Weekend Get Away

 Our 5 year Anniversary is coming up.

To celebrate Joe and I decided to head out for a long weekend trip.

At first we considered an all-inclusive in the Bahamas,

but after having difficult finding all inclusive flights that worked with the times we needed and difficulty staying in our budget we decided to look for other options.  

My parents had agreed to watch Collin from Friday morning till Sunday whenever.  

We had friends who did a Bed and Breakfast in Charlottesville, VA which was unique because part of the B& B was a wine tour on Saturday.  

It was call Arcady Bed and Breakfast.

After looking at reviews and doing some research,

we decided this would be the perfect long weekend.  

Friday morning after dropping Collin off at my parents we headed to Charlottesville.

It was about a 2 hour drive.

We stopped at Trump Winery.

I have been wanting to go to this winery because it is one of the few wineries that lets you taste sparking wines.  

The inn keepers had told me that this was not a winery they took us to on Saturday so it was on my to do list. 

It was an amazing day- nice and sunny and cool.

We did a tasting out on the patio- $7 a person to taste 7.

We then decided to get a bottle of bubbly and celebrate because we had nothing else to do on a beautiful day.  

We stayed until about 4 pm when we headed over to the B& B to check in.

Our room was cute and just what we needed.

We check in and then check out and took a serious nap.

Around 6 pm after having a glass of wine and cheese on the Patio,

we headed downtown where on Friday's they have concerts.  

We got a small bite to eat at the SkyBar and then headed down to the concert.  

Very relaxing and enjoying evening!

Saturday, we woke up ready for a fun and relaxing day.  

We started off with an amazing breakfast!!!!

Then spent some time relaxing. 

We then headed out on our winery adventure.

Our first stop was King Winery.  

The tasting fee here was $7 per person.

They had an excellent Rose and Dessert Wine!

Then Pollak Winery

Our tasting here was free.

The wines here was ok- they had a nice patio which was great for relaxing.  

The Inn Keepers packed a nice cheese/meat spread for us.

With Chocolates!!!

Followed by Grace Estate Winery.

This winery was a huge mansion at the top of the hill.

Wonderful views.

This place had the best reds.

Free tasting here if you purchased a bottle. 

Last was Stinson Winery.

This place was nice and relaxing and had an amazing white!

Tasting her was also free if you purchased a bottle of wine.  

We left for the wineries around 11:30 am and were back at the B&B by 5pm.

The inn keepers drove us around in a van which was comfortable. 

We took a little nap and then decided to head out for dinner.

The B& B owners has a lot of recommendations for dinner, they sent us a whole list in fact.  

I forward this list to a friend who actually went to school at UVA for his input.  

After the B&B recommendations, and our friends, we decided on Mas Tapas.

If you know me- I love two things 1) Mojitios and 2) Tapas. 

We headed out about 6:30- Mas Tapas does not take reservations so we had to wait about 45 minutes to sit outside.  

It was worth the wait!

The Mojitios were wonderful and the food was amazing.

We ordered 6 different tapas which consisted of Papas Bravas, Bacon Covered Dates,

a Pork dish, flatbread mini pizza, and dessert.

It was an amazing dinner for $60!!!!

We headed back for a relaxing evening.

Sunday we awoke to another amazing breakfast and then headed back home to pick up bug.  

It was amazing to get away and have some adult time with wine and good food!

I hit the TARGET....

First off it is NURSES Appreciation week!

It is also Teachers Appreciation week.

Do not get me started on the fact that we have to share the same week and lots of places are doing stuff for teachers but not for nurses.... urrrrrr.

Anyways, I was looking for something cute and easy to do for Collin's teachers.

He currently has three and I love them.

I know he is totally ready to move on to the next class- hopefully will be moving any day, 

but I will miss his teachers.

They are awesome and just totally great with him.  

So I asked my friend, who's mom is a teacher for some recommendations and she sent me this Pinterest Link.  

I fell in love with the idea and went to work making it my own-

i.e using stuff I already have and a template that I found on the computer.

I put three of them together for his teachers.

It is a Target gift card with a little note from Collin that says,

"I really hit the TARGET with getting YOU as my TEACHER!

Happy Teachers Week!

Thank you for taking such good care of me,

Love, Collin David Hecker"

And then printed out another two pictures to put with a bag of chocolates for his old classroom (he still visits his teachers there) and the front desk staff.  

I changed the wording a little.

 They turned out great and it was super easy- less than 30 minutes and 5-10 of those minutes was trying to get our wireless printer to connect.

Happy Teacher week....

AND NURSES TOO!!!

Agua.... please

Collin is constantly babbling now days- most of it does not make sense.

But in the last two weeks more words have started to flow.  

Bird

Apple

Which I am accrediting to the play fruit he received

Blue Berry

Blue

Owl

......

and....

Agua

Seriously!!! 

Collin's teachers at school speak Spanish, which I personally think is great and encourage them to speak to him in spanish as the earlier he is exposed to it the better.

So Thursday he came home saying- Agua when ever he wanted water.

We have been trying to say agua and water so that he learns it has two names but it is "agua" to Collin.  

