I originally started this blog post a few weeks ago and
never got past a few days before Halloween. So, it is probably going to be a
bit random. That week was a little more laid back with a few less activities.
Jackson and I continued working on his room by picking out and ordering some
new pictures, getting his new bedding set up and Jackson got to learn how to
spackle nail holes as we got his walls ready to paint. The kids had a short
week with Friday off which they were excited about.
That afternoon was Alex’s birthday party and we brought one
of their friends home with us since his mom was in a meeting. The twins were so
bummed they didn’t get to go because they had seen the course set up for the
Nerf war and really wanted to do it. They did get to go over after the party
and Leah was nice enough to give them some extra darts and glasses. Jackson
helped out with the party and then he went to small group and then got to go to
the K-Life middle school bonfire. They had hayrides, s’mores, snacks and fun.
He said it was a good time.
It was nice to not have to get moving early Friday morning.
The twins and Lincoln were the first up and ready. I got them breakfast and we
brushed hair and teeth and then I told Lincoln I was going to run. He said,
“So, does that mean I’m in charge since Jackson and Ellie are still asleep?” I
told him I was just going to the basement, so no 😊. I got six miles in and then got on with the
day. We made some cookies to take over to my parents since family was coming
into town. We went over to my parents around 3 and Andy and his crew were
already there. Ellie still wanted to go to swim practice that evening though.
She hates to miss it. More of the family showed up through the evening and that
night, Briley and Bella came over for a sleepover. I think they enjoyed
sleeping in the next morning and not having all the little ones around for a
little bit. Andrew, Jackson and Lincoln were up early though to head out for
youth deer hunting, hoping to get Lincoln his first deer. He was pretty
excited.
I got a ride in, finished up the dessert I was making for
the party that night and threw together some potatoes to cook later and then
picked up some donuts for the girls before going back over to my parents.
It
was a fun, chaotic weekend and the kids had a lot of fun. My parents had their
party that night and it was pretty much just family. Some of my sisters were in
charge of getting the Sanderson Sisters ready. They did a great job with hair
and makeup, which is good since it is something I’m not good at. It was a cold
night, but my parents had their heater and a fire going. It ended up being a
great night with some excited kids. And they continued with a sleepover.
We didn’t have school on Monday either, so we took advantage
of the day off and worked on Operation Christmas Child boxes. The kids went
with me to run a bunch of errands which started out with checking out the new
Aldi. They were as excited about it as I was and it was pretty great. We also
went by the bank, Wal-Mart, Sherwin Williams (to get paint for Jackson’s room)
and Hobby Lobby. We collected all the items we needed for the boxes and they
put them together along with some items I had already bought off of Amazon. Jackson
also finished up a project for Social Studies by sculpting and painting the
Egyptian god Anubis.
Andrew also worked with the kids to get their pumpkins
cleaned out and carved. He made the twins clean out their pumpkins and they
weren’t too happy about it. And Jackson and Ellie got to carve their own
pumpkins this year.
Tuesday was Halloween and back to school. I helped the kids
get going in the morning with some Halloween donuts. At school, I helped with
the twins party in the morning and Lincoln’s party in the afternoon. And in
between I decided it would be a good idea to start painting Jackson’s room. I
got the first coat done before I needed to go to Lincoln’s party at school and
was able to do the second coat after we got home and before heading out for
trick-or-treating. Thankfully, Ellie was able to mostly get herself ready. I
made a headband for her to wear under her hair to make the poofs and helped her
with her makeup. She was a little disappointed in my choices of makeup. I got
some quick pictures and finished up some stuff inside while Lincoln decided to
take off without us and meet up with Alex. Jackson went to Kiersten’s for a
little get-together. They ate some pizza and went trick-or-treating together. That
left us with Ellie and the twins and the twins loved every minute of it. I
really should have taken some video because they were so excited, running up to
the doors, saying trick-or-treat, Happy Halloween and thank you. We met up with
Lincoln and then we headed over to my parents for some dinner and then my mom
and I took the kids out around their neighborhood which was pretty quick since
not many people had their lights on. Jackson’s group was walking by as we got
home and Kiersten invited Ellie to come hang out with them for a little bit.
Andrew had been working on a project in the garage all week that he didn't want me to see. It was a Christmas present. He worked some more on it after we got back Tuesday night and he finally came in and said he gave up. He wanted me to see it so that I could hopefully help him with figuring out how to do the last parts of it. He had me come out to the garage to show me what he had been working on...he built me an advent house. It was so sweet of him. He was having trouble getting hinges on the little drawers and he thought I may want to do the pictures that went in each little drawer. Such a neat, special gift!
That Friday Ellie left school early to head to St. Louis for
the lantern festival with my parents. Andrew and I had the Lifeline banquet to
attend. We left Jackson in charge instead of getting a babysitter for the first
time. The banquet was great with great attendance. It was their second night
too. And Jackson had everything under control when we got home. The next day
was a decent day weather-wise, so I decided to put up Christmas lights with
Andrew’s help. I also trimmed back bushes and we were able to fix the
basketball hoop. In between, Jackson had the K-Life flag football tournament. I
only got to see one game before Miles fell backwards sitting on the bleachers
and hit his head. It started oozing blood so there was a lot of activity.
