Inspiration for the Weekend

Here is your plans for this upcoming weekend:

• Go outside.
• Put down your phone, gardening tools, etc.
• Lock the doors and don't let them back in.
• Eat all meals outside.
• Let them fall asleep in a hammock with their cousins.
• Stay too late with friends, family, whatever on Sunday night because you don't want to the weekend to end.
• Pay the price for the entire next week. It doesn't matter.
• Life is too short.

A Weekend of Birthday Wishes

We spent the weekend wishing our children's friends and now our children's friends a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

My dearest friend Robin's baby Ruby made it to one. So she had a garden party that was fantastic. Asher had a t-ball game, so Lucy got all dolled up and we went to the party. It was so fun, cause Robin is fun. Take a look.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

And then came Bennett's 3rd Birthday party.
The theme for this party? Sugar. Sugar. And more Sugar.
So Asher actually said this sentence,
"This is the best birthday party that I have ever been to."

Riding bikes was followed by a sports ball "easter egg hunt" filled with candy.
Onto a Pinata filled with candy (and other healthy items-YUCK)
Then cake and juice boxes.
Onto cotton candy fresh from cotton candy machine from Windy Gap.

Best Birthday Party indeed.
Wanna see what that does to SOME children?

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Hello Pinata. Bennett is very VERY intense about it.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

The whole crowd is excited about the cake.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

He got a ton of pirate gear, which then led to a pirate war.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Here is the girls vs. the boys in the pirate war. It starts early doesn't it kids?

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

And I can only imagine EXACTLY what he is saying to her here. But I had to stifle the laughter to get the shot.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Mmmmm. Cotton Candy.

Yes, the sugar wore off about 30 minutes after we left Windy Gap. I had to put on a movie at home, snuggle up on the couch with the kids and we all fell asleep for two hours.

It was fantastic.

If you click on any of the pictures, it ought to take you to the Picasa photo album that I created for both parties. They were both really fun. Now all Lucy can talk about is her own birthday. Which apparently has to involve a pretty dress, a crown and slippers.
Amazing already.

One of the Best Weekends

We are heading into another work week, but can I say that I think we had one of the greatest weekends we have had as a family.
Our kids rocked. They slept, they played, they stayed up late. It was good times.

Friday night
We went to the North Buncombe/TCR Football game. And my kids charmed the entire color guard until we became friends. Seriously. I hit it off with an ENTIRE PACK of high school girls thanks to my kids. Who says you can't do Young Life as a grown-up? Not me. It was awesome.
We lost the game, but headed home and the kids went right to bed thanks to it being nearly 10 and they were FREEZING at the game. I have to go buy Lucy a hoodie-SOON.

Also, Robin Plemmons water broke in the middle of the night on Friday! YAY baby Ruby on Saturday!

Saturday

Sky Top Apple Orchard. If you live in the area and haven't visited this orchard in Flat Rock, then you don't know what you are missing. It is good clean, CHEAP family fun. We packed a picnic and met the Knauers and the Goforths at the Orchard.
We all played on the playground, picked AMAZINGLY good apples right from the trees.


Fed the chickens, sheep and goats. Walked through the "Bamboo Forest" and took a tractor ride. We followed that up with fresh made doughnuts, went home and took a three hour nap.



That was me. The kids slept for two hours. God bless Matt Sloan and a white noise machine for giving me the gift of a long nap.
The entire day, I was trying to get updates on Robin. But nothing was happening. Ruby just wants us to wait.
We ate pizza and took a family walk. The kids played and we had a great evening around the house. They went to bed and we just watched college football and enjoyed life around the house. It was the second weekend since July that we have had at home and it felt amazing to just sit here.

Sunday
Church and it was awesome. Best service we have experienced thus far. Anxious about Robin the whole time. After church, I had enough. I got dressed for my soccer game and went to the hospital. I got to see Robin and Zack and they looked terrible. It had been 36 hours of labor and nothing was happening. They were talking about a c-section.
I left to go to my soccer game which we won. It has been so fun to play with my college teammate, Lexi. That was followed with a 2-year old birthday party for Bennett Knauer, then back to the hospital. Ruby was born soon after I got there!
YAY!
I knew it would be awhile before I could see Robin, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Came home and got a call from our real estate agent that we will have an offer on the house tomorrow! WOO HOO! We might even have 2 offers since there are a few other people interested. We will have to wait and see tomorrow!

We also had a YL team meeting to plan for the rest of the semester and let's just say-I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do with us all this year.

Speaking of that, we are leaving for Sharp Top on Friday with over 100 kids from Buncombe County. Somehow, I don't have anyone to watch my kids for the weekend, so if anyone I know wants to take on this task...drop me a line!

