The Brown Cow Ice Cream Cake Contest

Restaurants in Oak Park are getting super creative to keep business coming in while COVID has things slowed down.  The Brown Cow ice cream parlor is a perfect example.  They've been having monthly "Do It Yourself Kit" contests.  Last month's was a Gingerbread House and this month is a Chocolate Ice Cream Cake in honor of National Chocolate Cake Day.

The minute I saw the post, I knew we had to get ourselves a kit.  The kids LOVE ice cream cake, and I've been wanting to try one from Brown Cow for quite awhile.  They give you everything you need, you just have to assemble it, decorate it and of course (my favorite part) eat it!

Here is the boys' submission for the contest:

I know I may be biased, but I think their cake turned out pretty amazing!!  

It was pretty delicious too!!

Snowboarding Fun

 We got the tiniest bit of snow last night, so we went out this morning to get a little practice on the snowboards.  It's so sad that it's already mid January and this is what our snow situation looks like.  If we're going to have the cold, at least give us some snow so we can get outside and have some fun.  In the meantime, we'll take advantage of any opportunity we get!

After the boys had their fill of snowboarding, they decided to play in the snow for awhile.

I know I should be careful what I wish for, but hopefully we'll get a little more snow soon! 

Serial Napper

No matter how hard he tries, Miles just can't give up his nap.  I stopped putting him down for an actual nap awhile ago because his routine was to eat lunch, go downstairs to watch an episode of Masha and the Bear and then without fail, I'd walk down to check on him and he'd be fast asleep.  He was doing such a great job of putting himself down for a nap, that it made no sense for me to try to fight him on an official nap up in his bed.

It can be 11:00AM, 4PM, even lately 5PM (not ideal)...if Miles is tired, he'll find a comfy place to sit down and within minutes be fast asleep.  

Thankfully he still goes to bed at night, even with the occasional 5PM nap, so for now I'll let him enjoy his impromptu naps whenever his little body tells him he needs one.

My Own Cheese Pizza!!

 Tonight we ordered pizza for dinner.  The two older boys were downstairs playing Switch when it arrived, so we thought we'd have a little fun with Miles.  We put the entire cheese pizza in front of him and told him we got him his very own cheese pizza.  We didn't even give him a plate, just served it to him in the box.  He could hardly believe it!  He was so excited and felt so special!

Then when the older boys finally came upstairs, we didn't want to go back on what we told Miles, so we asked him if he would share his pizza with the boys.  Thankfully he agreed that he probably couldn't eat the whole thing on his own and was happy to share.  :)

Forts!

 One of our friends told us about some forts in Thatcher Woods that people had built out of logs and branches, so today I took the boys to check them out.  They were SO cool!

It was hard to get a good picture that could show the whole scope of what it looks like, but there are 15-20 different forts built all throughout that section of the woods.  And it's pretty open down there so it's easy to walk around, explore and find the next one.  

And what's fun is there are so many extra branches and sticks down that it's easy to add on to, or start building your own new fort.  We started building one, but soon realized it takes a LONG time to put something so elaborate together.  

I have a feeling the next time we go check it out there will be a lot more various forts built.  Maybe someone will have even added on to or finished ours!

This Is The Day

 With everything going on with COVID-19 this year, we decided to make the switch and send Miles to Ascension for his last year of preschool.  It's just a few blocks from our house, which makes it more convenient, plus I felt really comfortable with their protocols and being able to keep the kids safe in school.

Ascension is a Catholic school, and while I'm not Catholic, I really am loving the religious element that he is learning in school.  Little bible stories, he says a little prayer (complete with "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit") and earlier in the year he came home singing The B-I-B-L-E, a song I remember from when I was little.

This week his school is doing virtual learning after everyone was away for the holidays.  I got to listen in on what they were doing in class and it warmed my heart to hear them start each day with the following song...

Dottie's Coat

 Dottie has her first Winter coat. :)

While it's super cute, and may happen to match mine ;)...it also serves a purpose.  Because of their brachycephalic breed, French bulldogs are really sensitive to cold.  They have a hard time regulating their body temperature, so I'm just helping to keep her warm (and adorable!).