Slumber Party

7pm- 5 wiggly children, 5 mattresses, 45 mini glow sticks, one movie.

9pm- 3 wiggly children, one sleepy mama. 1 sleeper, 1 wants to sleep with me, 1 begrudgingly coming to bed with me.

930pm- 2 wiggly children, one grumpy mama, 1 sleeper, 1 wants to sleep with brother, 1 (begrudgingly) falling asleep in my bed.

1 am- "Ms. Erin! I can't sleeeeeeeee-eeeeep"

1 am- 3 in the living room, 3 in my bed. 1 child sleeping on a matress. Two big boys, sharing one blanket, wedged on the floor, in between 2 empty mattresses.

6:30am- Rise and Shine, time to play!

And now we have all had a REAL sleepover :)

Feeling Fallish

After a really wet and disappointing summer we've had an unbelievable string of beautiful Saturdays to enjoy our fall traditions. From the first week of September I was adamant I would not go apple picking or to the pumpkin patch in the rain this year- I would just skip it! But instead we've been peeling off our sweaters and getting some much appreciated UV exposure!I had Brady and Natalie the weekend we planned on apple picking. So Eric drove up to help me run interference and Jen joined us with her kiddos too. We picked about 40 pounds and already have 13 quarts of sauce canned up.Then last weekend we hit Stoney Ridge before the crowds. We had "A" with us for a few days, he was our first foster kid and he was a lot of fun. It sounds like he'll be back from time to time, which I think is awesome because not only is he adorable but a really sweet kid too.Eric joined us again for pumpkins, he was supposed to bring his nephew with him (again) but Nicholas is like the typical kid this age and keeps getting booked up on the weekends. Oh well, the boys don't mind too much and the extra set of hands sure comes in handy whenever I venture out in public out numbered. So that about wraps up the fun around here. The next three weeks are booked up with packing, moving, organizing, patching, painting, cleaning, ripping out walls... you know, good stuff.

Reason to love Summer #182

Family Fun Nights at the neighborhood Baptist church.

We look forward to these all year. Carnival games, hot dogs, train rides, cotton candy and the Reptile Man. And the best part, those crazy Baptists invite the whole neighborhood for FREE, yep not a collection jar in sight. We have so much fun! In the past they hosted multiple fun nights throughout the summer, with firetrucks or search and rescue trucks visiting to climb all over and different entertainers. Now they are just once, but just as much fun.

Reason to love Summer #14

Evening strolls to Mallard's for ice cream after dinner.

Reason #135 to Love Summer

Afternoons at the river.

Wish You Were Here

Saturday afternoon, while lounging in the warm sunshine at the beach, I couldn't help but think of our friends in the mid-atlantic ahem...Jody...ahem. Who was just telling me how much Belinda is going to love the winters in Virginia. Whatcha got now Jody? 3, maybe 4 feet of snow? I'm thinking y'all should head out this way for a visit instead

:)

Who Needs a Pool

When you have a bathtub?
And if there are any trolls that just stumbled upon my blog...they all have their skivies on so lighten up.

It all started with the little one. But soon Natalie asked if she could come in too.

And before we knew it, the two big'uns just had to get in on the splashy action.

Oh boy, it looks like big brother has a little competition...

That's Just How We Roll

When you roll up the rug it's amazing how much exercise you can get inside. With these 50 mph winds and 7 hours of daylight, we're trying to combat cabin fever BEFORE it sets in :)

Here's Ashi trying to convince Christian to trade with him. He says, "Bubba? Bubba?" while pointing at the place he would like Bubba to put his bottom.

Great Wolf Weekend

This weekend we all went to The Great Wolf Lodge as a birthday celebration for the boys. We'd been wanting to check it out, an indoor waterpark with all the most important features like central heating and a nice comfy hotel room down the hall. It was a wonderful indoor waterpark, but the central heating was a bit lacking- so we still got pretty cold.

It was hard to get too many photos. I only had my big camera, Heather was borrowing the little one for her big weekend away. Which just adds to my disappointment at her total lack of trip photos, so here's what I did get.

We started out with our pumpkin carving. I had a sweet deal on this one. Papa cleaned out the guts and Auntie did a good deal of the carving.

Then we headed down to Grand Mound (Centralia) on Saturday morning. First we stopped at Cabella's to check out the camping gear. Ashi loved the displays of big game, including a large display of African animals. He even got to feed some gigantic fish, one little fishy pellet at a time. Christian ran about putting quarters into things and eating candy covered nuts. I really didn't see much of him actually.

The only photos I got at Great Wolf were from Trick-or-Treating and storytime. We did spend an excessive amount of time in the water, including Christian taking 7 trips down the Howling Tornado (4 story funnel on it's side- in the dark - ridiculously scary!).

The ferocious dragon and the brave knight. What? Dragons get swords too.

Slaying the Dragon before pillaging the locals for candy.

Mmmm, popcorn (and real hot apple cider). There was an animatron puppet-thingy show before story time. It was hard to hear, and they sang a super cheesy song over and over. As you can see, Christian had his lame-face on. But Ashi thought it was great, totally enthralled.

The Birthday Present

It's a plasma car, or a wiggle car, or just a Chinese Happy Child Entertainment Vehicle. And finally assembled thanks to Grammy's socket set.