A Weekend of Fun

Its the official end of summer and Saturday was hot. Jenna wanted to play outside with her friends in the afternoon but said they were all too hot to play. I told her to go ask everyone if they wanted to play in the sprinkler out front. Soon she was back with a list of friends who didn't want to play but also a list of those who DID. Thankfully, the two who did are her best friends in our new neighborhood, Carter and Kendall. (Carter also happens to be in Jenna's kindergarten class.)

Within minutes all the kids were in their swimsuits and ready to play. I turned the sprinkler system onto manual and told them they had 30 minutes and it was 30 minutes of total fun!

You can just feel the joy! Jenna is with her friend Kendall here. This was the first time all summer we played in the sprinklers; we have gone to the neighborhood pool instead. The sprinklers reminded me of when I was a kid. We rarely went to the pool and the sprinkler was our summer water fun. I was glad to see Jenna, Carter and Kendall had as much fun as we did.

Later that afternoon I decided that we would all go see a movie, well the younger 4 children and I. The boys were both gone for the weekend. Not much was playing that would work for the two babies but we discovered that Wall-E was still playing at one local theater. Julia and Jenna had seen it already but they agreed to see it again because we were sure that Ryan would like it.

I wanted Ryan's movie experience to be totally fun so we splurged on popcorn, 2 drinks to share and everyone got their own candy! Ryan was so excited to have his own bag of Reese's Pieces. I don't think he had any idea what he had but he seemed to know that it was a good thing!

The previews had started by the time we got into the theater and Ryan seemed a bit intimidated by the dark room but was coaxed to climb the stairs up to our seats. We would have carried him however my arms were full of Emma and popcorn and Julia was carrying 2 drinks. But we made it to our seats and everyone got settled.

I wish I could have taken a picture of Ryan's face as he reacted to the movie! When he is surprised in a happy way he gets the sweetest face! His eyes get very round, he raises his eyebrows and he has the cutest smile. Its totally priceless. He had that look several times during the movie and a few times he got so excited he literally squealed.

About 2/3's into the movie Emma was fidgety. We have taken her to the movies before and she is usually very good but Emma's newest fun activity is to practice standing which is then followed by falling on her hands and knees-- not something that was good in front of our seats on that nasty floor. I ended up letting her crawl up the carpeted steps in the aisle and then take her back down, over and over again . Ryan saw us and came out of his seat to sit with us in the aisle and then soon followed by Jenna. Julia was left all alone in our seats! I'm sure we looked quite strange with me sitting on the steps, Jenna and Ryan around me and Emma crawling up and down. But at least we could stay in the movie.

When the movie was over Ryan didn't want to leave and we had to coax him out and he kept trying to go back in.

Jenna, Ryan and Julia in front of the theater after the movie was over. I'm holding a squirmy Emma which is why you don't see her.

Today was a fun day with cousins. Ryan had a great day and when it was time to go to bed he got a pouty face.

He used to just go to bed without a fuss but lately he has pouted some nights at bedtime. I think he has just had so much fun that he doesn't want it to end. When I put him to bed we say our prayers and then I give him kisses on his cheeks and ask for a kiss if he doesn't readily offer one. On non-pouty nights he will kiss me but on pouty nights when I ask he just lies there with a pout. If I put my cheek to his lips he does nothing.

Tonight was a pouty night. I gave him kisses and he refused to give me any. So I kissed his forehead and said "I know your sad your fun day is over but we'll have fun tomorrow. I'm so glad your my little boy! I love you!" and I started to sit up from leaning over him. Suddenly he uttered what sounded like "I love you" and he reached his arms up to pull me down and kissed me on the cheek. I was pretty teary eyed as I left the room.

Sometimes I have a hard time believing that this precious little boy has only been with us 7 weeks! He's been through so much change and although its for the better, its still a totally different world than he was used to. Its nights like tonight that convince me that he's really happy here.