It's been 3 weeks!

I took this picture this morning because it was picture retake day and she requested that I braid her hair. Too bad the cute braid won't show in the school pictures! I can hardly believe that it's been three weeks since I last posted. What a lazy bum I've been. We've had some super fun and exciting weekends to make up for really boring weekdays. Caitlin's in bed by 7-7:30pm each school night so that she can get up and out to the school bus by 7:10am. The last time I posted it was the day before Faith's birthday party and that was the first of three fun filled weekends. Saturday morning we (Caitie and I) went to Faith's birthday party where we learned about various reptiles and their habitat. We had the opportunity to 'pet' a 60 lb tortoise (this picture was taken off of Harts Reptile Rescue website, because I forgot my camera)and to hold a snake if we wanted, which we didn't, although we did pet it. Then on Sunday, we had a "just the three of us" day. (Photo again taken from the Lee Farm's website cause I forgot my camera!)It started at the pumpkin patch with a hay ride, a pony ride, and walk through the corn and hay mazes. Then we ogled the big pig, oohed over the really cute yellow lab puppies, and picked out our pumpkins, including one that I'm going to try turning into a pumpkin pie and headed home in time to see a matinee of the movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. As we love the book, we had really high hopes for the movie. Caitlin wasn't disappointed, but Ryan and I wouldn't have had hurt feelings if we'd missed seeing it in the theater. The next weekend Caitie and I were back in Mac, as we call McMinnville, for a girls weekend sleep over with Faith and Jantina. That weekend actually turned out to be so much more relaxing than I expected it to be because Jantina was starting to get a cold so we just hung out at her house and let the kids play. Ryan and Phill went fishing and brought home quite the bounty of Salmon to vacuum seal and stick in our freezer. Jantina has quite a talent for making and decorating cakes. She made a turtle for Faith's reptile themed party and this swimming pool complete with swimmer for Caitlin's birthday. We took the kids and their parents to the local swimming pool for 'family' swim which turned out to be 'Caitlin's Birthday' swim because we pretty much had the pool to ourselves for the entire two hours. The life guards were really patient and got the rope swing out two different times and helped outfit the less strong swimmers with life jackets to make it easier on the parents. After the pool it was back to our house for crafts, food and presents. Then we sent everyone home with a big thank you and went to bed. This coming weekend shows no signs of slowing down because of course it'll be Halloween! Caitlin has decided to be a cat this year and we're going to see my mom for the first time in almost two months to do our trick or treating at the beach. Caitlin had an opportunity to test her costume last Friday at school for the "PTA" Halloween Night. She was uber excited before we got there and then she was overwhelmed by the number of people so we ended up leaving early. I'm proud that she participated at all, usually she wouldn't even go if she felt overwhelmed.