October 11 - Olivia and Gretchen went to see a Frozen Sing Along with Grandma. They got dressed up in Frozen dresses, shoes, and crowns, and they got to take a picture with Elsa.
October 12 - Mom brought a load of stuff down to store in the basement. She also brought Jacob and Grandma and Grandpa A. Mom had to go straight back to Michigan, but the other three stayed for dinner before abducting Jacque and taking off. It was nice to visit with them, and Olivia and Gretchen took full advantage of the extra willing readers.
October 13 - Kaitlyn had her six month check-up. She's 17 pounds, 6 ounces and 26.75 inches long. She was incredibly obliging, choosing to demonstrate most developmental traits right as the nurse was asking about each one. She got all the required shots except the flu vaccine, which isn't in currently. Olivia also got a shot (her dosage was available). We sprung this on her last minute since I didn't know it would be an issue, and she did remarkably well. She was very brave up until the point where they actually poked her. Now Olivia and Gretchen walk around the house talking about how they don't want to get poked.
October 14 - We checked out the local Classical Conversations, just to see what was going on there. I don't think I need to be a part of the group since most of the aspects that I liked I could easily recreate at home (also, it's a moot point because we're not currently planning to homeschool). I did learn more about my children, though: We dropped Gretchen off at the nursery to play, which she did happily for about 20 minutes before coming back to be with me. Olivia spent those 20 minutes telling me how she just wanted to go be with her sister. Once Gretchen rejoined us, both of them paid attention relatively well. Gretchen was more excited to do things and Olivia tagged along. By the end of the morning (it's a three hour program), they had mostly figured out how to walk in line and Olivia was asking if she could just go ahead with the other kids without me. Even after being given permission, though, she still made sure not to turn any corners until I caught up.
October 15 - I had women's group in the afternoon, so Bryan left work an hour early to watch the girls while I spent time with adults listening to podcasts and rolling buckeyes.
October 16 - Story time at the library and then off to the Weys! The older girls visited their friends while Kaitlyn and I drove to Toledo to pick up Jacque from Grandma. It was overcast the whole drive up, poured for the actual transfer of person and goods, and then cleared up for the drive home. Once home, we worked on cleaning the house and packing for a trip to Sidney. Everything got slightly less frenetic when our dinner guests had to cancel due to unreasonably bad traffic (an accident shut down 75). After dinner, we drove to Sidney to spend the night there.
October 17 - Bryan and I got up bright and early the next morning (does it still count as bright and early if the sun isn't up yet?) to drive to a conference in Indiana. We brought Kaitlyn with us, met up with some people from church, and listened to a series of talks on prayer before driving back. The older girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa to watch movies and play with toys. Jacque had an audition (followed by a spur of the moment bonus audition) and then helped construct bunk bed hammocks for the Barbie house that Murry is building.
October 18 - In the morning we loaded up the van and drove everyone back to Lima for church. Bryan decided he wanted to have people over for dinner, so we invited the entire church over for steaks and potatoes. Jacque and I had to go to three different stores to find the steaks we wanted (did you know Aldi doesn't sell those boxed frozen steaks anymore?). Most of our dinner guests went home at about bedtime, but a few stayed to play games after the kids were in bed.
October 19 - Six women from church (including Jacque) got together to bake cookies for our upcoming cookie walk. The babysitting plan was for Josh (one of the husbands) to watch all the kids at his house for the day, but Olivia wasn't feeling well when she woke up, so the party moved to our house instead so that she could stay in bed. Jacque and I still got to go bake cookies, and we helped roll, cut, and bake 53 dozen gingerbread men, 24 dozen sugar cookies, and 15 dozen rum balls.
October 20 - The girls and I abandoned Jacque to her own devices and went to visit the Kleins. Gretchen apparently caught whatever Olivia had on Monday, because she slept the whole time. It's not unusual for her to fall asleep on the drive, but she also napped on the floor for about three hours, finally waking up in time to get about half an hour of playing in before we drove home.
October 21 - Wednesday was the first normal morning we'd had for a while, and the opportunity to get things done around the house was much appreciated. Jacque watched the kids after bedtime so that Bryan and I could go to schole ("good conversation with good friends, often over good food and drink").
October 22 - Jacque's a busy woman for being semi-employed from her sister's workroom, so we drove her to Fort Wayne to catch a bus to Chicago. We were going to head to the zoo afterwards, but it was rainy and we would have had to pay anyway (because of some special Halloween program), so I decided to take the girls somewhere else instead. We ended up at a painting place where you buy the piece and then stay and paint it. The girls seemed to enjoy it. Once they were done, we went to Culver's for a late lunch before heading home.
October 23 - By Friday I was feeling overwhelmed by everything that hadn't gotten done around the house. I also had a few orders that I needed to finish for my etsy shop. We were half planning on taking the girls to Sidney for the weekend anyway, so Bryan decided to take the afternoon off to get them out of my hair while I got work done. He left with Olivia and Gretchen right after lunch, Kaitlyn went down for a nap, and I cleaned up and finished sewing. Bryan came back sans children in time for dinner.
October 24 - It's amazing how much easier one child is when that one is your third rather than your first. Bryan and Kaitlyn and I hung out around the house and accomplished little things. After lunch we went and played a game with the Weys and then went out to dinner (using one of my coupons since I'm trying to chip away at that 30 Before 30 list). Some friends came over for nerd games in the evening and I played my first ever real dungeons and dragons.
October 25 - Today we're headed to Sidney to stay for a few days while Bryan works in Springfield. Then it's back home (with all our children) for a return to normal. :)
Pictures:
Seeing Frozen:
The sisters:
Selfies with Aunt Jacque:
Olivia's first winter dress:
Painting:
Baking:
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