weekend wrap up

This weekend flew by at warp speed.  I'm not sure why, but we packed a bunch of activities into our weekend and everyone ended up exhausted!  We also had our first taste of fall weather.  I really love fall so I was happy.  But, again this year, I was unprepared for the drastic change and didn't have the kids fall clothes ready. 

We started our weekend with our Friday night small group.  It is such a great way to end the school / work week and start our weekend.  This year our small group is studying The Story.  Which is basically the Bible written like a story by Tim Keller.  We have only read the first two chapters but I can already tell this is going to be a great book and lead to really deep discussions.  We are also using this book which provides more background information and have purchased this children's story book bible.  Our favorite children's bible remains the Jesus Storybook Bible but I'm looking forward to reading this new one with the kids.

On Saturday morning, we had our re-rescheduled family photo shoot.  The morning was brisk and I was hoping for more sunlight than we had but overall it was good weather.  After the initial whining about being cold, the kids did a great job!  I brought my camera with visions of taking pictures while Jessica was shooting pictures of the kids but I only took it out twice.

The photo session went so smoothly.  Our primary goal was to get a family picture that we can hang in our living room.  We tried a few poses and hopefully she was able to capture our family essence.  We also wanted one of the 3 kids, individual shots of the kids, Mark & I and then ones of the kids with each of us separately.  I can't wait to share the final products.  I got an email from Jessica that said she took over 1,200 pictures with our family, so I'm guessing we'll be able to find a few gems in there!

We attended a very special birthday party on Saturday afternoon.  Colin turned one this past week and his parents threw him a party!

He wasn't sure at first, but Colin has decided he does like cake!

We had one final thing on our Summer Fun List and so we decided to check it off this weekend.  Looking back now, it may not have been the wisest choice.  

After Colin's party we took the kids to the Cowtown Rodeo in New Jersey.  It was so fun!  It runs every Saturday night from May through September and starts at 7:30PM.  The kids thought it was great.   And even though I called and was assured they had handicapped seating, they didn't.  We were able to take Grace's stroller down to our seats and sort of wedge it so that she could sit next to me without rolling down the aisle.  

It was a beautiful night for some roping, racing and riding.   However, it was really cold.

From our seats I wasn't able to take any good pictures of the events.  We saw 2 heats of bull riding, which is always exciting to watch.  These cowboys are amazing.  We also saw the Tie-down roping event, where the cowboy starts on his horse, ropes a calf, jumps down off his horse, picks the calf up and puts him down on his side and then ties 3 out of the 4 feet together.  It was amazing to watch.  The boys just loved it.  They were so excited!  They got as close to the action as they could before big daddy asked them to move back (the security guy had to be 7 feet tall and huge).

We also stayed for the Bareback Bronc Riding Event.  Which was just as exciting as the bull riding and just as dangerous.  These horses are really trying to throw the riders off, I think it has to do with  their withers being in a cinch.  Ouch!   

We had decided before we got there that we would leave at 9:00 since our kids normal bedtime is 7:30 and they had been out late the night before.  Well right after I snapped this happy family picture, Grace started crying.  It seems that she was cold and wanted to be inside.  So Mark and Grace missed the Bronco riding.  By the time we got home and got them into bed, they all may or may not have been crying.

We had a terrible time trying to wake them up for church this morning.  Since it was our first week to serve in our children's ministry, we had to go.  Again, there may or may not have been crying in our house this morning.  I think it was a big parenting fail to keep them out late two nights in a row and them wake them up early for church.  When we got home, we ate lunch and then had all family rest time.  Except for Mark, he had to go to work today (boo).  During this rest time, Luke and I napped for sure.  John may have slept for a little bit and Grace didn't sleep at all.

Which is why sister fell asleep on the ottoman at 4:30 with the boys running around playing, the football game on in the background and the dishwasher running.

Even though our night at the Rodeo ended in tears, we loved it.  We can't wait to go again.  If you're local and want to join us next summer just let me know!

Thankfully, during tonight's bedtime there were no tears and everyone was asleep by 8:00ish...