Spring Preview

We've had a great preview of the spring weather that's just around the corner this weekend. It was in the 70s on Saturday, and 80 yesterday and is supposed to be 80 today also although we're supposed to get some bad thunderstorms this afternoon. (The rest of the week is supposed to be back down in the 60s but I'll take that, too). Ben wore shorts to school today, which seems somehow wrong for the last day of February.

We spent a lot of time playing outside this weekend, in addition to our usual activities -- Ben had cub scouts, as well as his last basketball practice Saturday and his last basketball game on Sunday (he'll be starting flag football next, in a couple of weeks). Rebecca had her dance/gymnastics class, and a double birthday party for her friends Lia and Delaney. We had a lunch date with Becca's friend Mira after the birthday party, and also a playdate/dinner with Mira and her mom this weekend as well; and also a dinner date with Ben's friend Jared and his family. Somewhere in there we took a trip to the park down the street as well, and guess who was there giving out free samples -- PINKBERRY! :)

So it was a busy, sunny and warm weekend. The first of many this spring, I am sure....

Sidewalk Chalk Princess

Here is Rebecca covered in sidewalk chalk enjoying our almost 80 degree spring preview this weekend. We spent loads of time outdoors this weekend and dusted off the grill for some steak and hotdogs tonight.

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Cool Kid

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Hey I Know That Girl....

It's Becca-Boo!

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Happy to be Home

I had a great couple of days in Florida -- the weather was beautiful, I got to lie on the beach and read my Kindle (an ambition of mine since acquiring the Kindle a couple of months ago), I got to go fishing on Tampa Bay, and I got to eat a LOT of fish and drink a lot of beer (for me).

I returned home Sunday night to find the house shockingly in order (dishes done, laundry started, kids smelling like shampoo, toys picked up). Joel and the kids seem to have had a great weekend while I was away; Ben excitedly told me about all their playdates and dinners out and his basketball game where he scored a basket, and how on Friday night Joel let them play outside until 7pm AND THEN took them to Chik-Fil-A for dinner -- wow, what lucky kids ;)

Yesterday was a good day for me to ease back into the swing of things -- I had off for Presidents Day, but the kids both had snow makeup days so they went to school. I spent the day doing errands and laundry, finished reading one of the books I started to read over the weekend (Water for Elephants), and enjoyed the sunny and 70+ degree (although windy) weather.

Today it's back to work for me! Boo hoo....

Sunset

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Beach!

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Gone Fishing

I'm heading off a little later this morning for a weekend on the Gulf coast of Florida with my sister-in-law, and leaving Joel in charge of the kids until I return on Sunday night. He has a "Reminder" list posted to the fridge that includes Ben's bus schedule, what homework will be due tomorrow, and which weekend activities I won't let him skip (birthday party, basketball game,and cub scouts I told him he has to go to; Rebecca's dance class and Ben's basketball practice he will be skipping). In addition to these activities he's got two play dates and some time with his parents lined up. He should have some good weather this weekend -- it's supposed to be around 70 or so for the next few days.

So good luck to Mr. Mom! I'm off to the beach....

Highlights

The lipstick incident previously described was definitely a highlight of the weekend - but it was a busy weekend so here are some others:

1. Dinner with friends Friday night at City Tavern;

2. Dance class, Monkey Joe's playdate and lunch with Becca's friends Mira and Ben, Ben's basketball practice and a playdate for him with a friend as well;

3. Drinks at our friends' house Saturday night, followed by dinner at Arooji's followed by freshly made homemade donuts at the Wine Shoppe at Foxcroft (YUM!) - thanks to Joel's dad for babysitting!

4. A walk in the 60 degree sunshine yesterday, Ben's basketball game, Cub Scouts, grocery shopping....

We also had The Lipstick Incident, potty training accidents, and addressing Valentine's day cards for Ben's classmates ... which by the way is not easy when about half his classmates have names like Bimali, Girish, Darshini, and Roopa. (Not exaggerating-- Half). I had to double check a lot of spellings.

Today I am keeping fingers crossed that our dishwasher will finally get fixed after two weeks of it being broken, and two weeks of washing dishes by hand, and two weeks of stagnant water sitting in the bottom of the broken dishwasher smelling AWFUL!!

And I am looking forward to my trip to Florida later this week with my sister-in-law! WOO-HOO! Of course the weather here is going to be sunny and 75 by Thursday when I am leaving, whereas in FL where I am going it's going to be sunny and 80, so I am gaining a little extra warmth in addition to of course THE BEACH!

