Weekend Update

Ah what a weekend. I could use a few more days off to recover from all the fun we had over the last few days.

So Saturday morning was Arabella's last day of Kindermusik for the summer. We don't go back until September now so I get a few Saturday's to sleep in. Arabella will be moving up to Our Time this fall since she'll be 18 months old. It should be a totally new experience since now she'll be the younger kid in the class again instead of the older. No worries though, she's such a busy body, I'm sure she'll adapt just fine to the new class with kids up to 3 years old.

I'm sad that this week also marked what will probably be the last class Arabella will have with Andrea (She ended Sign and Sing on Tuesday). Andrea has been our Kindermusik teacher since the start and we're going to miss her so much! We had Holly for Peek A Boo on Saturdays. We may see her again down the road though, possibly even next summer.

Saturday morning, Matthew and I also decided at the last possible minute we were going to head to his Family Reunion in the middle of BFE West Virginia. A town called Mobley (look I spelled it right Dee). I know he's told me in the past this place was really in the heart of WV and there's NOTHING surrounding it.... I didn't know I'd be traveling down roads that make deliverance look like the suburbs! This two+ hour trip took us to the heart of a beautiful scenic place.. the ride was lovely.... and probably would have been more enjoyable if we knew where we were going.....

See... Matt's mom gave us some directions.... with little street names... and then the famous words of "Call us when you get here and we'll give you the next turns and mileage".. now normally... this idea would work but they apparently didn't realize they would have NO cellular service for miles....

Did we think of this before we left though???? Nooooooooooooo so here we are in WV and clueless.... Matthew's playing the game of "I think this looks familiar." At one point, he was sure we should have turned so I flipped on my GPS (it still worked at this point) and we ended up down this dirt road where I honestly thought some crazy person with a banjo would come walking off his porch toward us.... Finally made it back to the other road and got to the town of Hundred. After driving around a bit, we found a place (I think it was a bar) and Matthew stopped for the directions. But not before getting out and telling me to "Lock the doors and if I"m not back in 5 minutes ... " joking around. I enjoyed watching the chickens run around outside this establishment... quite amusing.

So we got some directions which turned out to be pretty good because we did make it to the reunion. What a trip to get there! I guess if my GPS actually did work on the way down it may have said something like "you are not on planet earth" or "Where the hell have you gone I can't find you" ....

The reunion was wonderful. The most fun I've ever had a family reunion. Matthew took 2nd place in the Horse Tournament, Tootsie danced to a great country band and the food was endless. By the way Grandma Dufresne... you're pierogi's ROCK!!! You should make them for all our family functions!!!

At the family auction, Matthew bought me some candle sticks and a neat wall photo display. Aunt Silly bought all the girls Teddy Bears. She bought twin bears for Annie (who was there) and Soren and then a 100th Anniversary Teddy Bear for Arabella. I still can't believe she kept bidding on the bear after Matt quit at 1/2 of what she paid. Oh well.. all for a good cause! We were all curious though over what anniversary brand the bear was from and a quick google search revealed that I think it was a 100 anniversary of the "teddy bear." Good news too that similar bears sold on EBAY for more than Melissa paid... Melissa ya got a good deal!

After the reunion, we stopped at Matt's Aunt Dot who lived down the road. She was a sweet old lady... she even gave Arabella a bunny rabbit to take home.

Tootsie passed out about halfway home. We walked into the house after 11pm. It was a very long and fun day. I'm not even disappointed we didn't go to Phipps like we originally planned. The butterflies and flowers will always be there, but the family reunion is only once a year.... and I'm glad we finally went. Dee, I also put it on the calendar so we're sure to remember for future years!!!

Sunday we just hung out around the house. Matthew went out and cleaned up the yard early in the day and filled up the pool for tootsie... too bad she fell asleep before she could go play in it. After her nap we took her out though and she got a good romp around the sandbox and yard before dinner. We really enjoyed just staying home for the day. My back was still buggin me a bit so the relaxing helped a great deal. See the photos of the sandbox here.

Now we're back to Monday and back to the grind. UGH! I need a few more days off... like a month's worth! I have a big weekend ahead, dress shopping, tastefully simple bingo and the Washington County Fair..... so much to do!!

If you haven't had a chance yet, check out the new photos I posted from yesterday. A few of Arabella playing in the sandbox and then the hilarious photos of Matthew chasing the fly.

The Story of the Fly
I have a cat... I call him Artex the bug chaser... however, unlike most cats he won't eat or kill the bug... but instead he catches them and lets them go so he can keep chasing them. After watching this for an hour, Matthew had enough of the fly and went after it with rolled up paper. After that didn't work, he resorted to chasing it with chopsticks... I have photos of the event... they are quite funny. View them here!

And just in case you're wondering... no neither of them have successfully killed the fly. Perhaps there will be another show tonight!

Batter Up

Arabella went to her 1st pirate game on Sunday. She bought pappy bykens tickets for Christmas and eight months later... we actually went to a game. We wanted to wait until she was a bit older so she would hopefully behave a bit better and I'm really glad we did.

About a month before, I chose the Washington Nationals game on August 1st. I liked the give away and and it was one of the few sunday games I could attend. So I called in to buy tickets and ended up spending the extra money for the Pirate Club Box seats (which if you ever buy tickets... buy the club box because they ROCK!!!!!). This was the 1st time we've ever sat in the club box seats and I was totally in love from the minute we walked in until we left. We felt like royalty walking into our own entrance, private elevator that led up up to the 2nd level and the private club section. We had our own bathrooms on the floor that were the cleanest public restrooms I've ever seen in my life, climate controlled area, food vendors, pool tables, games, and flat screen TVs EVERYWHERE.... I think all of us (myself, my father, Leeanne and Matthew) were utterly speechless!

The view from our seats was amazing. We were still close enough to see... but high enough we were out the major flying ball danger for Araballa... though one foul ball did land next to my father but some other guy grabbed it before we could. To make the game even better, we were the ONLY people in our section and had our own private usher/bodyguard/people-thrower-outer.... This guy was hilarious! He was the usher you always want.. when people would meander over to our section and try to sit there... he was right behind them kicking them right back out. He danced in the aisles, joked and was just an utter enjoyment the whole day.

The seats we sat in had a decent amount of room that Arabella could walk in between us and play. I laugh because my mother told me to take extra toys with me to the game and I didn't... which would have been a waste since all she wanted to do was put the water bottles in and out of the cup holders... she spent the whole game moving everyone's drinks from cup holder to cup holder.

We had a fencing in front of us which she was just the right height to look through the railings. She seemed to actually watch some of the game. She didn't even get too scared of the fireworks... which was awesome.

I think the highlight of my day was buying cotton candy for her to try. When the walking vendor went past, I just had to give her the 1st taste of cotton candy..... so I bought it.. we opened it and I gave her a piece.... and with my child you would think the immediate reaction will be straight to the mouth.... but not today....

Yes, the photo is correct.... she stuck it straight in her hair.... for whatever reason, she didn't want to eat it. Matt tried shoving it in her mouth to get her to realize it was food and she still didn't want to eat it. She did enjoy pulling it out of the bag and shoving it into my face to eat though... oh well!!!

The day was perfect, we had no terribly toddler meltdowns (at least not until we got to dinner) and overall the day was just ever so enjoyable.... even if the stupid pirates lost as usual! Perhaps we'll go again soon....