My wonderful birthday week

 I'm always a fan of my own birthday, but this last birthday was especially great.  My brother, Joseph, had a work conference in Boston the week of my birthday and he flew in with my nephew, Ethan - Hayden's best friend, on my birthday.  It was on Columbus day so the kids had the day off of school, and Jerry took the day off as well.  We got to keep Ethan for the week and it was so much fun.  My kids were in heaven.  Probably THE very hardest thing about living in Connecticut is being so far away from friends and our family.  It is so hard for the kids to not see their cousins and grandparents regularly.
So for my birthday we all went out to Benedicts farm, which was all decked out for Halloween and the fall.  We went on a hay ride and the kids played in the straw maze.  There was also a huge corn pit.  We kept finding corn kernels for the next week falling out of pockets and shoes.  That night Joseph had to leave during dinner to head up to Boston.  We celebrated my birthday with cake and ice cream.  Very fun day.

Luke absolutely loved Joseph.  It was so cute to see him just cling to him.

 On Tuesday the kids went to school and Ethan slept most of the day recovering from the jet lag.  We picked the kids up from school and headed to the Children's Discovery Museum.  The kids just love it there.

 Wednesday was a little easy going.  The kids just wanted to play and enjoy being with each other all day.  It was WONDERFUL!  Hayden went to school for just a half day.  After Rebecca got out of school we went to a yummy dairy.  I thought there was a little petting zoo there, but I think it was too late in the season.  It was a super long drive to just get some ice cream, and it was a little chilly, but it was still fun.  

 Hayden didn't go to school Thursday, and I picked Rebecca up early and we went to the zoo.  It was so fun.  The kids were excited to be doing so many fun things in a week, and I think Ethan thinks this is how exciting life regularly is here.  Haha.   The zoo was all decked out for Halloween.

 

 

 

 

 

 After the zoo we went a place called The Cookie Workshop.  It is awesome.  The kids get to make and decorate their own cookies.  They had a great time.

 Joseph came back to our house on Thursday night.  I took the kids out of school on Friday and we went in to New York with Joseph and Ethan.  We spent a lot of time in Central Park playing on the big rocks.  It was a gorgeous day and the changing leaves were beautiful.

 

 

 Am I a horrible mother.  We had Hayden and Ethan go up to the Naked Cowboy.  It was pretty funny.

This was as we were saying their goodbyes. SO SAD!!

 The kids cried the entire walk back to the car.  It was so hard saying goodbye.  For me too.  I'm so glad we had the time we did together.  Great memories.

Saturday was our ward temple day in Boston.  It was our first time going to the Boston Temple.  We wee going to go into the city a little afterwards, but it was such an early morning waking up to do the drive after a busy week that we just went home.  One thing I love about our ward temple days is that they take the youth from the ward to babysit at the neighboring church house so Jerry and I didn't have to switch off for the temple.  It was a great day, and a great week!