A LOT of miscellaneous stuff!

Ok, so I'm back! Did you miss me? :-) I think I was a little burned out on blogging there for a bit, and then there was Twilight, and then my computer crashed - but I think I'm over all that and I have a lot of stuff to share! So here goes:

Matt and I had our first night away from the kids in well, ever, last Sunday. We went to Bedford Springs Resort in Pennsylvania to celebrate Matt's 40th birthday - and let me tell you, oh, what a fantastic place THAT is! If you are anywhere near it and want to get away, I highly recommend it. We had a package that included credit for each of us in the spa, whatever we wanted on the dinner menu, and breakfast the next day. It was FABULOUS. I've been spending a fair amount of time since we got back hunting for bathroom fixtures/vanities/tile so I can re-create the spa-like feel of their bathrooms in my own home (and since it's MY bathroom, it's the one room in the house the kids won't destroy!) Here's an example of one of their guest rooms and bath - our bath looked like the one you can see from the guest room - I love the marble tile, dark wood, subway tile, all of it!


Our room was on the front side of the resort and we had a door that opened onto the porch that ran all the way across the front of the building. Unfortunately, it was only about 55 degrees so we weren't able to sit out there much, but I did read a little bit in the sun Monday morning while waiting for Matt to finish his turn over at heaven the spa.



We drove back home Monday afternoon and then went to see Evie move up from being a Daisy (Girl Scout) to Brownies! It's weird, she put that sash on and it's like she aged 2 years right before my eyes! How is it that she will be 8 next fall? I'm baffled.



Tuesday evening I mentioned to William that it might be time to try riding his bike again - we took the training wheels off last fall and he was very gun-shy of riding it after falling a few times - and he was surprisingly willing! So out we went, and let me tell you, he got the hang of it just like that - I guess it's one of those things where when you're ready, you're ready and you catch on in a snap. I'm so proud of him! Although now I've created a monster who can't seem to get it through his head that he needs to listen to Mom and stay on the sidewalk, not ride up people's driveways, and STOP if there are people in his path. BEFORE you plow into them! oy. At least now that he can ride and Jason's big enough, we can go bike riding as a family - something I'm REALLY looking forward to! Yay!

Yes, he has a helmet, I had to buy him the next size up.

Evie & William racing

Sarah and Jason enjoying the beautiful afternoon

Sometime late in the week Matt ran outside with the camera after seeing this really cool rainbow in a cloud! He says it's from ice crystals and it was really amazing to see - I've never seen anything like that before!


and finally, after a long weekend of fun, including dinner out Friday night with friends followed by drinks and being stopped by a cop while we WALKED home (Have you been drinking? Yes, that's why we're walking!) and lots of chores, including Matt tearing apart the dryer to figure out why it smelled like fire (I am NOT buying a new one until I have room for a front loading pair!), Matt took William outside to work on a project and was soon joined by Sarah and Evie who wanted to paint too. All while Jason rifled my craft box which had been left open on the kitchen table. A good time was had by all!



So that's it for me for now, this weekend gave me a small taste of what life will be like in 3 weeks when school's over - the challenge of keeping 4 kids occupied while trying to keep up with the grass and outside schmutz that gets tracked in, the laundry, and general upkeep of the house. I have a feeling it will be exhausting - but I have our beach trip in August dangling in my mind like a carrot to pull me through what I'm sure will be a summer filled with plenty of blog fodder. So stay tuned!