Busy Weekends

 Rachael was excited to  have a little sister for a day and night.  Our friends' little girl came and spent the evening with us and had a sleep-over in Rachael's room on Saturday night.  Rachael and I had fun getting her dressed and hair done for church.  Luke enjoyed having a favorite friend over.  He was a bit upset that Grace got to sleep in Sissy's room that night.  Friday night Luke decided along with Rachael that a sleep-over was in order.  He brought his blankie, and pillow pet and slept in Rachael's bed with her that night, it was really cute. 

 We held a joint birthday lunch for our Winter birthday boys on Sunday.  Asher had wanted S'mores, but with the snow outside I didn't think Joel was up for getting out the charcoal grill and going at it, so I "invented" this s'mores cake.  All was going swimmingly until late on Sunday I stuck the cake with raw marshmallows and chocolate chips under the broiler to toast the topping, and discovered that my oven had called it quits sometime between eleven at night on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. 

Good thing Mom-mom and Pop-pop had brought up the RV to deliver some things to us, and they took the cake to their oven in there and we were able to enjoy the birthday cake anyway.  Benny has the "9" candle, and our Asher is about to be 5. 

In addition to those two things we were supposed to go to a Valentine banquet on Friday night, which was cancelled due to the snow, so Joel and I enjoyed chinese takeout while giving the children the fish-sticks and mac-n-cheese (or noodles with olive oil and seasoning for our dairy free kids), which is the dinner I planned for them to have with the babysitter while we enjoyed the banquet. Is that mean? 
Saturday, Rachael joined me for lots of shopping and errands.  It was fun to buy lots of baby toys to restock the Baby and Toddler Sunday School bins.  She and I also tried Amelia's Grocery and I don't think it was worth it.  I do way better at Aldi and the other discount stores in the area.  Rachael and I stopped for lunch at KFC before heading home, we were both hungry and laughed that we weren't really talking, just scarfing down our food.  I felt bad because it was 3 in the afternoon before we stopped for a meal.
Asher also had the afternoon with Mom-mom and Pop-pop E and cousin Blair to celebrate his upcoming Birthday.  They had a GREAT time at Cabella's and Asher received a new sled for a gift.
 
Then home again, home again, jiggity-jig.  Making grilled cheese or other sandwiches, putting away all the groceries and cooking the birthday dinner late on Saturday night.  But I had good company, Joel helped me and we listed to a sermon from Al Mohler on marriage while we worked.

So that ends our busy weekend.  The next one coming is just as full.  We have a date night on Friday.  Our friend with the cute little girl and I trade off babysitting each month, it is wonderful!  We have two parenting conferences to go to since we have kiddos ranging in age from 9 months to nearly 14 we go to both the little kid, and big kids sessions.  I think there are a few other things in there too. At least it makes the gloomy winter days fly by.