May Long Weekend - With a Touch of Freedom!

We never plan anything special for May Long Weekend. This year was no different, but it still filled up!

Saturday David and I were both at the church for a few hours. We were filming/recording some worship songs to be played with the live stream church services. It was a beautiful set, and Dave and Joel were professional camera men (but for real... they actually are professional videographer/producers). It was so so nice to be in the church, playing bass again with the team - I didn't realize how much I'd been missing that part of my normal. 

Both Dave and I had do to a triple-check to see whether that was him or Joel manning this camera. They both dressed similarly, they're the same height, both have dark hair and blue eyes, and have similar builds. Two peas in a pod. (for the record, it is Joel, and we only know because Dave was using his gimbal instead of the wheelie tripod to film) 

Blurry pic, but you get the idea - especially when all the lights were off

Brittany's team recorded after us, so I stayed to watch one song. They did a beautiful job and I wish I could have stayed longer! There are perks to Dave being so involved with church stuff lately; Brittany made a loaf of sourdough for us to appreciate all Dave has been doing for the church! (NOM NOM)

In the morning I dropped the kids off with my parents, and Mom brought them back home for nap/quiet time. She then offered to take them overnight on Sunday night so Dave and I could have some "free time". Sooo nice! 

We had scored an IKEA Kura bed on Craigslist for $50 (seriously, such a steal - and they threw in a $200 bike for free...). I decided on a whim that I wanted Dom & Emilia to share a room this summer so that they could have one A/C unit, and we could have one A/C unit. I'm also working on convincing Dave we can have another baby in this house ;). (No, not pregnant). 

On Sunday we brought the kids to Mom & Dad's after naptime. Dropped them off, and set off to enjoy our free time. Okay, really we went and ran errands for a bit, came home and unloaded the van and disassembled his crib/toddler bed. We then realized we were getting hangry, so we went and picked up some Hey Y'all drinks (hard iced tea) that Adam was giving away, and bought sushi. We ate sushi at our quiet kitchen island with our new Marketplace stools, relishing in the peace. 

Then, it was time to crack a drink and tackle this IKEA bed assembly. We have a pretty good system for IKEA furniture now after 7.5 years of marriage. I read the instructions and boss him around, and pretend to help with the labor. We got it all set up and couldn't WAIT to show Dom the next day (today). It probably helped that David put on the Greatest Showman album for me - it always puts me in a good mood.

Oh yea it came with this tent, too. I had full expectations that Dom wouldn't want to sleep in this bed, and/or with this tent. We brought our Trofast shelf from the nook on our stairs up so he could use that as stairs instead of the ladder.

We followed up our furniture adventure with a game of crib and drinks on the patio. So nice!

In the meantime, Mom & Dad have decided to try have the kids share a room at their place AND share a bed. They have a queen size murphy bed, so they put Dom & Em to bed together, sharing a bed for the first time ever. It went pretty much exactly how I expected. They played and giggled and made funny noises and talked and laughed hysterically until 8:30, and then were up at 6:30 jumping on the bed singing the "pancake song" according to Dom. 

This morning Dave and I slept in til 7 (this is a big deal; 1-2 hours later than normal for us), and then took Sherlock for a nice morning walk at Tynehead. It was PACKED. We couldn't get a spot in the paved loop lot on 96th, so we went to the off-leash lot, and even that was almost full. Didn't expect that! After our walk we went to my parents house and had crepes for brunch with the kidlets and took them home for nap/quiet time. 

Love the yellow buttercups!

Mom and Dad said the kids were a piece of cake (or "can of corn" as my Mom says... not sure I get that) - perfect angels. Guess that means we can ship them off more often ;)

We are kind of enjoying entering this new "no baby" phase of life. No more baby gates, setting up big kid rooms, the kids can communicate with us, they play with each other, everyone eats regular food, we only change a few diapers a day for Emilia, I am not a complete necessity all the time, etc. etc. It makes the decision to have more kids an actual discussion - hence the me having to convince Dave. I know if we do have more babies, we will one day hit this point of "no baby" phase again eventually. 

Coming home meant we got to show Dom his new bed! We rushed Emilia to sleep as she was getting cranky, and brought Dom to his room. He does not like surprises (much like me this way), so I'd been prepping him for days, showing him pictures of what his bed might look like, and explaining that it's a high bed, and that the crib would be gone, etc. Oh my gosh he was so excited. He spent almost the entire afternoon playing in it, and insisted on video-chatting almost everyone in the family to show them his new bedroom. He's also very excited for Emilia to sleep "beneath" him (he always says beneath instead of under and I love it), so that transition should be a good one this summer. 

So excited! His reaction was better than I expected - probably because we'd mentally prepared him so much.

Dave and I both napped again while the kids rested, and I felt wonderful this afternoon. Apparently I haven't been well-rested in a while. 

Tonight we watched the airplanes fly over in honour of the Snowbird plane that crashed in Kamloops. The Snowbirds were doing a flight tour around the country to encourage people during this COVID crisis, and one plane crashed killing one person yesterday. So tragic. 

Don't mind his plumber's butt haha. I didn't notice it until now. He's such a big kid - man. Looks like a 5 year old, not a 3 year old!

Dom is in his new bed now, and I can't believe how well he's adjusted to all this change (sleeping at Opa and Oma's, sharing a bed with Emilia, sleeping in a new bed at home that also happens to be a few feet off the floor, etc.). He's becoming more confident by the day!