Busy with a capital "B"

What a weekend. I may be the quiet, hole-up-with-a-book kind but my kids, not so much. Let's see, last week was the first week of school, so that automatically vamped up our schedule a notch. Friday afternoon we had a lovely playdate with local friends and friends who moved from town but call us when they're passing through (Hi Shaela! *waving*). Great playdate -- the kind where the kids are making up total imaginary games in the best possible way and playing in a big group AND the mommies get to talk. We rushed from there to a movie night at Kamy's to watch the long awaited "High School Musical 2" only to realize we had a scheduling snafu. The movie was playing 3 hours later than Kamy realized and she had conflicts, so I end up coming home with 2 extra girls for a sleepover. Flash forward three hours, three pizzas, lots of nail painting, and it's finally movie time. The kids (including Grady who was exhausted but determined to have his "first sleep over") watch the movie, and I head to bed with Ainslie. Lenny was holding down the movie fort as nighttime tv is his "thang." Thank goodness for him as he carried sleeping girls to sleeping bags at 11 and was still up at midnight to handle the "call my dad so I can go home" scenario. Next I know, it's 7 a.m. and two awfully exuberant girls (considering their bedtime) wake me up for "we want breakfast and tv." Their choice -- ramen noodles and Sponge Bob. I know, you're cringing. Heck, I was kinda cringing, although it was pre-coffee so my cringe-reflex was down. But sleep-overs are a rarity for us and this one had been highly promoted as being the ultimate, so ramen and Sponge Bob it was (I'm sure they'll survive). After a bit of tv, it was dress-up, play with the chickens and jump on the trampoline. I walked the dogs, came home and got all kids dressed (Lenny had headed up before I was up) and took our guest home. Then, onto the next crazy busy activity of the weekend, the zoo (in nearby one hour away town that I'm not naming, lol). We met up at the house of a friend from Fionna's kindergarten class last year. She's moved to a new school but her Grandma and I are working to keep the girls friendship together since they get along so wonderfully. So, off to the zoo. I lucked out because Grady, who was so disgruntled that first Fionna had a sleep-over and now a friend for this, fell asleep for the ride, as did Ainslie. We hit the zoo for a couple of hours and had pretty good luck seeing animals, considering the heat this time of year. The hands down favorite for all I think was the sea lion exhibit. We all liked the underground (air conditioned, hooray) room where we just sat and watched and watched. Then, we headed out for a lunch at a fast food place with a play area (again, thankfully, air conditioned) where the kids played for another hour or so. Then it was home. Again, I hit the sleeping kid jackpot because Grady and Ainslie slept on the way home AND stayed asleep for probably another two hours once we got home. Lenny was napping too, so Fionna and I vegged together.

Today, Sunday, I walked the dogs again. Then Fionna, Ainslie and I headed to church (we attend our local Unitarian Universalist church), while Grady got to go do a couple of tows with Lenny. Later this afternoon, we visited a local park where the highlight was Grady taking a spectacular fall on his like-bike and getting only a small scrape for which he cried as if his neck was broken. No one can say my kids don't do drama...

So, how's that saying go? Oh yeah, I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. ;)