Catch-Up

Well, Goodness! We have had plans the past 5 weekends that have included either out-of state visitors or trips out-of state ourselves. Each week has been spent preparing for the weekend ahead...and now I am finally at a point where I can play catch up. October has been a great month...here's a re-cap:

 Two weekends (Saturday to Saturday) were spent with my mom visitng from Ohio. We had absolutely picture-perfect weather for a memorable trip to a pumpkin patch/ apple orchard. She got to tag-along for our busy weekdays and I got to fit in a couple appointments for each kid, while she watched the one of them at home. I really enjoyed having her here and being a part of my day.

We got a family picture in---which unfortunately doesn't happen too often, but then they are so treasured when we get a good one!

 Then we had Ella's 6th Birthday party. It was a "Royal Tea Party." I pretty much re-decorated the living room for the event. I have quite a lot of tea party related things...I could make a job out of throwing tea parties. Hmmm. :)

 Each of the girls dressed as a princess. They were so sweet and well-behaved. And quiet, if you can believe it! We painted, played pin-the-tail on the donkey (but a Rapunzel theme) and musical chairs (which was pretty intense for 5 and 6 year olds.).

 We used my late Grandmother's china. It was so fun to dig through it and all of the different serving pieces. She would have loved knowing Ella used it for her birthday party. My in-laws made it from Wisconsin for Ella's party. My mother-in-law gave me a hand for the party and the preparations, while my father-in-law got Cohen out of the house and took him swimming.

 These are the beautiful cupcakes that my friend, Amy made. How perfect were they with the table setting?! We didn't plan that, I just said "something with flowers and have fun with it." They were beautiful. We had fruit punch for tea, fruit kabobs and popcorn.

Next, Ella and I made a road trip down to Kansas to visit my Aunt. We went to two scrapbook stores, a Halloween night at a kid's farm/ play place, an outdoor craft show and played in my Aunt's basement scrapbook area while Ella played with glitter. The first night we watch "The Wizard of Oz." Ella had never seen it, but nothing fooled her. She questioned everything from the black and white beginning to why the tin man didn't really have a heart to the fact that monkeys don't really fly. She's  fact girl. Logic makes way more sense to her than imagination ever could!

We had such a fun trip together. She was amazing in the car. Hyper at my Aunt's house, but loved helping with her three dogs. I'm sure she loved the attention, as well. Oh, and my Mother-in-law so kindly made another trip back over to MN to help take care of Cohen while I was gone and Eric was at work.

Finally to this past weekend. I got to go on a scrapbook retreat for two nights! Lucky me! It was at a beautiful lodge in the middle of no-where with some really great friends....who became even better friends as the weekend passed. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time!

Eric took the kids to Wisconsin to spend the weekend with his parents and to go to a Halloween event on Saturday night.

 

I have some new Breast Cancer related canvases that I'm looking forward to post soon. And of couse, several pages from the retreat. Until then, take care!!