Weekend Highlights

1. Friday was Joel's birthday, and we celebrated yesterday with the kids and Joel's parents. We ate ice cream cake and gave Joel his presents, then the two of us had dinner at Enso (while the kids went out for pizza with Nanny and Papa). The food at Enso was good, but overpriced, and our waiter had some forgetful moments (such as forgetting to bring our drinks, and then forgetting again to bring the second round of drinks...)

2. Ben has struck up a new friendship with the daughter of one of our neighbors; of course he has known her since we moved here almost 3 years ago but he never played with her any more or less than with any of our other neighbors until recently. Now it seems like every time we set foot out the front door to play out front, it's not ten seconds later that she's outside too and they're playing together. Yesterday he spent an hour and a half playing over at her house, during which time Rebecca was napping, and I sat blissfully on the front porch sipping an iced coffee and enjoying the peace and quiet.... before eventually feeling guilty and going over to get him.

3. Yesterday morning we took the kids to Imaginon for the Children's Theater production of Goodnight Moon It was Rebecca's first theater experience, and she lasted through about half of the hour-long performance before dissolving into hysterical screams and demanding to "go bye bye". I took her outside, and Ben and Joel followed shortly thereafter. So. Not a rousing success. But, at least we tried. On the way to the theater, slightly confused by the GPS's directions, Ben sensed we were slightly lost and announced, "Well if we get hungry, I see a Bojangles." Which totally cracked me up because we have never set foot in a Bojangles, despite their prevalence down here.

4. Today we did not do to much, though I feel extraordinarily tired probably because I am also coming down with a cold. We spent the morning playing outside, then went to Ben's soccer game where, with Joel helping to coach, I spent two hours placating Rebecca by various means, and when the juice and cookies ran out she amused herself by pretending to lather sunblock over every exposed part of my body. Then we came home and played outside some more. The pretend sunblock doesn't seem to have done the trick, as I am feeling a bit burned...

5. Upcoming events to remember: Bon Jovi, Hawkfest, Mark Stone's Mentalmania, and (for Joel, one of his birthday presents) Bobcats playoff tickets. More information to follow.