The Simmons Family: Where to begin?

We have had a crazy busy weekend (and even a little more than that). Its hard to decide where exactly to begin, but I think I'll start with Thursday. The day was beautiful, there was LOTS to do around the house, and the case load at work had been pretty light due to Spring Break for a lot of the doctors. I decided to give work a call and let it be known that if I wasn't needed, I would be glad to stay home. Luckily, they made my day and told me, "stay home!". I had already asked for Friday off to get ready for the Stone Church Preschool PTA garage sale (that took place on Saturday). I thought to myself, "awesome, 4 full days off, I'm going to get so much done!" As the days went by, I realized that wouldn't exactly be the case. Anyway, I digress. Thursday was a beautiful day. Jeff had gotten back home from work and we were anxious to play outside once Adrianne got done with school. I spent the morning with Callum at the school sorting and pricing lots of other people's junk dropped of for the sale. That afternoon, at lunch time, we decided to give baby food a try with Callum. We started with sweet peas. We got the bib on Cal, put him in the high chair and gave it a go. This is the reaction we got :

"Peas are gross!"

After fighting through the gagging and crying every time the peas touched his tongue, Jeff suggested trying some carrots. I thought to myself, "they probably won't work, this is probably just his reaction to food, but we'll give it a try" Luckily we did because this is the the reaction we got from them:

Success!

After we cleaned up lunch, we headed outside to soak up some of the beautiful sunshine and warm weather. Adrianne had a blast running through Jeff's garden (the start of his garden, that is). We worked on kicking the soccer ball, played t-ball and got on the swing. Callum even joined us for the swinging, but this time he was much less impressed. He didn't last too long in it, I believe he was taken to his bed shortly after that and crashed out for a nap. Adrianne has taken an interest in scaring the life out of me by kicking her legs up as high as she can so that she all but dumps out of the swing, and when I panic and rush tocatch her she cracks up laughing. I'm telling you, it was just hilarious, really. (please note the sarcasm)

Adrianne giving me a panic attack (by now I knew what to expect, so I took a picture)

A couple of cuties!

"This was a lot more fun the last time!"

Running through daddy's garden

Now, onto Friday. Adrianne has done an excellent job with all of the changes a baby brother brings to the house. Lately however, she's been having a little bit of a struggle with the lack of attention from Jeff and I, and extra fussing from Callum. Jeff and I kind of got a wake up call that she needs a little more from us than we've been giving her, so we're trying to fix that. Friday morning I spent the morning working on the sale and Jeff held down the fort with Adrianne and Callum. At lunchtime I came home and we all went to Crown Center for their Fairy Tale Village exhibit and plans to eat at Fritz's restaurant. Apparently, it was such a good idea, that everyone else in the greater KC metro area did the same thing. The place was packed with people and the line for Fritz's was super long. We opted out of waiting there, and just grabbed some sandwiches and pizza from da'bronx. After lunch we headed to the exhibit which was also very busy. Adrianne was a little timid because of all the people, but still had a good time going from house to house checking out all the different sights. They had all kinds of stops ranging from the 3 bears house to Cinderella's carriage. I followed her around everywhere she wanted to go, and she loved that. After the Fairy Tale exhibit, we stopped at the candy store and let Adie pick out some of her favorite sugary treats. (great idea, I know) It sure did make her day. I will have to say, I think she's been hanging around her Grandpa Johnson a little too much because her choices of candy are sub-par. She filled her bag with black licorice and candy corn. Jeff and I had to toss some of our favorites in there just so we could sneak a few bites of something we'd enjoy. After loading up on candy and princesses, we headed home so that I could start baking for the bake sale (at the same time as the garage sale). I baked the entire evening and completely destroyed my kitchen. After I got it all picked up and put back together, I crashed in bed, knowing that I had to be up bright and early the next morning.

Adrianne and her daddy on our way Crown Center. (we had to park 3 blocks away because the garage was full. By the time we had parked and walked down, the garage was open again. Isn't that just our luck!)

Adrianne bursting with excitement to check out the Village

Riding in Cinderella's carriage

Callum tolerated the Fairy Tale Village very well!

Adrianne warping out from all her candy

Adie and daddy (looks like the candy's kicking in)

Adrianne and I

Enter Saturday. Saturday morning, I got up at 6:00 am to be to the garage sale at 7:00 in order to get it ready to open at 8:00. I woke up, took a shower, then glanced out the window. "oh great, the weather people were right, we got snow dumped on us" I thought to myself. The snow made for a wonderful day for a garage sale. I spent the whole day there, and only about 30 people came through. We had tons of tables filled with stuff, and it had to be gone on Saturday by 4:00. No body was coming through, and we still hadn't found anyone to come by and pick everything up. I was panicking a little bit. At the last minute, we got ahold of the Disabled American Veteran's and they were able to come by and collect everything that didn't sell. I don't know if they knew what they were in for, but they got a heck of a load from us. Jeff and Adrianne came up to the sale at about noon, brought me lunch, and hung out with me for the rest of the time until we were all done loading up the DAV truck. I was so grateful to have them there with me to help pass the time. After we were all done, we picked up Callum from MeMe and PaPa's house and headed home until dinner time. We met Jeremy, Christy and Emily for dinner, which was really nice. We enjoyed visiting with them. When we were done, I think we were all ready to crash. It had been a long day for all of us. I don't usually have any trouble falling asleep, but Saturday night, I really didn't have any trouble!

This brings us to Sunday. Today. Because we've been so busy, we spent the day today trying to reclaim our house. Jeff tackled the bathroom and I folded the most laundry I have ever folded at one time. Here's proof!

Yikes!

Since we still have a bunch of snow on the ground, Jeff took Adrianne out for one last (hopefully) day in the snow. They built a snowman and had a snowball fight. I stayed in side with Callum and made some hot chocolate on the stove for them when they got done. Adrianne loved drinking her hot cocoa out of a coffee cup. She thought she was such a grown up!

The finished product!

Now-do you see what I mean? This weekend has been a lot of fun, a lot of work, and very busy. I am a little bit glad to have a low key, very little plans kind of week this week. It will give us all a chance to breathe!

Here's a couple pictures of Callum too. He recently found his tongue and his newest thing has been sticking it out and moving it all around. He also screeches at the top of his lungs while he's got his tongue stuck out. Its hilarious! Stay tuned for some video, we're trying to capture it but every time we pull out the camera, he doesn't cooperate.