The Long Weekend

Life goes on over here, and I am super lucky to have so many great friends and family around to keep us all busy.  Case in point, we had a fun-filled, but packed, long weekend.

Friday night we stayed home, just me and the kids.  The kids took long baths...we watched a movie and ate popcorn, and just rested after a long week.  It was really nice.  Then on Saturday one of my clients came by the house to pick some work up and spent a good amount of time with my kids.  They love this particular client so they were very excited to show them their bedrooms and backyard.

Then, The Ex told me she would take BOTH the kids on Saturday morning (for new-er readers, my Ex is the other mother to my son, but not my daughter so she has NO reason to take The Girl...she is just super nice and volunteered since The Girl was begging...).  So I had an unprecedented 4 hours of kid free time!  I took a long shower with my music up loud (no kids to have to keep an ear out for...) and then went grocery shopping.  By myself.  I know this might not mean a lot to my readers, but for me?  What a luxury!!

Then Saturday night I had a babysitter and I went to the 40th birthday party of my BFF's husband.  WITHOUT my children.  I would have had a great time no matter what, but after having a good portion of my day sans kids, this party was just the topping on the cake.  It is kinda weird sometimes showing up to a party full of couples by yourself, as the "single girl," but I did it for 5 years, so I have some practice.  I fortunately found a couple of other single girls to sit and play with during the evening so I wasn't that awkward third wheel.  They had great food, even better beer, and when I got home, both of my kids were fast asleep.  Win all around!

Sunday we got up and headed over to the beach.  I have a client with a beach house and I needed to stop by there and do a quick bit of work.  So we did that, and then headed to a yummy little taco place and had some lunch.  Then another friend of mine had rented a two bedroom Villa at a hotel right on the beach, so we headed over there for the rest of the day.  Our day was spent in the sand, playing in the water and soaking up the rays.  It felt really nice and the kids had a BLAST.  Then once it got a little too windy, we headed back to their villa and hung out there until after the kids had dinner.  We left at 10:00 in the morning and didn't get home until 8:00 at night so it was a full day.  But a fun one.  I live less than an hour away from the beach and I rarely take my kids over there.  Need to do that more!

When I left for the beach on Sunday the plan for Monday (Memorial Day) was to have my mom and step dad and my grandmother over for a little BBQ for lunch.  Nothing major, but just a relaxing day to enjoy.  I got a call from my mother at 8:15am on Monday and she said, "You better get up and start cleaning...you're having a party!"  It turns out that our little BBQ went from 4 adults and my two kids to...10 adults, 4 kids...and a dog.  My mother had spent all day Sunday inviting all sorts of people to the BBQ...  But you know what?  It was a beautiful day.  My 90 year old grandmother got to spend the day with 2 of her 3 children, 4 out of 5 of her grandchildren, and all 4 of her great-grandchildren.  We put up the bouncy house and the hammock in the backyard...had tons of yummy food and adult beverages, a kick-ass BBQ (if I do say so myself...I have become quite the proficient BBQer) and just a really, really nice day overall.  I am really lucky to have so much of my family so close that my kids are able to grow up with all of their extended family around.  It was a blessing that I had as a child, and I am so happy to be able to pass that along to my kids.

Overall, the weekend was crazy busy but wonderful.  I'm sure I have some pretty cute pictures on my camera from the day yesterday, but that's exactly where they sit:  in my camera.  :)  I will try and upload some pics later in the week.  Hope everyone had a happy and safe long holiday weekend!