The Pattersons: Weekend Wrap-Up

What a week (and weekend), guys. You too?

Friday night we all went to my parents to play in the snow. By "we all" I mean my sisters and their husbands and kids too. You would think that we all see each other all the time since we all live in the area now, but sadly this is not true. We rarely all get together besides family events like baptism, or holidays. I'm pretty sure it took us longer to get the kids all bundled up than we actually got to play outside, but it was a blast.

I suppose I misspoke (mistyped?) above when I said all of us were together. Technically Kael wasn't there because Kael was at his...wait for it....first friend sleepover. We had been hearing about one of his friend's plans for a birthday party/sleepover since July but Kael never got an invitation so I assumed he just wasn't going to be included. Imagine my surprise when Kael came home from school Friday afternoon saying that he was invited to a sleepover. There was no invitation in his backpack so I tried to figure out how I was going to explain (read: break his heart) that he wasn't invited when lo and behold I got a text from his friend's mom. "There's no party, but we told our son we would let him pick one friend to stay over tonight and he picked Kael. Are you guys ok with him sleeping over here tonight?" I died. You guys, not only was he not excluded, he was the only one included! I was so excited for Kael but also a fair amount of nervous. We know the family well, but it's not like they live next door. I called Kent who gave the green light and before I knew it, Kael had his bag packed and gave me the world's most casual good-bye as if he stays over at friends' houses every night of the week. This is a HUGE deal. I was a moderate amount of anxious all night but when Kael returned home the next morning with a smile on his face and an even bigger smile on his friend's face, I knew that we had survived a major milestone. His buddy even said, "My mom said Kael was so good he can come back anytime!!!" I was so happy for him.

Those of you who have sent your children away for sleepovers before know that they often arrive home overly tired. Kael was no different (for the rest of the weekend) and I will admit his attitude was a bit trying for us, but I know this is completely normal so I tried to take it easy on him while maintaining some degree of discipline and structure.

Saturday Kylee had friend over and then also had a birthday party. Raise your hand if you're surprised with Kylee's double-booked social Saturday. No hands? That's what I thought. :) She's always on the go and always up for fun and adventure.

Saturday evening, when we were all about to collapse, I decided instead of being over-tired, over-stimulated and grumpy at home, we might as well go to Family Fun Night at church. Kent gave me his best, "Are you kidding? We're seriously squeezing one more thing into this day?" look as we loaded the troops in his truck. And guess what? It was AWESOME. There was a basketball knock-out contest (that Kael got second place in), pizza, pop, cookies, a craft room with do-it-yourself face painting (how happy was Kylee?!) and a movie in the sanctuary with popcorn and candy. Then they had extra pizzas and they raffled them off and Kael won one! How happy was he?! Great end to the evening.

Sunday I was hosting a baby shower here that was super fun. It also meant I had to kick everyone else out of the house so I could furiously clean/pick up flowers/decorate/host/clean up again. Kent was so helpful and took the kids to Collins to hang with his family and was even more help putting stuff away when he got home. The party was so fun. Loved having some girl time with neighbors!

Another great weekend in the books. Kent only has to work today and tomorrow this week and the kids are off school after tomorrow too. I'm looking forward to some serious family time including decorating the tree and doing a little shopping but hopefully tons of down time.

Here are a few (out of order, unedited) pictures because Kase is waking up and I've gotta go get him. I cannot handle it when he sleepily calls "mama" over the monitor. I might die from the innocence and cuteness.

Kase loved playing in the snow with me!