A happy break from the routine.

Sometimes nice weekends pop up and surprise you - Columbus Day weekend was one of those for us. It finally stopped raining and was warm and sunny enough to spend some time comfortably outside. Of course - Saturday started out a little crazy, Evie and Coach Matt had a soccer game at 9am & since it wasn't pouring last week, I dragged the other three along, with our camp chairs. Could have just left the chairs behind for all the sitting we did, the soccer field is right next to a playground, and while I let the smaller 3 go off and play, it wasn't long before I turned to see William playing tug-of-war with another boy over an 8 foot long 'stick'. Apparently the other boy didn't think William should have it. While I agreed with him, I didn't necessarily think it was HIS place to remove it from William's hands.Of course I forgot the camera in the hustle to get out of the house and hence have no pictures of the only soccer game I've managed to see so far....

William's baseball game at 5 was also the first I've seen this season - again, no pictures, I stink - and after that we headed to a friend's house for a late dinner. You'd think taking the 4 to someone's house for dinner at 7pm is a bad idea - I know I was having second thoughts - but we all really had a fabulous time - good food & drink, wonderful conversation, and a beautiful night for a meal out on the patio all decked out for Halloween - thank you Mary for a terrific evening!

Of course - you pay for late nights like that with kids, and some small people were grumpy the next day - but not Jason, he slept in until almost 11am - never have I seen one of our kids do that, ever, no matter how late they stay up. We hung around the house until mid-afternoon and then headed out to Family Fun Day at Mackintosh Farm - the PTO arranged for the elementary school to have a 2 hour block of fun for free, including a hay-ride to the corn maze & a small pumpkin to take home.

Sunday was one of those perfect fall days - bright, sunny, and warm enough to be comfortable but not too hot - ok maybe it was a little warm wandering around the corn maze trying to find the exit, and we didn't bring drinks for anyone and they started fussing about halfway through - but it really was a nice day :)

Jason swore up and down he'd been here before (not true) but Jason also swears that the neighbor kids snuck into his room Saturday night and flushed his Mazin' Hamster Presto down the toilet, and that's why he can't find it (I seriously doubt this is true, but nonetheless Presto is missing....) Once we made it out of the corn maze, the kids all picked out their pumpkins and we walked back to the store for some sweet tea and soft pumpkin ice cream :)

Jason insisted he didn't want ice cream, he wanted an apple - go figure. Matt kept asking him for a bite & he refused, and then he offered one to me :) Stinker! Jason did eventually abandon the apple for some pumpkin ice cream.

Afterwords we ran an errand or two, and then on a whim drove into town to hunt down dinner. We ended up eating outdoors at a brew pub, and it really was just a wonderful family afternoon together - which we really needed, as there's been much bickering and crying lately - you think you get one kid more mature for a bit and then they devolve right before your eyes and you wonder what the hell happened. Baby steps - I need to remember that...

I tell you, they're all getting so big right before my very eyes, I'm very grateful for days like we had on Sunday, one of those happy little breaks where you don't really have any big plans and everyone actually gets along and you can enjoy each other's company - because it's an awful lot of work getting from the beginning of the day to the end, with all the must-do's crammed in there somehow, and a lot of times it feels really thankless - Sunday reminded me of why we do it. I needed that.