I am a Slacker

I went from a goal of updating my blog every week to every month.  Now I failed at that goal :)

September was a very busy month for us.  I keep thinking I should update my blog with the events, but then don't have pictures downloaded of all of the events so I don't do it.  So, I am going to put the update out there with or without pictures and hopefully I will come back and add pictures later.

The month started out with a trip to the opening Notre Dame football game over Labor Day weekend.  We had a great time tailgating with the Sullivans (Theresa, Pete and Sean).  Their other two kiddos (Andrew and Marcella) did not care to join them for the football game.  The game was technically the last Saturday in August, but since the weekend stretched into September, I am counting it as September.  Thanks to Theresa I do have a couple pictures of the tailgate:

You can see how happy Isaac is to be there in the first picture of T and I. and Mackenzie is in the background of the picture with Brian.  Here is a shot after the game (or at least after we left the game) of the kids in front of Touchdown Jesus:

 

After the game we stayed in South Bend for one night and on Sunday we headed to Winona Lake, IN.  It is a very cute town, obviously on a lake, that has built up its downtown with historic homes converted into artisan shops.  When we got there on Sunday everything was closed.  I thought that the trip was going to be a total bust, but fortunately although they were all closed on Sunday they were all open on Labor Day, so we were able to walk around and visit the shops on Monday.  Here is a shot of Brian and Isaac that I am quite fond of:

 

Also, here is a shot of a water feather that the kids were quite fond of.  You can kind of see them under the willow tree as they were walking around the feature.  Mackenzie ended up falling in and getting out quite quickly.

 

September 3 was one year after my dad passed away.  It was harder for me than I thought it would be.  However I am guessing that he was smiling down on all of us after the ND shutout of Michigan.

 



The next weekend was Mackenzie's birthday.  I swear, I took pictures of her slumber party, but I took them on the actual camera and haven't downloaded them yet.  My mom came down and helped me out with preparing and executing the party.  Mackenzie had 5 other girls over for the slumber party and they had a blast.  I made a stuffed bear and a pillowcase for each girl and we started out with an activity where the girls searched for a set of glow jewelry with a number on them.  Then based on the number they received they got a pillowcase with a bear in it.  Each bear was different and when they took their bear out they got to name it.  It was a fun activity.  I had a couple other arts and crafts activities for the girls, but they mostly entertained themselves a lot of the evening.  At bed time (a late bed time for Mackenzie) I put on a Sophia the First video that she had chosen while the girls laid down to watch it in her room.  I then went down to try and watch the ND vs. Michigan game.  At about 10 o'clock the two neighbor girls decided that they wanted to go home, so I walked them home.  At 10:30 another friend decided that she wanted to go home.  Mackenzie ended up with 2 friends sleeping over, which made the next morning, her actual 8th birthday, much easier for me.  I think that the girls had a lot of fun, but I have a feeling that Mackenzie won't want to do another slumber party for her birthday, which is perfectly fine with me.  I think that she and I are a lot alike and I think she realized that she would enjoy sleepovers with only one friend more than slumber parties.  At least this is what I learned after my one and only sleepover :)

The next weekend my mom came down and watched the kids and Nero for us and we went to the ND vs. Purdue game.  It was the Shamrock Series game for this year and it was played in the Indianapolis Colts' stadium.  We went to the pregame events and got quite close to Rocket Ismail and Paqui Kelly (Coach Kelly's wife) as they were raising funds for the Kelly Cares Foundation.  We also got to listed to the Notre Dame marching band as well as a few speakers.  Then we headed into the game.  We actually had great (although very high) seats. 

 

The next weekend I had an upgrade project go-live (conveniently during a Notre Dame bye week) so I was missing in action at home.  The kids got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and Dad all weekend.

 

Then the final weekend of September I was home for a blessedly quiet weekend at home.  Brian had to work so we weren't all together, but the kids and I had a fun weekend of not doing a whole lot and enjoying it.  The kids are a bit overscheduled right now.  They decided that they wanted to do karate as well as swimming and I didn't think it through before signing them up.  So now they have karate on Mondays and Wednesdays, they get bussed to the bowling alley after school on Tuesdays, and they go to swimming on Thursdays.  So by the time the weekend rolls around, it is nice to have some unscheduled time.

 

I know it is the middle of October but I will save the latest fun for an October post later this month.