Weekend Plans

My husband has a four day weekend this weekend, so we decided Elliott should, too. :)  Today is actually my birthday as well, and last year my dad passed away on my birthday.  We're trying to keep the day happy and upbeat, but we will see how well that works.  So far it's going okay.

Elliott gave me the birthday presents he's been hiding from me first thing this morning.  I already knew what they were, since I was with them when they bought one of them, I was actually the one to order another, and the third one I specifically asked for and showed everyone the picture.  Haha.  I guess Elliott was afraid I would read the book early if I knew where it was, though. ;)

My husband is cooking breakfast right now.  He's making pancakes from scratch, which is a new experience for him.  I almost always make them from scratch, though, so I had a couple recipes for him to look at.  Elliott's still unsure how that will work out.

My sister should be here soon, too.  We're going to all go out for lunch together, and maybe do a small amount of shopping this afternoon as well.  We're trying to do something to keep us from sitting at home all day, so the day will be easier.

Then the rest of the weekend will include farmers markets in the morning, followed by other grocery shopping, church on Sunday, and a sleepover on Sunday night.  We should also be moving our bedroom furniture back into our bedroom at some point this weekend!  Carl finished the floor in there last night, and now just has to attach the trim and we will be good to go.  That is so exciting for me!  That's another step closer to having a classroom finished, and having all the extra stuff out of my living room so I can attempt to keep it clean again. ;)

Happy Independence Day!

I hope all my American friends are enjoying our nation's birthday.  We live in an area where we can still do our own fireworks, so yesterday Carl and Elliott went a little crazy with buying them.  It's been a while since Carl was so excited to buy them, though, so we bought whatever he wanted, within reason.  They've already been doing a few daytime things.  We'll have a lot to do late tonight, though.

Carl is grilling hamburgers right now for lunch, and will be grilling brats, hotdogs, and ribs tonight.  Nothing like grilled food all day. :)  My sister is actually off work tonight, so she will be joining us later.  We're excited.  She's had to work every 4th since she moved up here, so it will be nice having her here!

This is just part of our stuff.  It's missing one big thing, plus most of Elliott's stuff he can do himself (smoke bombs, sparklers, snakes, etc)

Happy Memorial Day

We've had a busy weekend full of family fun this weekend.  We went to Bismarck to go to the zoo on Friday (it's much larger than the Minot one, with more room for the animals).  Saturday we spent the night in a hotel with a pool with two waterslides so we could go swimming.  I think Elliott ended up going down the slides about 200 times. lol  We were at the pool for about 5.5 hours Saturday and then Elliott and Carl went back for another hour Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church.  Yesterday after church, a couple from our church invited everyone to their house for lunch.  Elliott finally played with the other kids from our church and had a blast.  Right now Carl is outside grilling.

We have had a great weekend, but we are also taking the time to remember why Memorial Day is a holiday.  As a military family, it hits close to home.  We don't personally have any close friends that have been killed in action, but it's easy to see that it could happen.  And people that are willing to give their lives for us deserve all the respect and admiration that they get, and even more.  Memorial Day is such an important holiday to teach children about.  We've talked about it several times with Elliott this weekend, and I think he really gets it now.