A Day Off from School....Deserves to be Outdoors

We went to the tire park!  It was such a beautiful day to waste indoors!  Cathy and I called each other this morning having made tentative plans to get out together!  We tried to see about kayaking or canoeing on the various lakes around here, but everything had shut down last weekend.  Oh well.  We decided on the tried and true "park."  It was absolutely beautiful!  We ended up with a big group.  My friends Katie and Kimberly joined the group and Cathy's friend Sarah also brought her children, who has a son at the same school as Noah this year in middle school!
So, Noah had his friends Aidan and Carson and the immediately headed for the sand volleyball pit!  And they pretty much remained there for the whole time we were there!  They started with one ball, and then Cathy added some more to the mix and then another friend Carol showed up and added even more balls, so that they ended up with about 10 balls and about 12 boys playing some "park" version of volleyball, called Nuke'm!  Later they played dodge ball and the girls joined them for some of it!
The girls Brenna, Kate, Caroline, and Mackenzie played on every piece of equipment at the park.  They moved from zipline, to tire swing to monkey bars!  It was a lot of fun watching them.  They never sat still.  Brenna was a little out of sorts though and she wasn't as playful as she usually is.  She was "hungry"-She was "tired"-it was hard to hear it when I just wanted her to be playing with her friends.  I do think she was tired.  She had come home at 11:30 from a sleep-over because she wasn't feeling well and then she was up so early with Calle.  The girls laughed the most on the zip line!  It was just great to get outside!

Afterwards we all went to lunch at Subway!

Noah's Birthday

 Noah turns 11!

As you know the "best laid plans often go awry."  And Noah's birthday is no exception.  If I had had my way, he would have been born in April, when it's not too cold or too hot.  The flowers bloom and earth is reborn.  Instead, he was born during that time between summer and crisp fall evenings, cool breezes and the ever, eternal beginning of school. 

This is a crazy time of year for me.  Noah's birthday has always fallen during that first week of school, when I'm exhausted because I haven't gotten back into the routine of going to bed early and yet having to show up to work ready to go and talk more, work more, and do more than I'm used to.  And the first week of school, there's a lot of energy that I haven't exerted during the summer.  Making lunches, getting backpacks together, picking out clothes, etc. etc. and etc.  It takes a lot of out you when you're not used to it. 

And then to plan a birthday for Noah that knocks his socks off just seems more than I'm ready for.  So, I  always plan Noah's party for the end of September, when I back in the game.  But that birthday day, September 3rd, is one of the best of my life, so I try to make it a great day for Noah!  So, the eve of his birthday, we decorated his room with balloons, fruit by the foot, poptarts, candy corn, and a chocolate bar!  (no picture due to this year's malfunctioning of timing).  Noah loved waking up to this and it set him up to smile the rest of the day!  (Thank goodness). 

The other thing about this early fall birthday is that there is this thing..that takes over most everybody's fall...it's called FOOTBALL!  And Noah had his first game on his birthday.  So, going out to dinner was out, and thank goodness Mom-Mom had the foresight to bring HER present over for Noah, so he had at least one to open (In my defense, our presents for Noah were bought they just weren't wrapped!).  But really the only thing I saw to do was combine his football with his birthday!  So,  I bought cupcakes for the whole team!  And I made them sing happy birthday to Noah! 

I think Noah was happy about that.  The only thing that would have made it better was if they had won!  It was a bizarre score for football, but one they could live with.  2-0.

Happy Birthday Noah!  We love you!

The other thing that made his birthday great was that his first period teacher sang him happy birthday and gave him a snickers bar!  Yeah, teacher! 

Not Tobin's 1st day of school.....

As many of you know I wasn't able to get pictures from Tobin's first day of school.  Too much going on, too much commotion and really, if truth be told, too early in the morning to figure it all out. 

So, since Friday and with a 3 day weekend, Tobin has been off on a whirlwind of friend's houses.  I know many of you used to listen to me voicing my concerns about Tobin's seemingly easy acceptance about not going out on the weekends.  And I should be careful what I wish for because I think it's coming back to haunt me threefold.  Tobin has not been without friends this entire weekend!  Friday after practice he went to a friend's house and they went to the game together to cheer on their school team.  And then they hung out at a friend's house afterwards, but sadly I made him come home due to the scrimmage on Saturday morning.   Right after the scrimmage, he came home with a friend and enjoyed lunch and hangin' out.  Then they decided that they wanted to have friend's over to Tobin's house on Saturday night.  That was great, but it changed our lazy Saturday into one of cleaning the house, going to the grocery store, and so on. 

We had 11 friends over to spend their Saturday evening with us.  I think they had a great time.  The listened to their ipod, sang songs out loud (we even heard them upstairs), came up for dinner, hung out in the hottub and then went home.  Well..at leas the girls did.  The boys stayed over.  Boy were they a motley crew on Sunday.  Late in the afternoon, they all ended up at Colin's house and in the lake, river, pond, somewhere wet in their backyard.  And then Tobin came home to spend the night quietly with us.  Now, it is Monday after football practice and Tobin is off yet again to a friend's house. 

I hate to tell him that all good things must come to an end.  And he has work to do before tomorrow comes.

Brenna's 1st day of school

I asked Andy to take pictures of the kids as they walked out of the house that morning. It was the first "first" day of high school for Tobin, the first "first" day of middle school for Noah, and the middle "first" day of school for Brenna. I knew it was going to be hectic!  I knew it was going to be a morning of digging out backpacks, finding matching socks, making 3 different lunches at 3 different times, and a morning of 3 different depature times!  But I knew Andy was up for it.  And then it didn't happen.  First Tobin left, then Noah left, and then Brenna left and my camera lay unused in it's case. 

