Return of the Adventures!

We return!

Here's what we did while we were away:


Nate learned to fingerpaint:


With quiche.

We went to a birthday party for cousin Josh.


And we gave him a rib eye steak.


In our defense, that's what his mom said he wanted. He also asked for a jar of maraschino cherries, so Mommy got him those too, AND a whoopee cushion. Talk about an awesome birthday!

Nathan got a blow pop at that birthday party.


Mommy shall post more later but hey, a mini-update is a good start, right folks?

Apologies, apologies, dear readers!

I know that you all MUST be weeping and suffering withdrawals from our Adventurous family, so I feel compelled to tell you what we have *accomplished!* in our week of absence.

Um......

Well, Mommy thought about the taxes a couple of times. She sent invoicing for March. Um....Dadden did a couple moves and cleaned the backyard.

We have had a very busy week, but promise that true, tangible adventures will return soon! Seriously, do you really want to hear about it if the awesomest thing we do in a day is go to the mail box? Yeah, I didn't think so.

6. Chores around the House

Here is an interesting concept for an Adventure: this weekend, we practically MADE money on our adventure! By my calculations, the yardwork we did and the laundry we did SAVED us money, which is practically positive cash flow!

Our backyard was a disaster. I would show you all the "before" picture, but the camera refused to take it, and Adventure Dad threatened to throw me in the pool if I showed you all just how rotten our yard looked yesterday morning.

Here we are, halfway through the process of yard reclaimation.

Yes, I know the lighting is terrible. I am not a professional photographer, so you will have to suffer with my horrible composition.

Here is my daffodil bed, just beginning for the season. It will be truly glorious just in time for us to go to Hawaii.

Introducing Adventure Dog!


Playing with Adventure Dog is just too much fun. Here is Kidlet 2 posing with Adventure Dog.


Taking a break to work on the trike: Kidlet 2 will learn how to use the pedals eventually, but it's just not in the cards for now.


Kidlet 3 didn't take breaks. He folded some laundry.


And Beef Burgandy for dinner! Yes, I know I should write that out in French. I don't feel like getting up to check my cookbook to see how to spell it in French. Auntie Jenny can correct me in the comments. Thanks, yo.



Okay, now just promise me that none of you will tell the kidlets that we didn't have a real Adventure this weekend. They're pretty sure that playing outside all day for two whole days in a row, AND playing golf on the green, AND playing on their new playground equipment, AND playing with their doggy, was an Adventure. So please, don't tell them that their parents did all that yardwork and flower planting just to save $125/month on a gardner and $3/lb on wash and fold laundry! (Not that we would do that anyway, duh). The kiddos are pretty sure that our weekend was AWESOME.

Cost: FREE! Find a relative who needs their backyard cleaned and you could get PAID for this adventure!
Location: Anywhere!
Utils of Happiness: We'll skip this for today, haha.

Night Night, Gma!

Thursday, March 5th....FAIL

My dear readers, I am so sorry to inform you that our Great Adventure for Thursday the 5th was a giant FAIL.

Daddy went here:


And Mommy went here:


Poor babies did no Adventuring.

We will not let them down today!

The Trefethen Sails Again!

5. Roseville Galleria

The Great Adventure for Wednesday the 4th was an evening trip to the Roseville Galleria to ride in a racecar stroller, look at the lights, and play in the playground.

We set off with Great Expectations for this Great Adventure.


Walking around the new, improved Roseville Galleria is pretty cool. The mall is large enough to get a good workout, but at times seems too large. It is hard to remember everywhere you've been, and hard to cover everything without doubling back a few times. The new wing is very elegant, but has stores that I question in Roseville (do we REALLY need an LV, AND a Burberry, AND a Juicy Couture, AND a Tiffany's?) I am inclined to think this expansion was planned long before they knew what would happen to the Roseville housing market.

But I digress. The new architecture is very grand.

The new play area is expansive, and it is actually in ADDITION to the existing play area, so now there are two play areas: one in front of Sears and one in the center of the new wing.


We ate some Baked Ziti in the new improved food court and while Mommy shopped for many clothes, she bought zero clothes. Clothes buying is proving to be too stressful for Mommy. She needs some help from Auntie Jen.

Downsides to the new improved Galleria: now you rent the strollers for $5 and get 50 cents back when you return them (boooo!). You used to be able to rent a stroller for free at Guest Services but have done away with that little perk. This is actually a great disappointment, because they used to have double strollers and now only have singles (that, and now it costs $$). Other disappointments: they didn't put in enough bathrooms. If you are in the center of the mall, it's still a very long hike to find a potty, which earns a serious thumbs-down from us. You'd think they could have added enough potties...maybe in Phase 2, which should open later this year.

But we still had fun! Kidlet 3 LOVES riding in a racecar stroller.


And here is the first picture of Mommy!


Sadly, we were planning on playing in the play area after the Baked Ziti, but we had a double diaper soak through, so it was necessary to go on home.

This adventure was pretty cheap ($6 for the Baked Ziti and a juice to share). We consider cheap trips to the mall to be successful (haha!). This adventure is not going to get a very high rating though, simply because the double diaper soak through eliminated playground time. This Adventure was rated a 6.5/10, but I feel it had the potential to be an 8/10 had we gotten to play in the playground.