Yesterday we took advantage of the wonderful weather and headed off to a local park for an Autumn Celebration.  They had plenty of great activities for the kids including pumpkin painting, a hay maze, scarecrow stuffing, a hay ride, face painting and more.   As the sun began to set, they started up a bonfire while a local band performed.  I must admit we were out of there before then.  With all the hub-bub, the children had reached the end of their ropes after a couple short hours and meltdowns were waiting in the wings.  So we left sparing the public of such a spectacle!  In the end, it was some nice family time well spent!

AJ and his friend Monkey from Situationally Single Mom.

Kiki and her friend Princess from SSM (notice AJ’s little head sticking out of the hay.)

Kiki’s new friend who nibbled on her shirt, which I can tell you she did NOT appreciate!

This past weekend was one that I look forward to every Fall.  Every year my husband and I attend a Penn State football game with his parents who are season ticket holders.  We leave on a Friday afternoon and come back on Sunday.  My mother comes to our house for the weekend to look after the kids, the dog, and the cat.  It’s a win-win for everyone.  My mom loves spending the weekend with the kids, the kids love spending the weekend with my mom, my husband and myself have some adult time and we get to catch up with his parents, and his parents get to spend the weekend with two awesome people!!  See, everyone is a winner!

When I started typing this post it was clear it was way too long.  It’s hard to cram an awesome weekend into one post.  So I’m highlighting to the best of my abilities.  It still may be on the long side so please just humor me!

Friday night found us at Zeno’s bar where we were listening to a blues band.  It apparently was Dewar’s night, which ironically is my FIL’s drink of choice.  We all received free key chains and a sample of Dewar’s.  These freebies were handed out by two beautiful, long blond haired, mid-riff showing beauties that I’m sure no one noticed!

Moving on, the samples of scotch were absolutely disgusting and my FIL was more than happy to take them off of our hands and into his cup.  The Dewar’s girls came back and presented my FIL with a nice flask that had Dewar’s engraved on it.  I guess they realized that he was an actual Dewar’s drinker and it is a really nice flask.  The comment of the weekend was made at this moment by my FIL who exclaimed, “What a night! WHAT A NIGHT!!”  It was hilarious and I can guarantee you he will hear that statement again and again for years to come!

On Saturday we tailgated for about 8 hours because game time wasn’t until 8:00pm.  It was a fun time filled with grilling, eating, and socializing.  Unfortunately,  evening games lead to very intoxicated people, which although it makes for some good people watching, can force you to cross paths with some obnoxious people.  Case in point…a completely sober college student came up to my MIL and I and asked if we minded if he and his friend urinated next to my car.  He seemed surprised when my MIL said, “Yes, we really do mind.”   “The lines at the port-a-potty are long,” he replied.  Well sorry buddy! The crazy thing is that last year we had to chase another college student away from my car who also found it an appropriate place to relieve himself.  I thought I drove a GMC Acadia but apparently I drive a huge portable urinal.  My mistake!!

Now we come to game time, for those of you still with me here!! It was a white out meaning that all the PSU fans were asked to wear white.  The stadium did look incredible with everyone in their white (except for the Illinois section which was orange.)  We did forget my camera at the hotel but did manage to take a few shots with my husband’s cell phone.

Here is the team warming up before the game.

My husband and I in the stadium.

Without further ado, the people that make this weekend possible… my mother-in-law and father-in-law.

It was a great game!  Although it rained off and on, it wasn’t horrible and actually at times it was refreshing.  Penn State won and I got to see the cutest little old guy in the world…Joe Paterno.  I LOVE him!  One of my favorite moments is at the beginning of the game when the Penn State players are standing at the gates ready to run onto the field.  JoePa stands in front of them and I just love seeing this little old man leading these massive football players out of the gates.  You can just feel the respect that they have for him as he leads the way.  Although, he is quickly lost in the mass of blue and white uniforms and actually this year he walked along the side of the field due to an injured leg.  I am fully aware this could have been the last time I see him leading the players out of the gates and I will be deeply saddened if he is not there next year.  But I think he has put in his time, don’t you?

Speaking of time, I have taken up enough of yours.  It was a wonderful weekend.  My husband and I would like to thank my FIL and MIL for a great time and more wonderful memories!  Also thanks to my mom for watching my babies!  Until next year…

Another weekend has come and gone way too quickly.  Time is moving at an incredible speed and try as I might, I can not slow it down.  It’s hard to believe that Kiki’s seventh birthday is next week and shortly after that she starts second grade.  Amazing, isn’t it?

But I’m getting away from myself.  Let’s get back to the weekend.  On Saturday we went to a Welcome Home party for our friend Boot.  He had lived in Japan for this past year working as an architect.  I think he was ready to come back home to the states.  It was really nice to see him again.  I can’t imagine such an experience as to move to another country for a year and work!  He’s busy now looking for architectural work in either Philadelphia or Boston.  We’re praying that he finds a job soon, although we are hoping it’s Philadelphia for our own selfish reasons.

This picture is of my husband and Boot.

Boot’s parents have a nice little pond with some fish swimming around and the kids were mesmerized.  Although I did think on more than one occasion that AJ would be joining the fish.  He was leaning so close to the water I was just waiting for the rock to give way.

We stopped over at my parents’ house afterwords where we had dinner.  Kiki decided she wanted to spend the night and my parents graciously accepted.  As we were driving away, AJ screams, “KIKI!” like we forgot her.  Once he realized she was staying there he was MAD! He cried for a good bit and then fell fast asleep.  He was quickly over it.  This picture is of my mom and Kiki.

Then today we had to tackle our swingset.  When we first put it up a few years ago, we framed out an area around it and filled it in with wood chips.  Well, this summer the weeds that have been growing in there were out of control.  So a few weeks ago my husband sprayed weed killer on them.  They all turned brown and so today we went out to pull them.  About 2 minutes into the task, we realized this was never going to work.  It was all consuming!  So the hubby decides to light it on fire.  How I’m not covered with a gray head of hair yet is beyond me!

Here is what it looked like when we first went out there today.

Lexi apparently doesn’t care about the fire that is creeping close to her!  As I took it, I yelled her name so she is in the process of getting up.

The singed aftermath.

It’s still almost near impossible to rake up so we are going to order more wood chips and fill it in.  I’m not looking forward to the day we take down the swingset and have to get rid of all the wood chips.  Hopefully that won’t be for a while yet!