Here we are, Week
40. This week brought us a new month, and we ended it by kicking off fall with
our favorite fall activity.
On Monday we were
all off to work, school and daycare, jumping right into the week. I was pretty
exhausted, and we had a pretty slow start to the day though – I REALLY need to
start getting to bed earlier. Seriously, my late nights are my Achilles Heel! I
had to sit on another interview panel today – and man am I seriously getting
OVER those! I’m really hoping this will be the last one, at least for a very
long time. The only benefit, is the day goes quite a bit faster being away from
my desk and out of my normal routine. After work, I ran some errands before
picking the big girls up from daycare….I stopped at the Vet to get a new
prescription card for Rico, and his million dollar food, stopped at Payless to
return some shoes – when I ordered the girls’ back to school shoes, they sent me
a completely wrong pair, so that was a pretty big pain to explain and return –
and finally Target for some weekly groceries and goodies. I ran into our friend
Sara at Target so we chatted for a while and we filled each other in on some
daycare and school gossip. FINALLY, I picked the big girls up and we played
outside for a while. When Christian and Eliza arrived home, he got to work
finishing up the pool cleaning, with his friend Lorenzo, and got that all
folded up and stored away for the winter. The girls’ friend, Bella, stopped
over to play and we ordered some pizzas for a nice, easy end to the day. We
watched some TV, had some family time, and everybody was in a pretty good mood
tonight. Not much beats that!
I can't hardly stand how beautiful this girls is.
Tuesday started off
REEEEEEEALLY slow, as in….we were all late slow. I overslept, and the girls
would not get out of bed for anything. Luckily I’ve continued to stay pretty on
top of my workload, which has been a huge relief and makes me feel a little
better about it when I have to take some time off…but, I still don’t have a ton
of leave time, so I hate when I have to eat into it. But, I just have to remind
myself…down the road, I’ll have more leave time than I know what to do with, and
it’s not something I need to worry about right now. After work, I stopped home
to get the dog out and grab some snacks and the soccer gear, picked the girls
up, and we were all off to soccer (a pretty chilly night of soccer at that).
Tonight I was with Amelia and she continues to do really well, and participate
in her practices. Another team mom made all of the kids little sweatbands with
their names on them, and they are SO COOL! Man, I wish I could do fun stuff like
that; it was such a sweet little surprise. Super fun, and Amelia loved hers. After
soccer, we met up at home for dinner. We ate, watched some TV, did homework and
settled in for bed. Christian has been working earlier and earlier lately, and
still staying late, so he’s been pretty exhausted. They still haven’t decided
what they’re doing with the open night supervisor position, so in the meantime,
people have to fill in those gaps. The extra pay is obviously pretty great, but
I know Christian has been so tired. My hardworking man!
Olivia lost tooth #3 at school today. She told me she pulled it out in the bathroom and there was SOOOOO much blood. Ick.
Amelia, rocking her new headband!
Wednesday was a
pretty standard day. Christian was up and off to work bright and early, so it
was just me and the girls. I’ve been trying to get the big girls to get up a
little earlier, and start getting dressed on their own so that I can get Eliza
ready while they do that. Some days it’s easier than others. I have to get them
up by 6:00AM, so they’re pretty exhausted…it’s hard to get them up and moving,
and some mornings are so frustrating. I usually just get all three of them
ready myself, but any little bit they can do on their own definitely helps. We
were finally up and on our way to our daily locations, and all went off without
a hitch. I picked the girls up from daycare after work, and Eliza was so crabby
and clingy all night…it always makes for a pretty stressful night when she
decides not to cooperate. While I dealt with her and tried to make some dinner,
Christian got to enjoy the “peace and quiet” of the great outdoors for a while
and cut the grass. I have no desire to cut the grass, but man does it make me jealous
sometimes! Eliza was off to bed as soon as we finished dinner, while we cleaned
up from dinner, did some homework and settled in for the night.
My heartmelters!
Thursday was the
most successful morning that we’ve had in a LONG time. We were all up on time,
the big girls dressed themselves, we left the house on time, and I arrived to
work on time. I mean, WHAT?! It doesn’t get much more perfect than that, ya’ll!
And, I finally, officially, signed the
big girls up for gymnastics today. They don’t start until mid-November, but
they are SO EXCITED, and I think they’re really going to rock at it. Gymnastics
is way more expensive than I ever thought it would be, and I still don’t quite
understand why it’s so expensive, but our community ed program, where they take
swimming lessons, finally has a program that is a little more affordable. We’ll
see how it goes…if they do really well and really get into it, I might start
looking into bigger programs again. I’m not sure what we’re going to do when
Eliza is old enough to start trying out different stuff – then we’re really
going to go crazy trying to schedule everything! After work, I picked the girls
up from daycare, and all of the little kids were all upset over something that
had happened. Apparently some masked stranger came up along the side of the
fence while they were playing outside, and started making noises and telling
the kids he was “going to get them” and scaring them. Then, of course, the
older kids had to make it worse by exaggerating the entire thing to the younger
kids and scaring them even more. As I was getting out of my car, the director
was walking the perimeter of the center to make sure everything was clear and
nothing was going on. I know they’re safe there and I’m not really concerned,
but it’s definitely kind of creepy. After hearing all about the incident and
gathering up the girls, we were finally on our way home. We all walked over to
Walmart for a few things, where I noticed Amelia had chewed a hole in her brand
new, never before worn shirt. Amelia has all of these weird habits and ticks
that she cycles through…blinking, clearing her throat, chewing on her hair,
chewing on her clothes. It’s so frustrating, but no matter how many times you
tell her to stop, she keeps doing it. Lately, it’s been chewing on her clothes…today,
the wrists of her shirt were so dirty and gross, soaking wet, and one actually
had two good sized holes in them. BRAND NEW. I was so angry, and embarrassed
her right in the middle of the store drilling her about it. A large majority of
her clothes are hand-me-downs from Olivia, but I try to get her a few of her own
special things every season...maybe I’m just going to have to stop doing that.
