Stephen left for Guatemala this morning at 4 something……or was it 5 something!?!? I don’t know. It was dark…..very dark when he left and I felt exhausted (haha, I’m not even the one who had to get up at 0’dark 30). Stephen was afraid that he would somehow sleep through the alarm and miss his flight. That got me to worrying and I slept really bad…..like I could somehow keep him from oversleeping, right??! Anyway, he did not oversleep the alarm and made it to the airport just fine. And I snuggled up with my blankets and slept for a couple more hours until four little minions came and jumped in my bed and wanted ALL my blankets!!
We had a nice lazy Saturday morning and even got to FaceTime with Stephen while he waited for his connection in Atlanta. That was super fun and the kids loved being able to see his face and talk at the same time. After lunch we went to the library. The kids played and read books and we, of course, brought home stacks of books too! Then we went to a Fall Festival at First Baptist downtown, called the Downtown Hoedown. It was a perfect day! The kids had a really good time…..hey when there’s candy involved it’s always a good time, right?!?!
The Hoedown was really very nice. They had a ton of bouncy house things, a climbing wall, free food, pony rides, roller skating…….and more! We stayed literally the entire time (2-5) and one of my kids was almost in tears because we were not able to do it ALL.
Natalie and Ben both did the climbing wall. Natalie made it almost to the top, but poor Ben could not quite the get hang of climbing, but he did not weigh enough for the ropes system to let him down, so he got stuck about 10 feet in the air! 
Thankfully the attendant rescued him and helped him get down. My big boys would not try anything, but they did fill up their bags with candy! Natalie, Ben and Jadyn all took a pony ride and played in the bouncy houses and everyone ate a snow cone and popcorn!!
We got home about 6 and ate dinner, took baths and had a movie night!
Day 1 in operation “survive Stephen’s mission trip” complete! And a success too!
House of Smooches 
I’m glad you all had a such a good time.