Whew!

What a weekend. You may have noted my absence from the blogosphere. This was due to an over-abundance of actual, real-world socialization: We attended a total of 4 birthday celebrations, went resale-ing, caught up with friends at Taco Night, and went to the preschool benefit fundraiser. A few things fell to the wayside in all the excitement, chief among them being general household cleanliness, and blog updates...

Here are some highlights of the weekend:

My mom celebrated her birthday on Friday by watching our kids while we went out. :) (birthday #1, and we did at least make her a cake...) We spent a few hours making small talk with other preschool parents at the Benefit. The event was held at the B-Side, a local bar/club, and wow did it feel strange to be hanging out at a bar. With all those, well, grown ups. When did we get to become part of this demographic?? Wow.

Saturday, the kiddos and I headed out bright and early for a resale event. Made the attempt to shop with Jack and my mom and I determined that for the rest of the summer session of sales, he's earned himself a ticket to stay home while we shop, sans kids. He was actually a pretty darn good little shopper, exceedingly patient. And his long-suffering little face helped him to score a few very nice toys for himself. His grandma spoils him!

We went directly from the morning of shopping to Max's 4th birthday party (birthday #2 for those of you keeping track...) Max is one of Jack's buddies from way back-- they've been playing together at the Parent Center since before Jack could walk. Saturday, they ran. And climbed in boxes, and chased with action figures, and shot nerf guns as they climbed over the couch. Moment to remember: Jack, triumphant atop the end table, eyes gleaming, nerf shooter in his hand, shouting jubilantly, "Best! Gun! Game! Ever!!!!" It really does have to be inborn, this magnetic attraction to guns, to climbing, to competition. I feel that we've done very little, if anything, to encourage this sort of stereotypically "boy" behavior, yet there he was, every inch a little boy, jumping into the sterotype with nerf guns a-blazing. I still love him, regardless. :)

Home for a nap and then Saturday night found us at Tina's house for Taco night, where we informally celebrated birthdays for 3 of Tina's 5 kids, Melinda, and Kate, all of which fall in this general span of time. (Let's just lump all these together for birthday #3, shall we?) Taco Night turned rather seamlessly into baby night, as we were joined there by Melinda, Will and the twins, and Laura and her son Noah up from Columbus. Tina's girls fussed over Ivy, we stood in Tina's wonderful crowded kitchen, Jack and Noah ran to and fro, there was very spicy salsa. It was great.

Sunday we had a laid back morning in which we went grocery shopping and put a ham in the crockpot before heading off for the 1st birthday party for our friend's little girl. We wandered the Great Lakes Mall for a while before setting our children loose at Gymboree. They both enjoyed themselves immensely. Ivy couldn't decide if she wanted to crawl randomly around the huge expanse of space, or stop, pull to stand on something, and watch the older children. And there was plenty to watch! The best was when Nat orchestrated a tumbling line of sorts, where a group of children waited in line for their turn to throw themselves at a wedge of foam, knocking it over and sliding (or flipping or rolling or falling) down it to the floor. Children are insane, in case you didn't know. The screaming! The laughter! The double-jointedness! Jack participated in these proceedings with glee. He was the youngest tumbler in the group by 2 years but he held his own with the older girls, cheering appropriately, waiting his turn perfectly, and running with so much joy and so much determination in his wonderful, 3-year-old, still-a-little-awkward way...It made me strangely, overwhelmingly proud of him, to watch him run himself at that mat. He's so big. So little and yet so big.

We spent Sunday evening relaxing before I headed to dinner swap to learn that one of our preggo friends delivered her baby earlier that day, a gorgeous second boy to join their wonderful two -year- old. Sarah will have her hands full for a few years but oh, they will be heartbreakers! I am waiting eagerly for life to calm down enough to let me visit and meet sweet baby Matthew while he is still impossibly tiny.