Wow! This weekend went by in a whirl!!!
Friday was spent in bowling, and volunteering at the kid's school. I was hoping that Alan would take us all to see Ratatouille (haven't seen it, yet), but he was too busy getting ready to pour a cement pad to park our pop up trailer on. He's had to cancel the pour for 3 weeks due to bad weather. When the forecast was for good weather all weekend, he ordered 7 feet of cement to be brought to our house. He was up most of Friday night, smoothing and building forms. He got to bed around midnight, waking me up to say that his brother (with 4 of the 5 kids) were going to come help with the cement. "So, could you cook breakfast for everyone?" Midnight is not the best time to ask me something. However, I agreed!
At 5:30 the next morning, I woke up, went to the store and got enough stuff to make cinnamon fench toast bake, scrambled eggs, fried oatmeal and sausage for everyone. I also had hot chocolate, cider, egg nog, and orange juice. At 7:00 the truck came, and the pour began. Everything went smoothly, thanks to a neighbor who was awakened by the noise, and came over to help. He does cement work on a regular basis, so it was good to have him there. I fed the troops, and kept the hot chocolate coming.
They were finished by 1:00! It looks really good, too! I can't wait for it to cure all the way, so I can get my garage back!!!!
The tools Alan had rented needed to be back at the store by 3:00, so Alan took a quick shower, while I cleaned up the kids and got them ready to go to the pumpkin patch. We got everything in the car, and dropped off the tools. All was well there! Before the pumpkin patch, we had to stop by the house of one of Alan's clients to try to get some money from him. Alan has done a ton of work for him, and he owes us about 4500 dollars. Alan spent about 45 minutes there, but did manage to walk out with a check for 500 dollars. Not much, but more than I thought we'd get!
Finally, we were off to the pumpkin patch! Halfway there, we realized we'd forgotten the camera. Bummer! Oh well, too late to turn around. By the time we got there, it was getting chilly, so no one wanted to linger too long, anyway. We did the corn maze, played on the bouncy slides, etc., did the whole petting zoo thing, and made our way through the "light" alley. The patch is on the other side of the alley, so we ended up with the kids picking their pumpkins, while Alan and I selected a new tree to go in our yard. We lost a pine tree this year, and want to replace it. We found a beautiful golden chain tree to plant, so we were all happy.
We got home from the patch with enough time to shove a bowl of soup down everyone's throats, get the kids in their costumes, and go to a neighbor's house for a Halloween party. It was a ton of fun! The neighborhood teens had put together a spook alley in the basement and garage, and my kids thought it was wonderful! I had a great time just nibbling on treats, and enjoying adult conversation. We carried the kids home, and all just collapsed into bed.
We spent yesterday recovering, and going to church. Our children's Sunday school did a program, so it was neat to see the kids. Katie even did a violin solo to the song Beautiful Savior. It was so good! We were really proud of her. Last night we watched Sinbad and enjoyed ice cream sundaes!
I'm exhausted!!! Think I'll take a nap today to recover!!!
I know that we put on our rain boots and our feet were freezing just helping pack it up.
I've also made a dent in the laudry pile, man does that grow.
I really hope once he gets to be there with his DD that he will want to go back!
But for all the good reasons. 
