One of Those Weekends...

Well, it was a three-day weekend for me and it turned out to be one of those weekends where we did a little bit of everything--random productivity, complete laziness, and a little dose of fun, as well. 

It started out on Friday with just Jacob and me, as he was off school for the first part of his four-day weekend.  We honestly didn't do much, but that was pretty much his choice.  I think he really just wanted to spend some time playing video games and simply not having to go to school.  He picked our lunch spot, Mighty Taco (alas, the one down in Henrietta as our Greece location closed over the summer), and Craig joined us.  We stopped at Kohl's quickly to try on some Under Armour clothes for size, then picked up Carter around 2pm to head to the doctor.  Carter has been dealing with a yucky cough for a couple weeks, but oddly his nasal congestion didn't seem too bad and definitely was not draining through his nose like you'd expect for a cold, which was even more odd.  When I brought it up to the doctor when we were there with Jacob earlier in the week for his quarterly medication check-in, she seemed to think it was worth a check.  I had scheduled the kids' flu shots for Friday, and luckily we were able to schedule everything together.  The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for Carter, thinking that it might be some sort of bacterial bronchitis.  Not much change a couple days in, but we'll see.  The cough is so phlegm-y and it's no fun hearing him congested, so I'm really hoping this works.  Both boys got their flu shots, too.  Jacob was really nervous about it but Carter ended up being the one who cried for about 10 minutes after.  Poor kid.

Saturday ended up being a really blah day.  The weather was warm but really gray.  It had rained overnight into the morning and it just didn't seem like a good pumpkin patch day with the dampness.  As much as we had wanted to do something like mini golf, it just never happened.  The boys went out to play a couple times and I overwhelmed myself by starting to organize the last three bins of Jacob's old clothes by size so they're ready for Carter.  I pulled them out of the crawl space and sorted them, but I quickly freaked out about how much there was.  And then I went up to Jacob's room and dug into his closet to see if I had chucked anything to the back that he had outgrown (I have gotten lazy with keeping a bin in there).  Sure enough, there was a huge pile!  And then I looked through his closet and drawers again and collected another huge pile!  I couldn't bring myself to finish the project until Sunday, at which point I refilled all three bins PLUS another one, and moved a bunch of stuff up to Carter's room.  Some stuff got washed right away to hopefully get into the rotation soon, another batch is on shelves in his closet so it's there when we need it, and yet another batch ended up in the crate in his closet where I tend to put the "on deck" clothes, only these are now a bit further out than the ones I put on the shelves.  Another group of summer clothes ended up crammed in his dresser for now, at least until I fully shift to cold weather clothes and pack away a few more things.  Despite the overwhelming amount, the problem right now is that we're pretty slim on 5T clothes as I think Jacob nearly skipped that size and went right to Boys' XS.  Carter seems to be catching up at bit as I think 4T stuff fits him pretty good all around, which definitely wasn't the case in pants for a long time, but I think we'll need to look forward to a few new things at Christmas!  But beyond this he should be in great shape.  Jacob's wardrobe was actually pretty limited--lots of t-shirts and sports pants--and some of it has been worn to death.  But thankfully his cousins were a bit more well-rounded so he'll have some jeans and shirts that aren't just sports or superheroes!

Despite the lack of excitement, Saturday did end with this glorious sunset...

I felt bad that the timing didn't work out to do something more interesting.  Early sunsets and rapid cooling after sunset really makes night activities hard this time of year, and I know our time to do much of anything outdoors is so limited now. 

Sunday started out normal, with church in the morning (although we did have an extended stop at the playground because we got chatting with our friends whose son plays lacrosse).  We had some lunch, watched the Bills, and soon enough it was time for Jacob and Craig to go to practice.  Carter hung out while I finished packing away clothes, and then we went outside for a bit.  He rode his big wheel and played with his bubble gun while I cleaned up our two old strollers which had been collecting dust (and lots of cobwebs) in the garage.  I figure neither has been used since at least last summer.  I felt it was time to clean them up, get them out of the yucky garage, and store them with the rest of the baby stuff until I get up the guts to get rid of them.  Not that there's a lot of space left down there (our once cavernous crawl space is rapidly filling up), but it's better there than the garage.  Weird feeling, though.

