Almost too much to put into one post...

This post is almost too much for one post....which explains the fact that I'm starting this Monday morning in a bit of a fog from a very filled-to-the-brim weekend. So, buckle up.....here's our weekend in review.

Saturday morning was the annual July 4th parade in Lewisburg. This has come to be one of my favorite days of the year in Lewisburg. You see literally everyone in town, the kids have a blast, and they put on one heck of a parade. I went into town around 6 am to put our chairs down for a good seat. Might sound a little extreme, but it's necessary. Most of the curb side spots were already claimed at that hour. See, all those years of camping out for Penn State Homecoming parade seats has been good practice for real life, when it's critically important for your two year old to be able to see the bands and horse poop up close and personal.

We met Darla and Sydney for the parade and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Joshua ate approximately 8 lollipops and was on a serious sugar rush for the rest of the day. After the parade, we decided to treat the kids to McDonalds Happy Meals and a bit of a run on the playground there. It was too advanced for my scaredy cat, but he seemed to enjoy the little bit of climbing that he got to do. We walked in the door to our house around 1:30. Joshua promptly requested his Bear and his milk and went right to sleep. I believe the sugar crash happened right about then. Brilliant timing on my part, wouldn't you say?

I spent the afternoon cleaning the house in a bit of a whirlwind. Bathrooms, garbage, diapers emptied, kitchen, dusting, three loads of laundry.....all done in the hour and a half that he slept.

Which leads us to.....

The great Big Boy Room Switch.

Friday evening, Joshua and Jason worked with real tools to put together some of the new kid looking gadgetry for Joshua's big boy bedroom. We've really been working hard to get him excited about the switch. Well, his work with Daddy's electric screwdriver on Friday night did the trick. What a great Daddy Jason was on Saturday night, when he returned from cooking 450 hamburgers and 150 sausages at the July 4th festival to begin work on Joshua's bed and bedrails. Around 8:30, the bed was ready for sleeping in.

You all know me well enough to know that I cannot leave a project half way done and count on getting a good night's sleep. So I then began the switcheroo of all things Joshua from the nursery to his new room. Clothes went into the closet, dresser drawers were unloaded. Around 9:30 we quit and everything was in it's rightful place in his room. As it turns out, this was brilliant strategy on my part because he was exhausted and very easily fell asleep in his new bed. And thus ends the era of rocking my little boy to sleep. I was sad, but too tired and too sore to dwell on it for long. I seem to forget that I am 25 weeks pregnant and really shouldn't push myself this hard in a 24 hour period. I was sure I was having contractions on Saturday night...and had learned my lesson.

Sunday morning we had to skip church because of the big Richard-Heckman-Bowersox picnic in Lewistown that afternoon. Daddy went to play some golf, so Joshua and I finished some of the work in the bedrooms upstairs. There's still a lot to be done before the nursery can be turned into ladybug paradise, but we're making progress.

We left around 12:30 to head for Lewistown. What a great time we had! I'm pretty sure our parents all saw and celebrated the poetic justice of the picnic. They were spending their time socializing with each other, all the Dad's with a drink of choice in their hands, while all of us kids were chasing, yelling at, or stuffing food in our respective childrens' faces. Sometimes we were even rescuing each others' children. I have a feeling that's how our parents used to feel when we were the ones jumping in mud puddles, eating bugs and doing other things that could get us killed, or at least maimed. Joshua had a blast and kept talking about how much fun he had when we got home. He was relatively well behaved, minus one small incident of him pushing Cooper off of a Power Wheel that he was sure was his and his alone. I was hoping Cooper would give him a shove back and teach him a lesson, but he's too nice of a boy to do that. Tom Heckman treated the kids to many tractor rides. Joshua IS actually in the wagon in that picture above, but he's in the back corner. Hopefully someone else has a better picture of the tractor pileup where Josh is visible. By 6:30 we were on our way back home with one tired little boy in the backseat. He slept for a few minutes and then watched Imagination Movers the rest of the way. This translated into another relatively smooth bedtime transition and a pretty decent night's sleep. He cried for me one time when he got himself turned around backwards--- feet where his head belonged. I guess he's not quite used to so much operating space in his toddler bed! Once I flipped him back around and covered him up, he was good to go until about 7 this morning.

I may have more pictures coming once I get them from someone whose camera was operational during the picnic. Mine was in the diaper bag inside and I was too pooped from Saturday to go chasing it. Call me lazy. I think Libby has some good ones that I'm sure she'll post of the group. What a blessing to have time to spend with our friends---- and we'll look forward to the day when WE are the adults relaxing with drinks in our hands while OUR kids are chasing their children around someone's yard!

What a weekend it was! Lots more excitement coming this week...