I have been so excited to spend the weekend with Sara and her kidlets and this weekend they finally arrived. For 2 years in a row, when her daycare closed, she would load up and bring Aiden to visit for a few days. Then she got pregnant, had a baby, and after a 2 year hiatus she was brave enough to make the drive again and I am so glad she did.
She arrived after midnight on Friday night trying to do the majority of the drive while the kids slept. They fooled her and stayed up past 11pm! She put the kids to bed and we made the mistake of staying up until after 2am. We both have early risers so we were 2 tired mamas on Saturday morning.
Aiden rises earlier than my kids so when me and my kids came downstairs on Saturday morning Aiden was waiting for them. They were instant friends. It was so odd. They don't really remember each other well but they didn't miss a beat. Pokemon was the common interest and proved to be interesting over the weekend with many trades that were made and subsequently undone.
The art of negotiation.
Saturday morning routine for us is Soccer, so Macy and Aiden joined us. Cooper played soccer.....
The rest of us went to the park. The boys were playing on this funny slide thing and had a little accident.
Let's just say there was a lot of crying and saying their nuts were bleeding. I'll let you imagine what happened.
We prepped the van for our crew and rotated who got to sit in the back with Sara. It isn't often taht we have 7 people riding around in the van.
Strange things happen when you have 7 people in a van including creepy faces.
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| Macy is too sweet to have a creepy face. |
After soccer we headed to the zoo despite the grey clouds that were threatening to open on us.
We managed to get through the penguins, the dino, and african secitions before the huge drops started. We entered the rainforest building and by the time we were ready to leave it was pouring. We waited for a bit but in the end decided to make a run for it. We didn't make it.
The girls (including Macy) got separated from the boys and we didn't make it to our destination. It was raining so hard we ran for cover, ironically just around the corner from each other. The rain eventually cleared, we saw the butterflies and then went to the car so we didn't get rained on. Again.
I have not mentioned James juice addiction on the blog... but he is on a health kick and is drinking cold pressed juice you can only buy at certain places, one of them being the Bridgeland market. Since it is close to the zoo, James insisted we go there for icecream. I had reservations about it, but we went anyway and it did not disspoint.
Grady and Aiden both chose rocky road and didn't like. I don't know what there was to not like about it. Heaven on a cone if you ask me. Cooper chose plain vanilla and even it was good. If you are in the area of the
Bridgeland Market, stop for icecream. Y
ou will not regret it.
AFter we ordered pizza, the kids had a communal bath. While they didn't actually bath all together, they may as well have. Cooper got in first, followed by Grady, Cooper got out, Aiden got in, Grady got out and Macy got in. And 3 out of 4 of them had a good time with the foam soap. Can you tell??
We put on a movie called The DUFF, a typical James movie. I don't recomend it but he claims it had good reviews. I fell asleep on the couch as usual and James and Sara watched most of the movie. Reminded me of when my Mom is here and I fall asleep on the couch. I am noticing a trend.
It was a good thing I went to bed early because Sunday morning was Grady's birthday party with 13 boys.
Yes, thirteen boys. I'll cover the party next week but let's just say it went by in whirlwind.
Right after the party Sara and I headed directly to the science center for the rest of the afternoon. I warned her that the kids love the science center but there is a lot of standing around watching. It was exactly as i said except I expected to be standing together. Instead I watched these to from afar while Cooper put on a presentation in the stage area.
And Sara watched them from the other side while Macy played in the toddler area. So while the kids had a great time and they kicked us out when it closed at 4pm, Sara and I watched quietly from different sides of the children's play area. {{sigh}}.
We closed out day 2 with a movie night complete with popcorn, foamies from the basement and popcorn.
If you think it was easy picking a movie with 4 kids you would be mistaken. Macy clearly wanted Paw Patrol as she would get excited and point when we saw it on the netflix menu. Cooper wanted Transformers, Aiden wanted Pokemon, and Grady wanted something else. In the end, Grady won rock, paper, scissors and he chose the Pokemon movie for Aiden. Ironically, the only kid still watching it at the end was Macy.
Monday was an odd day as my kids had school. Sara spent the morning packing, Aiden colored, and I started this blog. After we picked Cooper up from school and had lunch we went to the a new play center on our end of town,
Joso's. It was so quiet being an school day afternoon. At one point we had the entire place to our self. We spend 2 hours there, it was uninterrupted
adult play time.
It was nice to have some Cooper/Aiden time. Aiden falls right in between the ages of my boys and over the weekend he seemed to gravitate towards Grady, which is totally normal given he is the 'older' kid and the bonded over Pokemon. When Grady was at school, the other two didn't miss a beat playing superheros and running through the play area. Like I said, instant friends.
After we picked Grady up from school, Sara and her crew slowly packed up and started the process of leaving. Of course we took a group shot with my new selfie stick.
I had such a good weekend. There was crying, there was screaming, there was rain, there were early mornings.... but there was also beer (for Sara), wine (for me), popcorn and ice cream, laughs, stories, and new memories created.
While Sara is an old friend to me, I loved watching my friends develop new friendships. New friendships that will hopefully turn into old friendships because their mamas insist on getting together a couple times a year.
I feel so fortunate to have so many great girlfriends that make the effort to come and visit me and take time out of their schedules to visit me when I am in town. Like tomorrow. Lucky for me, I will be spending the day in Saskatoon with a few of these important ladies.
Here's to new friends and old friends and to making new memories.