We grabbed a quick dinner and then headed downtown to Strong Museum for our annual free night sponsored by a company that holds an investment my grandma made for me years ago.  It's always so nice to go for free and at a time where it's not crazy busy. It's always hard to fit in everything we want to see, so I know Carter is due for a solo trip with one or both parents on a day when school is in session (so it's not as busy) but before he goes into Kindergarten.  I did one of those with Jacob when I was pregnant with Carter, and it was so great!  Maybe in the winter or early spring.

But for now we tried to cover as much as we could.  We loved the aquariums near the entrance.

This fish has teeth!  See those two little buck teeth?!

I loved how this fish glowed red!

And this one was a shiny blue!

Carter's first priority was to go to Wegmans.  The mini-Wegmans is so cool, and on busy day's it's madness, so it was nice to do it and not feel crazy!  Carter shopped...

...and scanned...

...and then took me over to the Prepared Foods section to serve me food.  His apron even says, "Prepared Foods Manager"!

We also spent time in a couple sections we hadn't really noticed much before.  There was a TV studio where you could pretend to do a cooking show, or maybe a general morning show, since they had a weather board in there, too.  Here's Carter with the camera!  Both cameras projected onto monitors, which was fun!

There was also a farm section where you could pick or weigh potatoes, green squash, carrots, or apples.  Here's Carter in the little mini greenhouse with the carrots (and his bucket of apples!)...

Right around this time Craig and Jacob arrived from lacrosse practice and Jacob started his shopping!

Eventually the big boys moved on to the video games, and Carter and I kept working our way through the museum.  I loved this view through the one window.  The city is in the distance and the different colored glass (and the checkers on some panes) make the fading light outside look pretty funky!

We went into the section that celebrates all sorts of classic toys, from Legos to dolls to cars and trucks, and Carter once again enjoyed playing with the plastic rocks and the trucks.

We built with the magnetic tiles...

I loved my house, and how cool that you can change the color of the lighted base!

...and then he took to the Hot Wheels tracks...

He pretended to drive this car and then spent a few minutes playing vet with the stuffed animals.

We headed back down to the ground floor to see if we could catch the butterflies, but we had a couple detours.  In one spot he controlled the parts of a giant Mr. Potato Head (he could make them spin!) and then we stopped near the superheroes.  Here's our picture from where Carter scaled the building like Spider-Man...

Then he turned himself into a superhero...even if his headshot was a tiny bit askew ;-)

I'd never gone up this little set of stairs, and who knew it was a balance beam over a miniature 3-D cityscape filled with superheroes!?

Carter and I took a quick detour into the butterflies.  Butterfly habitats have long scared the crap out of me, but when this one is free and I can try to focus on getting a good picture, I freak out a little less.  I did shriek a little bit when a giant one flew all around me, but at least I didn't completely freak out!  And I got a couple cool pictures!

Somehow I managed this one while zoomed...and it was in focus!

This chameleon was pretty cool...he was teal!

This one was even more orange than it looks...so pretty.

I generally don't like brown ones because they remind me of moths, but this one had such detail on its wings that I could almost pretend it was a discolored monarch!

We only had a few minutes left once we left the butterflies, and Carter loves the Berenstain Bear area.  He played with the produce conveyor belt now that he's finally strong enough to do it himself...

The veggies go up when you turn the wheel, then tumble down ramps on the other side.

We finished off the night in the pinball room, where Craig and Jacob had mastered the art of getting free games by holding the flipper buttons in at a certain time at the end of a game.  Jacob even had to leave one ball in his game because the museum was closing!

We had a fun night, though it was tough to get the kids to go to bed when we got home, partly because they had the day off today!  Craig gave them a fun day, between a trip to the Lego store and a visit to the dollar theater.  Now it's back to the grind tomorrow for all of them, and day 2 of a very busy week for me!  A crazy work weekend and Jacob's first fall lacrosse tournament are ahead!