This Weekend's Exhausting Me!

Jacob had his birthday slumber party on Friday night.  I swear this just might be the last one since there was at least one child up at some point for the entire night.  Two boys fell asleep around 1am and were woken up by others playing pranks around 4am.  Those boys fell asleep around 4:30 and the ones that had been asleep stayed up and woke everyone else up at 7am.  The only thing that kept me from being really upset was the fact that they were quiet.  One little boy, John, came upstairs and promptly fell asleep on the couch.  I tried waking him up and Mike tried waking him up with no luck.  Poor kid was bumping into walls when his mom came to pick him up. 

In order to keep Hannah out of their hair, I took her to see Ramona and Beezus during the party.  We both loved it.  It doesn't follow a specific book and they've modernized the story but it's very cute.  I wasn't disappointed at all and found myself crying through the second half of the movie.  Hannah thought that was strange.  I'm a cryer, what can I say. 

Saturday, we spent most of the day sleeping.  Jacob and Daniel both fell asleep on the couch, which was seriously cute.  It was hard to get Jacob up so that we could go see Toy Story 3 while Mike went to see Paul McCartney at the Sprint Center.  Yeah, I could have gone to see Paul McCartney with him, but I don't like the Beatles or Paul McCartney so I figured it would be better if Mike took someone that would actually enjoy the concert.  Mike had a great time and so did the rest of us, so all's good. 

We all slept in this morning and have, pretty much, decided that it's just a lazy day.  I'm thinking it's going to be a taco night and we'll just hang out until the Season 4 premiere of Mad Men.  The perfect end to a very busy weekend. 

Three Day Weekend!!!

What a great weekend it's been. The kids have been outside all day long, playing with the kids in the area. Mike and the kids had a very superhero weekend...watching the X-Men movies and whatnot in the evenings after dinner. I've been into the marathons...Band of Brothers and Star Wars. Hannah fell asleep in the middle of one of the movies last night and slept until almost 11 this morning. I think she may have been a little tired.

We fired up the grill for the first time of the season yesterday. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Yum. Right now, there's corn and chicken grilling and I'm killing time until the asparagus goes on. I love this time of year!

I also got into my gardens, big time, this weekend. The front yard looks awesome. Added a few more perennials and a lot of annuals. It took me forever to get through the mountain of weeds around my roses. I have to admit that it's the first time in almost two years that I've really been over on that side of the house. Mostly because that's where the bunny graveyard is. I finally cowboyed up and got all of the thistles and crap out of there and I could just hear the roses sigh with relief. Now, I just need to get into the backyard and clean that baby up.

Saturday night was Girls Night Out. My friend, Lynne, is moving to Alabama on Wednesday and she wanted one last hurrah. It was tons of fun. Unfortunately, I've only been to the Plaza one other time so I was very confused trying to find it. I can't believe I was only 15 minutes late. We had such a good time that we all decided to make it a monthly thing.

I guess that's about it from here for now...Return of the Jedi's on and I've got to check on the chicken.

Happy Mother's Day

Even though it is pretty much over by now. I hope everyone enjoyed theirs.

I don't know what the weather's been like where you all are, but it's been cold and windy here for much too long. It's getting really old. And, our longest dry streak has been 3 days. I'm not all that upset about the rain since it means I don't have to do any watering but ugh. It's enough already.

Jacob had baseball pictures Saturday afternoon. We weren't sure if they were going to happen because it would try to rain every 20 minutes or so. Luckily, the rain held out until after the photos were over so we didn't have to reschedule. He has his first game tomorrow and the rescheduled rain out game from last week will be on Friday. With TKD testing quickly approaching, we're not sure if he's going to go to baseball practice on Thursday. There's another "ugh." Baseball practice. Every Thursday until the end of the season is baseball practice. We were sent at least 5 e-mails telling us that they'd be in Leawood (almost to the Missouri border and and around 119th Street). Not really that big a deal except for the fact that they start at 5:15 and go to 6:45. TKD is from 5:30-6:30 (it takes 20 or so minutes to get from TKD on 151st St. to Leawood). There is no way I could get all three kids to and from their activities on time. Luckily, we had it all figured out but it was still stressful. So, last Thursday, everyone met up at Leawood and we were all complaining about the distance. Then, we realized our coach wasn't there. Someone called and it turned out that he had told us the wrong field. Five times. Fortunately, the correct field is about 3 minutes from TKD so it won't be an issue. Phew.

Daniel had his first grade sing on Friday. Katie (Gwen's mom) took Hannah home with her so that I wouldn't have to pull her out early and I met Mike there at the school. It was quite a long program. Daniel was very nervous since he had a line or two that he had to do by himself. He did great, though. At one point, all of the kids stood up and he fell over. I don't think that anyone really noticed except for me and Mike but he was embarrassed. After, we went back to the classsrooms to pick up stuff and there were so many cute books, made by the kids, for us to take home. It's just now hitting me that the school year's almost over. This is Hannah's last week of preschool and the boys are out the Wednesday after Memorial Day. Where has this year gone?

We took the kids to see Speed Racer on Friday night. What a horrible movie. Of course, I was the only one that hated it. The kids and Mike thought it was awesome. The only good parts were the ones with Matthew Fox in it. My goodness he's good looking. Anyway, the kids have been asking to see it again (no). We're looking forward to the Indiana Jones movie. At least I am.

