Weekend Update

With Craig in Vegas for the weekend, it was the 3 Amigos on our own for fun. Friday was fairly low key as we ramped up for the weekend ahead. Sat. am started the next round of tennis lessons for Mallory. There are 11 kids in her session this time and it could be too many. This was further evidenced by one little girl not looking after her swing and hitting another little girl on the bridge of her nose with her raquet. Thank goodness it was not Mallory who did the swinging, as we talk about this exact scenario almost every week. That poor little girl was so distraught for having hit someone else she was virtually inconsoleable. Accidents happen, and with a few stiches everyone will be as good as new!

After that, we hit the party circuit. Mallory went to a birthday picnic in the park for 4 hours and Nicholas went to Amazing Jakes for the same 4 hours! I browsed Michael's Craft store for almost half the time. It was amazing. No one was asking me to buy them random stuff they'll never use, no one was telling me how bored they were after 10 mins, and I was in heaven. A good day! Of course, our weekends with an 11 year old girl would not be complete if there wasn't a sleep over. I can't pick Mallory up from any function any more without her begging to have someone sleep over? I am weak.

Sunday caught us by the pool for some sun. The wind kicked up and the water was waaaayyy too cold for us, but we had snacks and drinks. What else do you need?

Happy Easter!

Mallory & Nick's Easter loot

Madison, The Grand Prize winner!

Sadie on the hunt

Since the holiday fell on a weekend Mallory & Nick were at their Dad's, it was just me and Craig for Easter this year. But the Easter Bunny dropped by our friends house and the children there were so excited to hunt for the eggs. Here are photos from the day, even though none of the kids are actually ours!?

In the evening, when the kids came home they were excited to see that the Bunny had also stopped by our house to leave a little something for them. Nick is in love with his baseball cards, his favorite (and mine) is a really cool white one of Pat Burrell. All black & white, except for his red Phillies batting helmet and his red shoes. It's pretty cool. Maybe, since Papa is pretty tight with Pat, he can get it signed for us?!

Mallory has eaten all of her candy, and has added even more of the posters from her Bop magazine to her bedroom walls! Why would that Easter Bunny bring such a gift?

The Big 3-0!

Finally, after so many years of waiting, Craig has turned 30. This is a glorious day! The jokes I've endured.. egh. So, please welcome the newest member to the club!

Friday night we celebrated with a few close friends at home, having dinner and birthday cake. The boys went home kind of bitter after getting smoked by the ladies during a game of Scene It. (so competitive?)

Saturday night, I took him to see the Phoenix Suns play the Houston Rockets. In the past, this has been our rivalry team but on this night the Suns led for the whole game by quite a lot. The Suns play an exciting game now that we have Shaq and of course our beloved Steve Nash. We had arena dogs, some cold beer and the Suns won - what a great night!

In times like this you really find out how good your camera is, or isn't. Anyway, this is the closest shot I could get of Shaq. One of his shoes is as big as my torso? He plays really hard, it's amazing that he's only a year older than me. I'm not sure I could run that hard for as long as he does, sometimes a couple nights in a row. Anyway, enough Shaq ramblings...

Happy 30th to Craig! March 24th is a lucky day!

Catch Up Posts

Over the last few weeks, I've neglected to post. So, that means I have lots of photos. Probably two weekends ago, Craig and I took a drive to Canyon Lake. He had never been there and we figured that if we could recommend it on our wedding website, we should know how to get there and what it looks like? So, we went on a ROAD TRIP! Anyone in my family or any one of my friends will tell you that I'm no good to anyone on a road trip. After about 15 minutes, the hum of the car will lull me to sleep. This makes me the worst car companion ever. This trip was no different. Craig says I missed a beautiful drive, but I guess I'm more of a final destination girl. Its funny that Mallory and Nicholas are the same way! Here are some of our photos. We got some photos of it when we first arrived, then the camera seized up. Not nice.

The Ground Hog Story (a little late)

I hold a very high regard for the Groundhog Day tradition. After all, thee official groundhog authority, Punxsuatawny Phil is from Gobbler's Knob, PA. The residents there, and around the state, heck.. around the country! - take the little groundhog's recommendation of an early spring or a longer winter very seriously.

Nick's class wrote short paragraphs about the Groundhog. The teacher chose to hang their stories in the classroom for a little while, so it was just sent home in the Friday Folders last week. I thought it was great and wanted to share.

How to Wake a Groundhog - by Nicholas Johnston

If you want to wake a groundhog you must follow these steps. First you need Ranch salad dressing from the refrigerator, two onions, two tomatoes and two plates. Next you need a bag of pretzels. Then you get a batch of apples. You put everything on the plate and after that go to his cave and dump the pretzel salad down the hole so he can smell it and wake up. If you follow thee steps the groundhog will wake up. And that's how you wake a groundhog when he is sleeping.