You only turn 4 once!

Sabrina turned 4 on November 9th (Tuesday). On Sunday, we made some ducky cupcakes and had some friends over since we went to Great Wolf Lodge on Monday and Tuesday for the big day.



On Monday, Benson went to school and Grace and Sabrina went to preschool while we got everything ready to go and then we headed to Kansas City after lunch. We checked into the hotel around 3pm and headed straight to the water park. We played for 3 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. The girls loved the little kid area, the hot tubs, and the lazy river. Benson loved the waterslides, he went over and over and over on all of them. We went back to the room and showered and headed over to Legends for some dinner at Five Guys and a sweet treat at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then straight to bed because everyone was SO tired. After not the greatest night sleep we got up and went back to the water park at 9am. We stayed until almost 11am and then hurried to get ready so we could check out at noon. After lunch and a little shopping we headed home. The hotel was awesome, the kid's LOVED everything about it. There's lots of other activities that we could have done (for a price) but the water park was plenty for us!




It's hard for me to believe that Sabrina just turned 4 because it seems like she has been 4 most of the year. She is so determined to keep up with Benson and Grace that I forget how much younger she actually is most of the time. She is such a good helper and such a sweet little girl. We love our Breen (that's what Grace calls her)! I asked her a few questions today:

Favorite color: green, purple, and yellow
Favorite food: breakfast casserole, fruit, and cinnamon rolls (which is what we had for Sunday dinner yesterday)
Favorite thing to watch on tv: Blue's Clues and Zaboomafoo
Favorite toys: babies, dolls, barbies, and girl toys
Best friends: Reagan curly hair and Reagan Horspool and Grace
Favorite game: hide and seek, playing a game with Grace
Favorite drinks: Orange juice, apple juice, milk and pop
Favorite lunch: turkey and butter sandwich and chicken nuggets

OCTOBER!

We did actually survive October, but just barely...

Mike had to go out of town for training in St. Louis for a week, which happened to be the week of his 30th birthday. Strike 1 for October.

The girls and I went with Benson's class on their field trip to the Pumpkin Patch that week. Everyone's favorite part was the hay jump.




On Friday we met Grandma Stacey and Aunt Chelsea in Kansas City. Mike met us there on his way back from St. Louis. Grandma and Aunt Chelsea took the kids back to Manhattan so Mike and I could celebrate his birthday with an overnight stay in Kansas City. Pretty romantic, right? I spent the night alternating between chills, sweating off a fever, and basically feeling horrible. We missed our dinner reservations (Ruth's Chris) and didn't get the wonderful night's sleep we were hoping for, although I'm sure it was lots better than it would have been at home. Strike 2 for October!

Mike and our yummy room service breakfast (since we saved $ on dinner), us, the view from our room on the 18th floor (it was a really nice hotel until we had to take cold showers that morning!)

P.S. At home, Grandma was fighting the stomach flu! Oh yeah and that was the weekend of the Primary Program and we had a Teacher Training during the 3rd hour of church. Still can't believe we actually survived all of that!

The ward Trunk or Treat was the following Wednesday night. Mike took the kids because I was still fighting what had turned into bronchitis. This year we had an entomologist, Rapunzel, Jasmine, and a butterfly.


Benson was off school Thursday and Friday so the kids and I headed to Grandma's house (Mike was closing every night that weekend and I had started on some antibiotics and was starting to feel better). We went to their Trunk or Treat on Thursday night with Spencer the train conductor. The older kids went with Grandma and Grandpa to the football game on Friday night and we had big plans for lots of fun things on Saturday - trick or treating, s'mores, etc. But all 3 girls woke up throwing up late Friday night/early Saturday morning. It was ridiculous. I would get one cleaned up and taken care of and another would start. Thank goodness Grandma and Grandpa love us, we ended up having to each take a girl and there was lots of throwing up going on. Benson and I managed to hold off until the next evening and the girls were mostly done by then. By Sunday morning I was so ready to get out of there. We got in the car and drove the whole 4 hours without one stop, something we have not accomplished since before Jillian was born, and maybe not even then. You know, Halloween was my least favorite holiday before, but now...my kids will be lucky if we ever celebrate it again! Strike 3 for October!

Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Chelsea for their help and putting up with us. I'm sure they were as relieved to see us leave as we were to go!