Happy Labor Day!

This weekend being a holiday weekend, Brent had four days off. Four glorious days of him being home all day long to help me with the kids and give me a little time off. I did manage to make it out of the house to run errands by myself on Saturday, but got called back when Tristan couldn't be comforted. I went grocery shopping all by myself this morning. I love grocery shopping without children. I find it relaxing to walk up and down the aisles of a non-crowded grocery store just checking out the selections. I have to be careful, though. I can easily spend two hours doing this because it's such a welcome break in my day to day routine! It gets expensive too!! One of the major things we did this weekend was enjoy some visits with our friends the Rogers. We go way back with Michael and Hannah to long before marriage, kids and moves. It was fun just to visit with them and their kiddos Wesley and Anna Kate. Michael's parents live here in town, so we should be seeing a lot of the Rogers this year.
We went over to Michael's parent's house to visit and let the kids play. The Rogers hadn't met Tristan yet and we really enjoyed getting to introduce him. As you can see, Anna Kate was very interested in our little man. Hannah held him and Anna Kate crawled over at lightning speed to check him out.
She kept saying "Baby, baby," and she wanted to touch him. Tristan looks like he wasn't sure what to think!

Look at that smile! Look out Hannah, she's going to want a living baby doll soon!
Can you see a future for these two little lovebirds?? Anna Kate was ready to plant kisses all over him!
Wesley and Maura have been looking forward to playing with each other.
Most of the time they play pretty nicely together. Maura and Wesley match each other pretty well in energy level and they have a lot of fun together.
Anna Kate learning how to play pool!

We all went to dinner together. Ralph and Patricia took us all to Cheddars for an evening out. Cheddars has a fountain and pool in front, aka death trap to toddlers. These two goof balls almost fell in several times while tossing in pennies. The pool is just kind of dug into the sidewalk and there isn't much there to keep two children in perpetual motion from tumbling in. I had to have them hug each other to even get them in the same photo.
Hannah and sweet Anna Kate. Anna Kate says, "Cheese!"
Anna Kate and Tristan hung out together at the table.
Hanna and I enjoyed catching up. I don't have too many friends that are at exactly the same point in life as I am, so it's fun to catch up with another mommy who is. Hannah is my biggest "boy supporter" friend. She loves her boy and she was so excited for me when I found out I was having Tristan. Now I know what she was so excited about. My boy is the perfect addition to our family.
What a couple of goofs! These two found something hilarious to laugh about and laughed uproariously for several minutes. They're a pretty lively crew!

Today Michael, Hannah, Wesley and Anna Kate came over to see our new house and visit before heading home. It was fun to have non-family visitors in our home. Hannah was so excited to see our non-cat-inhabited home. She basically hasn't been able to enter my home for our entire married life because she is deathly allergic to Luna. Everything was new to her, even most of our furniture because she's never been able to come in to see it!!
Anna Kate carrying on her love affair with Tristan. She alternated between really interested in the baby and a little jealous that her mommy was holding him. I think interest won out and she gave him some kisses.
Wesley loved our kitchen. He doesn't have a play kitchen at home, so he cooked up a storm while he was here. He served Michael dinner. Look at all those fruits and veggies!
Maura and Wesley rounded out the afternoon by "sleeping together." They pretended to take a nap together. I know Maura really wanted a nap, but she was trying so hard to stay up for the visit. She definitely went to bed early tonight.
We had a little time before bed, so we took a walk around the neighborhood. Maura and Tristan held hands.

We took some bread up to feed the fishes. Once again I was terrified that Maura would topple into the murky water. It's certainly not an unjustified fear as she goes right up to the edge and leans over!
The fishes did eat some of the bread, but didn't really come up far enough for us to get a good look at them. Oh well, it was a good try.
Me and "Little Man" enjoying the pleasant evening. This is the last 0-3 outfit he can still wear, but you can see how short it's getting on him. Sadly, it's time to pack away the 0-3 and most of the 3-6 month clothes.
Maura loved marching around the gazebo. We have two lakes in our neighborhood and this gazebo stands between the two lakes. It's a really pretty area. I didn't even know it existed until I stumbled upon a walking path. We really like coming up here now.
My sweet kiddos and I. These guys were on their last legs with fatigue, but we had some fun family time together. I love four day weekends!! Too bad they don't happen more often! Happy Labor Day everyone!!