Weekend Recap

We tried to pack as much fun into our last weekend of Fall Break as we could! 

We started out in the way the Harbin family likes to have fun: at the movies! The girls had been begging to see Goosebumps, and since I really wanted to see it, too, we went first thing on Friday. 

The movie was great, and I can definitely see it being a Halloween classic, but I'll warn you, it's got its scary parts. My girls were perfectly fine by the time the movie was over, but requested an extra nightlight for the next two nights. We're back to normal now!

After the movie, we went out for pizzas and selfies....

Caroline loved the Goosebumps movie so much that she asked if we could go get her a couple of the books at Book A Million. We did, and while I browsed around, I decided to jump back down the Outlander rabbit hole. I'm tellin' ya, these books are so immersive that I feel like I live half my life in reality and half my life in the 18th century! 

Saturday morning involved a trip to the gym and running a bunch of errands. #NoFun 

Caroline had been asking to go fishing for quite a while now, so Steve got up the gumption to take the girls to a friend's pond and see what they could catch. 

Ella Kate caught Moby Dick! 

Apparently, the big guy did NOT want to come off the hook, and Steve is in no hurry to take them fishing again after fighting with that thing. 

While Steve took the girls fishing, I got ready to go to the movies with my sister and our friends. We went to see Big Stone Gap, which was exclusively filmed in a small town just over the Virginia border. It's only about 45 minutes from here. It was so cool to see lots of local people and places in the movie! I even have a good friend of mine who was an extra in the movie, and was in the movie quite a bit. So neat! 

#MikeRingleyFanClub

Sunday, I woke up to this in our local paper...

That's my nephew Teagan right next to the trophy (#8). So proud of him!! #Superstar

We always try to make Sunday an at-home family day, and it mostly was. The girls had asked to have a little Halloween party of their own, though, so we invited over a couple of friends for some Halloween festivities. I made a big crockpot of chili, and the kids tie-dyed t-shirts, painted pumpkins, and made masks. There was supposed to be a costume parade, but we ran out of time. 

It was so much fun and I'm so glad we did it! We were having so much fun, in fact, that I didn't get any pics, except for this exceptionally cute one of our friends' fresh-out-of-the-oven baby girl! 

Isn't she so sweet?!? I bet you can almost smell that new baby smell, can't you?

Happy Monday, y'all!

Weekend Recap

We had such a great weekend!  Hope everyone reading did as well. 

Friday was low-key. We spent about 9 hours at the pool on Thursday, and Ella Kate's fair skin took a beating, despite being slathered in sunscreen and wearing a hat. We staying inside and chilled Friday to recuperate. 

Every summer,  Pop-Tarts come out with MLB strawberry limited edition boxes, and we spent all last  summer trying to find a Red Sox pop tart. Finally found one this year! 

And then a Dodgers one for my Daddy, 

And then a Yankees one for my sister. (Boo!!)

Saturday we started out with our normal routine of a big family breakfast (although this one obviously included Pop Tarts!), and then gym time. Since we are leaving for the beach at the end of the week, my family headed out for some mani/pedis! My sister and niece left today for FBLA nationals in Chicago, so we had to get our spa day in early! Even my nephew joined us. 

That's the lady working on his feet. She had to break out the heavy artillery to tame those football feet!

My sister, my niece, Caroline, and my mom all getting pampered!

Little Ella Kate was loving every minute of it! 

We ate a late lunch with my family and then headed to have a fun night at a friend's house. These were the friends we went to Jamaica with, and it's been a long time since we'd gotten our kids together to play and had some adult time, too. We all laughed 'til we cried, and I'm so glad we had a fun night out. 

Sunday was a very special day for our family. Caroline was saved during church a month or two ago, and had been waiting for warm weather to be baptized in the lake. We found out they were having a baptism in the lake this weekend, so it was perfect timing!  

We went to church, and came back to my parent's house to chill out before the evening baptism service. They have a stray cat they have been feeding whenever it comes around, and yesterday she brought one of her new kittens with her! It was the cutest, sweetest little thing, and if Steve wasn't so dadburn allergic, it would've have been our new pet in a heartbeat! At one point, Mama Cat was nursing her baby, which I had never actually seen in real life. 

Made my uterus ache a little bit. 

#itpassedquickly

Aren't they precious???

You can see the precious baby with my precious babies below. You can also see poor Ella Kate's sunburn on her nose. 

#fairskinproblems

After a great family day, we left for the lake for Caroline's baptism. She was so excited to be "babatized". 

She could NOT stop calling it "babatized". I tried to correct her a few times, but then decided to let her say it how she wanted to say it. It will be one of those details I remember clearly about this day. 

My brother-in-law's nephew, Will, was also "babatized" on Sunday.

Pastor Steve asked for volunteers to go next, and our sweet girl's hand shot right up! I was so proud!

My heart is so full! As most of you probably already know, every parent's dream is to raise good, responsible children, and Caroline just makes me so proud at every turn! She loves God, and is so eager to follow His plan for her life. We're also so lucky to have the church I grew up in still in our lives. The man who led Caroline to Christ was also very active in the children's ministry when I was growing up in the church, and it's just so wonderful to see his influence in my daughters' lives. 

I would appreciate any prayers you could send our way. For Caroline as she starts her Christian life, and for us as parents that we may set an example for her in our own lives. 

Happy Monday, all!