Andrew was gone at this point, so people were getting towels and ice, wanting
to know if I wanted them to call Andrew, a sweet girl cleaned the blood off of
Miles’s hand. I called my dad and sent him a picture of the gash and it was
decided we could just super glue it. So, I loaded up the boys and we headed
home, calling Andrew on the way. We got his wound taken care of and he laid low
the rest of the day watching some movies.
That evening, Andrew took Colton’s out to one of his friend’s
house who just had a baby and we had a little more relaxing night. The twins
have been taking over the playroom and into the basement with all different
toys using their imagination and creating all sorts of stories. And Andrew and
Jackson made a trip to Home Depot to get supplies to install a pull up bar in
the storage area. Jackson had been asking for it for a while and he was happy
to get it done. He has also been spending a lot of time trying to teach himself
how to do a back flip. It is more of a sideways back handspring, but he works pretty
hard at it.
Over the next week, we did a variety of activities. I
finished up Jackson’s room with hanging new pictures. He wanted to keep it
pretty simple. So it is a little sparse, but he likes it.
We had a day here and there of nicer temperatures, so the
kids spent time outside roller skating. They started in my house, but once all
the friends were coming over with their skates on to skate around our kitchen,
I decided it may be too much for our floors and kicked them outside.
And I found this picture amusing although it probably isn’t
to most people. This is Miles doing his morning chore of the week-cleaning the
windows. He didn’t let the cold stop him from doing the outside too.
Andrew had to go to court in Lebanon Tuesday morning and
then he drove over to Herculaneum to trade in my car for a new Suburban. He
negotiated with them a bit and got the price we wanted. The kids didn’t really
know we were getting a new car, so they were excited when he showed up with it
that night. And I wasn’t too much time trying to figure out everything with it.
I really like it though. The soccer club had their end-of-season skating party
one night, so I took the younger boys and Ellie to that. I wasn’t too excited
about going, but they were. It ended up being a pretty good evening of visiting
with friends though. And the next night I took them to the Primary School’s
Family Literacy Night where they had some minute-to-win-it games and were able
to each pick out a small book to take home with them.
This last weekend was a busy one. Ellie and I headed to St.
Louis for her birthday trip and Andrew took all the boys hunting Saturday.
Lincoln did get his first deer and he was very excited. They thought it was
just a doe, but it did actually end up being a buck whose antlers hadn’t broken
through yet.
Ellie and I left early Saturday morning to pick up the girls
who were going with us, Lydia, Madison, Lauren and Ella. It took a little
longer to get them going, so we got a late start and it wasn’t a smooth trip
down there. One of the girls got car sick two times and the second time, it got
on the seat and some other spots of my new car. It definitely could have been
worse, though. We had a day full of activities. We stopped at Sara’s first (I
got my car cleaned out) and Bella joined us along with Sara and Molly. We had
lunch at Fitz’s and Lissy met us there. The girls drank too much soda since
they got free refills and some of them got tummy aches. But they walked it off
at our next spot, the zoo. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and
Ellie was so excited we got to go. She loved all of it and we did get to see a
fair amount. Next up we made our way to Rockin’ Jump and let the girls run
loose for an hour of jumping and more. They were all pretty sweaty after that
and were excited to get some ice cream. So we went to an ice cream shop called
Serendipity that wasn’t too far away before heading back to Sara’s. The girls
played in the basement while we regrouped and ordered some pizza. After pizza,
we headed to City Museum. Sara and Molly opted out of this part of the
adventure, but we picked up Lissy on our way. Lissy and I found us a spot to
sit and we just let the girls do their thing. They would stop by every now and
then but it seemed like they were having a lot of fun. Ellie said they did
argue a bit about what to do because we told them they had to stay together. We
didn’t leave there until around 11 and we had some tired girls. And it was kind
of frustrating to run into slow traffic leaving downtown. We dropped Lissy off
and made our way back to Sara’s and I think most of the girls were asleep when
we got there. We set them all up down in the basement and we all settled in for
some sleep. The next morning, I got ready and went to fill up and get some
donuts to go along with the muffins that Sara made. The girls slowly got ready
and we left for Kirksville around 10. I got approval from Madison’s mom to give
her some Dramamine and we had her sit in one of the middle seats and the ride
home was much better. We stopped in Hannibal for some lunch, got back to
Kirksville close to 2 and dropped everyone off. Ellie was very grateful for a
fun weekend and a great way to celebrate turning 11.
Almost as soon as we got home, Ellie was out the door again
with Andrew to go out to his parents and see Lauren, who had gotten into town
Friday night. Andrew and Jackson hunted for a little bit until it was dark. The
younger boys got to hang out with me but actually spent most of the
afternoon/evening playing with friends while I tackled laundry and cleaning up
the car and house. I think we were all ready for bed that night.
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