Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

We had a really nice and enjoyable long weekend.  It is always great to have Matt home for an extra day, and we had a couple of opportunities to hang out with friends which was nice.

Tuesday afternoon my friend L called and said her church group had a couple of extra tickets to see our local Minor League baseball team in action on Thursday night if we were interested in going with them.  Little enjoys watching “throw-ball,” as she calls it, so we jumped at the chance.  After Matt got home from work Thursday we loaded up the kids and headed downtown to the ballpark.  We really enjoyed the game, there just isn’t anything like the atmosphere of a professional sporting event.  The kids did well, and we enjoyed spending time with friends.  We even left saying that we would like to go again sometime; although, it would be nice to go when it is cooler than 95 degrees.

Friday we just hung out around the house and enjoyed being together.  We made a couple of trips to Target and Best Buy to get accessories for Matt’s new toy – an XBox 360 – but otherwise it was a pretty low-key holiday.

Saturday evening a couple of families from church came over to cookout.  The kids loved playing Wii, and the adults enjoyed some time to chat and catch up.  It was pretty crazy around here, with seven kids 10 years old and under, and quite noisy, but I think everyone had fun.

It was a pretty busy weekend (by our standards), but a good one.  And best of all?  Boo has given up his second nighttime feeding – one down, one to go!

Enjoy the day with family and friends.  Enjoy the cookouts and swimming and fireworks.  Enjoy celebrating our country and our freedom.

Have a great weekend!

For the last 20 or so years, Matt’s grandparents have lived on about 50 acres of land outside of Nashville.  Several months ago, they decided that the house and land were too much for them to handle any longer and put the place up for sale.  This is bittersweet for all of us.  We understand that this is the right thing for them to do, but we will miss the place; it holds lots of memories for everyone.

Fast forward to last weekend.  Matt and I wanted to take the kids and visit his grandparent’s again before they move.  Matt’s brother and sister-in-law wanted to visit too, so we decided to try to be there at the same time.  As it ended up, Lu and her family were able to come to town as well, so we had a bit of a family reunion.

We spent the weekend relaxing, chatting, and laughing. Sitting on the screened porch (in the comfy swing, of course) was bliss.  Catching up with family that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we would like was wonderful.  Having the opportunity to meet our newest nephew before he’s a year old was great.  And, of course, it was nice to make a few more memories (and pictures) at the “old homestead”.

Yesterday Little and I got new ‘dos.

This was Little’s very first haircut.  She was born with a headful of hair and never lost any of it.  Because of that we had two issues: first, her hair was uneven – her “original” hair is very straight and her new hair has some curl; second, the longest parts of her hair came almost to her waist.  In order to even it up and get rid of her scraggly look, we got it cut in a blunt cut that falls just above her shoulders.  It is absolutely adorable, but she does look more like a little girl now.

She was a very good girl while her hair was being cut.  Our hairstylist is also a good friend, so Little is comfortable with L and I think that made a huge difference in her willingness to cooperate.  She sat in the chair like a big girl and was remarkably still; she even said “thank you” when L was finished cutting.  I was very proud of her, and I just love her new ‘do.

As for me, I went a little shorter in the back than the cut I’ve been sporting since January (which was pretty short already); the front is the same length it has been, but it is styled a bit differently.  I also got some copper highlights that I’m loving (settled on copper because Matt was very against the red-red that I wanted to do).  Just something fun and a little sassy for the summer.

It was fun to see Little’s first haircut, and I enjoyed getting a little pampering.  We had a nice “girls night” with L.

I would love to share pictures, but I’m having trouble with iPhoto; maybe I can get some posted after my tech guy is home to help.

Last Wednesday was the fifth birthday of my friend’s son.  To do something special on his actual birthday, we decided to take the four kids – ages 5, 26 months, 22 months, and 6 weeks – to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning.  This was Little’s first trip to the land of flashing lights, competing noises, and slots for tokens.

We got there early hoping to beat the crowds, and we were not disappointed.  This is the best CEC gets – about 15 minutes after opening – only one other mother and child in the entire place.  Also good was the fact that a game-tester was there checking that all the games functioned properly; he would play, win, and leave the tickets for us to gather.  

We camped out at a table in the little kids area thinking that the younger ones (minus Boo) would enjoy the slide and car ride kind of things.  Tokens were divvied up three ways and off everyone went.  Little and I started off at skee-ball (my fave) where she enjoyed throwing the ball up the ramp, even though none of them made it all the way.  

I really thought she would be pretty uninterested in the games, and I was both right and wrong.  She didn’t really “get” most of the games but did enjoy the ones where you have a single button to press and then it spits out the tickets.  However, the most exciting part for her was putting the tokens into the slots.  

It took quite some work to keep her from randomly putting tokens into games and to confine her token feeding to the games that I wanted/could play.  And even when the tokens went into the games that I wanted them to, she would stand beside me and continue to put more tokens in while I played.  I think there were a couple of games that I ended up playing about five times in a row.

All-in-all it was a fun morning, and I think the birthday boy really enjoyed it.  As for Little, she would have been perfectly happy to sit in one place and feed tokens into a slot all day long.  Better not let her near slot machines!