Happy Birthday!

Chuck's birthday isn't actually until tomorrow, but we went ahead and celebrated today. We baked him a cake, sang Happy Birthday, gave him presents and took him out to dinner.

Aurora picked out a Nintendo DS game for him called Dora's Big Birthday Adventure. She loved playing the game so much that she actually peed on the couch while playing it. It didn't even occur to her to get up and go to the bathroom (and she's been potty trained for a LONG TIME). As she played (and peed), Chuck set up the gift I got for him - a Harmony Remote Control. It replaces the 6 remotes we've been using, and is honestly really cool!

Tomorrow I'm heading out to watch the series finale of the Bachelorette with my girlfriends, soooo.... I hope you had a great birthday today, Chuck!!!

Treat

It's hard to believe it's been over 2-years since Bailey guest blogged about her Rooster Retreat weekend. I thought for sure that would become a regular occurrence, but in fact it's a rare treat to have a house guest. Last night we were lucky enough to have Bailey back for another sleepover.

Chuck worked late, so the three of us had dinner then stopped at McDonald's for ice cream! Bailey helped with the bedtime routine, and Aurora laughed, jumped, goofed around and made up silly words like "bendolies" (which she repeated over, and over, and over) all evening long. Bailey slept in "grandma's room" and Aurora made sure to wake her up bright and early, as usual.

There's nothing like a Mini-Rooster Retreat to make an already busy week fly by!

The Sweater

Mom just sent this to me. It was taken in February 1979, when I was 2 1/2 years old; about a year younger than Aurora is now. Wow!

No Lice

Earlier in the week I took this great picture of Aurora in front of daycare, wearing a sweater that was mine when I was little. I thought I'd post it today for Fashion Friday and talk about how she's back to wearing pants again...

Little did I know that when we walked into school that day, Aurora would have to wait in line for a lice check before she was allowed in. She passed, but the boy next to us did not. When I went to pick her up,  all bedding was bagged and we were given notice that school would be closed on Friday for fumigation.

I knew that I had a few meetings Friday afternoon that couldn't be easily moved, so I asked Presley's mom if she could take Aurora for part of the day, and she was happy to! Last week her car broke down so I picked Presley up from school, and the girls always have so much fun together.

It sounds like everybody had a great afternoon! Presley and Aurora played for hours, then went to the swimming pool, where I met up with them after work.

I'm not sure why anyone would need to wear a sweater in the middle of summer in Austin, but I'm sure glad that sweet sweater didn't get infested with lice. So far, all of our scalp checks have been clear!

Home Sweet Home

If you know me, you know that I love The Bachelorette. The whole concept is horrible, and watching one person date a bunch of other people at once is actually sort of gross and pathetic. But ABC sure knows how to make it into great TV! Seriously, I do love the show, but I REALLY love my girlfriends, who also love (or maybe sort of like or put up with or potentially secretly hate) the show.

I haven't blogged about our girl's nights lately because they haven't really been happening as often as they used to. The group has expanded to other friends and friends of those friends, and Chuck works just late enough that it's hard for me to get out to their houses each week. This week was about hometown dates, so I invited our original group to come home - to our house - and each girl brought a dish that reminds them of home. What would you have brought?

Together

This week we celebrated our 14th Anniversary. We didn't really celebrate... it was a busy week and really, there's nothing landmark about this one. Instead of trying to get a sitter or buy each other gifts, we decided to just have a regular weekend together, and honestly there's nothing I'd rather do.

We saw Winnie the Pooh in the theater this morning with a few friends.

Then tonight went out to Guero's for margaritas, live music, and some yummy food.

Other than our 1 year (when we ate the top of our wedding cake from the freezer), and our 10 year (when I got my anniversary ring and we took an Alaskan Cruise), we've never really done much to celebrate. We do get cards in the mail (thank you Mom, Nancy, and Bernice!) and I like to think we do a pretty good job of enjoying every day (and year) together.

What a weekend!

Sunday's not even over yet, and we've done so much that I considered separating it into two different posts! Instead, I'll overwhelm you with too many photos of our almost too packed weekend.

First, we decided to check out Family Day at the Austin Museum of Art. We'd never been before, but will definitely go again. We made puppets, watched a puppet show, colored, played, and yes - even saw a little art.

Then we headed up to the annual IGDA picnic. IGDA = International Game Developers Association, and they hold their picnic at Richard Garriott's Castleton Village each year. It's basically a huge castle mansion on a hill with a neat little village on the lake. 700 people showed up for food, networking, music, and beer. There also happened to be a pirate ship, a hammock-go-round, and paddle boats. We met up with friends who also have kids and everybody had fun, despite the heat.

This morning we went to Zilker Park to celebrate Mona's puppy's first birthday. I though Aurora might be a little scared of Cash, but it turns out she's an expert tennis ball thrower!

We rounded out the weekend with art class and a PLAY! Peter Pan was playing at our favorite children's theatre, and it was great. This is the 4th production we've seen there and I think it was my favorite. Captain Hook, Peter, Wendy and Tinkerbell were all outstanding.

Whew! Time to do laundry...

Show me that smile again...

Not too long ago on a random evening when Aurora was upset before bed, I decided to sing the theme song from Growing Pains to her, hoping it would make her smile - and it worked! Now we have to sing it to her every single night, exactly the way I sang it that first night - while she's laying in bed and we're holding hands. She's even started singing "the smile song" to her dollies just the same way.

When I was little, my mom and I would give each other "kiss-hugs." We'd kiss on the lips and cheeks before giving each other a hug every night before bed. Aurora sings the last word of the smile song (love), then we kiss and hug and I say "Goodnight, sleep well, I love you - I'll see you in the morning!" and she very seriously replies: "Go sleep in your bed." I swear, she really thinks we all go to sleep at 8pm! Sweet girl.

Like

Happy 4th of July! I personally like any celebration that includes a 3-day weekend. You already know that we spent Saturday swimming, and well... it should be no surprise that we spent Sunday and Monday swimming too. Yesterday we headed out to the lake with Kim Barnett for some stand-up (and sit-down) paddle boarding. It was the first time we'd tried it and wow, what fun!

Chuck spent some quality time with Joe (guarding our snacks) before Aurora headed into the murky water to swim. The girl loves to swim!

Today we went up to Cedar Park to swim and celebrate the 4th with our friends Bethany and Atticus. See the little orange water slide in the picture below? I didn't believe she'd be into it, but after watching Atticus a couple times she decided to give it a try. Aurora LOVED it! The two of them just went up and down that water slide over and over and over and over...

After my last post, I got a few questions about what Aurora does and doesn't like. She tells me she likes clowns now - though we haven't seen one for quite some time. She likes any organized activity, loves jumping and bouncing, watching animated TV and movies, reading, eating snacks, singing, and bossing us around. She does not like any kind of bugs - even the teeniest spiders make her squeal - and she dislikes anything that's too scary, spicy, or loud. She's very imaginative, and tells us when she has bad dreams. I hope she's having sweet dreams tonight after this wonderful long weekend.

My Gym

This morning we went to try a class at My Gym, but all their classes were cancelled for the weekend and they just had open play. It was still really fun - Aurora got to run, slide, jump, bounce, and try out some gymnastics moves.

Turns out the 3-4 year old class is full, so open play might be the best we can do for now, but I do think we'll go back - it was way more fun than the bouncy house places and a totally acceptable alternative to swim lessons. Of course, even without lessons, we can still swim! After My Gym we went to Laura's house for lunch and went swimming at her apartment pool.

Such a nice way to spend the day. I hope you're enjoying your long weekend just as much!