Keeping Up with the Moodys: Weekend Away

Last weekend, Ian (and his boys) went on a fun snowboarding trip. Instead of staying alone with the kids, I decided to go stay with Jennifer and Sadie while the boys were gone. We had a great time together! Girl talk late into the night after the kids went to bed was my favorite! I sure do love her! On Sunday we attempted to make it to church...well, we did make it to church - 30 minutes into the service. :/ It's a little difficult getting three kids ready for church in the morning, changing out the car seats, and packing enough stuff to last the kids for the rest of the night (since we had made plans not to come home until late that night.) But hey. We made it. A little late, but we were there!

After church, we went over to Stacy's parents house (Stacy is my other best friend!). Her parents volunteered to watch all of our kids (Stacy's little boy who is 1 month older than Charis, Jennifer's Sadie who is 6 months younger than Charis, and then Charis and Cayman) so that us girls could go out for an unprecedented girls' day out! We seriously haven't done that since Cayman was a newborn (and I believe Cayman attended our girls' day out because the boys were playing paintball...) We had SO. MUCH. FUN! We went out to eat lunch at my favorite restaurant that I hardly ever get to eat at anymore - Pei Wei. And then we went to TJ Maxx to do some shopping! We had a blast - choosing clothes for each other, trying on the same shirts to see who it looked best on, attempting to pull off matching black sequined one-piece jumpsuits...let me tell you...we definitely DID NOT pull that off. But we did laugh until tears ran down our legs. ;) (You'll laugh too when you figure out what I just wrote...) It was a great day. We will definitely be doing that more often. The guys owe us anyways after we let them go on a snowboarding trip, right? :)

Monday the kids and I got to spend the whole day with Sadie. We had so much fun! But Jenn and I have decided that we have got to add a fourth child to the mix because Charis and Sadie have a strong love/hate relationship. Ok, maybe not hate, but they definitely have a hard time getting along. So that's why Jenn and Kyle hope the little baby growing in her belly is a little boy!!! (YES SHE'S PREGO AGAIN! WOOHOO!) Sadie and Cayman are best buds, so maybe if they have a boy this time around, Charis and "Avery" will be best buds too. That little tidbit of info was definitely the highlight of our weekend together! We could not be more excited for them - they waited soo so long for Sadie; I'm so glad they didn't have to go through that all over again with baby #2!

Monday night, I attempted to take all three kids out to dinner to meet another friend Jamie and her sweet little guy. Let's just say that when I'm a mother of three, I will wait a good long while until I attempt a meal out at a restaurant other than Chick-fil-A of Elizabeth City (where I know I always have a slew of helping hands!) I was very frazzled by the time I left due to a number of experiences...Charis having stranger danger around Jamie (which then means that Sadie is nervous because Charis is nervous), Cayman hollering "POOP!!" in the middle of dinner (which then means that all four of us trek to the bathroom together because Charis and Sadie don't want to be left alone with Jamie and Emory), Charis and the high chair falling over in the middle of the restaurant (she was down on the floor as we packed up to leave, and she stood up on the back of the high chair and pulled it over - she landed gracefully on her back with the high chair on her belly...she somehow managed not to bang her head on the floor in the process), and finally our night ended with Cayman getting into trouble for saying a dirty word in the van and then not being honest about it (UGH...we have definitely hit the fibbing stage....and let me tell you...it is no fun....) I'm not going to lie. The kids did not get a bath that night. There was no way that I was going to do bath time alone with three kids after that evening! :)

After the kids were all in PJs, Charis and Sadie had a (rare) sweet play time together. They loved getting out all the plastic bowls from Jenn's cabinet in the kitchen, and on this night, they turned them into helmets! It was really cute to see them playing so well together.

Sweet Jenn came home that night with a very yummy cupcake for me. Did I mention that I love my friend? :)

Tuesday morning, Jenn and I took the kids to the mall to expend a bit of their energy in the mall's play area. Apparently every other stay at home mom in Raleigh decided to do the same thing! It was PACKED. We stayed for a little while - 20 minutes or so - and then headed to the food court for some yummy Chick-fil-A lunch! Of course we had to head home for all three kiddos to take a nap. Tuesday night, the guys surprised us and came home a little earlier than expected. (They were all a little too sore to snowboard an extra day...) We were glad to have them home! And we were glad that they all had such a great time. We spent the evening sharing our stories from our days apart and watching the videos that they made while snowboarding down the mountain. (I wish I had the guts and know-how to ski/snowboard down a mountain like that - it was absolutely gorgeous!)

Wednesday morning Ian, the kids and I were up bright and early to head to the airport to pick up a special visitor on our way back to Elizabeth City. But before we got to the airport, we had time to stop and pick up some breakfast. Cayman and Charis got quite a treat when we walked in - yummy frosted donuts! The barista just handed them over the counter - I think Cayman thought he was in heaven! Then it was time to go straight to the airport to get our guest...........