The Fall Weather is Here

None of the kids had school last Monday so they enjoyed sleeping in and it made it easier to let them stay up and watch the lunar eclipse the night before. Our day was pretty ordinary. We washed everyone’s sheets, the kids played with their friends, I did a longer bike ride on the trainer, and worked on fixing the shower door. We went out to 1000 Hills for a quick family photo shoot location scouting. The boys ran around exploring a bit while Ellie sat up by the car and pouted because she had to leave her friends.  She and Faith were having a water balloon fight when we left but they got back to it when we came home. I started working on our bathroom wall. We had a small section near the shower door where the drywall and baseboard had gotten saturated with water. So I dug out the wet drywall and put a fan on it to let it dry. That night Lincoln still had soccer practice and Ellie still had tumbling so I took them to those while Andrew stayed home with the other kids.

Everyone was back to school on Tuesday. It is Homecoming week so they also have Spirit Days at Ray Miller. Jackson wanted nothing to do with them but Ellie was excited. Her picture doesn’t do her outfit justice for 80s day. She got sparkles in her hair from her silver tulle and added some hair chalk.

I got my hair cut and colored while the twins were at school and got done just in time to pick them up. With all of my lovely gray coming in I finally have to go more often than twice a year now. It was a cool, dreary day. It was starting to mist a little when I picked the boys up but they were still out on the playground. When they napped I worked on putting a drywall patch on the bathroom wall.  Then a little after I picked the other kids up from school, I had to take Ellie and a couple other girls to their gymnastics lesson in Macon. Andrew came home early to watch the kids and took care of dinner for them. The class seemed a little better this week. Still, since they have so many girls they don’t get many chances to do things. But there was a little more interaction this time which was good. While they were having their class I worked on designing an invitation for Ellie’s birthday.

The sun came out Wednesday but the temperatures were still cooler. It was a nice day to open the windows and let the breeze blow through the house. I did some cleaning in the morning and swam some laps after dropping the kids off at school. Then I ran by Wal-Mart to see if I could still get a quart of a color that we got from there years ago and they were able to go off the paint swatch I still had. So then it was back home and I started repainting the drywall I repaired and the baseboard. Andrew went for a bike ride over lunch but was home pretty quickly because he had a flat tire and decided to just go ahead and come home. That evening we had small group but Jackson and Andrew also had football practice. I think he will just have to miss one more small group and then they will be done with Wednesday practices. Small group is still going well and everyone seems to enjoy it.

Thursday was Disney Day at school so Molly helped Ellie out with some ears and a shirt. Ellie had a couple pair of ears but really wanted to wear Molly’s. Jackson thought for a second about wearing his but decided against it.

After I dropped off the kids, I did my grocery shopping and headed home to unload and get some chores done. When I picked up the twins from school I could easily see that Miles had a bump on his head. Then his teacher pointed out some scrapes on his side. She said he got caught in a stampede at PE class-poor guy. After picking up the others from school my house quickly became a paper airplane making factory. The boys had started making them the day before and it continued on Thursday but this time they got out the markers, tape and stapler. We are quickly running through our computer paper but they had a good time. And the twins are obsessed. They are constantly asking for new ones. Andrew is definitely better than me at making them (I just have one basic style) so I like when he is home and able to make them.

We had dinner early that night and then Andrew and Jackson were off to football while the other kids and I got Ellie to and from dance. Jackson brought his football pictures home and I loved that he still smiled for them instead of trying the tough face.

Lincoln was putting his laundry away that night and was excited to see that I got him some new underwear. Poor guy hasn’t had any new pairs in quite a while and they were still 2T/3T. So I got him some 4Ts. Yes, he is six but 4T underwear fits him great. He is just a little guy. Well the next morning he was excited to show me that he had his new orange underwear on that matched his orange shirt (maybe he could teach Jackson a thing or two about matching J). He told me that he never had orange underwear before and that his new underwear were so comfy. Oh the little things that can make his day. Since the twins didn’t have school, Andrew took the others while I got a longer bike ride in on the trainer. I wish I would have taken the kids though as the high school football players were at Ray Mille and the Primary greeting the kids and giving them high fives. Someone snapped this picture of Jackson. He and the current quarterback have the same number (again the same number Andrew had as quarterback J).

While I was stretching and doing my PT after my ride, the twins decided to dress up as doctors. There was a little squabble over the hat, so I put one of the booties on Miles’ head and he thought it was all good. He had no idea what its original purpose was. I also got out my old stethoscope that I still keep around for some reason and let them listen to my heart.

But then the doctor stuff was thrown aside to bring up every truck and tractor they could find in the playroom and spread them all over the family room and they played with those until it was nap time. I put them down just a little early since I needed to get them up earlier to pick up the other kids and head to the Homecoming parade. While they were asleep I decided to go ahead and try to make a balance beam out of floral foam and wrapping paper for Ellie’s birthday centerpiece. Her birthday is still a couple months away but I wanted to see if it would work before I worked on other stuff for her party. I like to get it done early because it always seems like things are really busy around that time and it is nice to have it done and just have to pull it all out. But it worked. It isn’t perfect and I wish it looked a little better, but I’m going to just go with it.

