The Farwell Family

Picking up where I left off last time, Jackson didn’t have school the next Monday, so he got to hang out with Lincoln and I for the morning. He got his first experience of going to Aldi’s and I had him use some of his money to buy some food for our church’s food pantry. He got a lesson in getting the most for your money and he ended up getting a few jars of peanut butter and several boxes of macaroni and cheese. I also picked up some stuff and we dropped it off at the church. Then that afternoon, my mom watched Lincoln for me so I could take the kids to a movie. Jackson had a free pass he won at church one time but it could only be used Mondays-Thursdays. So I took Jackson and Ellie with me to my OB appointment and then we headed over to the theater only to find out that they are no longer showing movies before 4 on weekdays. Ellie had dance that night, so we couldn’t go later either. We are still trying to find a time to go as we have things going on most days. And after our regular schedule for the week, we had a busy weekend too. Jackson and Ellie had games at the same time on Saturday, then that night we headed to Jackson’s Family Fun Night at school for a little bit before we had to head out to Luke’s first birthday party. His party was a sports theme and we were supposed to wear our favorite team apparel so we were all decked out in our Cardinals stuff. The kids had a lot of fun playing around the house and enjoying the cute basketball and baseball cakes that Kristin made. She did a great job with the party, especially considering they had just gotten back from 2 weeks in Gulf Shores the day before.
And then our Sunday was busy too starting with church and Molly graciously came over to watch the kids while Andrew and I went to a K-Life board meeting that was followed by an open house for people to see the renovations done around the K-Life house.

Then on to the next week, which included a field trip for Jackson’s class out to the Truman Farm. Lincoln and I met them out there and Jackson wanted me to be by his side the whole time. They had several different stations for them to go to that included using an old apple press to make apple cider and another old machine that was used to degrain corn. They also learned how to saddle a horse (which Jackson made sure to inform me afterwards that he already knew how to do that) and then we went on a short hayride to their little pumpkin patch where the class got to pick out some pumpkins. Lincoln even got to pick out a little one too.
And Wednesday afternoons are always rushed as we pick up Jackson from school, come home and quickly do his homework (of course he has been having more homework on Wednesdays and Thursdays which are our busiest afternoons/evenings), then take him to the after-school program at church followed by a quick dinner and then small group. And Thursday afternoon was kind of the same except it was Little K for Jackson and Ellie followed by McDonalds in the car on the way to soccer. This time Jackson had an actual game that was rescheduled so they didn’t have to play on Saturday which was Truman’s Homecoming. Ellie still just had practice.

On Friday we ended up having a last-minute dinner with the Vincents to watch the Cardinals game. The kids had a lot of fun playing together while the adults watched the game. We finally headed home around the 8th inning since it was already after 10 and made it back in time to catch the end of the game and the win-very exciting!
And the next morning was the Truman Homecoming Parade and I felt bad that I didn’t take the kids. We were slow getting around and it started at 9. Andrew was also willing to take the kids out to the ranch for a little bit if they ended up not going to the parade. He took them hoping that I would take the time to just lay around and be lazy but I always see these times as great opportunities to get stuff done. I have learned that I can’t do too much though as there have been some days that have ended with me having some stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions. But I have a lot of things I hope to get done before the babies get here.

Saturday afternoon Ellie got to Kate’s birthday party that was at the Hair Academy. They all got to get their hair, makeup and nails done. Ellie loved it. Then that evening I went to an Alpha alumni event with Amanda Truschinger that was out at Jackson Stables. I don’t think I have ever felt so old. I think I was the oldest alumni there, but there weren’t that many there anyways. Caroline and Molly were both there along with some of Caroline’s friends that were alumni. Amanda and I thought we were playing it safe in our “dressy” jeans but we were the absolute only ones there in jeans. All the girls had on the short, short dresses that are in style now with their high heels or boots. My big, pregnant belly even stood out more. So we stayed for around an hour and then headed home. Back to my totally different world where I switched into my comfy clothes and was in charge of getting a late dinner on the table for my family. I would definitely rather be doing that than going out like they were all doing afterwards though.

We ended our weekend by heading to the pumpkin patch after church. It was crazy that it was 80 degrees while we were there. This weather has been amazing. There was a good breeze though, which helped. Except for when we were in the corn maze and it got a little warm in there. The kids had fun with the maze, jump house and corn cannon. Then it was back home for nap time, billing for the office and mounds of laundry. I also started working on designing stuff for Caroline’s shower and for Ellie’s birthday so I can just put it away and all I’ll have to do when her birthday rolls around (which is going to be a very busy weekend with a few Thanksgiving celebrations, two birthday parties and a wedding shower) is pull it all out and set it up. So slowly, but surely I am getting things like that crossed off my list.
And lastly I have a picture of some of the new trees we had planted in our backyard. We had done some landscaping, but never got around to getting trees until now. We had two maples put in and up closer to the house with the shrubs is a weeping white cherry that is pretty skinny right now. We also got a white pine that is in the back corner of our yard.