Dear Daughters: Friday, Saturday and Sunday Bliss

Munchkin, Dada and I spent a weekend at home....all together...under one roof!!!! Yay!!!! I must tell you all about it.....

Friday: It was everything I'd dreamed it would be. Finally a Friday at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Well, besides piles of paperwork and chores (but I've blocked that out since then). Waking up on a day off is so much more pleasant than a workday. Therefore waltzing in to greet Hallie is even better on days off as well. She was in a spectacular mood and raring to go. I found her leading a reading group with all of her friends in bed. When I showed up she immediately put me to work grabbing her other stuffed animal friends throughout her room. She arranged them just so-so and the her storytime commenced. Possibly the cutest thing in all of Hallie Time. Ok, I take that back. It was THE cutest thing I've seen thus far as a mommy. She introduced each of her friends by going around the circle and pointing while saying "Melmo, baby, Dora, baby, baby, baby...." Before long everyone was known as "baby" just because it was easy to say I'm sure. So Hallie and the twelve "babies" read a book about "Melmo" and momma got scolded for hovering too much. She's growing up on me way too fast.....

Speaking of growing up....

She's not such a shrimp anymore!

I rounded up the dogs and took them to the vet while Nanny came over to spend a bit of the morning with Hal. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know at the vet.....my dogs are fat and they eat too much. Just like their momma, what can I say? ;) The girls had fun back home playing with every toy in the playroom. Nanny had dressed Hal in one of her new fall outfits and we left right away for a trip to the library and lunch with Riley. Well-behaved would be the best way to describe Hal during our outing. Shocking, I know. She must've been saving all of her silliness for when we got home....

She put her pjs back on in preparation for her nap. I guess she was planning on going into hibernation. And she almost did. Very long nap which meant lots of stuff was accomplished while she slept. I used my time to catch up on paperwork that seemed almost impossible to finish. I came close to finishing by the time Riley got home that evening. Hallie had fun plans that night to take a trip with Nanny, Papa and Grandma Ida to the Laverne homecoming game to watch her cousin Jake play. I dropped her off around 5:30 and met Riley at the house where we had a serious discussion about what we were going to do for our hot date night. It sounded something like this....."(cricket, cricket)....ok, fine, do you just wanna go to Charlie's for dinner?" Man, we are exciting! We were looking pretty hot too I might add. Running short and hoodies....what every girl dreams of. ;) Getting a man to make plans is like asking Hallie to take a chill pill. We had a relaxed evening going to dinner in Gage and then settled in back home to watch 21 Jump Street until it was time to pick up munchkin. We hear that she did a little football watching and a LOT of playing at the park with Nanny. All in all, she was a good girl who was worn smooth out.....

Saturday: It started a little something like this.....

While Riley was getting in touch with his feminine side, Papa was taking off in his purple heels downtown alongside other dolled up men in purple. The three of us went to cheer him on as he finished his walk for the "Real Men Wear Heels" event. Hal didn't even notice his shoes because of all the purple balloons waving around....

Hallie saw her friend Marleigh while downtown and gave her a sweet little hug. Sweet would be the word I'd use to describe Hallie Grace on Saturday. We were havin' a great weekend morning....

Jai and I went for a run while Hallie napped. I had so many other things to cross off my list that afternoon but the run turned out to be all I would accomplish. Well, unless you count sorting through and uploading all of Hallie's two year photos. I was beyond elated to find the disc of photos in my mailbox that afternoon. I was beginning to feel like a stalker in my own home....staring at the mailbox all day long! Photos always trump dishes, laundry and paperwork! The March of Dimes walk was on our agenda that day and was something we'd been looking forward too. Hal and I were representin' Team Tank again this year while Riley was sporting his neon yellow Tiny Toes t-shirt for the Woodward Regional Hospital team. I had a hard time getting this one out the door without her ginormous pink bag full of various items she thought were appropriate to bring along....

Alas, we made it to the walk minus the bag of tea sets and baby dolls....

Hallie moon bounced with her dad and friend Lily ....

Dug around for any snacks she could get her grubby hands on...

Danced her little heart out on the stage while the DJ played some good tunes (or at least she thought so)....

Bustin' a move

A rap song started playing and my little gal took off in a dead sprint/waddle all the way across the building, hopped on the stage and let loose. It didn't matter the size of the audience....she was feeling the rhythm and had Riley and I grinning from ear to ear. All the dancing helped her work up at appetite.....

"You're embarrassing me, mom"

We had the pleasure of sitting by this little ray of sunshine....

There was even more fun to be had for the kiddos after dinner. Selena helped Hal play catch with Teagan....

Saturday night we posted up on the couch to blog/watch football/color in coloring books. I'll let you guess who did what. ;) The evening ended on a sour note when OSU lost and Riley turned into a grumpy "my team just lost and I'm up later than I wanna be" kinda guy. :/ Sleep. Yes. Sleep is what we all needed.

Sunday: Somehow I was wrangled into going to early service at church which meant that we had exactly 24 minutes to get showered, fed, dressed and driven to church. Yeeeeaaaaaaah.....riiiiiiiiiiiight. It took us more like 41 minutes which meant we were 17 minutes later for service. But who's counting? ;) Two of those minutes were spent snapping this sweet as pumpkin pie photo of my sweetie outside before we left....

We had a wonderful morning at church with friends and family beginning our new study, 40 Days in the Word. After church we did what any two-year-old dreams of doing.....I pulled her around naked in a wagon full of water. I mean c'mon...doesn't that sound like a perfect Sunday afternoon?? ;)

"Heck yeah!"

Riley was a man on a mission that afternoon. I mean a big, big mission. He was putting his new chainsaw to good use (well, after busting a piece of the concrete fence) and forcing me to go into paranoid mode. His methods were a bit unorthodox but they were entertaining and got the job done. I won't share his exact methods for ripping down an old dead tree because I've since tried to block out the memories. ;) But just for visual confirmation, here is a snapshot of the manly man with his pile of work.....

Before behind the backyard fence

His little work buddy

Jai and I went for our long training run while Hal was snoozing. Thank heavens for my running partner who keeps me motivated. Six miles on the calendar for that Sunday. It was a long six miles. Let's just say that carrying around this extra ten pounds on my body is not helping me in the running department. Oy! Why does food have to taste so good?!?! Speaking of food, we had a fun birthday party that evening which meant cake. Who can pass up cake? Well, maybe some...but I'm not one of those people. So cake it was! The three of us made our way to Sam's 1st birthday bash a the park. The pretty polka dot balloons were a hard thing to resist as we walked up to the pavilion....