Category Archives: weekend

Weekend Shenanigans

April 20, 2015

This weekend was full of parties and events! It seems that way lately, each weekend we have had has been so busy! Lots of fun with friends and kids for Ivy to play with.

Friday was so nice out! One last day before the cold came again, these 50’s are killin’ me! We met Grandma Keating (my mom) at the park for an hour before our dinner date with Dadda.

Weekend mornings are the best. I LOVE when Ivy wakes up and we go in to see her. She’s always so happy in the mornings and so damn cute with her bed head and holding on to her blankie or stuffed animal. The best is that she gets to STAY in her pjs! We all do! No rushing into our clothes to get to work! I LOVE keeping her in her pjs, so cuddly :)

We decided to head downtown for breakfast and coffee, or tea for me. I love our downtown! I like just being able to walk around and see the sights. We headed to Pappy’s, a new cafe and eatery for some delicious yogurt, breakfast, and coffee. Major props to their food and yogurt! SOOO good! Gourmet ingredients, yum! Then we I just HAD to have Josiah’s carmel roll, so we ventured a couple blocks to our next stop. Ivy says “walk, walk.” We can’t even hold her anymore! And she’s started RUNNING so this girl is a force to be reckoned with.

Our downtown has some really neat old historic features and the bridge is one of the coolest. Ivy strutted her stuff like she owned the place! Ivy in the City, there’s a show…

I love this mural along the river too. Ivy made sure to point out the circles and sun! She loved all of the colors. This girl is getting so smart!

After downtown, Ivy had Zoo Cub class so we headed out to the zoo. These classes are great! The class features a different sound each time and focuses on animals that make that sound. This time was “squeak” and they got to pet a live chinchilla! So hilarious! They also read a book, painted a zebra, and went to visit the monkeys.

We continued with the zoo and had to go see the goats. I’ve been trying to get Ivy to be brave enough to feed the goats herself! She always makes me hold her arm up and put the food in her hand! Too scared still! Well this time after a little bit of that, she got brave enough to do it herself and she was HILARIOUS! I swear she was showing off for Dad. She had so much fun and I was just dying laughing. PROUD MOM MOMENT! You go girl! And she always likes to go on the camel, sooo… :)

Saturday night we had a Diapers and Keg party to attend for our friends. These are so much fun! It’s the second one we have been to and I love them. What a good idea for a couples party and we all know how many diapers you use! Might as well throw a party to get some. I was missing out on the keg, but Ivy was quite interested. That’s the Koch in her! EEEEK! She was obvs quite observant with how to work one! Thankfully, she never pushed it all the way down :) But she did enjoy drinking water out of her little shot glass. I mean, perfect size for her!!! Ha.

I still managed to use a red solo cup. I felt like I was in college again. Except with a goofy kid who kept giving herself hugs and kisses in the mirror : / WTF.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

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Minneapolis Weekend

March 23, 2015

This past weekend, John and I left little Ivy behind with Emmie and Papa Koch to head to Minneapolis for a much needed shopping trip. The grandparents couldn’t wait for a sleepover with Ivy and I couldn’t wait to get a lone weekend with the hubs, have some delicious food and nice dates, and buy some things for the nursery, AND myself! So we kissed Ivy goodbye and packed our wallets!

The dresser I wanted from Ikea showed there were only 2 in stock! EEEEK! So we went right away Friday night when we got there and thankfully we did because we got the last one! FEWF! I love the look of the birch and white, perfecto. We also picked up a white nightstand for the nursery and found a few other things for the house because who can really walk out of Ikea with only two things. Ugh. One thing checked off the list, now on to dinner, which I was SO excited for!

We spent the evening at Spoon and Stable, one of Minneapolis’s new restaurants for fine dining. And it was superb! We love sitting at the bar, so we bellied up, and took in beautiful restaurant. I was obsessed! The white was gorgeous and it was in fact an old stable, hence the name, but it was remodeled so exquisitely. I love all of the historic buildings in downtown Minneapolis, some of the coolest spots I’ve ever seen. The bartender shook up a fabulous mocktail of ginger beer (found out ginger beer is not actually alcoholic, sort of like root beer, duuuhhhh), grapefruit juice, and lime juice for me, and John and I said cheers to a so far successful trip and weekend alone! We had some i n c r e d i b l e food that had the best presentation. MMM. We had duck sliders (holy quack), french fries, scallop carpaccio (award winning), chilled lobster, pasta, and apple crisp for dessert. O M F G. My mouth is still salivating.

