What a Great Weekend!

We had a blast this weekend! Friday night, Greg and I took Jacob and Grace to see "The Christmas Carol", a play put on by the youth theater in town. Jadyn and Grant got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so you know they were in their glory. I was not entirely sure how Jacob and Grace would like a play, but they loved it! They were watching so intensely. At one point Grace was in Greg's lap and Jacob was in mine. This was when Jacob Marley came in....that guy was scary. I think Jacob liked intermission the best (well, maybe not) because he stuffed himself with cookies. After the play, we went to Big Boy for dessert. It was neat to sit there and just talk with them about the play. The especially liked it when some of the cast members and their families came into Big Boy too. After dessert, we went to Walmart because I needed an extension cord for the beautiful decoration on my mantle (and they are). While at Walmart, we decided to stroll down the toy aisle and see what we liked. Then we looked for other presents for other people and then we got a few groceries. By the time we left it was 10:30pm, and as we were getting ready to walk out a lady was locking the door. My kids got a bit nervous, thinking they were being locked in. We went home and Greg and I wanted to go to bed, we were exhausted. But Jacob wanted to play a game. How could we resist? He wanted to play and it was such a nice night of being able to spend focused attention on my bigger kids, who usually lose out on time with mom and dad. So the 4 of us played dominoes, then Yahtzee - mom won both games, of course! Then it was time for bed. The issue was that neither Jacob or Grace wanted to sleep alone, but neither of them wanted to sleep together either. What ended up happening was a huge slumber party in our bed! Why not? Like I said, it was just so cool to spend this uninterrupted time with them. Not that I mind being interrupted by Jadyn and Grant - I don't - I love having them around and spending time with them too, but we all know that when there are little kids around, they require more attention. So it was nice to have the shift and give to Jacob and Grace. I think they liked it too.

Saturday morning Jadyn and Grant went out to breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, and watched a 60 car police parade. Jacob and Greg went to Jacob's basketball evaluation clinic and Grace and I went to Kroger's for Grace's Brownies Ring and Sing, where we sang Christmas carols around the Salvation Army Red Bucket. It was cold, but it was fun. After that we went to get Jadyn and Grant. Later Grace had a birthday party to go to. It was a sleepover at a hotel. We were not going to let Grace spend the night, but then the mom asked me if I would stay too, so we did. It was the other mom, me and 12 girls aged 6-11. Yikes! Actually, it was a ton of fun. But I am getting ahead of myself. We dropped Grace off at 4, then we had to go to Greg's sister's house for a late Thanksgiving/birthday party. Greg was VERY nervous about leaving Grace, so he have her his cell phone and showed her how to call me, if there was an emergency. So we were at Colleen's house, getting ready for dinner, and my cell phone rang. Greg jumped up and ran over to me. It was Grace! She was calling me to tell me how much fun she was having. They had already eaten dinner and had just had a pillow fight. "I am having such a blast, mom. I just wanted to tell you." If that kid isn't her father's daughter, I don't know what she is. About 30 minutes later my phone rang again. This time she was telling me that in the other room (there were 2 suites) there were bowls of chips, 2 TVs and lots of candy. She was so excited! Another hour or so passed and my phone rang again. Guess who? Yep, this time she wanted to tell me that she had moved our stuff into the other room and that was where we were sleeping. And, by the way, "when are you going to get here, mom? We are having so much fun!" So we left. I got there about 8pm. When I got there almost all of the girls had finished swimming and were showering and blow drying their hair. It was funny to see these "babies" acting so grown up. Grace and one of her friends, Soleil, were still swimming. They ran to great me, then ran back to swim again. As soon as they got to the pool, someone told them they wouldn't want to swim because a kid just threw up his macaroni and cheese in the pool. So everybody cleared out of the pool. I heard someone say something about it, but thought I heard them say someone pooped in the pool and I made the girls jump in the showere immediately. Just the thought of poop in the pool is disgusting. I guess throw up isn't much better though. Since the pool was out of the equation now, the girls needed something to do. I had packed my nail care kit, which has all my nail polish in it. So I pulled it out and painted 120 nails. The girls loved it. Then they decided to put on make-up and have a fashion show in their pjs. Our suites were right off the pool area, so they had their fashion show by walking around the pool. Well, sometimes they walked, but mostly they ran. Then they moved up the stairs and ran. There was one kid, who did not do this. Can you guess who? I am so proud of this girl. She came up to me and said " I don't want to go up there. I don't think we should be up there." And well, they shouldn't have...and they ended up getting a talking to from the hotel manager. But, I was the proudest momma. My girl stood up for what she believe was right and did not go with the crowd. I don't even have the words to say how proud I was, and still am! By the time I got the girls in my room settled and quiet, it was around 1am. After sleeping between one girl who was a bed hog and another girl who I feared would fall off the bed at any minute, I didn't really get much sleep.

So, Sunday afternoon consisted of a nice little nap with Grant. I woke up just in time to help my dad, Greg and Tom put up the "walls and windows" to make a room out of my parent's front porch.

All in all, a great weekend.