Another Great Weekend!

I ended up having another busy, summer weekend! It started off with a bang on Friday - my firstborn son's 5th birthday. We had a good time. I made him (Ethan) some of his favorite meals (like cheeseburgers, which is a big deal when you're allergic to cheese and wheat) and desserts he could actually eat (this child has an allergy list a mile long). It was tricky in the meal department, but I got it taken care of. Then, there was, of course, gift opening time, a few hours of hanging out with friends, and a trip to the park. He enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning, after assembling a pizza for my husband to bake for lunch, I went over to my friend, Crystal's house to help prepare for a birthday party, then hang out for the party she was throwing for two of her children. Everyone had fun! We had probably the best BBQ beef sandwiches I've ever had, yummy pasta salad, potato salad, spinach dip with homemade bread, and fruit galore! I left the party STUFFED. I don't think I ate dinner that night.

Then, on Sunday after lunch I packed up my children again and headed for the mountains to meet up with my parents at a rustic log cabin. They were camping there for the weekend along with some friends of theirs. The road there was one of the roughest roads I've been on and I have seen many a rough road in my day! LOL. Really, I have. This one was steep, rocky, dusty, and definitely not well maintained. It was full of potholes and large rocks. I was proud of my SUV, though, because I didn't even need to put it in 4 wheel drive, although I did have to put the gas down a bit far a couple of times to get over a few big rocks. Once we got there it was nice just relaxing and visiting with my mom, sister (who met us up there, too), dad, and everyone. We went an extra 1 1/2 miles up the rough road to a lake in the mountains. Ethan went in even though he was wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt! Good thing he had an extra outfit in the vehicle. Robby got to feel sand for the very first time when he was set down in it for a little while - that was probably the only time he laughed out loud that day! Madeleine, surprisingly, stayed out of trouble most of the day and enjoyed playing with the other little kids there! I think probably the cutest moment of the day was when Ethan picked a bouquet of pretty wildflowers and instead of giving them to ol' mom, he handed them to a cute little girl his own age. Later he told me, "Mom, that girl that was at the river," (he confused the lake with a river), "had very pretty ponytails." (She was wearing her hair in pigtails). Too cute.

Today has been a day of catch up; laundry, cooking, cleaning, and making cards.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Birthday Boy.

Madeleine stretching in the woods.

The lake.

Ethan standing by the lake at dusk.

Robby and me hanging out in the forest.

Robby enjoyed burying his own feet in the sand before he got too dirty for mommy to allow anymore play in the sand.