Holiday Weekend

I don't know why I can't find the time to blog each night anymore. It's staying light longer, and we're just getting busier and busier. We've had a good holiday weekend.

Friday
Friday night Alek had an optional baseball practice, so while Gary and Alek went to practice, Ben and I stayed home and watched Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban. Ben has read all 3 of the first HP books and passed all the AR tests. I'm so proud of him! We told him he had to read the books before seeing any more of the movies because they get so scary. He's read 1-3, and now agrees its time for a break. Number 3 scared him a bit. Alek had a very good practice.

Saturday
I made a meal plan for the weekend using food we already had, so I wouldn't have to spend my precious weekend out wasting gas buying groceries. The plan worked! We were running the dishwasher 3 times a day ... but then something's gotta give. So, Saturday I made breakfast and lunch, and we went up to the pool for the afternoon. The water is cold, but the day was warm and all our neighbors were up and it was lovely. Saturday night's dinner - Alek's favorite tilapia.

Sunday
Big day of cooking breakfast followed by lunch. Then the boys had a birthday party for a friend, so they were gone from 3:15 - 6:45, so Gary and I took advantage and went out for dinner alone together for sushi. Very nice. Relaxing. Then the boys got home and we had a crazy time continuing to arrange their new rooms - splitting out the Playmobile pieces and setting up the Rockenbock trucks (on the landing) and the slot car race track (in the play room).

Monday
Cereal for breakfast, but I spent my time preparing for picnic later in the day ... made chocolate cake and deviled eggs to take. Went to the pool from noon - 6, then over to a neighbor's house for a cookout. I love these slow summer days ... of course the boys ate nothing because they were playing so much. Then we come home and they are hungry. But, leftover hotdogs are just as good as fresh ones! Now the dishwasher AND the laundry machine are running. Thank goodness the drought has lessened here, because we're back to using water.

I still have petunias to plant in the front of the house, but we've trimmed back a lot of bushes and planted our tomatoes and watermelon and bugonias for the summer. Now I've just got to get the weeds back under control.

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! Here are some brief videos of our fun weekend.
The boys at the pool ...

Finishing the Dinosaur Dig that Papa gave them a year (year and a half?) ago ... they turned out really cute, and the guys finished them all on their own.