Friday was Jason’s 34th birthday, so it was a birthday weekend around our house. Anya helped me bake a cake and decorate it and we picked out party hats at the Dollar Store to really get us in the party mood Of course the real celebration happened late Saturday night when the Hawks pulled off a HUGE victory vs Michigan State…what a game!

Here are a few pictures of the birthday fun!

Yesterday we were finally able to get outside and enjoy some beautiful fall weather! After church we headed to Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge with Dustin, Laura and Raegan Reuter and had a great afternoon in the sunshine. The kids had a blast riding on the hayrack, wandering through the hay maze, sliding down the slide, playing in the cornbox, petting the animals, jumping on the giant “pillow” and just being outside.

Here are a few pictures of all our pumpkin patch fun!

Yesterday at various time throughout the day I would find random “puddles” of water on the floor. At first I thought maybe Josiah had un-diapered himself and peed on the floor, but he was always fully clothed when I would check. Then I thought that maybe one of the kid’s sippy cups were leaking, so I checked all those and they were fine as well. So, the mystery went unsolved and I basically just forgot about it. Until this morning…..when I came around the corner into the kitchen and saw this:

and this:

Yep–Josiah has been helping himself to water from the fridge. His “drinking from a cup” skills are pretty much non-existent at the moment–although apparently not from lack of trying. He basicially hasn’t figured out that you have to actually stop tilting the cup back before taking the cup away from your lips, and every time he takes a drink, a big puddle appears on the floor. Ah, now I can rest easy….mystery solved!

Except now I need to figure out how to keep him away from the fridge….

It was all fun times around the McArtor household the weekend…except for the snow we woke up to on Saturday morning. It was short-lived, yet still disheartening. Snow on October 10th…..not really what I call “fall weather”.

Anyways, on Friday I volunteered to go with on Anya’s field trip at preschool to the Fire Station. It is within walking distance and it was a chilly 10 minute walk. It was a lot of fun touring the fire station and the Firemen did a great job of showing the kids the trucks, ambulances and all the ins and outs of the station. The kids were especially fascinated by the poll and squealed with delight when the fireman came shooting down it! It was a lot of fun and I am so glad that I went along!

Friday afternoon Grandma Barb and Aunt Jill came to town so we could have a girl’s night out along with friends Blanca, Jodi and Judi (Jodi’s mom)! We went out for supper downtown and then went to Wicked at the Civic Center. To say the show was awesome is an understatement….it was simply unbelievable! We had a great time, what a fun night!

Saturday the girls got up and went shopping before the men took off for the football game. Jason Mc, Jason Miller, Zachary & Noah all went to the game and had a great time watching the Hawks beat Michigan. They claim that the game wasn’t as cold as they thought it was going to be, but I think they were just numb from the big victory!!

Other than our big weekend full of visitors, things have been pretty quiet here lately. Anya is staying busy with preschool, enjoys doing her “funwork” and is looking forward to having us come to the preschool open house this Thursday night. Josiah is constantly on the move and has lots of fun tormenting his big sister!

Here are a few pictures of what has been going on lately!

Happy 18 months to our smiley (and ornery) little man! We love you Josiah John Paul!

This last 2 weeks we have been running in survival mode trying to get everyone healthy again. Some sort of bug/virus ran its course through our house starting with Josiah and ending with me. From what I have witnessed at work/seen on the news/heard from almost everyone we know, we must not be the only ones going through this. Luckily, we are all feeling much better and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way for awhile now!

Despite being under the weather, our busy schedules went on. Anya has been busy at preschool and was pretty excited to be the “snack helper” this week. She also informed me that she is concentrating on learning our address and phone number so she can call 911 if our house is on fire! Good thing to know I guess!!! She is also several weeks into Bible Buddies now and is really starting to put some of the things they are learning in AWANAs together. Last night after supper when I was cleaning up in the kitchen, I overheard her ask Jason if we saw God’s hands when He gave her to us! It brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh all at the same time. Oh the mind of a 4 year old…….

Josiah is changing and learning everyday. I know why he sleeps for 12+ hours everynight—because he NEVER stops moving during the day! His biggest accomplishment lately is being able to get up on the furniture. Of course it is never enough to just be able to get up—now we catch him doing “flying leaps” off the couch on a regular basis. Boys will be boys I guess! His vocabulary is exploding right now also and he surprises me everyday with what new word he can say. Unfortunately, as his knowledge and independence steadily grow, his patience has dramatically took a nose-dive and we occasionally get to witness a full-fledged tantrum. Oh how I missed these days

Although I only work 2 days–those 2 days have been exhausting me these last few weeks. As you may have seen on TV, Walgreens was offering walk-in flu shots the whole month of September. So, on top of being swamped filling prescriptions, we were now immunizing anyone who came in requesting it–it made for some long, busy days. I have to admit that I was very apprehensive about the whole situation at first…but was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was getting to interact with the customers on a more personal level.

Well, since we have been pretty boring lately, I don’t have many good pictures to share. Here is one I thought was cute of Josiah the other day watching Sesame Street:

Have a great weekend!