the whole store. We all managed to find a few things and then headed out of there. This too is another great store, and I could spend hours upon hours in there. If you haven't been there, you really must go! Fun, fun, store! Next time we head back I think we're going to have to eat there because they were giving out samples of their Swedish Meatballs and Evan was really liking them. I told him next time we'd get some. By the time we were about finishing up in IKEA, Emmaline was pretty much at her limit and turned into Miss Crankypants. It was understandable though as it was in the middle of her normal nap time. She ended up falling right to sleep when we left there once the car got rolling.We headed on to Trader Joe's from there. I've only been to Trader Joe's a few times, so this was one stop I really wanted to make. They have some really good things that you just can't find around here, most of which are pretty healthy and organic, AND very reasonably priced! Here's the Trader Joe's we went to.
Here's the inside of what a Trader Joe's looks like.
I just ran in since Em had fallen asleep, but of course I wasn't as fast as I wanted to be. Too many good things to choose from. So Em woke up just as I was checking out. She was not a happy camper, but once we got back on the road she fell back to sleep. We hit the HomeGoods in Brighton on the way home and of course found a few more things. (Ladies, I think you're going to like the bunco gifts when I have September bunco.) I also got some early Christmas shopping done too so that's a bonus!
By the time we left there it was late. We had forgotten that Molly hadn't eaten dinner yet and we needed to get home to let her out so we didn't have time to stop at the outlet mall. We'll probably head back there soon. Now that I know this HomeGoods is in Brighton, it's not all that far so I'm sure to be going there more often! We got home probably about 8:15am that night and Molly was such a good dog while we were gone. I think it was the longest we had ever left her so we weren't sure what we would find when we got home. She hadn't done a thing so that was a relief!
We had a great day, but it was longer than expected like I said. We were all very tired and Em was more than ready for bed so we were unable to make it to the party that night. We were bummed, but I didn't want to expose everyone to a super tired and crabby Emmaline so we thought it was best to stay home. Hopefully Evan can have a playdate soon with Baleigh instead! I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about our neighborhood picnic!
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