Weekend top 5 - an odd mix

So Here it is my weekend top 5. We had an inbetween weekend. Saturday was relaxed and Sunday was crazy. Not in order of importance, just what came next.

1. Friday night Mark played poker with "the guys" so I had a glass of wine and watched TV and went to bed early. Bonus for me!!!

2. Saturday was Dylan's last soccer game of the year. For picks check out this post.

3. I got to go to the Community Affair craft show all by myself on Saturday afternoon. It's a huge craft fair and this year I managed to finish some of my Christmas shopping and bought a few small things for me.

4. ON Sunday we took the boys swimming at the YMCA after church. They had a great time! Alex was tested for swimming skills and when he passed, he was able to go on the water slides. Dylan was the only one in the zero depth pool and loved having the place to himself. He even went under the waterfall. A first for him. All in all it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since I was in the pool with the boys. Maybe next time. (Shh, don't tell the boys after swimming I went in the hot tub while daddy was getting them dress. he, he)

5. Dylan went to a birthday party at one of the local gymnastics places. They also now have 3 huge inflatables so you can imagine how much fun all those 4 year old boys had. Also, no pictures since I took advantage of the time to do a little shopping. I even went to Goodwill and got 3 pairs of jeans for $15. I was in much need of a few pairs. I've been loosing weight and my fat pants were getting a little bit droopy.

So that's our weekend in a nutshell. All in all it was a good weekend. The only down part is that Mark has a nasty cold and he took Dayquill by mistake last night, and therefore didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night.

Go see Kristi at Music mom of 2 for at look at other Weekend Top 5s. Have a great week!

I Remember When

I remember when I played softball as a kid. I hated it! I was bad at it. My family made fun of me because I was bad at it (and that's after they made me play). They used to say that the reason I had so much trouble was because I ran too long in the same place. Talk about building self esteem, NOT! That's why I am so careful to always encourage the boys to do their best and not worry about how good or bad they are.

That's pretty much the only sport I ever played. THANK GOD!

Field trip fun.

ON Friday I got to go on a field trip with Dylan to the apple / pumpkin farm. First we watched a movie about Johnny Appleseed. THen we got to pick some apples.

Dylan loved to go in the weeds and between the trees to pick the apples. He was in heaven to be able to pick all kinds of apples.

Dylan also got to bring home a little pumpkin. Last year we went to the same place, but I forgot my camera so it was nice to get some pictures this year.

I have to admit. When Alex and I went on fieldtrips I never forgot my camera, but I seemed to forget it on every field trip last year. I've been so sad not to have pictures from last year. Oh well at least I remembered yesterday.

Look at this I even have pictures of both of us. Usually I never get pictures with me in them and here I am with my boy. It's always great when you have friends along on the fieldtrip to take pictures.

After school ended, Dylan's friends O and L came over for a visit. They had lunch together and played downstairs for a long time and then we let them hang out and watch TV. We love Diego in our house. On the couch with the boys is my good friend B. She's L's mom and we had lunch together and had a great visit.

Last day of Soccer!

Today was Dylan's last day of soccer. It was quite an experience this year. This year Dylan spent most of his time on the ground, or wandering around the field. Today he did a little better, but only because the coach kept on his case and kept him under control a little bit.

If you notice the blanket, it was a little cool today. On the up side though we only had one cool day and that was today. It was very unseasonably warm this fall which made for great weekends for soccer.

Dylan is # 7 and was actually in part of the game here.












Dylan spent a lot of time with his head in the net. Something about that net over his head was the highlight of his experience.

Daddy and ALex played on the other field and played quite hard.

Dylan got a ribbon and certificate. Yeah for our soccer star!

Weekend top 5

Kristi over at Music mom of 2 has started this new meme and I'm hoping it will get me blogging the fun stuff from our weekends. This weekend was very warm. This afternoon it was in the low 80s. We even had to dig out the shorts.



5. Yesterday I got to go to a women's day out event. They had lots of good things for sale and I managed not to buy any of it. It was just so nice to go by myself and get to walk around at my own pace. I even ran into some friends and didn't have any kids yanking on my arms begging me to leave. Aaah, bliss!





4. On Saturday morning Dylan had soccer. It was so nice to sit and watch together as a family. The 2 pictures I included are the only ones we have of him actually playing. He'd much rather wander around aimlessly watching everyone else play. Sounds just like his brother when he was 4.











