First before I forget, if I am not returning your calls or texts, please know that I have limited signal here at my parent's home and they don't have long distance. Please don't think I am not paying any attention to you!
Now on to yesterday's adventure and that will bring us caught up to today, finally! We needed to do the shopping to prepare for this weekend's gathering with all of our family. It is our intention to celebrate my father's 60th birthday, albeit a little early, with everyone gathering together. We headed down yesterday to Enid (about 40 minutes south) to shop and get all that we needed.
I am truly blessed that my sweet husband allows me to wander around the state of Oklahoma for about 1/12th of the year. It is wonderful to be able to get to know the roads and be comfortable here in this state. This morning he called to check in and Anna picked up the phone. She started by saying, "This is Anna, not Noelle," and then proceeding to give Dan a complete run down of the day before. It was so cute. Dan said he caught some of it, but he didn't care it was so great to have her share her day with him.
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| Capybara, world's largest rodent |
We began by heading into town to see the weekly library reading group/show. They had an animal show yesterday, which my kids loved. At this moment, at least two of my boys want to become zoologists, so they ate it right up. Toucans, bullfrogs, spiders, capybaras, and their favorite a Burmese python. It was great fun. I love Medford, it is such a great little small town.
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| My Birds in a Tree |
We then headed to the courthouse where my father works and played in the lawn while we waited for his lunch break. Lunch was a Smurka's, a local diner known for it's pies. Gianni loved the meringue and Frankie loved the filling. Anna and Vinny couldn't be torn from the giant table of toys that are left out for kids to play with. It was great fun!
The kids and I headed down to run our errands. Grandpa came and met us later to help us with our final errand, picking out boots at Atwoods. I loved the groan I received from Dan when I told him where I was heading. He does love this farm store. Last year, I did a poor job and their boots didn't fit well. It took us some time, and Frankie changed his mind a few times as did Anna who kindly tried to rearrange the boot area, but finally we did it. They all have new boots and they love them! Frankie and Anna can't be persuaded to leave them in the house despite the mud, preferring to pick their way around the yard and it's muddy spots
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After this we went to a great park, Government Springs with a new playground. The kids were disappointed, last time it had a merry go round and teeter totter, which apparently the city decided were too rickety to be played with any longer. The new play equipment was great, but the boys mourned the merry go round.
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| Grandpa and Anna |
Grandpa and Anna took a walk, it was so great to see them walking and talking. Well actually, I do believe that Anna did most of the talking. She was so animated with her hands going. My dad echoed Dan's sentiment, "I didn't understand it, but it was wonderful to listen to."
We came home late, up the backroads to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I was completely toasted. The van had a wrestling match with an armadillo. Unfortunately, I believe the van won. The kids were wired, they stayed up a little longer. I awoke late last night with Anna, and lightning illuminating the entire house. It was beautiful. Today is a quiet day, we aren't doing much but some baking and prepping for the weekend. Tomorrow everyone will start to arrive. We can't wait!
I haven't forgotten my blog. Truly. It doesn't seem to matter how caught up on my to do list, it just keeps getting longer. But, we are enjoying life and making the best of each day. I thought I would skip ahead and share Anna's birthday party. She had her first friends birthday party this year. As has been the case with my other children, she spent the last six months planning it. She sat on my lap and pointed out what she wanted on Pinterest. Especially the vanilla polka-dot paw print cupcakes. 
