weekend fun

Who doesn't love a long weekend? We've had a few around here lately. But we've also had Brian off traveling too. In his last job, he'd be gone for 3-4 weeks at a time. That sucked. This job will be different. Lots of 1-2 night trips away. 3 this month in fact. But, I remind myself I have nothing to complain about....

So I was thrilled last week when he told me on Sunday night (having just returned from a trip) that he had Monday and Tuesday off. Surprise! Monday he went to school and surprised the kids for lunch. Then we headed into downtown Alexandria, because we could, wandered around and had lunch at a random Lebanese restaurant. Tuesday he let me sleep in (wooo hooo), while he packed lunches, prepared breakfast, studied with Tate and got the kids to the bus stop. Ahhhhh.... he's such a good dad and father. We went to see a movie in the middle of the day, again just because we could. 

I loved having him home for those two days.

And then we had the bonus of a 3 day weekend this week!

Friday night bday party, Saturday rainy day- which meant NO football, woo hooo! Tate actually stayed in his pajamas ALL day. It's been a longgggggggggg time since he's had the luxury of doing that.

Sunday after church we went to see the movie "Alexander and the horrible, no good, terrible, very bad day" or something like that. It's based on the children's book, which is cute. The movie was fantastic! The kids loved it and so did we. I couldn't stop laughing at one part. Worth every dollar we spent- and I don't say that lightly because I think movies are overpriced and we rarely take the kids...

But go see this one. Great for middle school kids too. Just a good family movie.

Then we stopped off at a pumpkin patch on the way home- 

This "corn" maze was perfect for the kids-

Monday we headed into the city for an outing with Tate's cub scout den. Oh yeah, Tate has started cub scouts here and really likes it. He is most excited about learning how to use a knife. Hmmmmm.

The outing was to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where Tate and I had just visited on his class trip. It was actually a good thing, since we didn't have nearly enough time there with his class.

Macy and I took off on our own to see the museum, while Tate and Brian completed a scavenger hunt through the museum (such a great idea to hold little boys attention/interest) with the cub scouts.

Since we couldn't take a picture of the star spangled banner (still blows my mind each time I see it), Macy posed in front of this one-

Brian sent her on a scavenger hunt of her own, telling  her to find Mrs. Obama's inaugural gown. And we did-

Here is Tate's new cub scout den, minus a few kids who couldn't make the outing- and one that just HAD to go to the bathroom-

We left the cub scouts and headed next door to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Brian was excited to show the kids this HUGE elephant in the breathtaking rotunda-

Macy was psyched to see Sven from Frozen-

We also had fun decorating for halloween and "booing" our neighbors. Tate really wants to make our house spooky/scary, but I don't think Macy is ready just yet. I was thrilled with these little mice/rat cutouts I found at the craft store for $1.25-

Tate seemed satisfied enough and Macy didn't seem scared at all!