Day 3: Watermelon Ice Cream and Downtown Hiking

We had a great weekend! (A little late in posting about it, but better late than never. Work’s been crazy so far this week.) Friday evening I came home from work and took a nice neighborhood walk with Charlotte, who was all decked out in royal Disney fashion.

Aren’t five-year-old daughters the best? So much fun! Or it was until she developed a blister between her toes and proceeded to give up on life and our walk because of it. In the end, she had to take her shoes off and finish the walk hillbilly girl style with flip-flops in hand. My parenting advice would be don’t let your little one take a long walk in flip flops, even if they insist they’re comfortable.

Saturday was my special mommy-daughter day. I’m selfish and love to have at least one day a week all to myself with Charlotte. We relaxed and snuggled in the morning playing iPad and watching TV. I treasure our relaxing Saturday mornings! Then, we headed to favorite local restaurant Schoops for lunch.

It’s the second time she’s been there since restaurants reopened and they are still having issues with their cooler so no Green River float for us. But the patty melt and chicken fingers were too good! I love all the vintage 50s nostalgia on the walls.

Our next stop was the old fair grounds for a nice walk around the track. Charlotte is a very active little girl so taking daily walks is a must for us. This place was perfect because it slopes inward the entire way around making great hilly exercise for kids. It definitely wore her out! Walking is essentially my only form of exercise. I try to hit my 10k steps a day. With this simple “get up and move more” and watching my food proportions I’ve lost 20lbs! Slowly but surely I’m on my way to a healthier, happier me!

She even climbed her first tree (with very little assistance from mama)!

We stopped at Walmart to grab the Nostalgia ice cream maker because this little thing has been asking for watermelon ice cream for days! I love this machine. The instructions are goofy but once I watched a YouTube video on how to properly use it the ice cream turned out awesome!

After grabbing the machine and ingredients we made a quick stop at the Valparaiso public library so Charlotte could get her very first library card and check out some books all by herself. She was so proud and happy, and I have to say so was I. Being an author, I am over the moon that I have a daughter that shares my love of reading.

This dollhouse has been in this library since I was a little girl, and probably even before that!

Sunday we all went to Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve between Valpo and Chesterton. I had never been there before, surprisingly, but I really enjoyed the easy, long trails. It’s such a beautiful place! The trail we chose was 7 to 1&2, which ended up being about 5 miles. Charlotte hiked the whole thing, only wanting to be picked up once the parking lot was in sight again. I do have to warn any thinking of walking here that you might want to wear boots. It got pretty muddy in spots.

Afterwards, we stopped by John’s mom’s house to have lunch and set up her cable box. I got to look through all her awesome old pictures to copy some for my ancestry wall in our new house. It’s a project I have been having a lot of fun putting together lately in preparation for our move. It’s nice to have the time to get these little projects together before we even move in so it’s all ready to be hung once we’re there. Here’s some of the gems I found.

Next weekend I’m going to scour the antique shops in town for nice vintage frames. I think pieces with a history and a story are great ways to implement old with new in a new build like ours. My ancestry wall is going to be above my coffee bar in my writing space.

When we got home we finally made our much anticipated Watermelon ice cream. I am so happy with how it turned out! Here’s the recipe for the Nostalgia ice cream maker if you’re interested.

So, there you have it; a glimpse into how we spend our late-spring weekends. I for sure didn’t get an ounce of writing accomplished, but it was worth it. Family is everything and it should always come first.