My mom came over a little after two so she could go with us to the parade. The plan was to just have Jackson and Ellie walk over to the Primary from their school so that we didn’t have to wait in all the traffic. Well it didn’t work out exactly as planned. Lincoln’s school let out early so we had to wait a while before Jackson and Ellie showed up. We made it downtown in good time though. Jackson decided he was hungry so I sent him with some money and directions to find Steve’s Deli to get some chips. I wasn’t sure if he would actually go through with it but he came back a little later with three bags of chips. Then I took the other boys and walked him down to where his football team was lining up. I thought the boys would like to check out the fire trucks. They love being up close to them. Andrew met up with us on the way to drop off Jackson so he took him the rest of the way and then actually ended up meeting up with us later since they had enough parents there to help with the boys. They had the parade route roped off but the kids eventually jumped the rope to get to the candy. The twins stayed on the other side for a while but were getting frustrated because they weren’t getting anything so we let them go over too and then they were happy boys. At one point the dental students were handing out toothbrushes and a girl tried to hand Bennett a green toothbrush while she had a blue one in her other hand. Bennett wouldn’t take the green one and reached for the blue one J. Then they were excited to see Jackson and Bennett showed me how he waved to him. I think they all had a fun time. After it was done, Andrew picked up Jackson at the end of the route and I took the other kids home. Then we headed over to my parents for dinner and skipped out on the game.

Saturday morning Andrew took Jackson and the twins out to the ranch. Lincoln stayed with me since we wanted to make sure he made it to his soccer game and Ellie stayed because she had Kate’s birthday party at 10. I got on the treadmill like I have done the past few Saturdays. The running is starting to feel a little better but I still feel it for a couple days afterwards. I ended up running 2 ½ miles out of 3, so I am getting there. I am trying to follow everyone’s instructions of not running if it is hurting too much.  Andrew got home in more than enough time for Lincoln’s game since it wasn’t until noon. We stopped by the Vincent’s as we left to pick up Ellie and ended up being a few minutes late for the game. My parents were even there before us. After not being too excited at his last game, Lincoln really picked up the intensity this time and it is always fun to watch that. And he does it with a smile J. The weather was a little cooler than our first few games but the sun was still shining and it was a beautiful day. 

After his game we had a little down time before Jackson and Andrew had to head to the football game. We actually had 2 home 5^th grade games. The 5^th grade team is actually split up into two different teams that they rotate through at most games so this time they had Jackson’s team play the first game and the other team played the second. It worked out great for us since we had Luke’s birthday party that evening. Jackson’s team suffered their first loss and it was a hard one. They played Milan and it was actually their 5^th and 6^th grade team so they were essentially playing against a lot of 6^th graders. I was still proud of Jackson for trying hard and not giving up. Since it was less boys playing, he actually played almost the entire game which he enjoyed even if he was pretty worn out by the end.

Someone posted this on Facebook from another game and I love it. Although my little boy is looking older.

After the game, we went home to freshen up and then headed out to Matthew and Kristin’s for Luke’s Lego party. He was one very excited boy and my kids are always excited to go to their house. Jackson finds a Dr. Pepper first thing, Ellie loves playing with Ashlyn and the younger boys raid the basement immediately. Kristin did a great job with the decorations and cake and it is always nice to visit with everyone. The twins loved the icing on their cupcakes but left the cake so I just ate one of theirs J. Jackson enjoyed looking through Luke's new book that had different creations you could make with Legos. A picture frame actually caught his eye and by the next morning he had his own put together.

Sunday was just one of those days. We didn’t get to church and had thought about going to the pumpkin patch but that didn’t happen either. Andrew did get some work done at the office and I did get dinner made and a few things done around the house but that was about it. I don’t know if it was because it was cloudy and cool but there wasn’t much going on. I worked a little more on Ellie's birthday and made some cookies which  the kids were excited about. Andrew and Jackson did go out and shoot their bows in the back yard and then Andrew went for a bike ride.  Ellie and Faith tried to take advantage of the wind and fly kites and then moved on to trying out some science experiments. Jackson and Grace eventually joined in and of course had to double/triple the ingredients for their “volcano”. We have a lovely puddle of “stuff” at the end of our driveway from that experiment. They had fun though.

For dinner that night we made a last-minute decision to turn on Aladdin, put out a blanket and eat in the family room. It used to be a favorite, especially for Andrew and Jackson who spent a lot of time watching it together. The younger ones were hesitant to watch it before but watching it while eating dinner on a blanket in the family room made it seem better…and they really liked it.

I had to leave part-way through so I could do the grocery shopping I didn’t do earlier in the day and get to Aldi before they closed at 8. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. Even the checker commented on my speed J. I do like to see how fast I can get through. I think my record is around 6 minutes. But then I had to go to Wal-Mart which takes a little longer, especially when I let myself linger a bit and browse. This time it was looking for Christmas pjs and I actually found some for the older three. As I was driving home, I noticed Jackson’s scooter and jacket laying out in the Vincent’s yard so I stopped to pick that up. It seems like we have had more thefts of items being left out so those were two things I didn’t want to lose. Andrew and some of the kids met me out in the garage and helped bring groceries in. I still hadn’t taken the laundry upstairs for the kids to put away, so I did that and set out some clothes for the next day. And when I came back downstairs Andrew told me that even though they may not be in the right spot, most of the groceries had been put away. So I finished up what was left and did a few other end of the day activities around the house and called it a night.