Weekend Review

Goodness, so much happened over the weekend it feels like ... I need to sort through it all here...

Friday was a typical day filled with a lot of kid stuff.  I managed to get outside during the hot part of the day to pull a bunch of weeds and dead plants from our backyard.  I'm not sure why that seemed like the best part of the day to do that ... but there I was.  N came to help and did; Z came to help, but did not.  So it goes.

Friday evening, H went with some middle school guys and their leader from church to see the new Men in Black movie, have pizza and play games at the church's building.  C and S headed for her teen support group, but ended up taking too long at the restaurant for dinner beforehand, that they skipped the group and just hung out for a while and drove through some fancy neighborhoods for fun.  I was home with the younger three.

Saturday morning, the temperature was gorgeous (like preview to autumn!).  C wanted to show me some of the neighborhoods they found the night before.  These were awesome homes buried off the main roads in Los Ranchos -- like multi-million dollar homes.  The landscaping was incredible, the homes were magnificent.  We commented about how the only people outside enjoying those massive yards were the gardeners hired to maintain the properties.  Kind of sad.

We finally got to eat at Sophia's Place, which is a local breakfast-lunch place (we usually end up near there at dinner time when they are closed) that has been well reviewed and visited by Guy Fieri of Food Network (he also visited my favorite diner ever: Standard Diner -- I'm not a diner person, but this place serves salmon macaroni and cheese and kobe beef burgers, among other incredible dishes!).  (This paragraph has a lot of parentheses, sorry!)

The food was alright.  Very fresh tasting, for sure.  I had salmon tacos and they were just okay.  I did try a bite of Z's burger and that was very fresh tasting and good.  The fries were from fresh potatoes, shoestring style.  The flavor was good, but I prefer crispier fries.

We stopped in at the local Arts and Food Market happening on Rio Grande Blvd.  Here are a few random pictures I took...

C calls these Van Gogh flowers.  The growers of these flowers are very secial. :)

This was the first time this season I've seen chiles roasting.  To me, that's what autumn smells like around New Mexico ... so this was a happy feeling that autumn is almost here.  We saw three other roasting setups this day as well -- so this wasn't a fluke!  The seasons are shifting!

Anyway, we cruised around exploring Los Ranchos a bit more, till it was time to get home and get other things done.  C had cupcakes to bake for E's birthday party!

J did not have dance class this weekend because the studio was having an event.  That freed up more time.

I finally (with C's help) got the Fennel plant installed in the bird/butterfly garden, but the Dill plant had long since passed. 

Saturday evening, S and I shopped for insect spray for our Wisteria plants that were suddenly overtaken by teensie black bugs and a gift for E's birthday.

Sunday morning, we had church service where Pastor Dan spoke about God's purpose for Community.  Then the mad rush to get things ready for E's party followed.  I was meeting my sister at the park to help her set up.  We managed to grab a shady spot and claimed two tables there.

Mid-afternoon, the guests arrived and everyone had a good time.  C made banana muffins with pink cream cheese frosting as the cupcakes because he felt it was more child friendly.  Everyone scarfed them down, no problem, so I don't think "cake" was missed.

We had planned to make our way over to the nearby pool afterwards, but they had to shut it down temporarily because somebody had an accident.  You know the kind.  Mmm, love public pools.  They're mostly okay ... but sometimes, I just don't know.

After E's birthday party, C and I went to a leadership appreciation dinner at our pastor's house.  O and S stayed home because they were a bit under the weather.  H, Z and J came with us and swam in their pool with a bunch of other kids of leaders in our church.

And now it's Monday.  We have a full week to come as some of my nieces go back to school, S heads off on retreat tomorrow and we shift the daily schedules around.  But I got a particularly good laugh when we turned on Disney Junior for E this morning (her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and there was a Winnie the Pooh short that came on beforehand.

It was supposedly being narrated by Christopher Robin and he said, "Everywhere I go, there is always Pooh..."

Now if that's not a solid life philosophy, I don't know what is.  Especially after the whole swimming pool incident on Sunday.

Anyway, today, E is officially one year old.  She gets to spend a chunk of her day with me.  A good way to start the week, I think.

P.S. Happy Birthday to E, to LS and Happy Official Left-Handers Day to everyone!  (Take that link to find out some fascinating lefty facts -- some educational and others are just for fun.)

P.P.S. I forgot to say that on Saturday we bought new clippers (Wahl) and I cut all three boys' hair and trimmed J's (with scissors, not clippers).  My old set had broken a few years ago and a new haircut set was $29.99 at Costco ... that's less than we pay for two boy haircuts at the barbershop.  So it paid for itself in one weekend.   I can continue helping our family save money by doing most of their haircuts and only taking them for really good ones when it matters more to me (before Christmas pictures or whatever).