Lipstick on a Clone Trooper

Rebecca went six days in a row without a potty accident, and as a reward I gave her a purple sparkly Hello Kitty lipstick. (In the 48 hours since the lipstick reward she has had 3 accidents, two of which were, shall we say MAJOR, but that's not the point of this post...)

The point of this post is that purple sparkly Hello Kitty lipstick is NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR A THREE YEAR OLD no matter how many times she asks you for it. During an unsupervised fifteen minutes this morning, she went around the house smearing lipstick on anything with a face she could find. And hours later I am still coming across lipstick-smeared casualties: bunnies, monkeys, baby dolls, etc.

The most incongruous lipstick-recipient was Ben's clone trooper helmet, which is one of his most prized possessions and rarely leaves its perch on his dresser. Ben was not pleased, but couldn't help seeing the humor in it once he was assured that it would wipe right off.

The lipstick was confiscated shortly thereafter.

My Spazzy Dancers...

Curse Averted, Weekend (Mostly) Enjoyed

So the Vegas Curse really did not manifest itself this year after all... Ben was home sick from school Thursday and Friday, but it was one of those randomly-spiking-fevers-but-otherwise-seeming-fine sicknesses, for the most part. I could tell he didn't feel great, but he didn't feel awful either and didn't really have any other symptoms besides the general tiredness and aches and pains of having a virus. Joel too managed to fight off his illness and had a good time in Vegas. He flew home on a red-eye after the Super Bowl, and is supposed to go to work this afternoon, which sounds like a poor decision to me... He is taking a nap at the moment. He actually came home with almost as much money as he started his trip with, even after paying for his hotel, meals, etc. That was quite impressive and a departure from the experience of previous years ;)

My weekend consisted of schlepping the kids to dance class, basketball, and a birthday party, but I had company because my friend Anne, in town for a business trip, came over on Saturday and stayed with us until last night. She does not have kids of her own, so was not particularly used to the mauling she experienced at the hands of my kids (who always appear to visitors to be attention-starved- what's that about?). But she was quite a good sport about putting up with all the... how shall we put it mildly.... chaos that those of us who have kids don't bat an eyelash at anymore ;)

One highlight (or perhaps lowlight) of the weekend was a poor dinner choice on my part Saturday night... in trying to accomodate everyone's tastes for dinner I chose a restaurant that was too crowded, and screwed up Ben's order twice... he ordered salmon and they brought him steak, and he was so hungry by the time our food came that when they took it back to get the salmon, he started to cry. When the salmon finally came out it was undercooked, so I had to send it back again. Ben did end up with a free meal including a free cup of soup and a free piece of chocolate cake, but even so the experience permanently takes this particular restaurant off our list!

Besides that the weekend was pretty good, the weather was relatively nice yesterday and the kids played outside, Ben scored a basket at his basketball game, we introduced Anne to Pinkberry, and she made some fair progress on a pair of socks she was trying to knit, despite interference from Ulysses -- cats really do, as it turns out, like yarn! Here is a picture of Anne with her feline groupie:

The Vegas Curse

Joel goes to Las Vegas with friends every year during Super Bowl weekend. Every year it seems like someone gets sick... I don't seem to have blogged about anything bad happening last year but I am sure something must have... Anyway, this year the Vegas curse came a little early, with Ben getting sick on the eve of Joel's departure. He had a fever last night and has been under the weather today though seems to be improving. I am hoping he can go to school tomorrow.

Joel also began complaining last night that he is starting to feel sick, but he left for his trip anyway this morning. My last communication from him, via text message after his plane landed, was that he is "definitely getting sick". I hope he can fight it off and have a good time on his vacation!!

Ben was well enough tonight to come out to dinner; the kids and I met my oldest friend (other than Abby of course) for dinner. She is in town on a business trip and I had not seen her in about 4 or 5 years. We met on the last day of Kindergarten (1982?). She is in town through the weekend, so hopefully no one else will get sick/sicker and we can spend more time catching up over the weekend! YEAH! Welcome to Charlotte, Anne! Hopefully we won't get you sick ;)

Tea Party

Today was Tea for Two at Rebecca's preschool and her class dressed up in costumes for the occasion. Oddly Rebecca chose to be a pirate instead of a princess for our tea party. After we had our tea and muffins and did a craft the kids all got up on stage and sang I'm a Little Teapot. It was very cute!

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