4-Day Weekend!

I had met a friend for a play date at this Children's Garden one day while Sadie was at school.  We told Sadie about this awesome little play place and I promised her I would take her... we made plans to go on Friday October 6th while she was out of school for the day.  The kids had Friday off for teacher's institute and Monday for Columbus Day.  We made lots of plans to pack our weekend with fun things!  As an added bonus, Aunt NeeNee joined us for the weekend of fun.

Unfortunately Friday morning rolled around gloomy, rainy, and COLD--the coldest day of fall so far!  We didn't let that stop us--we headed to the Children's Garden to meet some friends for a fun day.  The kids had a BLAST (while us adults froze).  The children's Garden is full of lots of cool play areas:

 Sadie loved playing teacher in the little schoolhouse!

 Macey liked digging in the dirt (so did all the boys!)

 The kids had fun climbing up these big dirt piles.

 Our friends--Jake, Lucas, & Ethan (Jake's in 1st, Lucas is 4, and Ethan is 1)

 Aunt NeeNee and Macey put on a puppet show.

 The kids were trying to catch goldfish in the coy pond.

 Macey is feeding the (fake) cow.

After several hours at the children's garden we went back to Michelle's house for some hot chocolate and to warm up before our next adventure.  There is a little equestrian farm near where we live.  On the first Friday of every month they have "Family Fun Night".  We decided to check it out with the kids.  It turned out to be a whole lot of fun... and mostly free!  (We paid $2 for horse rides.)

 The kids loved petting this little pony.

 The kids all took a turn riding the horses.

 We went for wagon ride on the farm.

Kinnick got his face painted.  We couldn't stay super long because we had small group but we definitely plan to go back!

On Saturday we told the kids we had a surprise for them... we loaded up without telling them where we were going.  After about 10 minutes in the car, I think Sadie figured it out--she said "Are we driving toward Chicago?"  As soon as she could see the city skyline she asked "Are we going to a place that everyone likes or mostly just girls?"

 She guessed it... we were headed to the American Girl Doll Store.  As an incentive for good school behavior Marc had promised her to buy a new outfit for Mikenna if she made it for 30 consecutive school days without getting into any trouble at school.  We made her a chart and she filled it up.

 We stopped at the cafe for a little refreshment.

 Marc and Kinnick did some shopping and stopped at the Lego store.  We all had lunch in the food court before we headed back home.  Sadie loved being able to share this trip with one of her favorite aunts!

Mikenna's New Leotard

Sadie's Completed Chart

                                     
Steph agreed to babysit for us Saturday night.  Her and the kids had pizza and movie night while Marc and I enjoyed a date night.  I had bought a groupon for a local pumpkin farm that has weekend activities.  We enjoyed doing a haunted corn maze, a flashlight maze, and moonlit hay ride.  Afterwards we enjoyed going out for coffee... fun date with my favorite guy!