Weekend + Kid-free time!!!

This has been a really glorious weekend so far. Saturday I spent a bunch of time alone with the boys. Ethan had a soccer game an hour north of here at 9 am, but Ivan had to work for a bit so I took them by myself.

Weather was really nice and afterwards we stopped at a huge antique mall. I’d been there before with Asher, but Ethan had never been. We spent probably 1 1/2 hours walking around, looking at all of the random stuff!! They found loads of cool things to check out and both said it was really fun.

Antique stores make me so nostalgic for my childhood (seeing old toys, books, games, household gadgets or even things like old phones and typewriters!). They also make me long for holidays at my grandparent’s houses. 🙂 It’s such a fun thing to do with kids. If you have older elementary+ aged kids and haven’t checked out an antique store with them, I highly recommend!!

I found this great sign:

Later Saturday afternoon I dropped the boys off at Ivan’s cousin’s house to spend the night (they have a 10 year old boy, too. I guess he is the boys’ 2nd cousin? I think?). Anyway, they love hanging out with him and I was MORE THAN HAPPY to drop the boys off and say buh-bye. 😉

Life has felt just…chaotic lately. I’ve mentioned this. Just a lot of moving parts I guess here over the past couple months. I was excited by the idea of a kid free evening.

It was wonderful. Ivan was out for a while watching some pro soccer tournament on TV with a friend, so I took a loooooong shower and just hung out by myself for a bit. Perfection. When he got back, we ate some leftovers and snuggled up and watched a This is Us mini-marathon of 3 episodes in a row. We rarely get to do this! We made popcorn and it was amazing.

Sunday morning Ivan had an early soccer game and for once I was free to go watch! It was a gorgeous morning too, so I was perfectly happy just sitting in the sunshine on the bleachers. For old men, they did pretty good. 😉

Ivan is basically obsessed with his summer soccer league. Last summer they didn’t get to play at all, so he is ALL IN this summer. He’s playing on two teams, and his reaction if you ask him to miss a game for any reason is kind of like if you had asked him to sit out a World Cup game or something. (A little annoying sometimes, bc it can be hard to always work around his random game schedules on summer weekends!! But, I am so happy he has something he loves AND that he is healthy enough to still play hard soccer games at 40.)

We went out for breakfast after, at Cracker Barrel. I literally forgot Cracker Barrel existed! We had never been there! (I was maybe as a kid?) Anyway, it was really good!!

Also saw this cute sign in the Old Country Store:

The rest of the day was spent like a couple of old empty nesters. Hahaha. Ran a few errands checking out some furniture sales (eventually need to replace Ethan’s bedroom set…trying to decide if now is the time or not…), weeded my garden, read, worked on my May recap/ June goals (yay! Fun! Did this while Ivan was at his 2nd soccer game), watched more This is Us, went in the hot tub….ahhhh I needed this so much.

Of course, the boys texted to see if they could pleeeeeeaaaaaseeeee stay one more night?!?! Yep! Please do. Go right ahead! Haha! It’s rare that they don’t have games/ meets/ activities/ etc., so I love to let them “live it up” when we are oddly free and open. We get so few “kid free” weekends too that I bite at a chance to get one. 🙂

Off to buy a few flowers!!! Ivan is going to cut the grass. Boys will be home by midday I think.

Daily Gratitude:

*Thinking of all those who have served and sacrificed for us on this Memorial Day!! The bravery that service men and women possess LITERALLY blows my mind and I am so, SO grateful for those who have laid their lives down for us.*