The Absence of Solitude

girls weekend

My dearest friend, Kylee, came to visit over the weekend. Ever since she left Houston nearly three years ago we have had at least one girls weekend every year. It has worked out wonderfully and we both look forward to it. It's so nice to get a little break from our kids and we can just have some fun.

Usually we craft quite a bit during our girls weekends but since she had never been to Upstate NY we turned it into a little sight-seeing trip. I took her to some of the church sites and to Niagara. (No, I am not sick of Niagara yet.) This is the first time I have been since we moved here that all the attractions have been open. The ice and snow has finally melted and it is tourist season. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride up to the Horseshoe Falls and down to the Cave of the Winds. Let me just say, it is not a mist at all...It is like you are standing outside in a rainstorm with gusty winds. No wonder they give a free poncho. When we got our ponchos for Cave the Winds, we couldn't figure out why they also gave us some foam sandals to wear. We certainly found out...our shoes would have been soaked. We were standing 10-15 feet from the American Falls. Even though I have now been a few times we both thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Falls.

                     

                                            Main picture is us right before getting on Maid of the Mist.

                                    Two outside pictures are on the Hurricane Deck of Cave of the Winds.

                                 Middle picture is in front of the Alvin Smith home near the Sacred Grove.

In between all the sight-seeing we squeezed in a pedicure, lovely meals, went on a little hunt for NY maple syrup and candy, and enjoyed some down time at the hotel each night watching movies. I was sad to see Kylee leave this morning but I am already looking forward to next year since it will be my turn to go visit her and she is moving soon to a place I have never visited.

Back to reality...

pumpkins and rootbeer

Tonight we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. It's probably a good thing we waited until tonight since they might have gone bad by tomorrow had we done it on Monday night. We had a little pumpkin carving party complete with friends, pizza, and homemade rootbeer. The kids loved the rootbeer as always. Ethan carved his own pumpkin this year all by himself. He did a great job, I think. A couple little pieces broke off when when he was pulling out the unwanted parts but it still looks fine. His is the one on the far left in the picture. It is supposed to be a wolf. Lauren and Alyse played and played with all the seeds and goop from the pumpkins and it covered nearly their entire arms. They were having fun though. Simon fell asleep just as we were getting started with the pumpkins so he is missing from all the pictures. (Not that he could have really done anything.) The kids are all so excited about tomorrow night..it's going to be a long day of waiting.

Weekend Review

Last week I was busy getting ready for my friend, Kylee, to come for a visit. I de-junked, cleaned, and organized like crazy. Nothing like company coming to get your butt in gear. ;-) She arrived late Thursday night and it was go, go, go until Tuesday morning.

Friday we ran errands and got ready for our little girls night out that evening. We made some really yummy food...that's another blog post. We were able to go to dinner and then over to Tara's house, for good food and great company. We just had a nice time visiting and catching up with everyone.

Saturday, we had Ethan's swim meet and Kylee was not feeling too well so she stayed home to rest up and enjoy the peace and quiet. Ethan had kind of a rough meet. He placed 5th in the freestyle and 4th in the backstroke. He just looked like he was tired and couldn't get any momentum. Oh, well. I did remember my camera but after taking four pictures my memory card was full...argh! After the meet, Allen took the kids and went swimming at his sister's house and Kylee, Tara, and I went to get pedicures and then to dinner and then went to see Baby Mama, which was really funny.

                       

             These two pictures are of the freestyle relay. Ethan swam the anchor leg and they won.

Sunday was all about crafts. That is all we did all day. I will post some pictures of what we did later. We focused on 4th of July crafts and came up with a few cute ones, I think.

Monday, we went shopping and then met up with an old friend, Emily, for a late lunch and then more shopping and ice cream with Tara. We stayed up until nearly 2 am finishing some of our crafts and visiting. Kylee left early Tuesday morning and I missed her immediately. It's hard to find friends that you just click with and Kylee is one of those to me...kindred spirits I guess you could say. It's also great to get together with Tara. She is so wonderful and we both let our busy lives get in the way of staying more connected but once we are together everything falls back in place and we just pick up where we left off. I love it!

It was a super busy weekend and Allen was so great to just take over with the kids so I could spend time with my friends. I think he was ready to go back to work on Tuesday, though. LOL! I spent yesterday just cleaning up and chillin' out. I was so tired from the weekend but so glad to have had such a wonderful time.

We have only have about a week left of school and I am in planning mode for the summer. We get out on Wednesday and I am sure by 10 a.m. on Thursday I will hear the dreaded words, "I am bored." So I need to be prepared.

Rootbeer and Pumpkin Carving

Last night we invited a couple of families over for chili, hotdogs, homemade rootbeer, and pumpkin carving. I think the kids had more fun playing together than doing anything else.  Although, they all did enjoy helping make the rootbeer and then blowing the "smoke" from it.  Once it was time for pumpkin carving, they painted small pumpkins while the adults carved the big ones.  Ethan wanted a spider and chose the pattern for one of ours.  I agreed and started on it before I realized it was classified as "challenging."  I didn't get any pictures of the actual carving going on because I was focusing on getting the silly spider carved out.  I think it turned out really cool, though.  I wish I would have taken one of my friend, Arwen, carving her pumpkin. She free-handed Shrek and turned out awesome. It was a very fun night with friends and I think it will become a new Halloween tradition for our family. 

   

       

S'mores

On Saturday, we were invited over to our friend's house for a bonfire and s'mores.  The kids had lots of fun playing, especially on their tree swing.  Once it got dark, they were all abou the s'mores.  Lauren just wanted the marshmallows.  She didn't like everything together.  Ethan on the other hand, had about three or four.  He and their daughter, McKenna, just about made themselves sick.  I looked over at one point and saw that McKenna was roasting four marshamallows at one time.  Here are a few pictures from the night.