The Veldmans: So much to celebrate

We had a fun filled weekend starting with Friday afternoon. Daddy took a half day of work since he had to work on Saturday morning. He & Ava got to carve Ava's first pumpkin. I am quite impressed with their creation. After that we got to meet up with Great Grandma, Aunt Darlene, Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Lisa, and cousins Zackery & Reece. They came up to celebrate Aunt Darlene's 50th birthday. Grandma, Aunt Darlene, & Aunt Marilyn stayed at the hotel near our house. We got to go over to the hotel and go swimming when they arrived Friday afternoon. That evening they came over for dinner, we played cards, and just hung out.

Saturday morning was play time with Zacky & Reece before we left for the Mall of America. We were there for about 7 hours, and the kids were so good. We were all exhausted by the time that we got home so we just got pizza for dinner. Everybody went back to the hotel while Mommy stayed up until Daddy got home from the gopher football game (which the game did not go well).

Sunday morning we said good-bye to everybody. The time that we got to spend with everybody went by too quickly. We wish that they could have stayed longer, and that we got to see them more often. We hope that they had fun while they were here, and hope that Aunt Darlene had a fabulous birthday. After everybody left Miss Ava took a nap, we had lunch, and then went to visit our new friend Nora; our friends Josh and Jenny's new baby. It was so good to see the three of them. Nora is beautiful, and is so lucky to have Josh and Jenny as parents! We thank them for letting us visit, as we're sure that they've had lots of visitors and are running short on sleep.

After we left Josh & Jenny's we went over to Grandma & Grandpa V's. Uncle Wes was there too. Ava put on her costume and made her one and only trick-or-treating stop at Terri & Eric's (she was asleep for the night before most kids started trick-or-treating). She looked so darn cute in her little pumpkin outfit. We then had a fabulous dinner prepared by Grandma & Grandpa. Ava fell asleep on the way home and is now out for the night. I'm sure that she's exhausted after all the attention that she got this weekend.

Ava "helping" clean out the pumpkin

Ava's pumpkin created by Daddy

Mommy, Aunt Marilyn, Ava, Aunt Darlene, Zacky, Aunt Lisa, & Reece swimming at the hotel (Great Grandma was in the room & daddy was taking the picture). Please note Ava trying to pull Aunt Darlene's teeth out.