Weekend Recap!!

Columbus Day Weekend marked Derek's first three day weekend since starting fellowship, and it was delightful!!! Why can't every weekend be a three day wknd?! The weekend started off with torential downpours and flooding roads on Saturday morning, which did not make for a fun drive to the airport as we were dropping Auntie Em off her for her return flight to Atlanta. We were sad to see her go but thankful for such a great visit! We really appreciated her giving up her Fall Break to spend time with us! After we said our goodbyes to my sister, Shelby & I headed off to a birthday party for her BFF at school, Kaelyn. Meanwhile, Derek & Hadley had a relaxing morning at home playing in the living room & watching college football on TV. And speaking of our Dawgs, Derek & I were reminscing on our college orientation at UGA recently and how ridiculous we felt as they made us stand on the steps of the Tate Student Center as incoming freshmen and learn to call the Dawgs. My eighteen year old self never could have imagined that twelve years later I would have two of the cutest little red-headed girls in my living room calling the Dawgs over and over and over again every fall Saturday.

After the girls' naps on Saturday afternoon we loaded them up in the jogging stroller & went out for a family run followed by a stop at the playground. After that we came home for dinner & more college football. I think the fact that the girls spent their morning apart really helped them enjoy one another's company on Saturday afternoon/evening. They played so nicely together, and Derek & I BOTH actually got to SIT ON THE COUCH & watch football...such a rarity. If anyone would have walked in our house, they would have thought parenting was a BREEZE! I can whole-heartedly assure you: that is certainly not always the case!! ;) I wanted to take a gazillion pictures of them together b/c they were being so cute, but they weren't picture-appropriate. ;)  Hadley got messy at dinner so we had to take her shirt off when we got her down from her high chair. Well, if one sister has her shirt off, the other one has to have hers off too. ;)  Here's one picture I managed to snag that evening:

Notice all of the books on the floor in the background?! These two were having a reading marathon together on Saturday eveniing while randomly yelling out "Go Dawgs!" even though our game was long over. ;)

We woke up to cool & cloudy weather on Sunday morning, so we headed to the zoo in the hopes that the chilly weather would make the animals a bit more active...thankfully, we were right! It was our best trip to the zoo to date by a landslide! Every other time we've gone, the girls have been too hot to enjoy themselves...but Sunday was perfect! The girls loved every minute of it & completely wore themselves out, which I was thankful for b/c I needed them to take good naps before our family pictures that night. ;)  We didn't bring our camera to the zoo, but we did get these two pictures with my phone:

We had our family pictures taken Sunday evening by a local photographer at a field in Stone Oak, then we stopped off for dinner aftewards at Jason's Deli. Truthfully, we'd actually fed the girls an early dinner before pictures, and Derek & I had planned on ordering something in for ourselves after they were in bed. But as soon as we loaded them up in the car after pictures, they both kept saying how hungry they were...so the girls had two dinners on Sunday night. Although Hadley's dinner at Jason's pretty much consisted solely of chips & ice cream, so I'm not sure if that actually counts as a meal or not. ;)

Monday was another fun day--we spent the morning at Devine Acres Farm in Devine, TX.

The best picture we could get with the pumpkins ;)  What I wouldn't give for a perfectly posed picture of the girls in their matching pumpkin shirts at the pumpkin patch, but that's just not the season of life we're in. After one attempt to get a posed picture at the beginning of the day, we agreed candids were going to be all we did for the rest of the visit :)

The duck races were a huge hit for both girls! It's hard these days to find activities that keep the interest of both girls at the same time, so we were thankful we found this! We stayed here for a quite a while!

While the girls napped after our trip to the farm, I did a marathon laundry session while Derek took my car to get serviced (even though we both REALLY wanted to nap, too!!). After naps was movie night & taco soup! It was such a fun, fun weekend with the perfect mix of productivity, relaxion, and family outings!

Even though Derek was back to work today, the girls & I had a super fun day! We started off at Shelby's preschool for parent-teacher conferences. A few of the moms rotated covering the playground to provide childcare during the conferences. The girls & I manned the playground from 8:30-9:30. It was so chilly Shelby insisted on wearing her fleece jacket--she also wanted to wear her gloves, but that's where I drew the line since it was only 60 degrees. ;)  Both girls had a blast playing in the sandbox, and it occured to me that this was Hadley's first time playing in the sand!! Shelby's conference went wonderfully, but it was SO weird sitting on the opposite side of the table! ;)  After Shelby's conference, we headed over the library for storytime and then walked to the playground to meet the Goins for playtime & a picnic..it was a fun, full morning & the weather was picture-perfect! We're loving the cool mornings & evenings and the fact that it's actually starting to feel like fall!! We ended our day with a bike ride around the neighborhood & came home to this!

We were "spooked" by a neighbor! :)