Weekend Recap!

Hello, hello! How’s your weekend going? We’ve had a MUCH better week this week than last, thanks to the return of the fall sunshine! Needless to say, we’ve spent a lot of time outdoors. Ready for a few highlights?

As soon as the rain clouds cleared on Monday, we headed to a playground for some fresh air.

and made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s to scoop up ALL OF THE PUMPKIN stuff…including pumpkin biscotti, Pumpkin O’s cereal, pumpkin bars, flowers (not pumpkin flavored!), some frozen Kung Pao Chicken for a quick after-soccer dinner (it was really good but spicy!), bananas, salad greens, and some Halloween-shaped sugar cookies that Casey picked out (of course).

Fall flowers!

On Tuesday morning Casey and Spence painted some fall trees with their Do-A-Dot markers,

and then we spent some time walking in the woods.

It was all fun and games until Spence stepped in dog poop…which he then managed to smear on his sweat pants…

A few errands at Yoder’s Country Market on the way home (poopy pants included),

and some fun in cardboard boxes later that afternoon. Boxes are the cheapest toys going!

Gibbs started receiving nightly homework assignments this week, which he was excited about on Monday. By Tuesday he was already complaining about doing them. Classic.

Wednesday morning walk with Kristin and Jonathan!

Afternoon stop at the playground,

and a surprise delivery of See’s Halloween chocolates and candies from Aunt Bee (a.k.a., our Fairy Godmother)!

Thursday morning while Gibbs was in school, the younger boys and I made a quick run to Costco where we ate lunch and bumped into Kristin again! She snapped this pic of me and (a very annoyed) Casey as we were checking out!

Soccer practice on Thursday evening — Casey’s loving his first season of soccer (he’s on the far right)!

And after we got home from the fields, fed everyone dinner, did baths, and put Spence to bed, I headed out for a late-night dinner and drinks with the girls! I was obviously too busy running my mouth to actually pause to take a group photo…

Love this view of the fall fields and mountains as we were pulling into our house after picking up Case from school on Friday…

Later that afternoon we made a stop at the dollar store, where the boys picked out some small toys — R2-D2 Star Wars figurine for Spence,

and weapons for the older two (of course).

Friday night’s dinner included a super-easy baked salmon with pesto butter that I picked up (already prepared) at Costco, plus some biscuits (from the freezer), and some sauteed rainbow chard, which I felt obligated to cook since Casey picked it from our garden (very enthusiastically) earlier that morning. The fish from Costco was really good and I will definitely be buying it again for an easy supper.

Yesterday morning we had a very early 8:00 a.m. start at the soccer fields for team photos. Spence hung out on the tractors in the nearby barn while we were waiting for all of the photo sessions to finish.

The games were a huge success, and the boys arrived home at lunch time hungry and tired!

They spent some more time outdoors pruning trees with Keith,

and we later headed north to Culpeper for some errands and an early supper at Buffalo Wild Wings. Spencer was obsessed with the race car video game!

This morning I’m busy making a mess of my kitchen and taking some pictures of food in between loads of laundry and changing bed sheets.

The boys and I are headed to Casey’s friend’s birthday party this afternoon, so we’ve got another busy day ahead. Have a great week, and stay tuned tomorrow for a delicious dessert recipe from my friend Kristin!