Making the most of a LONG weekend!

Whew! This weekend was "busy" as Mike put it. "Exhausting" would be my word. It was filled to the brim with activity - I'm definitely taking a Sunday Siesta after this!

Friday night was a ladies night for me with my sister, Tracy and our friend, Stacey. Stacey hails from Missouri - she's our Southern Belle who doesn't like not having family in the area. So, she's claimed us as her second cousins. The three of us read the book, "The Other Boleyn" (great!) and planned to see the movie a month or so ago. Well, this was the earliest we could get together, and the movie is out of theaters. So, we changed our plans, ate dinner at Fuddruckers, mini-golfed at Centennial Lakes and headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. It was prom weekend for some city so Centennial was packed with picture takers, other than me. And yes, I was completely tempted to take some pictures of the dresses to show Madison some day that, "no...this is NOT what you will be allowed to wear!" Of course we gawked and made appropriate people watching comments - but that didn't digress from our game! 9 holes - I shot a 41. Go me. I won't mention what the other girls got...but we were all within 7 points of each other and I lost. And no, we did not ALL shoot our balls into the water on the eighth hole...that would be ridiculous.

Saturday I was bound and determined to finish the kids' bathroom. Mike had been in Chicago last week and I took on the project to FINALLY paint their bathroom. That's right - in six years it had never been painted. It held the shower curtain, wastebasket, and picture that we put in our original bathroom when we were married almost 12 years ago. It was time to retire the emerald green with gold accent decorations. Honestly, I was very excited when I received it as a gift (courtesy of mom through one of the bridal showers) and over 12 years it has been used in two apartments and two houses.

I have had this bathroom idea for quite awhile...I'd even venture to guess at least a year. I've had the sample colors sitting in the kitchen almost 6 months, along with the shower curtain, rings and rug I purchased on sale almost 9 months ago. I finally slapped myself and decided it was time to get off my duff - the magical elves weren't coming out at night to get it done.

So, I painted. And painted. And painted. This took all week. It will easily be another six years before I want to take on this project again. But, I'm pretty excited with how it turned out. It didn't start out on the highest note - while shopping on Tuesday for paint at Home Depot, I thought I'd be easily able to carry a gallon plus 3 quarts of paint to the counter. I dropped one and it didn't break open...I let out a loud exhale of relief on that one, then I bent to pick it up and the next quart toppled over - this one DID bust open all over their floor. Luckily the paint guy was incredibly nice about it, but it wasn't my ideal way to start the day. Things did improve from there, but slowly! When Mike got home later in the week and saw my painting attire he asked, "how could you possibly get so much paint on you?" Little did he know. But, honestly, painting these circles constantly required me to smudge what paint got out of the lines - so I'd wipe it on my clothes. And you know what I secretly love about projects like these? Getting messy. It's one of the reasons I love stamping - when I get ink all over my fingers from smudging or whatever and I have these cards that I love - I'm in heaven. So, I almost treasure my paint stained clothes now.

Saturday it was the kids' turn to paint. My other idea for this project was that the bathroom art would be two canvases - one painted by each kid however they wanted; my only stipulation was that they had to use the colors I'd already used in the bathroom. Once Jake got started there was no stopping him! Now, this is where my secret vice comes in. Jake was really taking his time painting and said, "I'm doing my best mom...I'm taking my time and pretending I'm that painter guy...you know, the one we like to watch?" He's talking about Bob Ross - on PBS. This is the painter guy from the '70s with the afro. I LOVE to watch these shows. There-I've said it. I do, and I've dragged Jake into this painting world with me. You will find us cuddled on the couch on a miserable outside day watching Bob paint. He tells us things like, "in your world there may be a tree..." (there's always a tree in Bob's world). Now, Bob generally uses some darker colors than turqouise, lime green and orange (I've decided Bob's world might contain a few dubees at times as well...). But, I have to say when I looked at the colors that were put into my white quarts and saw that they used "Thalo Blue"...my first thought was, "Bob Ross uses these same colors ALL THE TIME!!" So, Jake and I pretended to be on our favorite painting show.

Maddie wasn't so thrilled with the project. She must have drawn out 15 different designs before finally just pulling out a brush and starting on something. She's our perfectionist and I know it's going to be a source of pain in the future. But, she came up with a design that is very "her" and she was happy to be done and be allowed to go outside and play with her friends.

Sunday we invited our family over for a little swimming and BBQ. Both kids were so excited to finally get to swim! They had been asking us every single day - often more than once per day - if we could swim yet. Unfortunately for them their parents aren't real fond of hypothermia so we hadn't been able to indulge in our backyard oasis.

But, Sunday - the first jumps of the season commenced and they were off and kicking!

Our kids are fish; but what surprised us all was that Madison outlasted Jake in the water on this day. Mike joined them for a bit and tossed and bounced them around until he finally decided to warm up in the sun a bit.

Me? Bwaak...bwaaak...bwaak! The water was about 82 degrees...I feel much more comfortable with it being at least 85...but along with that, I'd generally prefer that the air temperature not be the same as the water temps. Picky!!!

Mom and Dad, and the Runchey's came over later. No swimming by my parents, but they did enjoy some "beverages" by the pool. My mom generally held her breath whenever Jake went underwater. Jake has a great ability of holding his breath a long time and it constantly makes my mom want to jump up and see if he's still alive.

The kids ended up going home with my parents who were also babysitting Ellie & Austin - quite a sleepover and I'm sure my parents are enjoying some peace and quiet today!

This afternoon we decided to take the kids to a park in Shakopee and have a picnic. Mike and I were working in the basement so Maddie and Jake were in charge of preparing our lunch menu. We dined on PB&J sandwiches, chips, A&W rootbeer and their secret addition of granola bars (for dessert). It was actually chilly and our pessimist Mike thought we would be rained out. But, we enjoyed a couple hours outside and even tossed a couple frisbees around. We could all definitely use more practice in that sport, but it did cause quite a few laughs.

In between all of this, Mike has been working on the sheetrock for the basement. Two weekends ago he was assisted by my dad, my brother, and our neighbor, John. This past weekend he was helped out by dad, my brother-in-law and me. Yes...ME. I donned my painting garb (I'm only willing to sacrifice one pair of jeans to creative messiness). I've only been working on it a couple days and I'm already sick of it. I can't even imagine how he or anyone else that's helped feels about the messy stuff. But, the end is definitely in sight and I'll post some pictures once we get to that point.

But for now, I'm ready for that nap.