Friday afternoon Brad and his mom drove down to St. Clair Shores (a little over 1 hour away) to sign the papers on Brad's parent's new car. They traded in their Mini Cooper for a Cadillac SRX Sport. It's actually Mom D's new car. Although she loved the Mini, it really didn't have a smooth ride (considering the roads in MI are horrible) and it only sat 4 people.
While Brad and Mom D were away, I was at home with the kids. Scott and Al came over and we just watched tv while the kids played. Once everyone got back home, we all went to Little Caesars in Davison. They are known for having great strombolis. It was incredibly busy and it looked like there wasn't enough workers. We waited quite a while and our strombolis came out cold. I have to say it wasn't the best Little Caesars experience we've had.
We came home and watched home videos. We have actually been watching them every night all week long. Brad's parents videoed a lot when Brad and his siblings were kids, so we have seen all sorts of stuff from their past. My parents never bought a video camera, so we have no video of our childhood. I'm a little sad that we don't, but it is a lot of fun to see Brad (and his siblings) when they were little. Parker looks a lot like Brad did at that age and Halle acts a lot like Brad's brother Scott. We've seen quite a few really funny things too. I'm glad we have videoed Halle and Parker since they were both born. I will say that we need to video more though. We have lot of footage of Halle as a baby, but we don't have much of Parker.
Saturday we did absolutely nothing! I stayed in bed for quite a while reading-it was so nice. Brad made the kids french toast for breakfast and they played all morning. Brad did go out and get some caulk for the shower and worked on that for a while, but he did get a nap! Bailey ended up coming over and playing with Halle all afternoon. They pretended to be going to the Prom and got dressed up in some of Halle's fancier dresses. Jessica did their hair and make-up.
Would you believe they're only 6 & 7 years old?
Aunt Mindy and Uncle Kelly came over in the evening. We ordered chinese and watched more home videos all evening long. We also started watching "Anne of Green Gables- The Continuing Story". I used to watch "Anne of Green Gables" when I was little (so did Brad's family, obviously). Mom D couldn't fine the first Anne movie, so we watched "The Continuing Story". We got through 1 video tape- it was back in the day when you got 2 tapes in the box when it was a really long movie. We'll have to finish the rest of it sometime this week.
This afternoon my parents came out and we went to Past Tense to look at all their Christmas decorations. They had a lot of nice things and they are reasonably priced. We shopped around for quite a while and then went to their little restaurant and all got dessert. Halle got Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream and the rest of us got a piece of Fruits of the Forest pie and ice cream. The waitress was so nice and ended up giving Parker a cut-up apple and carmel to dip it in. He scarfed it down!!!
Once we got back home, everyone was heading out to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, so we tagged along. We all crammed into Mom D's new car and watched "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" on the way there. We had a nice dinner and had a really good waiter. It probably was one of the best visits we've had there in a while.
We really had a nice and relaxing weekend. Halle is on vacation for this entire week, so that will be nice. I might get called to sub in a few other districts, so I might work a couple days this week-we'll see, I guess. This coming weekend will definitely not be a quiet one. We have lots planned already, but I will post about all that later.
I hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing weekend as well.
Atlantis Resort, Bahamas
Christina and her 1.5 year old Nadia, 
Karen -no babies yet, just dogs :0), 
Tracy and her baby Bryce (sorry, no picture), and me and Parker. Brad took Halle out to dinner and to go see Madagascar 2, which they said was hilarious! It was so much fun getting to see everyone and their new additions to their family. I have stayed in contact with these girls thanks to facebook and myspace, however, I haven't actually seen any of them or their babies in forever. We spent the evening at Christina's house, talked, ate pizza, and watched the babies play. It seems like only yesterday we were all sitting in English class together and now we are all moms.
