Weekend Wrap-up

Eskimo kiss

I meant to post last night but as it turns out, Elaine called me early last evening and said they would come over and babysit if we wanted to run to a bookstore or something.  Who can turn that down??  We put the kids to bed first and then went out for about an hour and a half to Borders.  I could sit in a book store all day but Duncan is turning into a bit of an electronic book snob.  Now that he only reads e-books, real books are below him!  I know, I know, I can't help but give him a hard time on that.

We've been up to quite a bit the last few days.  I'll skip some of the days from last week since they were the usual.  But on Friday afternoon, we went to the first of what will probably be several fall festivals.  We always like going to those.  This one was at a Methodist church in Maitland.  We were only there for about 45 minutes but Calleigh had such a good time on the big inflatables they had.  One was this big obstacle course and she just loved it.  She'd go in on end, race through (climbing up and sliding down), come out the other end, and then run around back to the beginning as fast as she could.  I knew she would sleep well that night.  Aubree was also easy to please.  She took her shoes off and walked around on the nice grass.

Waiting patiently in line.

On Sabbath I was the teacher for Sabbath School and since it was a new month and new quarter, there was a bit of confusion on things (no fault of mine) but I managed to pull things together.  Calleigh, as usual, insisted on standing up front with me the whole time and then as soon as Aubree figured out what was going on, she wanted to stand up there too.  Surprise, surprise!  Afterwards, we went to Tiffany's apartment for lunch with the cousins.  We had never been to Tiffany's (she lives in the same complex as the cousins' original place) so we finally got to check out her pad and her two cats.  Calleigh was quite taken with the cats (of course, Grandma and Grandpa also have two cats but we NEVER see them) and kept following them around whether they liked it or not.  Thankfully I only sneezed once so that was a relief.  We were able to catch up with David and hear about how much he likes his new job, albeit he's only through the first week but still, it's a very positive sign.

This morning we went to First Watch as our usual custom and then it was off to Busch Gardens.  We've been waiting for the summer to be over, the weather to get cooler, and the tourists go away.  Check, check, and check.  We arrived shortly before eleven and immediately headed to the Sesame Street section.  After a ride or two, we went to the live show and Calleigh, as expected, was completely entranced.  Afterwards, she got her picture taken with Zoe and most importantly Abby Cadabby who is her favorite character.  We did some other rides, a train ride to see a bunch of animals, and then a 4D show that we left early from (I think Calleigh is a little intimated by Cookie Monster in 4D).  After eating our lunch we brought from home, Aubree immediately fell asleep upon moving in her stroller (it was almost 3 by this time) so we thought it was a good time to try and do the log ride.  The line was only about 10 minutes and Calleigh loved the ride!  She was smiling and laughing the whole time.  We then hit up the splash playground area for a bit and then bribed Calleigh into leaving by getting her some ice cream.  Aubree had a good time too but the poor thing suffered from sunblock in the eyes right from the get-go.  Daddy gets a little bit too crazy with the sun block application process.  So she had red swollen eyes and splotches on her face and I felt so sorry for her.  But, she still managed to smile for a good part of the day.  We left at about 4:30 and Calleigh fell asleep on the way home as expected.  It was a great day!  I only wish it were closer or we would be there much more often.  There is so much to do for little kids there.

Watching the show.  I think a bomb could have gone off and she wouldn't have noticed.

Ice cream to end the day.

As I recall, we actually did do something mid last week that I should mention.  I mentioned last week that I was concerned about Calleigh nap times and the lack there of for some of the days.  Wednesday we were supposed to go to Yolanda and Emma's house but something came up for them so I was trying to think of something to do.  I decided on Monkey Joe's because I knew that would wear her out and I absolutely wanted to get her down for a nap.  It worked out well since Wednesday is the 2-1 day.  As expected, she did indeed get a great workout (and me too.  I was actually sore the next day!).  I climbed up the big giant slide with Aubree and the three of us went down together with Calleigh between my legs and then Aubree between hers.  Aubree was just beaming when we got to the bottom and of course, we ended up doing that many, many times.  Thankfully the outing had the desired effect and Calleigh had a nap that afternoon.  It appears we got back into our routine because now she's napped every day since then.  Phew!  Crisis averted.

I think I'm going to end here.  Duncan and I are going to watch something now.  But I will say this.  Aubree is just crazy with her copying.  We were having supper last night and I gave Calleigh a banana.  I peeled it down a little bit so she could eat it "like a monkey" as she calls it.  I didn't think about it at all and just peeled the whole thing for Aubree.  BIG MISTAKE.  She burst into tears like you wouldn't believe.  I finally figured out that she was upset because she didn't get her banana EXACTLY like Calleigh.  So I had to go get another banana, peel it down, and give it to her.  The tears immediately stopped and all was well again.  Boy, oh boy.

I made green eggs since we had just read "Green Eggs and Ham."  The ham was omitted for obvious reasons.

Borrowing David's hat.  He left it here after the game the other week.