Five on Friday

Whew, I have a bit of catching up to do!  I'll just start with last weekend.

1.  At the end of last week we went on a little 3 day getaway to Chattanooga.  It was so nice to step back from the busy school year routine, do some extra fun things with the kids, and have time with family.  We stayed at a house with a pool and hot tub the kids loooooved.  Both of them went from slightly hesitant in the pool to motoring about with swimming all by themselves within 24 hours.  It makes me sooooo excited for our spring beach trip! Anna Reaghan pretended she was a mermaid (a "wermaid") the whole time and really wanted to swim under water in the worst way but doesn't have the "hold your breath" thing down yet. ;)  We spent plenty of time swimming, some time playing games, and a day at the aquarium and the children's museum.  We ate lunch out two days in a row (we haven't taken all the kids to a restaurant since Lila was born... having 2 extra pairs of hands sure helped, but the kids really did great!).  Everyone slept really well which was another huge praise as the last time we went to the beach Asa flipped out about being away from home.  Both the big kids expressed discomfort/missing home at bedtime, but they both pulled right on through that and really handled the new surroundings with flying colors.  It encourages me that we just might pull off our trip to see Matt's family this winter without everyone completely losing their minds.

Hitting the road for Lila's first road trip!  The dvd player ONLY comes down in our van for road trips--and our last road trip was last November--so Asa and AR were very very very excited to pick a movie.

watching a huge spider crab

vacation house shenanigans

building an arch at the museum

2.  Monday was the second meeting of a Bible study I am helping lead.  We went over the first chapter of our book and I was facilitating the discussion!  Mom was able to watch the girls which meant I didn't have to worry about Lila melting down in the nursery while I was leading--it helped me relax so so much!  Mondays are our super busy day with preschool, Bible study, and dance.  Whew!  But we made it!  And that was the kick start to a busy but fun week!  Asa was so tired from his first day back at school after missing 2 days for our trip last week that he fell asleep during his quiet room time!

3.  On Tuesday we went grocery shopping--I try not to schedule that in for times I have all 3 kids, but that's the way it worked this week and it worked just fine. :)  We also took dinner to friends with a new baby.  Wednesday was a fairly normal day of preschool and then a big closet clean up here at home--our master closet was in need of some tidying. ;)

4.  On Thursday we went to play during open gym at AR's dance studio with G-Ma.  Asa and Anna Reaghan LOVED it.  She gets to play in the gym about 15 minutes each week at the start of her dance class.  Asa hears about it alot and saw it once, so he was chomping at the bit to have a turn too.  The gym has trampolines, balance beams, tunnels, a ball pit, rocking toys, balance, toys, and even a mini roller coaster.  They had SO much fun!

5. Today after we took Asa to school, I hurried home to feed Lila again and then rushed out the door to a mommy + me time at a local church.  They have themed activity days twice a month with different manipulatives, art projects, a story and song time, and a snack.  I'd heard about it from friends and thought it might be something fun to do with AR (and Lila) once a month or so to spend special time with her while Asa is at school. At first she was not too keen on going, but after I told her I was staying WITH her to play together (not dropping her off like at the church nursery), she was all for it and had a great time!  On our way home we stopped at a consignment sale to check out shoes for the kids--AR's feet grew 2 sizes over the summer!!  And Asa's up a size, too.  He needs tennis shoes and church shoes.  AR needs the same.  We found a play pair for Asa ($2) and a brown church pair for AR ($1) (still need a black pair), as well as 2 cute outfits for AR that were priced really well ($1 for a Talbots Kids dress in perfect condition!).  Then it was home for lunch and to feed our sleepy Lila bug.  Back to get Asa, and then we swung by Krispy Kreme as a surprise--I brought items for Asa to dress like a pirate and coached AR on pirate-y sayings like "Ahoy, matey," and we got a dozen free donuts thanks to Asa's costume plus a bonus donut for AR because she told the man behind the donut counter to "walk the plank!"  After each eating a donut and watching donuts cook and get glazed it was finally back home after our busy busy Friday.  Whew!  Tonight we'll have our usual homemade pizza for dinner to kick off the weekend!