Faire Friday

We arrived to the Michigan Renaissance Faire grounds a bit later than we'd wanted on Friday. It was their school day, and so we were anticipating some screaming deals to get in. However, we lucked out and got the best deal of them all! A couple of people at the gates complimented the kids on their amazing costumes and offered us their extra, free tickets. WHOOP!! We got in for FREE!!

It was a gorgeous day. It was a tad warm, but there was plenty of shade and a nice breeze. We missed the costume contest by 15 minutes, so wandered around looking at the crafts, the wooden swords, and shows.

Oh, and we met the Queen!

 She and her royal entourage ADORED the kids and their costumes.

 Andi was terrified by all of the attention. We'd already been stopped a couple of times so people could look at the outfits, I think she found it a little overwhelming.

 Funny story, when I took the above picture my camera was competing with another flash! Another photographer was jumping on the photo-op of the queen with these gorgeously dressed children and snapped pictures.

 Then we went and watched the falconry show. It wasn't nearly as good as the one at Scarborough in Texas. But it was still fun to watch these beautiful birds (two Harris hawks and a falcon) fly.

 Peter enjoyed it. ;)

 Andi was not amused. She had to be taken away for screaming. But not before a couple people asked if they could please take her picture. It was not the last time that happened that day, either.

 All in all I think we were asked by 16 different people. Jonathan says there were people who asked the couple of times I wandered off, but I'm not sure how many. All together, though, we had a ton of people asking for their photos, and we got a lot of attention.

We all had a fabulous day! I will definitely go back on the school day, it was a quieter crowd and a lot of fun.

Fast-Forward

This weekend we said a temporary good-bye to David's the Ottos. They were David's Primary teachers a few months ago and they really meant a lot to him. David really looks up to them and enjoyed having them as teachers. We were doubly lucky because Brother Otto was also our home teacher. David was always so excited to see him and made a special point to say hello to both of them at church.

They are currently expecting (a girl!!) and are moving to Mexico for work for two years. David is really sad about that and hopes that we will still be in Michigan when they get back. I do, too!

Saturday night Andi and I went grocery shopping, just us two girls. It was a fun night.

Then we used her free meal coupon and went to Chili's for dinner, just us  two girls. We had fun, and it was nice to focus on Andi for a little bit without the distraction of her brothers.

Sunday we stopped by the garden and brought home some goodies.

The kids were so excited to pull up the carrots. So was I! Nothing beats the flavor of a garden-grown carrot.

That night Jonathan and I watched a few Doctor Who episodes while tying a baby quilt.

I discovered a really nice batting that makes the quilts even more squishy and soft after washing them. I'm never going back!! It was on sale at JoAnn's, otherwise I would never have tried it. But now that I have that's all I'm going to get from now on; Extra-Loft batting - it is good stuff!

Now this quilt is winging its way across the country. Should be at its new home tomorrow, ready to be loved on by a new baby. :)

Last Friday, half-way through our jog, David decided to step up his game and just jog. It was tough for me to keep up, and so I said, "David! You can't do that! It was so hard!" He got all wide-eyed and looked at me and said, "Mom! Are you WHINING?" He thought it was hysterical that our roles were so reversed. So Monday David decided he was done whining and was going to set the pace for our jog. It was incredibly hard! For our jogging stints he was keeping a pretty steady 11 min. mile. I wanted to die. 

After that we had speech, and David did his school work...

After which we all went up to the church where David has his reading class.

For FHE we ran errands. Lame, I know, but we're doing the REAL project tonight. So Monday night we went and found David new running shoes, shoes for Peter (he's still not walking, and shows no interest, so he needs to soft-soles shoes but no-one but the specialty shops carry soft-sole shoes for a size 5.5 baby), and socks for Peter and Andi. I can't believe how big my kids are getting. It is crazy!! David is no longer in the kids sizes, he's in youth 1 - 1.5. When did that happen? Target didn't have church shoes in David's size, so we've still got to stop somewhere and find those.

Monday night I finished off Peter's dress tunic. He's also got pumpkin pants now. All he is missing is the hat. That's on today's to-do list.

I don't have a whole lot left with those costumes:

Andi - Skirt waistband needs extending and buttons; collar needs ruffle; she needs a hat.

Peter - Needs a hat.

David - Doublet needs more buttons, zipper, and collar; shirt collar needs ruffles; he needs a hat.

I'll totally be done by Thursday night. ;)

In other news I went to my weight-loss therapy group yesterday and weighed in. Lost 6 lbs since last weigh in two weeks ago. Yay!! Between that number, David's desire to win something at the Chocolate Run 5k, and the MyFitnessPal app I think I'm headed in a good direction. :)

Friday

Today was a quiet day. We did lots of catching up with school work. We did lots of cleaning. We did lots of chasing after Peter who likes to climb on top of things and stare out windows. I sewed some, David rode his bike, Andi peed her pants (only once today, progress! She's taken to peeing her pants five or six times in a day... Go figure.), Jonathan went to a school thing. We had spaghetti for dinner and enjoyed a relaxing evening. It was a happy, quiet day.

