Forced Family Fun Fall Festivities

Thank goodness this weekend had an extra day in it because we were busy with some Forced Family Fun time :)  

We finally got around to buying some mums and pumpkins after realizing a day at the pumpkin patch was improbable due to schedules this year.  We set these up on our front steps and I added some solar lanterns that look really cool (I'm going to get two more for our back steps).

On Saturday, Phil took the big kids to the Ice Cream Cottage to clean and close up for the winter, and me and my minions did some cleaning of our own.  Those chairs were in need of a scrub down!  Everybody worked hard and deserved some fun!

On Sunday, we drove down to the Cape and went to Ocean Edge in Brewster, where they had an Oktoberfest celebration going on each evening.  This place is crazy expensive to stay at during the summer months, so we like to come off-season like the fiscally responsible people we are.

Lots of games were played in the pool while we had it to ourselves before all the "randos" came.  My kids are just not fond of randos or what a normal person might call strangers.  I can remember back when I was a wee lass, we had an Irish quote hanging in our shop that read "There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't yet met."  Somehow between my childhood and my kids childhood, strangers became dangers and not potential friends.  It's a sad reality and yet they are wise to be wary.

We were playing tag in the pool, and I declared a spot on the stairs as "gools" and my kids didn't know what I was talking about.  Phil called it "base" and then they were like "oh you mean home" or "that's called safe".  I seriously was questioning my memory but I looked it up and "gool" is indeed a Northern (specifically Massachusetts) word for a safe spot, derivative of the word goal.  What do you call it??

"Ooooh they have crotchet!  Let's go play crotchet!"

~ Said a Martin child far too old to mispronounce croquet.

It was a nice and needed family time away.  A retreat if you will.  On our way back home, we stopped for lunch with a birthday gift certificate Phil had and also went to a bookstore and let the youngest three kids each pick out a book.  Xander's choice, Declan's choice, Brendan's choice (inspired by Madeline's recommendation).  The books came in handy during the extra long car ride because there was tons of traffic going off Cape as if it were summer.  This is when the tunnel pass comes in handy ;)

On Monday evening, Eamon's soccer team had their Senior Night and so we all went to support our favorite senior!

They lost but he's still a winner to us.  It was truly heartwarming to hear all of the nice things Coach said at the dinner about Eamon in terms of his character, leadership and work ethic on and off the field.

Brothers gotta cuddle

Eamon's godparents (my sister and her husband) came too!

Eamon had his cousin sneak up behind with flowers while I was taking pictures of him with his girlfriend.  Then he handed the flowers to Ellie and asked her to Homecoming.  She said yes :)

She's so adorably surprised

And now we have a short week ahead and it just got cold here (in the 40s when we woke up today) but we are seeing how long we can hold off on turning on the heat!  Is your heat on yet?