This was the one time that Dylan was actually in the game going after the ball.









3. On Saturday afternoon we worked out in the yard and accomplished a lot of stuff. I got the outside windows washed not a fun job, but not as bad as it could have been. Mark did a lot of work on one of the flower beds that is way out of control. It looks much, much better.



2. This afternoon we went to the pumpkin farm. They have a big corn maze so we decided to try it out. We had a really good time. Lots of wrong turns and wandering around, but it was a great day to be outside.







Dylan and I were mostly bringing up the rear. Alex and daddy were leading the way. During part of the walk I gave the camera to each boy to take pictures, thinking I'd post some of them. However, when I looked at them this afternoon, Dylan took lots of pictures of corn stalks and Alex took lots of pictures of my backside. Not particularly flattering I have to say.









Daddy and Alex figuring out one of the clues. The way the maze worked was to answer a question at each number and the right answer would send you to the next number and somewhere in the middle were supposed to be clues. Well the clues were way off the beaten path so that took us a long time to find.











Alex and Dylan just love posing for pictures, can't you tell.














I'm not sure if Dylan was holding on to daddy, or trying to choke him. He had quite the death grip going on.


Of course daddy had the list of clues that he was guarding. He never let me get ahold of it that's for sure. Do you think that's a sign that he doesn't trust my sense of direction?













And here we have the ever popular animal picture. Don't we all look cute?

The boys loved picking out their pumpkins and sitting down to relax in the pumpkin piles. We chose not to take a hayride to the pumpkin patch being as how that was $24. for all of us and the hay maze had been the same. I hate it when fun stuff like this is too expensive to really enjoy and do whatever you want. Of course the boys were so worn out after the hay maze that they were ready to go by then anyways.

Dylan loved posing with the pumpkins. He's quite the ham.

Alex on the other hand, was giving me the come on mom, cut it out line. He hates having his picture taken.












1. Okay now that I've written a novel instead a short little post about our weekend, my number 1 for the weekend happened at church today. For one, Dylan sat with daddy today so I got to pay a little bit more attention. Second, Alex was great today. We've been working all fall to help Alex learn to follow along in the bulletin and participate in worship. And today it clicked. He was following along and even sang my favorite part of the liturgy. I was absolutely beaming and crying. Hearing his sweet voice joining along with Mark and I singing totally touched my heart. And he followed all 4 verses, plus refrain with no help. Our pastor even noticed and said something to Alex about it. I'm such a proud mama today.


So there it is our top 5 from this weekend. Go visit Kristi to check out what other people are doing.

Go Pink for October

In honor of all the women out there fighting the battle against breast cancer I'm going pink for October. One of my cousins is a breast cancer survivor and she has been an example for me in faith and strength ever since her battle began. She is a truly amazing woman and I strive every day to be half the person she is. When I was diagnosed with melanoma a year and a half ago I thought of her every day and just kept reminding myself if she could stay positive and have faith then I could get through it too. So, let's all go pink for a cure.

Fun Friday 4x4 Meme

I've been tagged. I'm pathetic at actually following up on tags, but this one is one I think I can handle. Kristi at Music mom of 2 tagged me and this sounded like fun. So here goes, the rules are:


Go To your Pictures
Go to your fourth file
Go to the fourth picture
Post it and tell the story
Pick 4 More people


The picture that came up is from 2006. It was August and my brother and sis in law invited us to Chicago and planned a b-day party for ALex. We started with playing at the beach.

Now at this point neither of my children liked getting dirty yet. So we did lots of digging with shovels and fingers. But don't get sand anywhere else. Then the grown ups dug the big hole and started filling it with water. Alex finally did get in the hole and let us put water in and get him wet (and dirty). After that he even let me bury him in the sand, that is until I got sand in his mouth. Really smart move mommy.

After fun at the beach (not much swimming was done, both boys were afraid of the water). Brian and Marcella had invited some friends and their kids for a picnic party. The boys had a blast. It was so fabulous of them to plan such a special day for Alex. He had a blast. I'm so blessed to have such a great bro and sis in Chicago.


Ok so I'm skipping the last step and just opening this up to whoever wants to do it. Since I haven't been busy blogging much lately. Join in the fun and let me know what you came up with.

WW #12 Wild hair!