Labor Day weekend was full of activity! I took Wednesday through Friday off from work to catch up on some house stuff (redoing the paver patio 3 times…).
Friday night, Joel’s aunt, uncle and cousin arrived from Texas. We went over for dinner — fresh picked corn from down the road! Yum!! Hailey opened her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Cassens. She loved the Paw Patrol stuff, the flashlights and walkie talkie were a hit! The kiddos got to bed relatively late and Hailey slept in until after 7 on Saturday!
Saturday was eventful! Most people got in later in the afternoon so I took the kiddos out and about in the morning while Joel went to pickleball. We went for a run with the MotR and then had coffee. Caribou’s systems were down and they could only accept cash. I didn’t have any cash, but this mom and daughter were incredibly nice and forced me to take their cash. They said they like to do random acts of kindness and would really like me to get some coffee.
We sat for a bit for coffee and then ran over to the Michaels to look at some craft stuff. After shopping and a diaper change, we ran back to the car. It was getting hot! On the path by the lake there were so many grasshoppers that were bouncing about as we ran by. The kids were fascinated by it. Hailey at one point got frustrated with a fly that kept buzzing by her, she yelled “Mommy! I want the fly to give me space!”
We headed home, Dan came and picked up Hailey to hang out at their house while I got Miles down for a nap. While Miles napped, I made a birthday card for Joel’s grandpa with my Silhouette Cameo and then went outside to work on the patio. Joel picked Miles up after he woke up from him nap and I finished putting down all the pavers and some rocks. It’s not quite level still… but it’s going to stay as is!
I got showered and headed over to Dan and Sheri’s in time for everyone to start rolling into town. We had a lovely dinner of pasta, pizza and all the carbs! So yummy! The kiddos had a blast running around with the other two littles that got there with only a few altercations and not too many meltdowns.
The kids got to bed pretty late again but it was awesome to enjoy family time.
It was a lot of work for the patio and I had a family of baby voles scare the heck out of me!
Sunday morning, I was able to do an Orange Theory Class before we met up with everyone. After the workout, we all made our way over to Sky Zone. We had some free passes from the birthday party and it worked out amazingly! All the kids got in free and the adults got to jump with them. We only spent $4 for socks per adult. Hailey had so much fun jumping into the foam pit. They went down the big slides that they had been eyeing the week before.. although they were not big fans of it! One of Hailey’s friends from daycare that had been at her party the previous week showed up towards the end so she got to run around with her as well. We got the kids nice and tired out!
I took Miles and grabbed happy meals for the kids and met Joel and Hailey back at the house. Miles ate and got down for a nap while Joel took Hailey over to his parents. I pulled the pictures off my camera while Miles was napping before getting a surprise visit from a coworker from my previous job. He was in the neighborhood heading to his parents house – I swapped him a bunch of Miles’ old clothes for a bottle of wine and chatted with him a little bit. Once Miles woke up and de-grumped a little bit, we headed back over to Joel’s parent’s house. Joel was ready for some relief as he had been watching both the older kids playing the whole time! Everyone came back to the house and we had Chipotle catered in, such a great idea! After we ate, we headed out to the porch for a family picture. It was HOT but we did it!
We went inside and sang happy birthday and cut the cake before heading back to our house. Joel was off to play pickleball so I got the kids home and in bed.
I was not so smart and left my camera on the ground while it was downloading the pictures to my laptop. It got bumped pretty good with the kids running around and the shutter mechanism wasn’t acting right — so the pictures of the cake, etc. didn’t turn out great… Most were over exposed in half the picture, etc. THANKFULLY, I was able to get it unstuck eventually… Joel is always telling me I shouldn’t leave my stuff out, maybe he is right after all.
Monday morning I went to Orange Theory again. Two of my daycare mom friends were there! It was a great class.
I went home and showered, grabbed a coffee, then met the people that were still in town at a lake about 15 minutes north of our house. The kids loved being in the water. It was starting to get real hot as the morning went on.
I packed up Miles and headed back to the house to get him some lunch and a nap (in a rush and forgot my phone at the beach.. oops). It was a struggle to keep him awake in the car but then just as much of a struggle to get him down for a nap! Joel and Hailey went back to Dan and Sheri’s while I edited photos durning Miles’ nap. He woke up but ended up falling asleep again and took a super long nap!
Once he woke up, I packed up my button maker and headed over to Dan and Sheri’s. I printed off pictures of everyone to make magnets and buttons, etc. The kids seemed to enjoy it for a while! We ate some dinner and packed the kids up to get them home at a more reasonable time to cap off the end of a long, jam-packed weekend.
Some of my favorites from this weekend:
- How much fun both kids had at the trampoline park! Especially jumping with Joel – he did some jumps over the top of them while they were in the foam park and it was adorable how much they giggled
- Seeing the grown ups having fun at the trampoline park!
- Talking to Joel’s cousin about all things neuroscience
- Catching up with my brother in law about all things Medtronic
- Seeing Joel’s cousins, we hadn’t seen some of them since Leah’s wedding so it was great to catch up with them
- Hailey running up and down the beach with Grandma Cassens
- Hailey lining up all of her Paw Patrol stuffed animals to watch her play
- Hailey and Miles playing with the flashlights, shining them at the ceiling, Miles using it like he is directing airplanes to land
- When I told Hailey that Uncle Jeff was going to be there, here response was “I love Uncle Jeff, I hope he chases me!”
- While large groups of people are extremely overwhelming, it was so awesome to see everyone together to celebrate Great Grandma Jean (although we definitely missed Joel’s other cousin and his family!)