This morning, I was woken up by Daniel holding a Mother's Day poem for me. He was so cute and so excited with what he made. Each one of them made me some great cards. Unfortunately, I was so crabby and irritable this morning that it was hard to enjoy anything. I blame it on the diet. Freaking diet. I decided it's Mother's Day and diet rules don't apply today. This evening we went to Chili's for dinner and all I wanted to eat was their Southwestern Eggrolls. So, I got that and some spinach and artichoke dip for dinner. And I ate Jacob's cinnamon apples. I felt guilty for about 2 minutes. I've been so good on this darn thing that I deserved a day to eat whatever I wanted to. I even wrote it all in my food diary. Those eggrolls will keep me going for the next month or so.

We Had a Weekend?

Well, we had a good weekend but it was a little busy for my taste. Friday night, we went to the MOPS and POPS dinner. Poor Mike thought that he was going to be going to a father/daughter dance and was disappointed when it was a dinner date with me. LOL! It was fun to hang out with some of my MOPS friends and have a nice, catered dinner. We got home a little after 9 and everyone crashed soon after.

Saturday, we went over to the library for Asian Day. Our TKD school was putting on a presentation and everyone was asked to participate. It was cool because Jacob got to do form, one-steps and spar. He also got to break a board. I think he really liked that part, especially since he didn't know they wanted him to. Hannah got to do her form and some one-steps. Daniel got to spar and do his form. After the demonstration, we hung out at the library with some others and did some of the other activities. We all got our names translated into Chinese and got to sample some Asian snacks. Jacob's favorite activity was making a fan and he's been using this new skill all weekend.

After the library, we decided it would be fun to go see Iron Man. I decided to go under protest. We were in the biggest theater I've ever seen (they must use it for IMAX) and the kids were all snuggled into their seats. A few times, Hannah asked me if I was sure we were seeing Iron Man because he doesn't show up until at least halfway through. Of course, once he appeared (and every single time for the rest of the movie), she'd scream, "IRON MAN!!! IT'S IRON MAN!!!" LOL! I can't remember the last time I've seen the kids so into something for as long as they were. They were glued to the screen. At one point, Daniel was so into the movie that he actually stood up and was questioning, in earnest and panic, why something was happening. It was so cute and funny. I do have to say that, aside from enjoying the kids' enjoyment of the movie, it really wasn't that bad. I'd even go so far as to say that I'd be willing to see it again.

We lost Volcano on Friday. For those of you that don't remember, Volcano was Jacob's fire-bellied toad. He was cool with it, but immediately asked if he could get another. So, after the movie, we headed to the pet store and picked up two new toads. Look, they're cheap enough and we already had the crickets! ;) Anyway, we are now the proud owners of Frogish and Jetski. They are crazy active. Much more so than the other one was. (Hence the name Jetski) Hannah wanted a little pet so we picked up a betta fish for her. His name is Swimmy Swimmer. I wonder how long he'll last.

Sunday, we had Sunday School and Family Service. We always enjoy Family Service, even though it's a pain to get up and get there. After services, I decided to mow the lawn. Because of all of the rain, the lawn, in some places, was (literally) up above my mid-calf. That bastard took me two hours (should have taken 45 minutes) and two gas fill-ups. I'm sore and tired. I guess it was a good workout, though.

The kids were outside all afternoon and evening. They played with almost every obscure child on this street and on the next one over. Children I've never seen before were pouring out of their houses. One of the kids had a toy rifle and they all decided to play some sort of war. It looked like a lot of fun. They fought me tooth and nail when I called them in for the night after 8pm.

We also got our first grilling done of the season. Grilled chicken. Yum. Of course, it's not as good without the sauce (no sauce for me...friggin' diet) but it was still grilly goodness.

Holy cow...I need a weekend to recover from my weekend! I'll post pictures from the TKD demonstration later.

Lazy Weekend

This is the first one of these that we've had in a while. The kids didn't even get dressed yesterday, which they thought was really funny.

We took the kids to Sunday School this morning and Hannah had to dress up for the Pre-K Pre-Purim Ball at the JCC (say that three times fast! LOL!) They asked the kids to arrive in costume so Hannah was dressed like a princess...crown and all. We were sitting eating our bagels when Marcia (the Education Director for the synagogue) comes over to say hello. She looks at Hannah and says, "my goodness, Hannah! Don't you look beautiful this morning? Did you just feel like being a princess this morning?" I look at Marcia and say, "Ummm...wasn't she supposed to dress up today?" She slaps her hand to her head and says, "That's right! You're going to the Ball! Of course you are supposed to dress up! And you look great!" Then, she takes off. A little later, I run into Rabbi Vared (she has a daughter that's in Hannah's pre-k class) and she tells Hannah that she looks great and that Ellie (her daughter) has a very similar costume. I tell her about my conversation with Marcia and she laughs hysterically. She tells me that Marcia probably just had a long weekend.

After Family Service, I drop Jacob and Daniel off at their classrooms (Mike had taken Hannah to the JCC for her Ball) and I head to the store because we invited some friends over to watch the Super Bowl tonight and I needed to get some snacks. There had been some rumbles of thunder during the Family Service so I expected it to be raining when I walked out. I hadn't expected the sleet and hail that we were getting. I didn't mind so much, though, because I love thunderstorms and one this early in February is unusual.

After Sunday School, we come home and put away the groceries and finish cleaning the house. For the first time in a while, all three levels are nice and clean...vacuumed, mopped, and just clean. When I was all done, I pulled a message from Jim (from the family that was coming over) off the machine. Sorry, most of us are sick and won't be able to come over. Can we do something next weekend? Daniel starts screaming that we "cleaned for nothing." I told him that, no, the house is nice and clean for us.

Actually, I'm not all that upset that they aren't coming. The house has needed to be deep cleaned for some time now and now it is. I'm really not in the mood for entertaining this evening and now I don't have to. We're going to kick back, watch some Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet and stuff ourselves with snacks. Hopefully, another thunderstorm rolls through this evening. That would be awesome.