Full, Fun Weekend

We had such a full weekend, running from fun thing to fun thing. 

To start at the very beginning, I always try to finish up work early on Friday afternoons so I have some time for myself before Matt brings the kids home. Usually, I spend that time scrapbooking. (It's so tempting since my craft table is literally three feet from my work-desk—even more tempting than the neighborhood pool I overlook from my window!—but I can usually resist until Friday afternoons.)

I've realized lately, after a couple years of relying more and more on what they call "hybrid scrapbooking," i.e. the Project Life-type pages with the divided page protectors, that I miss doing full 12 x 12 layouts. It's great being able to get a lot of photos in easily and still do some embellishments with the divided pages, but while my 2010 and 2011 scrapbooks were a good mix of pages, 2012 only had a few artistic full-page layouts, and 2013 literally has zero. I've missed the greater creative outlet of designing a page from scratch. 

So, Friday afternoon I did a nice 12 x 12 layout with pics from the girls' swim lessons. It felt good :0)

And Saturday morning, we were back to said swim lessons! Week three out of four. Kate swam the whole length of the pool (with a back-floatation thing designed to keep them horizontal, rather than upright, like a vest). I love how she loves it! And Claire had fun too.

After grocery shopping on the way home (one of my favorite Saturday rituals—grocery shopping with the girls), we headed across the street to a birthday party for our new neighbor, turning two! I was so excited a couple months ago to see our newest neighbor had a child close to one of my girls' ages. (Another new neighbor on our street does too, but we haven't gotten to know them as well. It was great meeting a couple other neighborhood families with kids about this age at the party—they're better social connectors than we are, apparently! No surprise there—it stinks to be introverts, sometimes!)

Anyway, the party was adorable—turquoise, purple, lime green, and pink, with a flamingo motif—super cute, and I loved the puff balls hanging from the big tree in the backyard. Claire loved the veggie dip, and Kate helped the birthday girl open our gift.

 

And check out this cake! It was from Puffy Muffin, same place that did the bird's nest baby shower cake for my sister-in-law's shower a couple years ago. They do great work, and it was delicious, too.

 

Immediately after the party, (notice no one has had a nap in here—Kate never takes one anymore, and Claire refused to lay down, after only a brief catnap in the car on the way back from the grocery!) We drove down to the stables where my cousin was in from out of town to work out her horse before a show in Kentucky next week. We rarely see my aunt and cousin, and it was especially nice to see her "in her element." I've been hearing about and seeing pictures from her riding competitions for years, so it was fun to see them and meet her horse.

The kids were a little timid (and tired) but it was a neat experience for them. (By the way, Mom, here's my new haircut. I like it!)

 

Sunday was a great day at church, since it was the first day with screens in our traditional worship service! We've joined the 21st century--yippee! There was a great energy in the room, a friend and I sang "Hallelujah," by Leonard Cohen, and Matt preached a good message about the Gerasene Demoniac. 

After church, that friend and her daughter, less than a year older than Kate, joined us at the zoo. The carousel was a big hit, as always, and we tried out the Lorikeet Landing experience for the first time—an open aviary where you can feed and get up close with all these beautiful, colorful birds.

 

 Matt had three on his arm at one point, and got a few bites as they (a) fought each other for the nectar and (b) tried to see if his shirt was edible.

 

Kate was a little more timid after hearing Daddy say they were biting him.

And Claire mostly ignored the birds and hung out by the little waterfall in there, pretending she was in Hawaii, it looks like.

 

It's good to be zoo members because it doesn't matter if you only have time for a few animals, as we all had to head straight back to church for the evening casual service, The Road. (Since I had my camera in the diaper bag, anyway, from the zoo, I distracted Matt by snapping one photo during his sermon—at the moment the Brick Testament image of the naked demoniac was on the screen, of course :0)

Extra incentive to join us at The Road, if you've never tried it: we always have cookies afterwards, and sometimes (like last night!) awesome, super-sugary cupcakes. Claire screamed whenever I tried to take a bite of hers.

 

 So that was our fun weekend. My feet hurt by last night. Hope you had a nice weekend too!