But first!

• Read Our Monthly Themes for Play:

  • for our full list of themes

  • and to learn why we loveeee monthly themes.

april’s themes:

• a hodge podge of nature and animals

  • but I’ll keep arctic animals to January, farm animals to March, birds to May, insects to June, ocean animals to July, and forest animals to September.

    • see this post for the full list of monthly play themes

• we love to go to the zoo this time of year, so this play theme about animals is perfect timing!

But first!

• Read Our Monthly Themes for Play:

  • for our full list of themes

  • and to learn why we loveeee monthly themes.

March’s themes:

• farms + produce + farm animals

But first!

• Read Our Monthly Themes for Play:

  • for our full list of themes

  • and to learn why we loveeee monthly themes.

February’s themes:

• Valentines-y

  • love, kindness, family, hearts, tea parties, mail

my parents got an Airstream awhile back.

and this summer, they got a bigger Airstream.

“would you like our smaller airstream?” they asked, “we’d like to see the country with our grandkids.”

well, yeah.

so here we are.

and here’s the post with allllll the details.

and i’ll update this post as we learn the ropes, as we go on trips, as we organize every square inch.

consider this post a place I’m always adding our travel, camping, and small space favorites.

weeeee!

I’ve learned I need quiet movement several times a week.
No earbuds, no instructors, no music, no conversation, no audiobooks, no podcasts, no noise.
Prioritizing this several times a week changed my life.

This quiet movement time is when I:
✨ brainstorm ideas
✨ work through problems
✨ sit with feelings
✨ think of solutions
✨ sort through priorities
✨ let thoughts bubble up.

Prioritizing this quiet, distraction-free time to move my body in a way that brings me joy is one of my favorite ways to take care of myself, one of my favorite ways to recharge.

I swear by this time for my creativity, my productivity, and my overall well-being. And one of my favorite ways is to take an early morning walk around the neighborhood in a weighted vest.

Let me back up.

in doing our weekly menu plan, I noticed we have two upcoming days we see family, the day we see my family for Christmas, and the day we see Brett’s - aka two days where I really don’t know what time we’re getting home, how hungry we’ll be, if we’ll have leftovers gifted to us, etc.

so I wanted to take care of Future Haley by planning an easy dinner that’s not too heavy, but could be filling. a dinner that felt festive and special, but that also could be saved for another time if we end up not needing it.

and since one of these days in question is a Saturday, I naturally leaned towards doing something along the lines of our weekly Snack Dinner Saturday.

and then it dawned on me: could we do a special hybrid of a Hot Cocoa Bar meets a Snack Dinner?

it checked all my boxes: easy, festive, filling, repurpose-able.

perfect!

mmmm, I love New Years. the blank slate, the possibility of a new year, the reflection upon the old year.

but most importantly, I love the opportunity for another food tradition.

here are our new year traditions!

Saturdays are for Family Adventures.

Unless we need a House Day.

Let me back up.

joey turns one soon.

can you believe it?

I thought I’d share what we’re doing to celebrate his big day, in case you’re like me and love peeking into people’s gifts, traditions, and celebrations. ;)

(and since he’s the second child, we already have all his favorite toys, thanks to his sister. so I thought I’d also share a list of the toys he loves, in case you’re looking for gift ideas.)