Oktoberfest is here!

So, it's Oktoberfest. Where I live this is a huge deal. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's Oktoberfesting just as much as I used to back in university, although for different reasons. Let's face it, you can call it a festival of German heritage, but for university students, it's just another reason to drink your face off. This is NOT my plan tomorrow night. Now, it's a chance to get together with some friends. It's ridiculous, really - these friends are people who live within a few minutes drive of me, but I rarely get together with them. There will be three couples going tomorrow night, to the best of my knowledge, and the women are two of my closest friends. I've known them for years, their kids are the same age as my daughters, we live close to each other...We used to get together much more frequently, but since having kids, there just don't seem to be the opportunities, or maybe we just don't make them. Whatever the reason we don't do it more often, I'm really looking forward to spending time with my friends tomorrow as friends, not as mommies.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my job? I don't know what it is about this year, but I'm having more fun than I can remember having at work in a long time. I feel like I'm doing well, too, which is nice. I have no idea what's different about this year. Maybe the kids appreciate me more after having a substitute for much of last year while I was on leave. Whatever the reason, I'm feeling really good about my career these days.

Rylee turned one yesterday. We had a small family celebration on Wed night, as her godmother/aunt was able to come for dinner that night but not on her actual birthday. Her babysitter had cupcakes yesterday, then we celebrated again last night with cupcakes after dinner. She of course has no idea what the big deal is, but her sisters do, which was cute. They took the liberty of "helping" Rylee open her presents :)

Not much else is new. Sammie starts hockey this weekend, which should be interesting. She says she knows how to skate, and says she wants to play hockey, but we'll see. She looks pretty darn cute in all her equipment, that's for sure. She still likes school and is reading really well. Hailey still wants to do everything Sammie is. She's struggling with skating, too, but we're working on it. Last weekend we went skating with the Rangers, and Hailey was upset that she kept falling. I told her the Rangers fell a lot when they were learning too. She seemed amazed at that, so I suggested she ask one of them. Sure enough, we went up to one and I said, "Did you want to ask him your question?" She looked up at him and said, "When you were little, did you fall down?" He gave her a big smile and said, "All the time. But I kept getting back up and kept going." After that she told everyone, "He used to fall down all the time, but he kept gotting up!" My kids are so darn cute.