This week the kids had Spring Break. I decided to not only take the week off from homeschooling but also take the week off from working out. You would think my mornings would be less busy but I just filled them with other things. Monday morning I left Ruby with all the kids and ran quick errands to Ikea and Best Buy. Errands are so much faster when it is just me. At Ikea I grabbed a shower curtain that I had seen there at a previous visit and at Best Buys I got giftcards for Ben. I think the new shower curtain was a quick and easy way to "make over" the bathroom. Lucy took the picture so she did not hide the toys and fix the rug so this is a very real picture of our bathroom ;)

While I was at Ikea I looked at their fancy loft beds with desks under them again and decided that they really would be great for the girls room. I looked on Facebook Marketplace and managed to find 2. One was more than I wanted to spend so I figured if they would take my lower offer than we would pull the trigger and get them both. They took it! We ended up paying a total of $500 for both beds (and both looked brand new) and since one costs $800 new, I think we did good.
Monday afternoon the kids had friends over- Mimi, Claire, and AJ- so that allowed me the time to do all the Facebook Marketplace messaging... Then that evening Tyler and I went to pick up the first loft bed. It was a lot heavier and bulkier than Tyler had expected. We also had a very involved seller. He spent about 20 minutes showing Tyler how all the pieces fit together- only he had a hard time remembering- and then when Tyler went to put in the trailer he was very opinionated on what should go in first and how to put things in. It was rather annoying but Tyler was very patient.
Tuesday Lucy and Penny went to the Henry Ford Museum with Geli and Luna. and Ben had Andrea over. While they were all busy, Ruby and I went to Grace's home. Actually, we met Grace at the library first but that was kind of a bust- it was super busy- so we went to her home. I was worried about Ruby destroying her very not child proof and pretty house but Ruby actually did really well. It was a good time. Here are some pics from the girls outing. They always get spoiled by Geli and Luna's grandparents- they took them there, bought them lunch and bought them mood bracelets.



Tuesday night Tyler had to pick up the second loft bed so I took Ruby with me to hang with me in Novi while Ben had driver's class. This time we went and bought Penny her very fancy new water bottle (why are water bottles such a "trendy" thing right now?) and then we went and got ice cream at Chick-Fil-A. They have a little indoor play place. The play place itself didn't have much that excited Ruby but there were 3 kids there that she enjoyed watching. She just loves older kids. While Ruby people watched I chatted with the kids' grandma and uncle. It turns out the grandma has 4 kids and 2 of them are named Jennifer and Michael. Lol, it's fun to find random similarities. We had a good chat about big families and how fun they are.
Tuesday Ruby's nose had started to run and that night she came down with a fever. Thankfully the fever made her sleepy and even though she woke up once, she fell asleep again really quickly.
Wednesday I went to Grace's again- this time with all the girls. She was nice to have me over despite Ruby being sick. Meanwhile Ben went to AJ's house- he had lots of friend time this break. The girls played the Switch with Reggie and jumped on the trampoline. I had brought lunch since she had fed me Tuesday. I just brought frozen pizzas since I was feeling lazy. Unfortunately her kids didn't like that pizza so that was not a winner. Other than that fail, it was a good time.
That night I took Ruby with me again to Novi while Ben was in driver's class so she wouldn't be bugging Tyler while he moved out all the girls old furniture and moved in the new loft beds (I ended up getting rid of the bunk beds,dressers and small desk on Facebook marketplace, some for money, some not and that was an ordeal in itself) While in Novi Ruby and I ended up hanging out at the library there which we probably should have went to sooner. She really liked it there. It has different areas- doll house, cars, kitchen, blocks...It was kind of nice because there weren't many kids and they would all play in one area and then kind of switch so there was minimal fighting. She actually has a pretty good attention span these days and we passed the 2 hours easily.
When we got back Tyler was still working on their room- it was big project. I tried to lie down with Ruby in my room and get her to sleep since he was still working on it past Ruby's bed time but she was not cooperative. He finally finished in their room around 9pm so I put her down in her bed but she still refused to sleep. She did not go down until 10pm. She can be such a stinker.
Thursday morning we watched Mariah's kids while she was at a dr's appointment finding out her baby's gender (spoil alert- she is having another boy). Ben was playing Zelda so mostly they just hung out with him and watched him play. We also had a Lego contest for a little bit where we came up with different themes- make a face, a monster, a car...- and then Ben judged our creations. That was pretty fun. That afternoon Penny went to Mimi's new house. They live over by our church so it's a bit of a drive now. I wish they still lived closer. I ended up picking Penny up after I dropped Ben off at his class. Then Penny and I went to Walmart to try to find bins to organize their stuff with. After that I treated her to ice cream at Chick-Fil-A. We sat by the window next to the drive-thru and enjoyed being awkward and people watching. There was a man that came through the drive thru with a car full of fast food bags and trash. He made me feel better that although my car is messy, it could be much worse...
Friday the boys had dentist appointments. We had the super chatty lady again. She just loves our big family and loves to chat. She is also super understanding about Ben not getting braces (even if I have to give her the same story every time). Both boys have possible cavities starting because neither is apparently flossing appropriately. These teens of mine. That afternoon I took Lucy to a skating rink. We met Jenna and Stacey. Stacey and I hung out while the girls skated in circles. They were exhausted after two hours but both want to go back.
Saturday Ben turned 15! He's doing his party next week so he can go see "A Minecraft Movie" with his friends. Therefore today was just a family day. He started his day by opening his gifts- I totally failed to take pictures but he got 2 Lego sets (one set was from the Brady grandparents), gaming headphones, STEAM giftcards and silver coins (coins from the Hatch grandparents).After breakfast, we went to Dave and Busters. We still had the giftcards that was got for Christmas. Dave and Busters is sooo expensive. We used $150 from our giftcards and it only lasted the kids about an hour and a half but to be fair we have a lot of kids. Each game ranges from like 6-10 play points and they each had 165 game points.I think Chuck E is a way better bargain BUT the older kids love Dave and Busters a lot more. It's more their jam. They had a doll claw machine there and the middle 3 kids all won stuffies from it. They gave the stuffies to Ruby- 4 total- and Ruby could barely hold them all. It was pretty cute to watch her toddle around trying to carry them. We figured Ruby was spoiled enough so the kids all ended up splitting their tickets evenly between the 4 of them. The boys used their tickets for candy, Lucy got a squishy and Penny got Skittles chapstick.
After that we got Subway for lunch and then Ben spent the afternoon playing his new STEAM game with Steven. This was the most Steven has been out and around us for a long while, it was nice. I spent the afternoon cleaning and Tyler spent the afternoon sword making. Then for dinner Mariah and her family came over. We had pizza, cake and ice cream and it was a nice ending to the day. Since we have to do a nice cake for Ben's party, I decided to just have fun with Ben's cake for today and made a very wonky Steve face. Steve looks a little derpy but he will do.
Here's a couple pics Lucy took of their new loft beds. I am really happy with how their room turned out because both girls feel like they finally have their own space.