Seriously, big or small, I swear there’s some new issue to deal with every day
with those three kids! We finished up shopping, and walked back home and
started dinner. Our friend Sara stopped over with a bag of clothes and shoes
for Olivia, so while we chatted and I finished dinner, the girls played
downstairs for a while. Finally, it was bedtime! The big girls ended up falling
asleep on the couch they were so exhausted. Poor things, it’s taking a long
time to adjust to the back to school routine.
Throwback to our Sever's Visits, ahead of this weekends annual trip.
Friday should have
been my Friday off, but having switched with my mom last week, off to work I
went. It was a pretty quiet day today though, so it was quite productive. I
picked Eliza up after work, we grabbed the big girls, and made our way home to
play outside for a while. When Christian arrived home, Olivia and I were off to
the store to pick up a birthday gift for a party tomorrow, and we grabbed
dinner on our way back home. We all ate, watched some movies, and cuddled up on
the couch for a quiet night at home. We were all pretty worn out after a long
week, it was an early night for all of us.
Eliza is jealous that her sisters leave her behind...
Saturday was a busy
day. We had so much going on that Christian even stayed home from work for the
day! Always tough to give up that overtime. We showered, had some breakfast,
and started getting ready for soccer. My dad and stepmom came down to come
watch the girls’ games this week, so they met us at home and followed us to the
field, where we also met up with my in-laws. We all settled in at Olivia’s game
first…it was our first really chilly Saturday morning, so that part was no fun.
BUT, Olivia’s team played really well today…the game was all tied up, and
Olivia ended up scoring the winning goal for her team!! I have to say…after she
scored, she came running over, straight to me, and gave me the biggest, most
excited hug ever. It seriously warms my heart that out of all of us there, I’m
the one she wants to celebrate her success with. Makes me feel like I’m doing pretty
well at this whole mom thing. So awesome!! Christian and his parents ended up
leaving shortly after her goal, to get Amelia to her game…where we all met up
after Olivia finished up. Amelia’s game was not nearly as exciting…she was just
kind of walking up and down the field, not trying at all – very reminiscent
about how she played last year. She hadn’t been acting like that at all this
year, and I was getting so frustrated with her. After the game she said she was
upset because Olivia was eating a snack, and she wanted a snack too. Apparently
she just couldn’t wait until the game was over and she got her snack, she
needed one right then and there, and refused to get over it. These kids can be
so ridiculous! After that fiasco, we all stopped at the playground, and then
back to our house. We all chatted for a bit, until I had to get the big girls
ready for a birthday party. My dad and stepmom left for home, Christian, Eliza
and his parents went out to lunch, and the big girls and I were off to our
friend Annabelle’s roller skating birthday party. I was worried about the girls
skating – we hadn’t been for a while, but when we have done, the girls have
always been so nervous and wouldn’t really participate. They were shy about it
when we first arrived, but eventually warmed up, participated and by the end of
the party, they were actually getting pretty good. It’s so fulfilling to watch
your kids start to get the hang of something they didn’t think they could do,
to see them keep working at it, to see them so proud of themselves. I just love
those parenting moments! After the party, we made our way home for the night.
Christian cut the grass, we had dinner, watched some movies with the girls…just
hung out and relaxed for the evening. We even had a bonfire, complete with
YUMMY s’mores, of course. Once the girls were settled into bed, Christian and I
watched “Get Hard” before heading to bed ourselves. We do love ourselves some
Kevin Hart, but this was definitely not one of his best movies.
Soccer Morning
Rollerskating Birthday Party
Bonfire to End the Day
Sunday was our
super fun, kick off to fall day. We were all up pretty early….we showered, had
breakfast, and I got some laundry going. And then, finally, we were all off to
spend the day at Sever’s Corn Maze and Fall Festival. This is our most favorite
fall activity, and tradition, and it was such a perfect day to be there.
Amazing weather, our wonderful little family, some fabulous friends – just
perfection. My BFF Kari and her kids, our friend Misty and her son, the girls’
BFF, Bella, and her dad all met us there for a day of fun. We checked out the
pumpkin patch and took some pictures. The kids hit up the jumping pillow, the
corn maze , the giant slide and the hay maze. And then, we all traveled into
the corn maze to take it on. Eliza ended up falling asleep, so she got a nice little
nap, and we only got lost a couple of times, so I call our maze adventure a complete
success! After making our way through the maze, we were off for some pony
rides, a trip into the petting zoo, and a finally stop in the extreme corn pit.
One by one, each of our friends started to leave. We were all exhausted, dirty
and SO ready for a nap by the time we called it a day. On our way out, we let
the girls each pick out a couple of mini pumpkins, loaded back into the van,
and we were finally on our way home. I got right back to work on laundry, we
had a late lunch/early dinner, and before I knew it, it was time to load the
big girls back up into the van and head to swim class. Christian stayed home
with Eliza this week, which was probably a great idea with how exhausted she
was. The big girls were pretty tired too, but they did great in class. After
showering and getting them into their jammies, we stopped a Orange Julius for
some smoothies before settling back in at home. The girls had a snack, Olivia finished
up her weekend homework, and they were off to bed. I had a TOOOOOOOOON of
folding to do, so I worked on that while catching up on some shows. I already
knew that tomorrow was going to be an extra rough Monday…oh well!
Until Next Week!
XOXO
