First Weekend of November

What a great weekend it was!

We kicked it off with dinner and drinks downtown at one of our favorite local restaurants where I had my favorite salad in the whole wide world – steak tips, strawberries, pecans, and crumbled goat cheese over a bed of fresh spinach, topped with a poppy seed dressing… heaven.  Pure heaven. 

After that, we strolled around downtown a bit as there were a bunch of local artists selling their artwork as well as some live music.  After walking off our dinner we stopped in for some frozen yogurt – pumpkin for me, of course – and then we headed home to get the kiddos in the bed.  B and I ended the night with an episode of Gilmore Girls (which I’m loving) and an episode of Stranger Things (which I’m hating).  Haha.

Saturday, we were invited to one of my girlfriends’ houses for a housewarming party so we got ready and headed to their house in the late morning.  But not before Olivia colored all over our beautiful stone colored couch with a bright red crayon.  -_-

Fortunately I was able to get it out with carpet cleaner and it didn’t take the color out of the couch.  Whew.  That girl, I swear she is a handful.

Anyhoo, we spent the late morning and all afternoon with all of my girlfriends, the husbands, and our eight million kids.  Ok, our ten kids.  They had a huge spread of food – ham and cheese sliders, Chick-fil-A nuggets, jalapeno corn dip, Mexican dip, meatballs, fresh fruit, cookies, pumpkin dip, and an assortment of chips… it was a feast of yummy tailgating foods. 

The weather was absolute perfection because fall finally decided to join us, so we all sat outside and caught up as the kiddos played.  They had rented a bouncy house so it kept them busy pretty much the entire time we were there. 

It was SO GOOD catching up with all of my favorite ladies and their husbands and kids all at the same time.  It’s so hard to get all of us together at the same time these days… it seems like someone is always missing due to people being out of town/at events/having sick kids/etc. 

We knew we wanted to get a big group picture of all of the ladies with all of our babies.  And believe me, it’s impossible to have everyone looking at the camera at the same time!  We took about 20 pictures to get this one and that was as good as it was going to get!  It’s hard to believe that six years ago NONE of us had kids, and now we have TEN.  T-E-N.  Still blows my mind.  I guess we’re all grown up, huh?  Sometimes that’s still hard to believe, too…

Most of these girls have been in my life for close to two decades.  So crazy to think that I’ve been friends with some of these ladies for longer than I haven’t been friends with them… does that make sense?  I’m so thankful for each and every one of them. 

We left mid-afternoon to put Olivia down for a late nap while Jacob hung out in his room and colored, and then it was up and off to church where both kiddos were on their best behavior.  Jacob decided to go to the childrens’ liturgy for the first time, which made me so happy… he’s usually really shy and prefers to stay with us the entire time, but Saturday night he finally decided to go join some of the other kids for their own special time of prayer and he really enjoyed it!

After mass, we met my parents at Panera for a quick dinner, and then it was time to head home to watch the Georgia game.  We ended up squeaking out a win in the last second (literally) which was a relief since we’ve lost so many this season.

Sunday was spent making pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast, watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special, and being lazy all morning until it was time to go to B’s mom and step-dad’s for lunch.

After lunch, the kids played in the back yard and they helped Nana pick some lettuce and red peppers and peas.  Olivia shucked the peas and ate a couple straight from the pod only to remember that she doesn’t like peas, and she promptly spit them right out.  Haha.  That girl.

Sunday evening was spent at my parents’ house for Sunday dinner – wine, spaghetti, salad, bread with oil and spices, and brownies for dessert.  Good conversation, lots of laughter, and lots of family time.  Makes my heart sing! 

Have a great week!  I have a short one as I’m off for Veterans Day on Friday, so I’m already counting down the days until the long weekend!  B is going to take the day off with me and the kids are both going to school, so we will have the entire day to ourselves!  Woo hoo!!

Happy Monday, friends!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.