Home again, Home again...

After a great weekend, it's nice to all be back under one roof. Arnie and I went to Vegas with a few friends and the girls stayed with Miss Lauren and then Grandma and Pop's while we were away.

Of course the girls had a great time. Maggie talked non-stop last night about all the fun they had..... They made cookies, played, went to the Orwig's house, had softball practice, took Pop's blood pressure about a zillion times, and on and on and on.....

Gracie looks SO big to me. It's amazing how much she can grow in a few days. She seems so much more grown up. She's putting 2 and 3 words together when she talks and she's singing recognizable songs....maybe she was doing all those things before but after a few days without her she seems to be doing more.

Arnie and I had a great time with Ben & Amy and Tim & Jen. It's fun to get away for a few days. I definitly wouldn't want to go to Vegas all the time but for a weekend every few years, it's ok.

 

The football game was definitly the most "high stress" experience
of the weekend. At least for the boys (the girls weren't paying
much attention).

We may have created a monster....a Dr. Monster....

Maggie has been asking me to make a "real" doctor bag for several weeks. She wanted to have it to Trick-or-Treat, and to store her doctor tools.  Today while she was at school and Gracie was napping, I decided to tackle the project.

She was SO excited when she came home from school and saw it on the counter. After that we ALL had to play doctor for a LONG time. Grace, Reagan, the baby dolls and I, each took turns having our heart listened too (Apparently baby chocolate milk has a little murmer or "funny flappy noise" as Dr. Maggie calls it), our temperature checked, our blood pressure taken and our arm/leg wrapped in a "cast".  She didn't understand why I wouldn't let her practice with one of the real shots that I use to give Reagan her medicine and it made her really mad when I reminded her that we were just pretending. She was on a roll!

When the dolls weren't being checked out, Gracie was making sure they got something to eat...

I owe them an apology....

On my Birthday I took the girls to the park to try and take a few pictures. I thought Maggie might be willing to participate since it was my day :) We were only there about 20 minutes and I came home totally irritated and sure that we got nothing worth looking at. They hate having their picture taken, it's almost imposible to get Grace to cooperate and on the off chance that Grace does look at me for a split second, you can be assured Maggie won't be intersted in paying attention at that moment. I was annoyed! BUT today before I cleaned off the camera cards, I decided to flip through them and to my surprise, I found these......

I LOVE this one!!

And this one!  It so perfectly captures Gracie :)

.....I guess I owe my kids an apology!

Halloween Camping!

This weekend we went to Ponca State Park for Hallowfest and had the BEST time. This is the 2nd year we've been there and it was even better then the first. Teri and Joe did a great job staking out sites for all of us and as the kids get older it's more and more fun to have them all together. This year we had 5 campers, 11 adults, 9 kids and a dog (Reagan). The weather was perfect and of course the food, friends and beverages were all in abundance. We've started a tradition and I really hope we keep it going!

Gracie loves to be one of the big girls!

A little dance party...

Peek!

Thanks for the ride, Jayde!

Jump, Jump, Jump!!

You'd never know we had a dozen chairs, silly boys!

SMORES!

Time to Trick or Treat, YAH!!!!

Grace loves her puppy costume, but she wants nothing to do with the ears :(

People around here go all out with their Halloween decorations! Some of them are too scary
for Maggie, but she tried to be brave.

Dr. Maggie, reporting for duty :)

Everybody is worn out!!

Now it's time to clean the camper out and put it away until spring. It got lots of use this year and we truly enjoyed it. Before we know it the grass will be turning green and we'll be headed out again.

Look who...

.....is doing awesome with a big girl cup! By the looks of her hair, her combing skills could use some work :)

Whew! We made it....

Last Sunday was one of those times when I looked at the calendar and knew I better hold on with both hands because the next 7 days were going to feel a bit like being stuck in a spinny door! But here we are, a week later and no worse for the wear. Lots of meetings done, yard signs up, kid activities checked off and I'm a year older! Whoa, 31, how did that happen?

We spent this weekend camping at Mahoney, it was COLD, but a great time! Next weekend we'll make one more trip out with the camper for a special halloween camp-out, then it'll probably be time to put it away for winter :(

Here are a few pictures from our week-


Peanut seems good as new.


Maggie loves practicing softball, especially batting!








Happy Birthday Mommy!!


Poor Reagan!


"come on Grandpa! Let's go!!!"





.....and they're off!


Everyone had to take a turn warming up by the fire......


....even Reagan!








We've been to Mahoney lots of times, but never taken the time to go to the Activity Center.....we'll definitely go back, the girls LOVED it!











Grace was so tired she laid down in the middle to take a rest!


Look close, even Grandma got a turn climbing through the maze!

Thankfully this week is a little less busy (I hope!)