Stay-cation

Joe's mom had been wanting our kids to be able to see the musical that her high school was performing (Seussical the Musical). We didn't think we were going to be able to make it because of church commitments and work. But all of a sudden I had a brilliant idea that the kids could still go even though Joe and I couldn't. So Saturday morning Joe met his mom halfway to Kansas City to drop the kids off. The kids were so excited to go stay with their grandparents and also have the added bonus of cousins being there too (Josh and Val and family). 

We enjoyed a nice quiet few days. Stay-cations are the best.

Coffee on the back porch wrapped in a blanket is pretty fabulous these days.

One of the nights we went on a double date with Dave and Meredith. We haven't done that in ages! We dressed up and went to an awesome restaurant.

We enjoyed walking around the downtown square which has been lighted for Christmas.

Meanwhile back in Kansas, the kids seemed to be having a great time!

They couldn't stop talking about the musical when they got home. And they got to take pictures afterwards with some of the cast!

Norah said one of her favorite parts of her trip was spending the night with her cousin Naomi. She loves it at Uncle Jake and Aunt Katie's house!

More visitors!

 Josh and Val and family came to visit this weekend. This was the first time Val had seen our house, and it was so fun to show her around. It was also so great to have a place big enough for all of our kids and their kids to play and roam (without us all being on top of each other.) 

It was Bella's birthday Friday night. I made her a cake earlier in the day and we had a few presents for her. We ate dinner at ChikFilA and then headed back home to have a little birthday celebration. 

The kids made a tunnel for the birthday girl to run through.

I think Bella was enjoying being sung to. 

We spent most of Saturday in our pajamas. The adults played a few games of Settlers while the kids spent hours and hours playing outside. Every time one of them would come in I would load them up with food to take out to all the kids. It worked like a charm!

Simeon wandered around the house while we played. Isn't he just adorable. I love that kid. 

We finally got around to showering...and putting clean sweatpants on. It was great.

Then Joe cooked a magnificent meal on the Egg. We have to treat our guests to yummy meals if they are going to come visit us!!

We are so enjoying having Josh and Val and their family close.

Halloween

The kids got to dress up for school on Halloween. Since we go to a Classical school, they had to dress up like a character from a book they had read. Joey was John from the book Chocolate Touch. Kylah was Fern from Charlotte's Web. Norah was Little Red Riding Hood (from Little Red Riding Hood.) :)

It was kind of warm that day, and Joey said his M&M's melted during recess outside and his shirt was covered in chocolate! Costume fail!

 We had a nice relaxing Halloween evening. Instead of trick-or-treating, we had dinner at the Adairs with the Dunns. 

The kids decorated pumpkins before dinner.

We had a chili feast, and then the kids watched a movie while the adults talked. And then the kids trick-or-treated around the house while the adults handed out candy we had all brought. 

It was perfect. We will definitely be doing that again!