Parker Pack Back in Town

We enjoyed a nice, long Labor Day weekend. No work. No stress. No plans.

Oh yeah, and my parents were here! :)

Okay, so actually that "no plans" thing turned into football-watching, beer-drinking, furniture-shopping, house-decorating, toy-packing, party-hosting, and toddler-entertaining plans. But with a three-day weekend, we got it all done without even breaking a sweat.

It was quite a productive holiday weekend. My mom and I got some things down around the house, including a little decorating, packing up Ford's baby toys, and changing out Ford's clothes from summer to winter (he now has a closet full of 2Ts.....how time flies!).

New lights for the dining room!
Trading out our silver fixture for bronze.

Our house is definitely looking more homey with the addition of some antiques from Gigi and Boppa's house. My first project is completing the dining room with some window treatments, table centerpiece, and new light fixture. We got as far as purchasing the light fixture — and I'm hoping my amazingly talented father-in-law will install it for us (wink, wink).

My second project is decorating our reading room. I'm looking for new furniture (chairs and ottomans) to replace our old couch. We didn't have any luck finding anything at the stores (well, except for the $2,100 chair that I really liked). So now I realize I'm going to have to have our chairs custom made, which is actually pretty fun and should cost less than $2,100. A trip to Kentucky is in order, where I know I can find my custom chairs at less cost than what I could do here. My mom and I already have a plan.....

Yeah right! Only in my (and David's) dreams could we ever
have a library like this. But it's good to dream.

And of course as you decorate, you have to go out with the old to make room for the new. So mom and I spent some time clearing out Ford's baby toys and clothes, as well as sorting, washing, and putting away his next set of clothes that should (fingers crossed) get him through the winter. We sure got a good workout moving bins of clothes up and down two flights of stairs! So all in all, a successful day.

While we were busy with the house, Dad kept Ford entertained with Elmo books, dinosaur puzzles, Fraggle Rock, and singing songs. Ford is a big fan of his Grandaddy; he runs to him every time he enters the room and loves to sit in his lap. Chase and Ford usually had to fight for room, one on each leg. But I don't think Grandaddy minded one bit.

Showing Grandaddy how to work the puzzle.

 Ford also got to play with his best bud Corwin, who stayed the night with us on Monday. They had fun reading books and playing outside. Sharing toys can sometimes be an issue at this age, but they did pretty good. We're trying to reduce Ford's use of the word "mine" — which he recently picked up from the kids at school (UGH!) — but he did okay with Corwin.

Book club

Chase spent the weekend, well, exhausted. He tried to sleep as much as possible, but of course it's quite a challenge with so many people in the house. He had TOO much fun, I think.

Throw in a fantasy football draft party, two trips to Home Depot, a trip to Target, brunch, an afternoon making Jennifer's famous lasagna, and a trip to Kirk and Laura's new house, and that would just about sum up our weekend. :)

Categories: family time