TGIF!!

First off-

Happy Birthday Ashlynn!!

I remembered all day yesterday to call you as soon as the kids got home from school. After a fractic early dinner and 2 baseball games we were out of time, and it slipped my mind with all that was going on last night. We are thinking of you and hope you had a great day. Jessie wants to talk to you and catch up so we will call you asap. She has a busier schedule than I do at night because she is not home for the 4th night in a row. ;)

Like most people, Friday signals the start of our weekend, but we are so lucky to have a 3-day weekend most weeks. Dave is able to take Mondays off which leaves us a lot of time to chip away at the to-do list, go to baseball games, and play with the kiddos. At least once a month lately, Dave is gone for part of the weekend attending athletic events for work, so it's nice to have Mondays together to get stuff done.

On a typical Friday I try to get the house in order so we can have a relaxed weekend. We do chores as a family on Saturday morning, but never quite get everything done that I would like. I've learned to anticipate this and get a jump on things on Friday. I make a valiant effort to do all our laundry for the week which is easily 6-8 loads. If I include the laundry from Dave's practice that adds 2+ more. While laundry is going I work on things that the rest of the fam can't do, or maybe I don't trust them to do, like deep cleaning, sorting mail, and de-cluttering (I am a piler). By then it is time to take off for the park to meet our play group and wind down with my girls/fellow Moms. As a stay-at-home Mom, we all relish that time to just chill out and talk to each other about life, kids, our dear husbands, ;) etc. We are usually playing, talking and snacking at the park until after 5 when we realize all the kids are going to melt if they don't get dinner soon. I think about the time it will take to get home and fix dinner and I am so tempted to take a detour for take-out on the way home. We all know how much of a budget-buster eating out can be. I rarely give in to the temptation, but if I do we usually head to In & Out for some hamburgers "animal-style" and fries. Then it's PJ's, treats and family movie night to finish off a fabulous Friday.

So how did Friday go today? Um, I read a book all day, a book that Dave has bugged me to read for awhile. And no, we did NOT get take-out tonight. I made spaghetti, garlic bread and "fresh salad" as Toby calls it, it's a family favorite.


Here's some pictures from the week too. Dave and I were up at 5:30 AM on Memorial Day (crazy right?) to go to the temple with these awesome people. It was so worth it and we had a fabulous time. The yummy breakfast at Country Way afterward was a great finish to our early date. We didn't have to eat again until dinner which was a complete spread of Mom's potato salad, fruit, Kristy's awesome spinach dip, Dad Bennett's delicious BBQ and lots of good company. Both sides of our family got together before to play some kickball madness at the park. Thanks for bringing the ball and cones Lauren. It's great to have a 3rd grade teacher in the family. We got everyone playing that could and Sydney enjoyed being with the dogs while the game was going. She even shared her binky with Sasha. Mmmmmm.