October

October went fast! We celebrated my husband's 40th birthday a week late as he was out of town on his actual birthday. I had planned an event with our nursery kids at Christian Way Farm that morning but figured I would have all afternoon to finish prepping and cleaning for the party that evening. The farm was fun as usual; I really enjoyed the lady's pumpkin presentation of the gospel. Wandering through the corn maze Which pumpkin should I pick? We brought a sack lunch to enjoy and Becca was tired of waiting for Barrett and I to catch up so I handed her the keys...mind you I could see her so I wasn't sending my 5-year-old off by herself. We got all our stuff out and locked up the car. We enjoyed our lunch and visiting with friends when I decided it was time to go home, get the kids naps and finish up for the party. I can't find my keys...I'm beginning to remember giving Becca the keys and not getting them back. Sure enough, she had laid them in the back seat when she got her lunch. I spent awhile trying to figure out what to do. A sweet friend packed our 4 kids in her minivan illegally as her oldest and my oldest didn't have car seats and drove the 25-30 minutes back into town to get the keys from my husband, go to Sonic to get shakes for the kids and the most delicious cherry limeade chiller (I'm trying to lose weight but I thought this was a well-deserved treat after the day I was having), driving back 25-30 minutes to the farm and then 25-30 minutes back home.

I got the kids down and I'm rushing around trying to finish cleaning, finish the game we were playing, etc, etc. Luckily, we were grilling burgers and brats so I didn't have to cook too. All I had to do in the kitchen was make the frosting for the cake I had made the day before...turtle cake as always. The guests started arriving before my husband did and I was trying to finish things. Even though I felt very harried, we had a good time. Because it was his 40th, I had to do something different and found a game online. You make posters of various events that happened over the last 40 years and have people guess what year it happened. I had things like when Pac-Man was created, when Disneyland opened, when ESPN first aired, Columbine, Michael Jackson's hair catching fire, end of Vietnam War -- some serious, some fun. I would have been horrible at this game but I was running it so I didn't have to guess. It was fun to walk down memory lane. I had pictures cut out of whatever they were supposed to guess and write down the year. At the end, whoever had the most right won a prize of some of Darren's favorite things: Milk Duds, Fruit Loops, Caddyshack (now I can't even remember everything that was in it). The best thing was, we only had about a quarter of the cake left so it didn't ruin my diet too much.

It's a good thing fall break was the following week. We stayed fairly busy with doctor appointments and playdates with friends but we had fun. We ended the week with a day trip to Nashville to spend the day with my dear friend and her 2 boys.