Free things to do with a Toddler....

 With spring officially here (THANK GOD!)

I have found myself looking for Free and Fun things to do a toddler outside.

Collin is now in constant motion and loves to be outside.  

Here are a couple wins that I have found.....

Fountain at Fairfax Corner

We walked up two weeks ago just to go for a family walk and much to our surprise the fountains were already on.  We walked over and just let Collin watch- I was sure he was going to be scared.

But nope- he wanted out of his strolled and ran in to the fountains.

(Yeap Clothes and all- because if I had planned this and put him in his bathing suit then by toddler rule he would have wanted nothing to do with it.)

We have now been up twice and can see this as a fun summer activity especially on days I am home and it is less crowded.

Another win was our trip to Frying Pan Park Farm with my parents.

One day I needed to get out of the house so Joe could work on his paper and take Collin with me,

I remember going here when I was little and thought Collin would love to run around and look at the animals.  

At first he was a little unsure of the place but he loved the turkeys and anything that was a bird.

 But I think his favorite was riding the tractors...

obviously not real ones.  

We went on the earlier side which was a good idea since as we were leaving it was getting more crowded.  Next time I would pack a lunch as they had a pretty awesome picnic area.  

Any other suggestions on free activities???

Happy Easter

This weekend turned out to be a relaxing, fun weekend.

On Saturday we headed to Van Dyke Park in Fairfax, VA.

Our daycare provider had recommended this park to us and the weather was awesome so we decided to try it out.

Little did I know that Fairfax Park and Rec was having a free Easter Egg hunt with activities and balloons.  Collin had a blast...

He loved the balloons!!!

And took a three hour nap after!!!

That night Joe's sister came over for a early dinner.  

We were exhausted from all the fun we had. 

Sunday morning we woke up to see the Easter Bunny did come to visit.  

 Collin received play fruit, a book, and bubbles.

Then we got ready to head off to the grandparents for the days.

We shot a couple of photos in front of our house before leaving.

Oh how I love this photo!!!

Over at my parents we did a Easter Egg Hunt and just hung out....

Collin had a ball finding Easter Eggs.

We squeezed in a couple more family photos....

We had a wonderful dinner and then headed home.

Perfect weekend!!

Fun at 2:30 am!!!

Our week has been an interesting one for sure!!

Collin had a fever of 100.2 on Sunday- did not think much of it.

On Monday he had 103.1 fever- I called the doctors office and they said exactly what I expected them to say- give tylenol and as long as he is eating, and happy then just watch.

So Monday, I was home with him and he acted completely normal.

On Tuesday morning at 2:30 Collin woke up screaming. 

This is pretty uncommon since he sleeps amazing.

When I went in to pick him up he was burning up.

I took his temp and it was 105.7.

OMG!!!

Now I am not the type of Mom to panic but this made me nervous.

We called the answering service for our doctor and they advised us to go to the ER because the fever was so high.  

Also gave him tylenol, took all his clothes off, and put a wet cloth on him.

So we headed to FairOaks at 3:30 in the morning.  

We checked in and with in the 10 minutes we were in a private room.  

Collin was such a champ, he was just sleeping in my arms.

We waited about 1 hour to see the doctor but our nurse was awesome!

The ended up getting a Chest X-Ray, urine, RSV/FLU swab.

They requested blood cultures but we declined them until the other results came back as this would involve an IV- this was at the recommendation of our awesome nurse.  

And in the end I am so happy because we ended up not doing the blood cultures as Sepsis is very unlikely.  

 It took about another 2 hours for all the results to get back. 

Thankfully I had my bag packed with yogi snacks and things to occupy our child.

Notice how happy he is even with a fever!!!

Then the results came back- Viral Bronchitis with left Pneumonia.  

YIKES!!!

I mean we made it over a year without 1 sick visit and with 1 major cold,

so when you get sick boy you are going to do a good job at it.

We were lucky because he had no respiratory issues, which I am grateful for.

So home on Amoxillicin we were discharged almost 4 hours after we entered

VERY VERY TIRED BUT GLAD WE WENT.  

It is now Wednesday night and the fever has been trending down.

He woke up this morning and it was just 100.2.

We had our follow up appointment with our doctor today and got signed off that he is doing so much better. 

All and all I can not really complain- other than being a little fussy,

Collin has been the best sick kid every- especially when he just wanted me to read to him for an hour while were rocked together.  

1 Year Celebration

I am not a crazy party planner,

I do not see the point in throwing elaborate kids birthdays especially when they will not remember it.

So when it came time for Collin's birthday,

I created a theme with stuff I already had.

Since Collin's birth, I have referred to him as my "Little Man,"

and every month we took a picture of him with ties that said the month on them.

(A friend had gifted this to me and it was so cute!)

So enter the "My Little Man"  Theme. 

All I really had to do was order some food and balloons from Wegmans,

make up a little activity,

ask my friend to make the cupcakes,

used yellow decorations and plates that I had left over,

order a cute tie for him to wear on the day, 

and that was our party.

Easy and fun!!