Weekend Recap

 We had a fun Fall weekend! I'll start a little early with our weekend recap because Thursday night we had a fun movie night and watched one of my all time favorite movies!

  It got us even more pumped for vacation in a few weeks. Even with our last minute (in Disney terms) planning, we managed (with some persistence) to get a lunch reservation to eat at the Beast's castle, so we talked all about where in the castle we'd like to eat, how our food will arrive (on a magic cart) and who wants to try the grey stuff for dessert.

 These came last week too, so we all have Disney on the brain around here :)

 Friday night was a pretty typical date night- Dinner and a movie. Saturday morning Matt and I ran the Tulsa Zoo Run. The weather was perfect for the run. It's a fun tradition to do (at least that's what I kept telling myself all morning).

I had my best time in the three years I've run it - 31:24 (103/600 overall female and 7/70 in my age division). Matt barely beat me. His time was 31:05 (184/453 overall male and 19/49 in his age division)

 We came home and watched OSU football and rested for the afternoon. The run wore us out. Samuel helped Matt snuggle in for a nap

 Nathan played outside all afternoon and Samuel played super heroes while Elisabeth napped.

 Saturday night we had friends over for dinner. The boys loved having friends to play with, and Elisabeth spent a lot of time acting sad that they wouldn't play babies with her. They were quick to take a break from playing for ice cream! We had fun visiting with friends and even playing a game while we kept the kids corralled upstairs!

 Sunday morning we went to church.

 Elisabeth was proud that she knew her Bible verse

Sunday afternoon, Nathan and I watched Enchanted during nap time. We just can't get enough Disney around here right now.

 After naps on Sunday we headed to the fair!

 The kids had fun playing

 And eating too!

 The treats at the fair are our favorite

 I've never seen Matt's huge cup of ice cream disappear so quickly!

We came home and crashed from a busy, but really great weekend!

Tea Party!

 My friend Leslie invited Elisabeth and I to a Tea Party at a local tea room this week, and we couldn't say yes fast enough!! Elisabeth was so excited to go to a restaurant for a tea party! She was all dolled up in her new princess dress.

She did have a little meltdown that it wasn't a Belle dress, but she got over it, kind of...

 She said, "I can't wait to show Audrey the pretty heart on my dress."

 The tea room was fun. The girls loved the tea, and Elisabeth only spilled about half of it all over her dress. Ha!

 The sugar cubes were everyone's favorite part!

It was a great lunch with friends, full of special memories with our girls.

  Watching Elisabeth develop friendships is just the sweetest thing. I can't believe how much she loves and talks about all her little friends.

We are looking forward to a lot of tea parties in the future!!

Life Lately

We've been settling into our Fall routine, and life has been busy! This season seems unusually full and busy, but we're having a great time even with all the activities.

Nathan ended up having a five day weekend over Labor Day weekend, so we did some fun things. We met friends at the park for lunch one day, and also invited his friend Joey over to play. Joey was the only friend he knew at his new school before he started Kindergarten. They aren't in the same class, but they play on the playground together pretty often. He had a really fun time at his big kid play date!

We also made it to the zoo over Labor Day weekend. The weather was awesome, and all five of us had a fun time! The kids got to feed the giraffes and loved it!

 
Nathan asked to play flag football this year. I really never thought we'd let him play football, but he's been so interested in all things football and he's on a league through our church that's just all about fun and not a huge time commitment, so we said yes. He loves it! He's definitely not the most athletic kid, but he sure is passionate about it. He's on a team with several of his friends from church which is fun especially since he doesn't get to see them as often anymore since Kindergarten started.

I think this girl was on the field more than he was during the game. She wore me out chasing her off the field every two seconds!

Sweet boy. If the boys obey at bedtime and stay in their beds all night, then they can have their kindles in bed one night a week. It really is a highlight of their week!

All three kids started AWANA this month. Nathan is in Sparks, Samuel is in Cubbies, and Elisabeth is old enough for Puggles this year. They are all three loving it! I think Samuel loves it the most. He thinks he's such a big kid now and gets to play games upstairs during Cubbies.

Nathan's so proud to have a Sparks vest this year. I caught him wearing it over his jammies one morning :)

Samuel and Elisabeth started attending preschool one day a week too. They are getting too big! I love the preschool they go to and they both have teachers that I know well, so I was excited about that.

Elisabeth was most excited about eating hot dogs and taking a nap with her owl blanket. I got her a little nap mat for school and she has to sleep with it every single night in her crib too.

She had a great first day and cried that she couldn't go back the next day. I asked her what her favorite part about school was and she told me that "Ainsley's mom was the best part." (Ainsley's mom is her teacher, and a good friend of mine).

She also told me when she grows up, she wants to be a pink butterfly :)

This boy was ready to start school too. He was really excited to be in the big kid class because they play on the big playground now. He still is talking about getting to play on the big playground and quick to let Elisabeth know that she's too little to play on the big playground.

He told me he wants to be an engineer when he grows up. Later that day he changed his mind and said he wants to be a car maker instead. Nathan was bummed that he didn't want to be a police officer because then they could see each other at work :)

One of the not fun things that happened lately is that this Little Cutie got sick. Everyone has been so healthy for so long, that I forgot what it was like to have sick ones. I took her to the doctor and she tested positive for strep. Poor Baby. But the antibiotics helped her and she was back to her normal self quickly. She is not an easy patient though. One morning when she was sick, she asked for four different cups two with water and two with milk of varying temperatures. And she is still asking to sleep in our bed at night since she did when she was sick.

She's not a fan of her antibiotics, but that's our only complaint, so we are good!

Last weekend we went to a friend's house for a football watch party. I am LOVING that our kids are a little older and they had as much fun playing with their friends as we did watching football. It was such a fun day and one of our very favorite Fall activities.

Elisabeth was enamored with the collection of Princess dresses that Makinley and Ainsley have!

We also met our good friends at the park last Sunday afternoon for a really fun playdate. These cuties (except for the little photobomber) have been friends since birth, and they have the SWEETEST friendships. I love their mom so much too. We played and ate a picnic and it was a great afternoon.

And we took baths as soon as we got home too!

This friendship between Nathan and Emma, I just can't get over it. They have a such a special bond.

While Samuel and Elisabeth were in school last week, I had lunch with this big boy! He's loving Kindergarten. He's getting so big, but still loves his Momma, and was so excited to see me. It was the best part of our day!

 We had our first MOMS of Preschoolers meeting this week too. It seems like we've been planning and preparing for it for so long, that it was exciting that it was finally time. Everything went great. I am so excited to be serving in this ministry this year. It's definitely a ministry I am passionate about!

And this boy is passionate about pajama day at school. He came downstairs as soon as he woke up carrying the jammies he wanted to wear. He's making great memories in Kindergarten!

September is FLYING by, and we have huge plans coming up in October. We can't wait!!