Columbus Day Weekend

We have had a really fun weekend!
Lots of family time, which we've really needed after weeks of busy, busy school and work days.

Friday night, my big sis came down from Rockford and joined me at Girlfriend's Night, which is a comedy/dinner. We had so much fun! Great girly time. And great food...catered in from Carabbas. She spent the night and we stayed up late, watching chick shows. Super fun sista time!

Saturday, I took Reese to a classmate's birthday party. It's the first he's been invited to. So cute! We had to cut out early, tho, to make it to Mark's football game. It was round one of the playoffs. Mark's team took on the Joliet Raiders, who (in my opinion) play awfully dirty. We beat them, tho! Yay! And Ryan did another awesome job announcing the game over the stadium speakers. He makes the game so fun and comical with his comments and sound effects. lol. So, yes! Joliet was beat and are done for the season while Mark's team moves on to round two of the playoffs. They will have a chance to redeem themselves against Frankfurt! The team that just barely squeezed out a touchdown in the final 28 seconds of the game a few weeks ago! This will be quite a showdown! Go Panthers! The winner of this game will go to the semi-finals! So exciting!

Saturday night, we ate at our favorite restaurant. Okay, not our total favorite....but the only one that feeds our family on exactly $13. The one-and-only Taco Bell! Gotta love dining on a budget! lol! Then we came home and watched a movie as a family.

Sunday was church. Ryan and I helped lead Kid's Connection for both morning services, since Pastor Michael was out of town. It went really well. I sang with the worship team, and Ryan did an awesome job speaking to the 4th and 5th graders. I'm so proud of him! After church, we came home for some lunch and a string of NFL games, which included our very own Chicago Bears! What an upset! We were screaming our heads off when they scored and took the lead with 11 seconds remaining in the game. Then, with literally 1 second on the clock, the Falcons kicked a field goal, winning the game. Holy smokes! Who knew?? After we regained a normal breathing pattern, we phoned Ryan's parents, who invited us out for dinner. Dinner at Kiku's which is a really posh sushi house. The kids love watching the cooks fire up the grill on our table and toss up eggs and utensils and catch them in their shirt pockets and stuff. Fun tricks. Then we headed back to their place to sit around their firepit in the backyard while the kids jumped on the trampoline and played with the puppy. I love it! Watching the kids create fun memories at Grandma and Papa's house. Then we headed home to put the kids to bed and watch one more flick with Mark (we're really trying to take advantage of every moment!) But not before stopping at Meijer on the way home and picking up a copy of Sleeping Beauty on dvd for Marina. Which was a good deal, because it came with a free Princess doll. She was thrilled!

Monday (Columbus Day) the kiddies had no school. I had no daycare kids. So Rye took the day off as well. We got to sleep in. So nice! After breakfast, Ryan took Mark out to a jogging path in Naperville. They jogged 3 miles together! I'm so proud of them! We had fun playing all day (altho, I did make Mark do some reading throughout the day). And Ryan and I had some really good conversation over coffee, which we NEVER have time to do! What an awesome day! Right now, the boys are outside playing catch while I update the blog. We are going to have dinner soon...and, you guessed it, watch another flick! We are trying to get thru our list of "gotta-see-that-someday" movies.