We did it! We had a fun weekend!
On Friday, after watching Eamon's soccer game, the little guys had a Halloween Dance at their school. Declan and Brendan's costumes are "Outta this World":
Xander is in 7th grade and had to work at the dance, running games for the kids. He dressed as The Cottage Crew and ran a bowling game with his friend:
On Saturday morning, Phil and I ran 9 miles in the rain which was kind of terrible but felt really good to check off our training plan. Later on, Xander had his 2nd swim meet, proudly sporting his jammers and splashing us all with his dives ;) He's a pretty good swimmer, and once he gets his dives and turns down-pat he will be great:
See those moms and dads standing around? We were all roped into being Timers for the meet. I had no clue what I was doing (seriously I just don't know the sport of swimming, but I'm learning fast!) and I was recruited under distress. Being a Timer means you have to stand and time the races for 3-4 hours without a break, unless your lane doesn't have a swimmer in it for a race. It stunk and I will not be roped into it again *shakes fist towards the heavens*. I did have a wonderful partner for my lane, a 22 year old woman who just returned from a 9 month tour in Iraq. She was there to watch her brother swim, and had lots of stories to tell about her time away serving.
But Colleen, I thought you said you had a fun weekend?
Yes, we did eventually!
Eamon's soccer team went to Gillette Stadium to watch the Revs soccer game and were able to meet Mike Vrabel who was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame!
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| Eamon in the blue jacket with hood, pointing to Mike Vrabel |
Maggie had been on her own funventure since Thursday when she flew out to Franciscan to visit Andrew and JP with her cousin, Lilly and Andrew's girlfriend, Darian. The three girls went on official college visit tours where they got to sit in on a class, have lunch, go to Mass, tour the campus and talk to coaches/teachers. They watched a soccer game, went out to eat a bunch, hung out with JP and Andrew's friends and their cousin Bridget who also attends, visited an abandoned school to get scared (?) and hung out in Pittsburgh for a bit. These are all photos that Maggie or JP or Andrew sent:
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| JP's girlfriend, Grace (next to Maggie) graciously hosted them all for the weekend in The Heights |
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| Where Phil proposed :) |
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| The lovebirds reunited |
Maggie said they had so much fun and that Andrew seems so so happy out there. That does a mama's heart good.
Phil planned a wonderful fall day for the rest of us on (a beautiful and sunny) Sunday, and it was just what our souls needed. We began with Mass and then went to a pumpkin picking farm:
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| Phil bought me that sweatshirt! IYKYK |
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| Brendan |
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| Declan |
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| Xander |
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| My pumpkins |
This meme cracked me up. Luckily we didn't spend that much or cry at all!
Then we drove to a beautiful brewery with a corn maze.
Gotta say, I do not care for corn mazes. I'm glad I tried one and we made some good memories because the kids were having a blast, but feeling lost and stuck for 45 minutes is not my idea of a fun time. Phil kept telling me I could always push my way through the corn to get out if I really needed to, and that's what kept me from getting too panicky. But like being a swim meet timer - never again!
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| You guys rock! |
There was a BBQ food truck at the brewery and the food was delicious:
On our way home, we went on this cute silly-spooky hike:
While I was taking that photo of the boys at the start of the hike, Phil went and hid to scare us later. I knew he was going to scare the kids, but he ended up scaring me too which led me to leak a bit which led me to take away his dessert. That's the rule in the house - you scare Mom, you lose dessert. Rules you would never think you would have to make until you're a mom of seven funny/clever/thrill-seeking kids and their father.
We came home, caught the tail end of the Pats game, had bread and cheese for dinner, watched an episode of Family Matters and went to bed early. A perfect Fall day, finally :)
You scare mom, you lose dessert. That's genius! Love your Trey Kennedy sweatshirt!!!! So so glad you had a good weekend and learned some life lessons about not timing or corn mazing. It's always good to learn things about yourself.
ReplyDeleteMy kids were always trying to scare me because I'm very easily scared, so one day I yelled out No Dessert! and it stuck :) I'm just a typical fall girl with that sweatshirt now ;)
DeleteAwww this does look like a fun weekend! Except for the corn maze and the scare. I don't like feeling lost and I don't like being scared. What glorious weather you had!
ReplyDeleteAnd Maggie's visit sounds like it went well! So glad Andrew is enjoying himself.
Right, being lost and being stuck and being scared, I understand why I'm not a huge fan of Halloweeney things now.
DeleteI am also Team No Corn Mazes. I didn't even like them as a kid. I do like the adrenaline rush of rollercoasters and don't mind jump scares in general, but corn mazes just seem like... too much work?! Haha.
ReplyDeleteXander looks like the real deal in his jammers now! That timing job is insane though.
I like a good rollercoaster as well, as long as it doesn't spin too much. It feels like when you pay an insane amount of money for your kid to be on swim team, you shouldn't also have to work at the meets? But what do I know, I'm new here ;)
DeleteI'm dying at you taking Phil's dessert away. I might need to try that tactic. Coach doens't really care much about dessert though (who even is he?). When I bake, he will say IS THIS FOR SALE? Because I often save my baked goods for someone or some event, but asking if things are for sale in my kitchen makes me NUTS. The kids know this, so now it is a thing. It's fun to live with a bunch of comedians.
ReplyDeleteI remember those swim meet timing days. I remember not knowing what I was doing and faking it, calling out a time that was close to someone else standing near me. Then I figured it out and realized I could chat with other timers until the swimmers were almost done. Then I had to focus. I'm not great at pausing a story that I'm telling, so it took a lot of self restraint. ;)
Love the sib and cousin and girlfriend visit. It looks like a great time. Your sweathshirt is really cute. So glad you were able to enjoy a family fall outing. Looks like a beautiful day.
Is this for sale is so funny! You should just get a For Sale sign and place it on top of the baked goods they can't touch so they don't have to keep asking you :)
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