Was that really a weekend?

Wow, don't you hate it when the weekdays drag on so long and then the weekends just zip right on by? That's what seems to have happened over this past weekend - I really have almost no idea where it all went.

Ok, so I have a little bit of an idea where it went. And I thought I'd share some of the highlights, even if just to prove that we really did just have 2 days off. :)

Ron had to work on Saturday of course, so the girls and I had a lazy morning as we usually do. Our Saturday mornings typically involve the girls watching more Playhouse Disney in one sitting than they usually get all week while I attempt to doze in the recliner - not an easy task while being poked with elbows and asked to referee the wrestling contests that usually take place on my lap. One (tired) Mommy with one lap and 3 kids usually equals not much dozing taking place.

Once I finally decided to wake up, I found myself in Becca's room, looking around and actually seeing the state of it. Since we took the crib out and put in the toddler bed, nothing had been moved around or put away and there were toys scattered everywhere. Not to mention that her bed now faced the wrong direction since she always sleeps facing one way and the head of her bed was the opposite (see the pictures at this post if what I just said makes absolutely no sense to you). I did think for a long moment about simply turning her bed around and putting the foot of it against the wall, but then from somewhere I got a burst of energy and drive and decided that it was finally time to make some real changes.

I'm saving the rest of the story for my post on Tuesday, but I'll give you a quick sneak peek...

In the end, both Becca's room and the big girls' room looked about like this for at least a portion of the day. I promise though that the 'after' photos are pretty awesome, so check back on Tuesday... And yes, Becca had a field day with all of the toys within easy reach in the middle of her floor while I was 're-arranging' things. :)

Yesterday was Ron's day off. The older girls sang at church in the morning - I was very proud of both of them! You can see some of the photos I took in the Flickr montage in my sidebar. Abby was in a pink shirt and Hannah in a brown one if you have a hard time picking them out. I have some video of them singing, but haven't gotten those up online yet.

After a quick nap/quiet time, we all headed out to a local mall to meet up with Ron's siblings and their families. The last time that there was a photo taken of everyone was in 2003, so his sister decided that it was time for a new one as a surprise gift for their parents for Christmas this year.

Imagine if you will, 6 adults and 12 kids (ranging in age from Becca at 22 months all the way up to 17 years old), trying to find a decent place to pose by a shopping mall Christmas tree and using my brother-in-law's tripod and self-timer on his digital camera to get a decent shot of the group. Can you imagine that? I could - and had a few doubts about getting any kind of a good photo as a result - but I was somewhat surprised that it actually went very smooth and painless. I got a quick glimpse of the photo and it looked pretty good even. I know that Ron's parents will be thrilled (and I'm positive that they don't read my blog, so I'm not giving anything away here!).

Seeing that the mall was fairly empty, we took advantage of the short lines to see Santa Claus. We saved a lot of money by taking our own photos (thankfully they had no problem with that) and I think they turned out rather well in general.

Here's Abby:

And Hannah:

And both of them together:

And our attempt to have Becca get anywhere near Santa, which was a dismal failure, so this is the best we could do:

Then we let the girls play for a while in the mall's play area - it's one they hadn't been to before since it's across town from where we live. They had a blast - running and sliding and playing tag with other kids.

Not to mention sitting in a giant plastic snake - something which apparently was quite fun to play on and in.

It was the getting in and out of things that seemed to be the most fun.

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And the slide (of course)!

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It was about then that my camera batteries died, so that's it for pictures.

You know, now that I think about it - we really did have a rather packed weekend. Maybe that's why it seemed to rush by so quickly...

Is it Friday yet? :)