What a weekend! It had its ups & its downs. I think we had more busts this weekend than ever, & yet, we all agreed that lessons were learned. So here it is...
Friday: The boys got invited to a sleep over with friends, so we lined it up for Lauryn to also have a night away with a friend as well. Jim & I thought we would enjoy some time together, so we first took in my mini-van that needed work. *Negative - paying the bill. *Positive - we have a vehicle to drive our family around in. And then after the whole van deal, we decided to go to a matinee movie. The only one that really fit in with our time schedule was "Burn After Reading". Okay, we HATED IT! *Negative - $12.00 on a crappy movie. *Positive - spending time together (& me catching a nap). After the movie, Jim & I headed to St. Paul & enjoyed dinner at the Wild Onion. I have no negative to comment on that one. We really enjoyed drinks & a great meal. And after dinner, we met with neighbors & played cards. The only negative on that was that we didn't get home until after 1:00 AM & we needed to be up early for a morning run. So...
Saturday: Our plan was to wake up early & get in our long run before picking kids up from sleep-overs. *Negative - at 9:00 we were woken up by the phone ringing. *Positive - I can't remember the last time I have slept that late & felt so good while running 9 miles! But once we were done, it was rush & shower, rush & pick up the kids, rush & pick up the van, rush & pick up Sean from a birthday party, rush & drop off another boy we carpooled with, then rush & try to get to the pumpkin patch on time to meet friends. *Negative - we ended up getting caught in Anoka's parade traffic. Oh my, we were re-routed this way & that. It ended up taking us a whole extra hour to get there than planned. Needless to say, one of our friends who went their earlier than us was wondering where in the world we were. *Positive - we could not have asked for better weather to spend a day at the pumpkin patch (especially compared to today's weather). So then after the pumpkin patch, we decided we were in need of a "family date night". So we decided to take the kids to the Mall of America's Nickelodeon Zone, enjoy rides & eat out at the Rain Forest Cafe. And of course, on the way there, we ended up in traffic again because 35W was shut down for the weekend. *Negative - another extra half hour in traffic. *Positive - ??? Okay, I can't think of one this time around... except that you never know what might have been had we not been delayed in traffic? So once we get there, we started out by putting our reservation in at Rain Forest & then we decided to enjoy some rides while waiting. I took Sean on some kiddie rides while Jim took the older kids on the bigger rides. Unfortunately we both thought we had made different plans to "meet up" before dinner. I thought we were meeting at the restaurant at the set time, while Jim thought Sean & I were going to meet them back at the ride where we split up at. *HUGE negative - Sean & I sat at the restaurant for a whole hour before Jim & the kids showed up. (and I didn't bring my purse with my cell phone in it, so no way to figure out where each other were) *Positive - we were all SO thankful once we met up that everyone was safe & okay. You know all those thoughts that go through your mind... "Okay, I am so mad, where are they"... to... "Oh, I just pray that they are all okay!"... It was so sweet when we met up & Zach was so upset, thinking that something bad had happened to Sean & I. I have never met a kid with more compassion! Needless to say, we had a blast TOGETHER once we were done eating & enjoyed the rest of the evening on rides & spending time as a family.
Sunday: Today has been a pretty good day, besides the fact that we have been really busy and the weather sucks. We first went to the TPC to carve pumpkins with the kids. *Negative - the kids picked these really hard patterns to carve & it ended up being a job for Jim & I. *Positive - I did not have to mess up my kitchen! Right after the TPC, we went straight to Zach's football banquet. *Negative - they served pizza & none of us were hungry because we just ate at the TPC. *Positive - Zach had a great time with his football chums. Now Lauryn is off to swimming, the boys are out in the rain playing soldiers, Jim is cleaning my van for me, I am cleaning house!
One thing our family learned this weekend is that we are all so thankful we have each other - and we could communicate a little better next time we decide to split up!!! :)
The kids at the Pumpkin Patch:
The jack-o-lantern, the skull & cross bones, & the cat
