The Weekend – Disney on Ice and Casino Night

Hello again and happy Monday!  We had a full weekend and it was a good one, so let’s get to recapping!

Friday evening we stopped by Chick-Fil-A for dinner and they gave us a free milkshake for no reason at all!  The kids (and I) were so excited!  After dinner, we met up with my friends Jeannine and Katie and their crews for Disney on Ice!  This was the first time that any of the kiddos had been, so they were ecstatic!  This particular tour they performed Toy Story 3, The Little Mermaid, Cars, and Frozen, so we definitely picked a good year to go!!  The kiddos were enamored the entire time and neither of our kids moved a muscle until intermission.

During intermission, we let each of the kids pick out a toy to buy.  Jacob chose a Disney on Ice sword, and Olivia chose the light up Ariel toy.  We let them run around and stretch their legs for a bit, and then it was time for the second half of the show.  Olivia sat in my lap for the second half and the entire time she kept asking when Anna and Elsa were going to come out.  They saved Frozen for last, of course!

During Elsa’s performance of Let it Go, there were fireworks and fire, and Olivia handled it better than I thought she would.  She is terrified of loud noises, so I was really worried she would freak out and want to leave, but I guess since it was Frozen, well, Frozen trumps everything.  At the end of the performance when Anna is turning into ice and Elsa starts crying and hugging her, Olivia got very upset and said that she wanted to go.  She is so sensitive and she didn’t love seeing Elsa so distraught.  Bless her heart.

The show ended at 9 PM which is late for our crew.  They’re usually in the bed by 8, so the ride home we endured lots of whining from Olivia and Jacob fell straight to sleep in the car.  When we got home, we made the kids potty and then it was straight to bed… both of them were out like lights within five minutes so B and I cranked up GG, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open either, so after one episode, it was off to bed for us, too.

Saturday was for making homemade waffles, doing all the laundry, getting our hair dried by Olivia, playing games, and working on teacher appreciation gifts for the coming week.  Don’t forget to get something for your kids’ teachers!  They do so much throughout the year and they take excellent care of your babies when they are not with you, so they deserve something special.  :o)

Saturday evening was the annual fundraiser at Jacob’s school and this year they did a Casino Night theme.  So we all went to church as a family, handed off the kiddos to my parents afterward, and then B and I headed over to Casino Night!

There were heavy hors d’oeuvres, an open bar, Black Jack tables, Craps tables, and tons of items to bid on for the silent auction.  B and I grabbed some drinks first and then scoped out the silent auction tables.  I wanted to go ahead and get an idea of what I might want to bid on throughout the evening, and I found several things that I loved.  Y’all may remember that I have been wanting a bar cart FOR-EH-VURRRR and they had the most gorgeous one there stocked to the brim with liquor, beer, and various other accoutrements that were just perfect.  The other item that also caught my eye was $585 worth of restaurant gift cards for all of our favorite places.  The starting bid was only $55 so I knew I wanted to keep my eye on that one, too.  A few other items that I loved were a Kendra Scott Druzy Necklace and Earrings set, a “staycation” package that included a fire pit, a “night on the town” package that included liquor, show passes, restaurant gift cards, $100 cash for a baby-sitter, and a few other things, and then there was also a wine tasting basket that would have been great to win as well.

Since this fundraiser was put on by the school, you could also bid on things like skipping the car line for an entire year, front row seats for graduation, lunch off campus for your child, etc.  I went ahead and bid on three things – extra iPad time for Jacob during their quiet time, front row seats for kindergarten graduation, and free extended day care for a month, and then B and I went to grab some food.

The food was delicious!  They had loaded potato skins, Philly cheesesteak bites, chicken Florentine, and squash casserole and I failed to take pictures of any of it.  Ha!

After we ate, we played Black Jack for a while, and it gave me aaaallll the feels!  You may remember how B and I are obsessed with Vegas… we went every single year for eight years in a row before we had kids, and we haven’t been in seven years.  I miss it so much, and gambling just made me miss it even more.  And it’s funny, because it’s been seven years since I’ve played Black Jack, but all of the rules and odds and knowing when to hit or stay or double down came right back to me like it was just yesterday.

The bidding ended at 8:30 for the silent auction, so we took a break from the gambling to go make our rounds again.  We had been outbid by all three things for the school events, so I placed new bids, and then we headed over to make some bids on the bar cart and the restaurant gift cards package.  Some lady was stalking the bar cart and she kept increasing the bid every time anybody else would bid, so I had to give it up.  Waaaahhhh!  The restaurant gift cards were up to $360, but we decided to go ahead and bid $370… yes, that’s a ton of money up front, but since you win $585 worth of gift cards, you would actually save money in the long run!  I wrote down our $370 bid and then we walked off before we could see if anyone else was stalking to raise the bid again.

We refreshed our drinks, played a bit more Black Jack, and then it was time for the live auction.  They auctioned off some seriously large things so I never even got to raise my paddle.  Lol.  We’re talking dove hunting in Argentina for several days, a beachfront condo stay for a week, braces for your kids, and a VIP private tour of the Vatican in Rome including hotel accommodations.  I mean, what?!  While it was a bummer to not have thousands of dollars just laying around to actually participate in the bidding, it was definitely interesting to see people battling it out and it was a bit crazy to see how much money people were dropping on things they didn’t even need.  Whew. 

After the live auction it was time to see if we had won anything from the silent auction and unfortunately we were outbid on everything.  Boooo.  It was such a fun evening, though, and the school raised loads of money!

Sunday was very slow.  We got up, had breakfast, and then I laid down on the couch with Olivia while the kiddos watched cartoons and I fell right back to sleep.  That is so unlike me, y’all.  It was pure bliss, though, and I have zero regrets.

We got ready and stepped out to grab Chipotle for lunch, and then we took the kids to the playground and let them run around for nearly an hour since we had no other place to be.  It was lovely to not have to rush.  Afterward, we had a little bit of time before Olivia’s nap, so we headed to Kohl’s to grab Jacob some new socks, and of course, Olivia wanted new socks, too, since Jacob got to get some.  Ha!

Sunday evening we had my parents and brother and grandmother over to our house since my parents are having some work done on the house.  We opted for an easy evening of pizza and wine, and then we spent the rest of the evening on the back porch.  It was so nice to slow it down after doing so much on Friday and Saturday.

We are supposed to have more severe weather including possible tornadoes again today, y’all, so please keep us in your prayers.  Oh man, am I ready for this severe weather season to be over!

Happy Monday!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending, My Glittery Heart for Hello Monday,  More Pieces of Me for Hello Monday Linkup, and HoHo Runs for Weekly Wrap.