On Thursday afternoon, Dan, Joe, and Stephen took off for a Come and See Weekend. 

Marianna thinks she's going too.

Those of us left behind with no other plans for the next few days decided to have a pajama day on Friday.  I am not a big fan of this idea.  I figure if Dan comes home from work and we're all in our pj's and nobody's sick he's going to wonder what we've been up to all day.  Besides, I just feel lazy when I don't change in the morning (and I'm always nagging my teenage sons to change out of their favorite sleeping attire, ugh).  But my little kids have been begging to do this, so that's that!

Clare's version of PJ Day

I also splurged on some different flavors of ice cream and other junk food to bribe everyone to clean the house and help keep everything running smoothly while the big guys were gone.  Clare and I managed to have a movie night (just us girls...so very rare around here!) and the younger set were amused with this much anticipated package....

I had ordered some moccasins for Andrew and Therese, tomahawks for Gabers and Johnny and a leather pouch for Matthew (all in need of assembly, of course). The tomahawks were easy to put together and Matthew pretty much assembled his pouch on his own, but those moccasins were a completely different matter.

Andrew really stuck with me through the whole process. He was a real trooper. Therese, on the other hand, seemed to think that a magic genie was going to appear and her moccasins would be ready to wear.  The magic genieMom around here was kind of pooped out though, so Therese had to wait an ENTIRE day before her moccasin could get some use!

Anyway!  They were all thrilled to have something to show off to Dad when he got home...  and my fingers will recover eventually.