The next morning, we woke up talking about what the hell happened to Paris Hilton (we were staying at the Hilton), caught up on some news, John got a nice run by the river (I was jealous), and pretty soon we headed out on the town again. We wandered over to the Warehouse District and had breakfast at Moose and Sadie’s. Delicious (again!).

There were quite a few shops around our breakfast spot, so we hit a few of them. Our favorite – Askov Finlayson. It was the perfect mix of outdoor gear, clothing, and just all around cool stuff. John went wild in there because that is his perfect mix of store! We found baby boy a rad paddle for the nursery and some funky towels for the beach.

Next, I just HAD to go to H&M for some maternity clothes, so we reluctantly made the drive to the Mall of America (John was NOT excited). I found myself some clothes – these jeans, (I wanted these too but they didn’t have them), this crop top (I think crop tops will be cute with a long tank underneath! Pop that baby belly out!), and basically every single color in this long tank bc I live in long tanks while pregnant. I really wanted these yellow flats, but I had outdone myself with nursery stuff and H&M :(

Later in the evening, we met my friends Tori and Gina and her husband Ben for dinner at Hola Arepa and had some delicious Mexican! Again, I scored an amazing mocktail and had an overfilled and satisfied belly.

All too fast, our trip came to an end, but we got so much done! Meanwhile, Ivy was back with the grandparents and having fun playing dress up and reading the morning paper with Papa :)

Now to put everything together – Ikea, curse you!!! But thank you for being cheap :) We got the dresser and nightstand together, now the room is finally getting somewhere…

crib // plus sign curtains // triangle lamp // nightstand // dresser // rug // ottoman // paddle // triangle pillow (found at Zing sale) // lightning rod pillow (also found at Zing sale) // LWPH tomahawk blanket // black and white blanket // evergreen tree blanket //

Overall, the nursery is getting along great! Crib sheet and changing pad cover arrive in 2 weeks from Iviebaby! Can’t WAIT! And now in need of some wall decor. John says it is his favorite room in the house… Yay :) #success

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Weekend FUN

March 15, 2015

This weekend was B U S Y! It was a lot of fun and full of activity! John was out of town so it was just me and the bebe. It was so glorious outside, bright and sunny and warm, a perfect spring weekend. We were outside the entire weekend, basically, and loved every second of it, soaking in that sun since it hasn’t been around for so long! I am so excited for spring and summer I can hardly contain myself. The snow is finally all melted and I am so anxious to see some green and color pop up again. Now let’s hope my plants and flowers I planted last year all survived : /

Saturday was the St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown. We went with Grandpa and Grandma Koch and we all fought over who gets to hold Ivy! :) Papa won… she was so snuggly with him!

Ivy just stared out at all of the action and people and craziness happening around her. She didn’t like all of the loud honking going on, but as long as we held her she was ok, and we weren’t complaining :) I was sure missing out on that green beer!

The next day, Ivy still had fun with the decorations – she’s so silly!

After the parade, my friend Meghan and her two children, Ben and Nora, came over to grill and play. She brought her Little Tikes Inflatable Bouncer and the kids played and played like wild kids!

On Sunday, Ivy and I ventured out to the zoo. We hadn’t been there since last summer and it was so much fun this time! Ivy knew the animals and the noises they make and she was beyond excited about everything. It was such a blast with her now that she is older!

It was so hot out! And Ivy was just running around like wild, she was getting so hot. I just decided to take her jeans off : / haha, it was a little inappropriate, buuuuut oh well :)

She stiiiiill isn’t quite brave enough about feeding the goats. She would NOT get close to them without me. I showed her how to feed them and then she did it and just died laughing! It was so funny!

She particularly liked the rhino. She kept trying to grunt like the noises it was making. I about died :) haha

She also really loved the wolves. Her howl is quite entertaining and she was doing it over and over again. HILARIOUS.

Inside of the zoo is a great museum and a play area. It was nice being able to see some animals that they didn’t have outside and I’m pretty sure Ivy didn’t quite get that they weren’t real… yet.

There are buttons you can push to hear the animal noises and she went around to find every one to push. She would push it, then run to me and laugh and hide. She is so damn funny and peculiar sometimes! This girl is a riot! She really loved the hyena noise because she is obsessed with the book Good Night, Gorilla and there is a hyena in the story.

The way she says hyena, “hyna,” SWOON

So this weekend is getting me REALLY excited about summer and getting to spend every day with her after school is out! I am LOVING her age right now and how funny and interactive she is. She’s addicting to be around and I can’t wait to be with her every day! I’m really glad I have about a month after school gets out until baby boy gets here so I can just spend some QT with Ivy. We will both need it!

Love this girl xxoo

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