A book fair, a field trip, a birthday, & real life in between

Last week was crazy! All routine went out the window as we went from one extra project to the next while still trying to fit in the regular duties of everyday life in between. Why does it seem like everything happens all at once? I don't know about you, but I can have 3 weekends in a row with nothing going on & then have 4 different places to be (at the same time) on one Saturday. Or - another typical situation for me - 3 Christmas parties, all on the same night (usually the first weekend in December) & then no other social engagements for the rest of the month. At least in my life, things seem to work this way & last week was a perfect example of this.

First, our school's Scholastic book fair ran all week. This is an event that I have coordinated for at least the past 5 years. I remember running the book fair when Lacey was younger than Ben. In fact, one of the moms at the school told me that when she first met me - about five years ago - she called me the stroller lady because I was always walking around the school w/ a baby in a stroller (& here I am still doing that w/ Ben).

Book fair week is quite a challenge for my family. The kids & I end up spending a lot of extra time at the school. Lucky for Ben - Brad had just finished up with his October 15th tax deadline & was able to take some time off to hang out with Ben during some of the time that I was at the book fair. We are usually there most mornings & every day after school. It was tough to get out of there before 5:00 pm this year. Fortunately, I do not have to run the entire book fair by myself. I am lucky to have lots of volunteers who help set up, staff, & tear down the book fair. I could never do it all alone. It is a great community-building event where the kids enjoy picking out books & their parents spend exhorbitant amounts of money buying the books. It is seriously amazing to see how much money people are willing to spend on books. I won't complain - I'll take every sale we can get!

This is a picture of the book fair after we finished setting it up. The book fair always has a theme & this fall the theme was "book fair blizzard" - thus the snowflake decorations.

During book fair week Lacey had her first kindergarten field trip of the year. Coincidentally, the field trip was also on Katie's birthday. Lacey's kindergarten class walked to & toured the fire station just down the street from the school. She was so excited for her field trip & also so excited to have me go as a chaperone. I was in charge of Lacey & one other little boy, Justin. They were so cute. They held hands because that's what their teacher told them to do. The greatest part of the adventure was walking through the cab of the fire truck. Talk about a view from above. See the cute little girl with the long pigtails? That's Lacey.

During last week, Katie had a simple birthday party with a few friends & family. You can find out more about in a later post because I believe birthdays most definitely deserve their own, separate post.

Besides all our extra events, we managed to fit in the usual homework, dance and soccer practice, fall festival at the school on Friday night, 2 soccer games, a wedding (Brad performed the marriage for a girl in our ward), a birthday party for Katie's friend on Saturday night. We got the end the week with a quick visit from Grandma Judy & Granddaddy Ken on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We were glad they came to see us & it was a great way to end the week. Though it would have been nice to have a little more relaxed week, sadly, this week has not been much better - more posts to come!