Saturday
Thankfully the weekend wasn’t completely taken over by puking. We had a nice Friday night at home with the boys and kept things low key for Ryan’s sake. Saturday everyone seemed healthy again so we made it out of the house for some morning fun at Discovery Place Kids.
DPK is heaven for the boys, especially now that Ryder is running all over the place but it’s admittedly a lot nicer to go when I have Ryan with me since the boys constantly love sprinting in opposite directions.
We spent most of our time on the play airplane and build-your-own race care area before our stomachs were ready for breakfast 2.0. When Ryan suggested Duck Donuts, we were all about it and headed off to order half a dozen freshly baked treats.
(FYI, my hot pink sherpa is SO warm and cozy! I ordered it back when I ordered the boys’ plaid footie pajamas and it’s currently 50% off and available in a bunch of colors.)
The best one from this bunch was the French toast doughnut, made with maple icing and sprinkled with a dusting of cinnamon, sugar and powdered sugar.
Before making our way home, we had to stop by Lowe’s to select carpeting for our master bedroom closet. To make a long story short, when we moved in, Ryan removed some of the built in cabinetry in our closets because it is not a big space at all and felt incredibly cramped. This left some carpet lips exposed so Sadie, during one of her thunderstorm rampages, dug into the carpet and ripped a bunch of it up. We’ve been dealing with it for months but it’s frustrating because whenever we walk out of our closet we track little carpet fibers all over our house. Clearly we were overdue in getting this fixed and by early December we should be good as new!
Ryder was ready for his nap by the time we made it home and while he slept, I worked on an upcoming gift guide while Ryan and Chase took Sadie on a walk around the neighborhood. I also spent some time tending to the crockpot chili I prepped earlier in the day since we had a chili cook off on the agenda for later that afternoon.
Once Ryder was up, we were all ready to make our way to the chili cook off and I wasn’t sure how my entry this year would fare since I opted to make a “non-traditional” chili rather than stick to my cornbread comfort zone.
(My favorite $29 Amazon sweater strikes again!)
There were about 10 non-traditional chilis entered into the competition ranging from BBQ pulled pork chili and a white bean chili to a pumpkin turkey chili and more. I made the crockpot chicken corn chili recipe from my blog and it was delicious! I made a double batch and swapped the chicken breasts for boneless, skinless chicken thighs and opted for BJ’s Wellesley Farms organic medium salsa to give it a little kick.
After we arrived at the cook off, we ran around with the kids who had a ball in the bouncy house and at the face-painting station.
When Chase was getting his face painted, I asked him what he was getting painted and he said “Chase” and I was confused until I realized he meant the Paw Patrol character.
I don’t remember being all that into facepainting as a kid but apparently I was missing out because all of the kids at the party were all about it!
Once the sunset, everybody was hungry so we dug into the chili and filled out our ballots ranking the top three traditional chilis, nontraditional chilis and cornbreads from the party.
The winners were then announced and I was surprised how captivated Chase was by the whole completion aspect of the evening! Once he realized there was a prize for the top recipes (a mini cutting board and spoon engraved with the date of the cook off and 1st Place, 2nd Place or 3rd Place), he was very interested and really wanted Mom to take home a prize. I don’t know where he got his competitive nature from but it’s definitely not from me, though I was happy to make him happy when my non-traditional chili claimed the top spot! Woop!
We didn’t last too long at the cook off after the winners were announced since it was already after the boys’ bed time and made our way home for a super fast rendition of our usual bed time routine.
Sunday
I wish I had a fun recap to report for you guys for Sunday but it was a bust all around. I woke up with a pounding headache that quickly turned into nausea and ended up with repetitive puking so I clearly don’t have much to share about Sunday! Thank goodness for Ryan because I was useless yesterday for pretty much everything.
Our plans for the week ahead include Chase’s Thanksgiving feast at his preschool on Wednesday so I’m hoping our whole crew will be healthy and energetic for his special show and lunch. I also hope all of you are staying healthy out there! I know this time of year can be brutal for sickness.
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today! Have a great Monday!
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I hope you’re feeling better very soon!
Julie, get well wishes to you! I’m sorry you’re not feeling well but I’m glad you had a nice weekend! Congrats on the chili prize! I’m craving chili on this rainy day after reading your post. I have your cornbread recipe saved to make for Thanksgiving, first time I’ll be making cornbread ?
My oldest son had a cold all weekend and is staying home from preschool today. Hope you get well soon!
Hope you guys love the cornbread and that your little one feels better fast!
Julie — Please keep your family home for the week, if possible! It sounds like you guys likely had norovirus (or something akin to that), and that sucker is SUPER contagious, and can stick around and cause you to be contagious for even a couple weeks after symptoms resolve. I really hope your babies don’t get it (and that you feel better soon!) but please PLEASE be cautious not to spread it around even more. Oh, and wash, wash, wash your hands and everything else you guys came in contact with.
Ugh, feel better!
Absolutely! Ryan actually initially thought his was food poisoning since he only puked 2x & felt a lot better after he threw up but now that I’m hit, too, it definitely seems like something is up.
I hope the worst is behind you! I’m inclined to think it could be a short-term stomach virus that should hopefully resolve for you all soon. Unless you get checked by a doctor, there isn’t a way to assume what you all had. I would say as long as you wash your hands and push fluids, you should hopefully be yourself soon. Sending you all the healing vibes! Also, congrats on taking home a prize! I’m sorry Sunday overshadowed an otherwise super fun weekend.
It’s a bit odd that you weren’t concerned at all that it might be a stomach virus–you can be contagious before you show symptoms, and shed the virus for up to two weeks after symptoms abate, so going to public places when a stomach virus has been active in the family seems a little thoughtless. There’s nothing wrong with having a stay-in weekend once in a while, especially when somebody’s been ill and the other family members might be coming down with it.
Regardless, it sounds like your kids had a great time and I hope you feel better and your kids don’t get sick!
I thought the same!!!! My first thought would be to stay home and not spread the germs. I would have been cautious even if I thought it’s just food poisoning. Just stay home!!! We are adults and this seems super careless especially of you and Ryan, people who have kids. You wouldn’t like it if other came around you and the kids spreading their germs.
In hindsight you’re absolutely right — we should’ve been more careful and will be moving forward.
I admit that when somebody gets sick in our house my first “hope” is always that it’s food poisoning! I just hate how a virus lingers, and we have four kids, so it takes weeks for it to make the rounds…here’s hoping your kids are well!
Hope you’re feeling better now! Congrats on winning. Love your sweater (thanks for the link) but where did you get your hat? Love it!
The hat is also Amazon!
I am just now getting over the flu bug I managed to pick up Sunday morning. I hadn’t been sick since high school (which was like 13 years ago!!) so I had completely forgotten how bad puking was. Gives me way more respect of you mamas who struggled with morning sickness too…
Haha I couldn’t help but laugh when you said Chase didn’t get his competitive nature from you. I was recently reading through older posts and read one written by Ryan about things we may not know about you, and he said you were very competitive on game nights, etc. Maybe he gets it a little from you after all. 😉 Congrats on your win!! I’m sure the fam was very proud! <3
Ooooh games nights are definitely another story!!! Haha!