The Big 6-0!

Happy Birthday Papa!

In my books, a big birthday deserves a big celebration.  That's just too hard to do from a different time zone.  So...I invited him down here!  And he came, along with Gommy and Uncle Matt and Uncle Kate, for a weekend in Houston to mark the occasion.

The 'rents came in on Thursday morning so they got to see Annabelle's classroom at preschool pick-up.  I was intentionally vague with Sam as to what time they'd be arriving, so they were able to surprise him at elementary pick-up.  He was very excited, and it was cute to watch him run up to them.  They also got to go to soccer practice.  All terribly exciting things, but this is our real life these days!

Friday morning they were actually able to go into Sam's classroom with him to participate in Friday readers.  He felt pretty special to have to readers come with him!  Grandparents report he was a model student while they were there - perhaps I should send them in every week!  And I think the grandparents enjoyed seeing where he spends his days and getting a small feel for the school.  And then they came home to play princesses for awhile.  I do love when I get to let Annabelle direct the play while Sam is at school. As luck would have it, Friday was actually early dismissal for the district, so they weren't able to eat lunch with him.  Instead they used the afternoon off to head out to Chuck-E-Cheese's.  I'm no 5-year-old, but I think that's better than ANY afternoon at school ever could be.

(Please don't tell Annabelle.  She took a 4-hour nap on Friday afternoon and has no idea what fun she missed.  Sometimes there are privileges to being the oldest!)

Matt and Kate flew in late on Friday...fun for the kids to wake up with more people in the house than when they went to bed!  After a cinnamon pancakes with maple/apple topping, some of us visited a new Farmer's Market while others played outside.  We overate on "football food" for the Ohio State game and then loaded up to cheer on Sam at his soccer game.  Fortunately he scored a few goals for his visitors!

Saturday night was the big deal - dinner at a steakhouse, with the kids!  I was obviously nervous about taking them there, but they did really really well.  Especially Annabelle, who sat in her booster at the table for 2.5 hours.  Seriously!  She got a little upset when the well-intentioned server cleared her "bwead" while she was in the potty, but that was easily remedied with a new loaf, just for her.  Sam needed to go outside for a bit, but I don't blame him.  It was a long, wonderful, filling meal!  And a big birthday deserves a big meal, right?  (We also saw a proposal while we were there - fun!)

Sunday was church, brunch, a bit of hanging out and a few airport runs.  The weekend visits always seem to go so fast!  I am happy that Annabelle now no longer needs to be re-introduced to any family members after extended absences, and happy that she still has no idea that Uncle means "boy" and Aunt means "girl."

Annabelle had a couple good quotes from the weekend, unfortunately I can't share them all here.  But here are a few:
"Don't stay me at home!"
"Mommy, I coming!" (said with teenage sass...help me!)