But my friend Katie was able to save the day.  Her daughter Mack and Brenna are best friends and are in the same class for the 2nd year in a row!  yeah!  So, she was able to take some pictures for me, knowing I would want them.

First day of 3rd grade!

First day of 2nd grade

Celebrating--Our Marriage is Legal!!

Celebrating 18 wonderful years!!

Art and Soul--was worth the wait and a wonderful way to celebrate!  There was something old (do we count?), something new (the venue), something borrowed (the time), and something blue (my dress and Andy's shirt)! 

I took charge of arranging our anniversary this year!  Knowing that our lives in no way have inertia anywhere in it, it is always hard to find time for just Andy and me.  So, we don't plan any grandiose celebrations or out of town trips!  So, when I heard of the restaurant Art and Soul, I knew it would be the perfect-it was a place we had never been before, and it was in the city, where we NEVER go.  It would be a little outside our box way to celebrate that we are still happy, madly in love after 18 years of marriage!  And, happily I learned that Art had once been a personal chef to Oprah.  I was feeling extra happy about our dinner.

Outside the restaurant!

Andy and I fell in love with Art and Soul.  It was soooooooo goood.  The food was tasty and delicious!  The pictures do it more justice than I ever could.

It was really funny to watch Andy.  We know the kind of people we are--that we are superbusy with our kids and their activities and their friends!  We rarely get out alone and to get out into the city is an even rarer commodity.  So, Andy was like a kid in a candy shop!  He wanted one of everything.  I have realized that Andy and I approach our food selections very differently.  I am happy to go to my tried and true restaurants and eat my tried and true food selections~Andy, on the other hand, wants the adventure of an exotic dish, a new flavor to try, and new blend of spices to savor!  So, as we perused the menu, I looked for "safe" choices and he looked for spice and variety. 

Andy really seemed drawn to the appetizers!  With 18 years behind us, we also know that we approach the idea of spending $$$  a little differently too.  So, he was so cute and said, "When will we get down here again?  We really won't, it will be a while, so I would like to..if it is ok, to get several of the appetizers as they look so good.  I'm ok with spending some $$ to celebrate our life together."  I laughed.  He could have told me that's what he was going to do--it's his hard earned money too.  I just like to make him think about the worth of it sometimes!  :)  So, we ordered 3 appetizers, each a main course, and mine came with a dessert!

Our appetizers were from left to right

Shrimp and Grits with Bacon

Beer steamed mussels

Seared Ahi Tuna with Fried Green Tomatoes

They were soooooo good!  With every bite, I thought I was in heaven!  The shrimp and ahi tuna were out of this world!  The burst of taste as I sunk my teeth into the meat (shrimp or tuna), exploded into a hundred different morsels of taste.  You know, I really am not good at describing it, but the experience of it was amazing!  The mussels were good too, but we fell in love with the other two appetizers.

For dinner, we had:

Blackened scallops with spinach and mashed potatoes

A side of Macaroni and Cheese

Ribeye with creamed spinach

After our appetizers I was so full, I was only able to take a few bites of the mac. and cheese and my scallops.  But it was one of the best meals and I will remember it for such a long time with happiness.  Andy's ribeye was so good, too.  He gave me a bite in exchange for a scallop. 

One of the things we loved about this restarant was the ambiance of the restaurant.  We were settled into a nice little booth with the most unique lighting.

These two pictures are of the light from different angles.  The one above is Andy taking it with the camera at his eye.  For the picture below, we laid the camera on the table and took the shot from right underneath the light.

Our cute little table!

We had my dessert wrapped up as we had another destination in mind for our dessert!  We were headed to Georgetown Cupcake!  I had heard (and seen on tv) so much about these desserts that I knew this was an opportunity to try them!  We also knew we needed to bring some home for the kids.  And in an indulgent moment we bought 18, one for each year of our marriage!  It was so much fun to be there.  We had to wait in line, but there was a comraderie about it, a united brotherhood that was a little fun to share in.

I have to say, though, that with our busy day, we were fading fast!  Andy and I both started yawning.  I'm sure we were great company at that point.  The beauty is that after 18 years, his hand on my arm or my arms around his waist, our hands interlocked together say more than most people say in a conversation.

Andy-I love you forever and always!

Deja Vu

When I was little my sister and I used to love, love, love playing on each other's shoulders.  I remember even trying to get on her shoulders when she was riding a bike!  We did it in the tennis courts, we weren't stupid. I don't remember really getting that to work to well. 

One time I was on my sister's shoulders and we were having a good time when my mom answered the ring of a telephone with a, "Hello Mom!"  Tiercy realized that meant grandmother and she forgot that I was even on her shoulders!  She let out a shout and said, "Grandmother!"  She let go of my feet and ran forward to get as close to Grandmother's voice as she could.  Needless to say, with the laws of physics, I stayed behind and crashed to the ground.  The funny thing is that it sent my sister and I into hysterical giggles and we couldn't stop!  It was sooooo fun and one of my favorite memories.

So, I was a little nostalgic for those days when I saw Brenna with her friend, Mackie, on her shoulders!  They were having such a good time.  If you don't remember, Mac is the one who also jumped of the porch railing during snowmageddon!  So, here are the pictures.

Calle

Calle playing with her brother Charlie.

She had so much fun being reunited with her brother!  They played tough but there was no growling involved!  It was great because it wore her out in about 15 minutes!