Sleepover

Sleepover meaning we slept over at a friends house for a couple nights. We watched their kids while they took off to London. We love watching their kids. They are older (8 to 17 years old) so it was more of just hanging out, playing games and talking with them. Pretty sweet deal for us.  We played 'adult games' including Wackee Six, Bonanza (the bean game), Five Crowns, Ticket to Ride, Word on the Street, and Bananagrams in the evening. Plus Maddie was nice enough to teach Kherington (and Kevin) how to play Pretty Pretty Princes.

We also ate tons of food, danced to Kevin's favorite song, played on the piano, watched a lot of the Ocotonauts, and enjoyed the open space that their ginormous house offers including lot of stairs for Kevin to climb up and slide down...he's an expert now.

Sunday I ended up teaching at church then leaving before Sacrament meeting to take our kids home. They both had mild fevers, but after some medicine and long naps seemed to be doing better.

We (read: me + 6 kids...Ryan was working) tried to pack in a couple fun things while we were watching them since they were on their fall break from school.

Monday we had plans to head to Aachen, Germany. We got all the kids in the car and out the door but only got about 15 minutes away before the check engine light came on and I wasn't able to get the car going over 100km/hr. We ended up turning around, dropping kids off at their house and taking the car in to the shop. Of course when I was driving it to the shop the check engine light went off. We ended getting it back the same day (a miracle for Belgium). They said an animal had chewed some wiring but they fixed it. On the bright side since we stayed around home Brooklyn and I got to do a nice 6.5 mile run...we learned the N3 is a long slight incline that is not fun to run up but nice to run down :). While we were gone Kevin woke up and him and Mitchel became buds.

Tuesday we headed to Technopolis for a couple hours with some free passes. In the afternoon I had a work phone call but I forgot that Belgium had a time change and the US didn't so I was an hour early for a call that then got rescheduled b/c someone else couldn't join. When I was done, I came downstairs to the kids chilling and Kevin sleeping in the middle of the floor. I guess he had too much fun.

We had a busy evening of pretzel and pizza making followed by some speed pumpkin carving. Kevin enjoyed washing his hands in the pumpkin guts. Brooklyn and I did the actual carving, but the kids got to choose what they wanted them to look like. They were all pretty proud of their jack-o-lanterns. When taking the picture, we tried to put Kevin on Brooklyns lap to group the picture a little, but he screamed until we put him back on his chair next to his jack-o-lantern, then was happy as could be. Silly boy.

Wednesday we did our Aachen trip. We walked around downtown and picked up a couple things at the euro store and Christmas shop, stopped at my favorite kebap place, took pictures at the 3 corners and played on the playground there. The 3 corners is where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet. We had a good time and the kids were great in the car. When we got home, we found that Kevin had turned off the crockpot so dinner was not cooked. Sad day. We grabbed Roger and Connie from the airport and came home to a clean house and kids playing games. Seriously their kids are awesome. I hope our kids turn out as good as theirs.

Connie & Roger brought some cute things back from London. A purse for Kherington and British cars for Kevin. They both LOVED them. When we got home, Kevin was zooming all around with his new wheels :). They also gave Ryan and I a nice Christmas ornament of London and a gift card. Very very sweet of them, especially since I thought it was more of a treat for us to be able to watch their kids.  I'd do it again anytime :).