I totally forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures of Parker's reactions to the animals. He loved the store and kept pointing to things everywhere. He stood and just stared into the fish tank for the longest time. Right when we were walking in to sit down, it was the thunderstorm, so all the animals were going nuts and the lights were flashing. Parker was a little scared and we sat right underneath the gorilla, so he was a little freaked out. We thought we were going to have to take him out every time the gorilla went nuts, but by the 2-3 time, he was used to it and he just stared. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our time there. Halle has gone there before, so it wasn't anything new to her, but she said she definitely wants to have her birthday dinner there. I promised she could get their infamous dessert- The Volcano, which comes with a lit sparkler on top and they yell "Volcano" as they bring it out!
Only 3 more days and then we have a WHOLE WEEK OFF!!! YEA!!!! Lapeer has gone to trimesters this year, so we get a whole week off for Thanksgiving! I am looking forward to the break!!
I am still totally into the Twilight books and have finished the first 2. I really didn't want to have to buy the hardback Eclipse book, but I don't think it's in softcover yet, so I will probably just have to suck it up and spend the few extra dollars because all the libraries around here have waiting lists for the books. That will be on my weekend shopping list!!
It's starting to get better....
Brad and I went to vote together early this afternoon. We have never voted in Lapeer before and boy, was it so easy. There was hardly anyone there. We walked right in, signed the paper, and sat down. We didn't have to wait at all. Parker went with us. Thankfully, my cell phone kept him occupied. On our ballot, we had to fill in a arrow. I had never seen anything like it before. I was watching the news this evening and they talked about how a lot of people in FL got really confused and didn't fill in the arrow correctly. Why do we not have a universal ballot system?? Why does every county/state/city have a differnt type of ballot? It doesn't make sense to me. I think everyone should just color in a circle- like a scranton. Oh well, I do believe they try to make it the hardest way possible for us to vote correctly.
It is located in Armada, MI, which is about 25-30 minutes (by bus) from where we live. Blakes Orchard and Cider Mill is really cool and HUGE! It has everything!!! We started off by going on a train ride around the grounds and stopped out in the apple orchard so the kids could pick apples off the trees. 
Everyone got to pick and keep 5 apples. Halle and I both got Red Rome apples because the other types were quite picked over. 
We rode the train back and went to have donuts and cider. This was my "group"!! Cole, Juan, Chloe, and Halle!
For the rest of the time there, the kids got to play in the farm's Funland. There was a corn maze, huge hay stack to climb, petting zoo, storybook barn, tricycle race track, and jungle gyms. All around the farm, there were little scenes set up with interactive stories, songs, etc., so the kids walked around and looked at those too. We ate lunch at the picnic tables in front of the Haunted House and then headed back to school. It was a beautiful day outside too, which made the day even better. I don't ever remember a Halloween in Michigan where it was pure sun and in the 60s!
Corn Maze
The witch flying around the pumpkin patch
The HUGE pumpkin
Halle on the tricycle race track
After Halle got home from school (she had to stay because she had a spelling test), we played outside for a little while. We just couldn't get over how nice it was outside. Brad was practicing his football punts in the back field, and ended up getting the football stuck in the very top of a tree. When I say "the top", I honestly mean the very top limb of a really tall tree. We thought he might be able to climb up and shake some branches to loosen the ball, but it was too high up. Brad started kicking and throwing a soccer ball, and actually hit the football a couple of times, but it was budging. After about 20 minutes of working at it, Brad threw the soccer ball up and it hit the football out, however, the soccer ball landed right where the football was and got stuck in the exact same place. So, needless to say, we gave up. We got the football for the price of a soccer ball. Who knows if it will ever fall out??
Our football player
By 7:45, the kids were tired (and so was I). Back at the house, they all dumped out their candy and counted each piece. I think Halle had 105 pieces!! Parker shared his candy with everyone!! It was an enjoyable Halloween. I honestly will say it is the best Halloween we have had yet. Hopefully, next year we will have just as much (if not more) fun!!!! Happy Halloween!! 
Parker put on Corey's football pads and jersey. He looked so cute!! He is definitely going to play football when he get older. 
