banzai!

Last week was busy with the usual chasing babies and ended with another trip north to spend time with cousins and grandparents while Daddy worked on his dissertation again. (crunch time!)

We left Friday when Butterfly got out of school (after I spent the morning at the tire shop. a quick fix for an assumed slow leak turned out to be defective tires and a broken tie rod. Fortunately Ladybug charmed the whole staff and played and AngelBaby was happy and content while we waited for repairs and new tires.) The girls all took naps on the drive and we arrive at their cousins house for a long playdate. They bounced around investigating the toys, riding bikes, playing house and watching movies all afternoon and evening. We took a quick break for dinner and the girls ate well, bribed with getting to return to their playing. And then, because they were doing so well, the got to have their first sleepover! I knew Ladybug would wake up upset in the middle of the night and want to sleep with me anyway, so I put her to bed in my bed, put AngelBaby to bed in the travel crib in my room but Butterfly got to sleep in the top bunk of her cousins' room. She was near bursting with excitement but behaved so well at bedtime, never sneaking out of bed or putting up a fight. I was so proud of her. Everyone slept great and then we got to enjoy breakfast and more play time with cousins before we packed up and headed to Grammy's house for more fun. (the sleepover was a blast for me too. I stayed up late talking to my brother and his cute wife, watching him play a "blast from the past"--Super Mario World on Nintendo 64 as we teased him mercilessly and hunted the internet for cookie jars since I've decided I want to expand my collection and use them to decorate my kitchen.)

At Grammy's house we dove into the toys, watched movies, went for a drive and best of all, took the girls in the jacuzzi. My parents have an enormous hot tub enclosed in a gorgeous gazebo. We turned down the temperature a bit, put the baby down for a short evening nap and then let the girls wear themselves out as they played, swam and literally ran laps around us in the hot tub. Their favorite part was climbing up to stand on the side and with a high fist pump they yelled "banzai!" and jumped into the water. Finally, we got out and after a quick shower, snack and ten minutes of a movie, they were both half asleep on the living room floor. I put them to bed and for the first time ever, we didn't hear a peep from them until morning. There was no protest or negotiating, no jailbreaks or sneaking out of bed, just soundly sleeping angels. So we took the opportunity to play cards (its become a nightly routine to play a few rounds of canasta before throwing in a chick flick) and we successfully tested my theory that AngelBaby is in fact, a bad luck charm when it comes to cards. As cute as she is, every round that I held her, I lost. We took turns holding her and took turns losing. We even played with some friends on Saturday night, and asked one of them (the "canasta champ") to hold her one round and then laughed as he lost soundly!

On Sunday we attended church, had lunch and played more canasta during naptime. Then my brother's family came to join us and we had a great evening with them. He did magic tricks for our very gullible children by putting a a small toy or ball in a mailbox (a Christmas decoration that managed to escape the clean up) and then having all the children spin in circles to magically change the toy into something else. They were all spinning so fast and laughing so hard that they didn't notice him open the box and exchange the toy. Dinner was fantastic (Ladybug inhaled three servings of lasagna) and then my brother and Papa watched the little babies while Grammy and moms took the four big girls into the jacuzzi again (banzai!). And again, they went to bed to so easily and slept so soundly that I truly believe my own hot tub would be a worthwhile investment.

This morning we raced home to take Butterfly to her gymnastics class and ran a few errands while we waited for her. Then we finally arrived home to our long and busy weekend to find a wonderfully sweet and thoughtful surprise of flowers that daddy left for us. There is a bud vase for each of the girls and a dozen beautiful red roses for me. I love him so much!