Best Moment of this Past Weekend

Was watching my nearly 61-year old mother-in-law get up on a slalom ski behind a motor-boat on Lake Wateree.

I have cursed myself over and over for forgetting my camera at home.

Quite a week

We have had quite a week with the kids since they were out of school for Spring Break. Exactly what kind of break kids in Mother's Morning Out has yet to be determined.

But we had an Easter Egg Hunt with the Knauers, a snowstorm on Monday, gymnastics class on Tuesday, mommy meltdown on Wednesday, Daddy trip to Chapel Hill on Wed-Thursday and a beautiful sunset today. See pictures below:





Also, we went to the Y this afternoon; but thanks to Spring Break my kids are used to having me around all week and so they promptly lost it when we arrived at Childwatch. They never settled down and I had to load them back up in my car 15 minutes after I got there. We came home and had a great time playing in the yard. But I pouted like a child for a good hour until I could embrace that my kids just wanted to play at home.

I can be as stubborn as a child sometimes.

Weekend Recap

This was one of the most festive weekends we have had in a LONG TIME and in order to properly honor this weekend, I dedicate the longest post I have ever written to those of you who will actually read it all.

Matt officiated at a wedding for close friends of our, Jenn Wisecarver and Kyle Murphy. So Friday night, we had the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and then a lingerie shower for Jenn after that. It was great fun, mostly because I got to spend the night with my closest girlfriends helping to prepare another girlfriend for her marriage.

I got home at 1:30am and of course the kids woke up at 7am. Which was not a terrible problem, because I had a full-day planned. I was meeting some friends at the J Crew distribution warehouse. We don't actually have a J Crew here in Asheville. What we have is the ACTUAL warehouse where all orders are shipped from. So once a year, J Crew has a Sample Sale. They sell all of their leftover items, sample items and catalog photshoot leftovers. The rules are really strict. The doors open at 10am, they hand you a price sheet and a garbage bag as you enter the warehouse. If you put something in your bag, you are pretty much buying it because you are not allowed to sort items until you are in line to check out. You can't try on an items. If you do, you will get kicked out. They don't care if you have hundreds of dollars of items, they kicked out three ladies for going through their bags! Seriously. They just had a huge warehouse, full of boxes which were full of clothes. It created this insane frenzy of a shopping experience. I have never been through anything like it.

This is me and Becca tailgating at the sale.

Yes, this is the line at 9:55am.

We got to J Crew at 8:45am. There were over 100 people already there. By 10am, the line was around the building. We got inside in the second group and I bought A LOT OF CLOTHES. For insanely cheap. I actually bought a Cashmere Car Coat for $15. In my size. In my PERFECT size. I also bought a lovely dress for the wedding for $15. Both of those items retail for over $300 combined. I spent $30. Amazing.

So after the J Crew Sale, I came home and got my house ready for Matt's parents to arrive. They were near town due to a funeral service that they were attending and they graciously offered to babysit for us so that we didn't have to hire a babysitter. So I left for the wedding and it was beautiful. Matt did a great job marrying the now Murphy's and we had a great time with our closest friends at the reception.


Me with Robin Plemmons

Me with Sarah Spooner

The last time we were all together at a wedding, we were all HUGE with babies in our bellies.

Ahh the reverand...

During the reception, Matt's parents called and told us that somehow Asher got locked in his room once he went to bed. We didn't realize that the door handle into Asher's room actually has a REAL LOCK on it. And we don't have the key. So after we got home, we tried to convince him to get out of bed and open the door. But instead, our two-year old totally freaked out because "oh-my-gosh, there are people yelling at me outside of my room and I will just cry and panic instead," makes total sense. So after an hour, Matt put his foot through the door a-la "Heeeere's Johnny" and unlocked the door. Then we played with Asher until 1am.

Then we woke up this morning to Lucy's birthday! Hooray, we made it through a year! I can't even believe it. Matt's parents brought her all kinds of presents. Her most favorite was a Corolle doll baby. When she saw the baby, she actually squealed with delight. It was adorable. She spent the morning pushing the baby around in its stroller.




After church, we headed up to our favorite holiday of the season: Plungiving. Pioneer Plunge is a rustic village outside of Windy Gap that kids camp, build and hike at in the summer. So every year at Thanksgiving time, we have all of our friends (in town and out of town) all hike/drive up to Plunge, fry turkeys and everyone brings thanksgiving sides. It is a FEAST! Three years ago, we announced our pregnancy with Asher at Plungiving. It was really fun to be up there this afternoon, just take a look at the pictures.




So it was a FULL weekend, we need this week to recover! But instead, we will be hosting a birthday party tomorrow night for Lucy and Knox Troyer since they were both born this week last year. Deep breath. Sleep will be needed soon.