Marathon Complete!

I feel like I started a marathon 10 days ago and finally finished it last night!

One of my friends and I have been in charge of our fall book fair at school the last three years.  I love spending time with my sweet friend, Amy, and enjoy being up at school all week.  Getting to browse books and see the boys throughout the day makes for a fun and busy week!  It was a tad stressful trying to get our entire family of 5 ready to go for the day at 7:45, and I have a newfound respect for families that do this every day!  On Friday, we tore down the book fair.  It was a great week which brought in a lot of money for our PTA!

Friday night was Matthew's birthday party.  He has been blessed with such great friends at school, and I always enjoy being with this group of kids.  We had his party up at our church's gym.  When I ask Matthew about his day at school, there is always mention of what occurred at recess.  His group of guy friends plays football each day.  We decided for Matthew's party to throw all of his friends in the gym and give them balls to play with.  Party planning at its finest!  The kids enjoyed playing football, ping pong, and a friendly game of dodge ball.  It was definitely the loudest birthday party that I can recall, and we enjoyed it tremendously!  I can't believe my baby boy will be 9 tomorrow, but I will write more about that later.

Me showing empathy! ;)

Saturday, I went into party planning mode for the book club that I hosted last night.  Bryon and the kids went to the Baylor/ A&M game while I cooked.  I HATED missing that game, because I felt like Baylor had a fighting chance, and they won 41-21!  I was so happy that the boys got to see this.  Maybe finally I can live down the incident that occurred 4 years ago...  Our friends hosted a Halloween party for adults that conflicted with the Battle of the Brazos, Baylor/A&M game.  I persuaded Bryon, who NEVER misses a home game, to come to the party.  Baylor upset a much better A&M teams that year!  This comes up in conversation still to this day!

We also had our family party for Matthew on Saturday.  My sister was gracious enough to have us at her house, so my house could stay "party ready" for Sunday.  Mom and Dad got Matthew more mini football helmets, which are his latest obsession.  He spent the afternoon matching up football helmets to who was playing that day.  Lauren and Josh got him a High School Musical DVD game that he can't wait to play.  He also got lots of books, which he adores.  Matthew got some great gifts, but he was most excited about the electric guitar that my brother gave to him.  We got him an amplifier to go with it, and his is ready for be a real "Guitar Hero"!  Michael also gave Thomas his favorite Bama hat that he wore all throughout college, so he wouldn't feel left out!  

Don't you wish James enjoyed cake?

Book club was last night, and we discussed a great book: The Thirteenth Tale.  I read the book last year, and really enjoyed it.  I hosted book club with a good friend of mine, and we spent the afternoon cooking.  (Bryon took the kids to the Lady Bears basketball game.  They got to sit on the third row and see Baylor upset the number 2 ranked Stanford!  Two exciting Baylor games in a row!)  We enjoyed a great meal: roasted vegetable lasagna, poblano corn pudding, roasted sweet potatoes/brussel sprouts/fennel/parsnips, and butter rum pound cake with bananas foster sauce.

I had been promising Mary Beth all last week that on Monday, we wouldn't get out of our pjs all day!  She is enjoying a few minutes watching Super Why, so I can get all of this written, and then having a fun girls day with NOTHING TO DO!!