Last Week of Summer

How did we spend our last week of summer vacay at home?

Let me first note that on Sunday, I felt nods to our Providence Church & Trinity Church at our new one: we sang Chris Tomlin's "Here For You" during worship, which was a staple this year at Providence, and then our new pastor referenced the biblical metanarrative. As soon as he said "metanarrative", I totally heard Dr. Moore's voice; it was one of his signature phrases. ♥

I wanted to let the kids choose where we went & what we did all week, since it was their last grasp at summer fun. ;-) Monday, we lunched with friends at a family grill restaurant with playgrounds and free soft serve. Kid friendly to the max!

Tuesday was...APOCALYPTIC: I vehemently hate playing card & board games...but I spent ALL DAY from 9 AM to 4 PM playing Will's new board game, Ticket to Ride, with the kids! :-O
#1 - b/c I love them and #2 - b/c I wasn't losing. (Yes, I play to win, even against my kids; & you don't want to see me, if I lose. This is *why* I don't regularly enjoy games. The world is a much more peaceful place w/o me participating this way. ;-)) But thank God for the grace for five actually-fun rounds! :-D I doubt I could hold back my toddler-esque pouting & tantrums playing with adults, but I have to admit, I loved playing with Will & Annelise. It's a really wonderful game, if you are in the market for one. Glowing rave reviews!!!

We got cleaned up Tuesday afternoon just in time to go to Annelise's trial class at a new gym, to see if she liked it.
She liked it. :-P
Look out, gymnastics world - Annelise has officially arrived!
At this point, she's "taking a year off dance" and will just do gymnastics (with cheer through November.) [We have a little fail safe, though, if she changes her mind: this gym also has a dance studio, so we can add dance, if we "need" to. :-)]

Wednesday was lunch with friends for literally FOUR HOURS at CiCi's Pizza. :-D Hey - you can't beat a cheap place that will cook you fresh pizzas to order, serves veggies (salad bar) that your kids will eat, and keeps your kids entertained that long so you can have adult convos with your friends!!!

Thursday was our last summer pool day: we spent hours at the Lake House Pool (before Meet the Teacher Night at school) and made new friends there, too! Will really doesn't want to give up our pool life here when school starts...and honestly, for the first summer of their school-aged lives, I'm kind of with him! Summers usually feel rather lonely for us; but the last month and a half has been AMAZING here!!!

Friday - per final request - was Rainforest Café with my new friend & her FOUR children: 2nd Grade & Kindergarten girls (yay for Sis!) and ...wait for it... 4-week-old twin boys!!! [We were brought together via FB: our old neighbor in Atlanta moved to Birmingham, AL and became friends there with this lady, whose husband was just transferred here the same time we were! We live in the same neighborhood, about 2 miles apart! We bonded over our(her older) kids' ages, Southernness, Lilly Pulitzer, and having to move for your husband's job when you are eight months pg!!! (We moved from ATL to MI when I was 8 months pg with Annelise; it wasn't twins, but Will was only 18 months old, and it was to FREEZING MI in the winter!!!)] I have to give a special mention to Will: he attended to those babies like he was the Daddy. He was amazing...and it made my heart almost burst to think what a great father he will be one day!!! ♥

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