Thursday

We woke up this morning to David running into our room and saying "I think I'm having a heart attack, my chest hurts!" at which point he threw up all over the floor. And there went out day. He felt better by about 11:00 and was eating normally, but we kept him inside and quiet the entire day.

Meanwhile, I went nuts in the basement and reorganized a few things and got to work on a baby quilt.

I'm excited to welcome my new nephew soon! Any day now. I so wish I were closer to my sister so I could pinch the little guys cheeks myself before he's several months (or a year :( ) old. Someday I hope I can be closer to family, not just for me but for my kids, too. Oh well, maybe someday.

Wednesday

We've been lucky (?) lately and have seen some fun things this week on our runs. So what do you think we found here?

 Yep. A mad garter snake.

 Then we finished out our run. We went a lot faster yesterday and managed to go a little bit further than before. Hopefully we can keep that up!

 Andi decided to ride her bike today. She went the full two miles without a complaint. She needed a bit of help up the hills and while we were running, but she still did it.

Peter, on the other hand...

Yep, he was out by the time we got home.

Just a couple more months until our run!

Tuesday

David did very well at swim lessons tonight. He was pretty excited to get to lessons, he's been talking about it all week.

Andi was also very happy to go to swim lessons. She also talked about class all week and I'm really glad that she actually decided to get in the water this week.

Peter enjoyed lessons, too. He was pretty tired, though. He was definitely done by the end of the lessons. We hurried home and he went straight to bed.

Monday

It was chilly this morning. No one wanted to get out of bed. But we have a 5k we're running at the end of November. So we all forced ourselves out of our warm, snuggly beds and went for a jog. 2 miles in 30 minutes, not too shabby. David didn't complain too much. And Jonathan found a gecko and David got to hold him for a bit:

Next up we had speech therapy. David did his schoolwork while Peter and I played with a ball.

 This evening the kids and I had a fun FHE lesson on the Word of Wisdom. We talked about how God had given us such wonderful gifts in our bodies and how we needed to take care of them. Then we bundled up and walked to a little frozen yogurt place around the corner (well, there and back was a mile and a half) for an FHE treat.

 Peter was just too adorable in his little wool sweater, hand-me-down Chucks, and his cabby hat. Gotta love that little grin, too.

CoolYo's is a self-serve place with lots of flavors to choose from, so it was a great place to take the kids. After dishing out your yogurt flavor you got to pick from several different toppings. Another plus with kids!

 David had Cookies and Cream flavor with gummy bears. He had the most because he didn't let go of the yogurt handle when I told him to let go. Oh well. He enjoyed it.

 Andi had Chocolate with some sort of pearl candies. She liked it, though she got too cold to finish.

Peter and I split pumpkin with granola. Yum! I love pumpkin flavored stuff.

Then we headed home and got the kids in bed. They both agreed that it was a good family night! :)

Snapshots

My week in pictures:

Andi's Dress - All Pinned Up

Worked a lot on this dress this week. Friday morning Andi said she hated this dress and didn't want to wear it. I said, "Tough." and made this face:

An Amusing Sign

The kids and I spent much of the afternoon on Friday getting Jonathan's gifts for his birthday the next day. Saw this sign and for some reason found it highly entertaining...

Balloons for Dad

 We made a trip to the Dollar Tree and the kids picked out the decorations and party hats, and David found a fun candy dispenser to give to dad (looks like a gum ball machine).

Chasing the Chasing Ducks

We stopped by a park before heading home to wrap all of the presents so that Daddy wouldn't know what his presents were. We might as well not have bothered. He guessed them all correctly anyway. Last time I ever try to surprise him!

Birthday Party!

 We had a birthday breakfast Saturday morning since I was busy all day...

Egg-Eating Cutie Pie

To the Ball - A Friend's Birthday

After the breakfast Andi had a princess party to head off to, I had a cake for a bridal shower to finish, and then I had a Pampered Chef show.

Sketches

 Somewhere in there I sketched Peter and David's costumes. Fun fun, I've got the shams already picked apart and a couple curtains to cut into. ;)

Today I taught the lesson in Relief Society. It was a good lesson! I had a lot of class participation, which I really appreciated. In all of the crazy of the week I was only able to really sit down and start preparing Friday evening and last night after my show. Not a lot of time! Thank goodness lds.org has audio recordings of all of the lessons! I listened to that several times as I was doing other things so I could have the material in my mind and start thinking about what I was going to do. Fortunately the ladies at church REALLY saved me and did all of the teaching. :)

Dinglehopper at Dinner

 Andi really didn't want me taking that picture. But whatever, if she's going to be all cute and Ariel I'm going to take a picture. We had Paleo Pad Thai with shrimp tonight. Yum yum! The kids picked all of the shrimp out and left lots of "noodles" behind. Stinkers.

Story-time Snoozer

Andi fell asleep during story time tonight. Poor thing. Long day. Longer week.

Bed time.