Dinner out - just the girls!

Friday night was "dinner out with the girls"! The Princess and I met Herbie and Spinnie at the Olive Garden - yum! We enjoyed our never ending pasta bowls. The Princess serenaded us and everyone around us with lovely songs. It was fun!

Happy Girls!
The Princess emptying Herbie's wallet :)
The Princess finding pictures on Spinnie's phone.

When I got home, I put the princess to bed and started to not feel well. The cold that I've been trying to fight off was coming on strong. So, I went to bed too. During this time, the Superstar and Princess' daddy started working on the broken ceiling.

What a mess!!

Patched up holes...ahh!

During the clean up, Daddy found that a beam was still quite wet and needed more airing out. That's why the square hole is there in the picture. At least the air handler is no longer leaking and our air is working. Whew!

UH-OH!

The Superstar noticed some water on the floor in our entryway (inside). When I went to see, I looked up and saw that the CEILING WAS WET TOO! UH-OH! Daddy went upstairs to see what was going on and saw that the air handler was leaking a lot of water and that is what was leaking through the floor/ceiling and dripping to the floor downstairs!!!!!!!!!!!

Daddy went outside and hosed out the air conditioner and a lot of "gunk" came out. It was also not running. Then, he had to drill holes in the ceiling to drain out the water and dry out the ceiling. ARG! While drilling, I kept worrying that the whole ceiling was going to come crashing down. Thankfully, it didn't. I hope that everything dries out - it should take a week or so we think.

After all of this excitement, we were able to get the kids bathed and off to bed - whew! The Princess enjoyed a book before going in for her bath:

Good Night, Princess!

the last day of summer?????

Things are going well here - I can hardly believe that today is the last full day of summer! Although down here, I think "summer" lasts a bit longer than what the calendar says.

This past week, the Superstar and the Princess' Grandma and Zayde stayed with us while their Daddy was out of town for work. The kids thoroughly enjoyed having them here - and so did I! The superstar was able to go to "parent pick up" on Tuesday and on Wednesday, Grandma came to school for lunch and to read to the Superstar's class. Friday night, I took the kids to the airport to pick up Daddy! They were both very glad to see him :)

waiting for baggage...we got to see a single toothbrush go around the belt first!

this was how the Princess kept herself occupied

My class "studied" apples this week. We ended with an apple tasting and graphed our favorite type of apple.


Saturday afternoon, we went to our next door neighbor's house for their son's 1st birthday party. They had a water slide in their backyard that the Superstar really enjoyed. Our neighbors have another son who was born this summer. He has short gut syndrome and has not come home from the hospital yet. They had him transferred to the children's hospital in Miami. Things do not sound good for baby Austin. Please keep him in your prayers.

at the birthday party

Saturday night reading

This weekend, we went up to Clearwater and Tampa and went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. It was a special Fisher-Price day on Saturday. They had characters, riding toy track, and an area for toddlers to play with Fisher-Price toys. The Superstar and Princess got to play with their cousins at the zoo and we all had a BLAST!! Grandma and Uncle Paul came with us to the zoo too. Daddy wanted to let the Princess have a chance to feed the giraffe. The Princess did not want to be that close to an animal head that big!

The aquarium area was a favorite for all four kids!

The Superstar and his cousins had fun touching the sting rays!

We saw a lot of baby animals including a baby elephant.

The Princess playing with a Fisher-Price castle in the play area.

We had a lot of fun even though it was super hot!

We came home on Saturday night because Daddy left early Sunday morning to go to Pennsylvania for a trip for work. He will be gone all week. Grandma and Zayde are here for the week to help out. We'll have a good week with them.

It's my birthday!

Today is my birthday! I started celebrating last night by going out with the "girls" - Herbie & D-Lyn. We went to dinner, a movie, and then a bar where a good-bye party was going on for a teacher at my school who is moving to another school to be an assistant principal. Dinner was delicious, the movie - Mama Mia! - was great, and the bar was a lot of fun! The "Santa Barbara Elvis" - a local iconic figure around here - was at the bar. Herbie even talked to him! We sang, danced, and hung out. I didn't get home last night until 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning! I haven't been awake that late in I don't know how long!

check out the 2 new members of the HSM 3 cast!

I'm still awake at 1 in the morning!!!

Today, I rested a lot, opened my super cool new laptop computer/birthday present, and went to dinner at the Olive Garden. We met up with the Pirate, Mermaid and family. Everyone was well behaved (even the husbands who debated politics the whole time!)

Mommy & Princess at the Olive Gardenthe Mermaid, Pirate and Mommy Doodle at the Olive Gardenthe Princess and Pirate at the Olive Garden - think she's happy??best friends at the Olive Garden!

Today, I got several "happy birthday" phone calls. They all made me smile. THANK YOU! Since I got a new laptop - I never had a laptop before - I also got to go and buy a new VERA!! I got the messenger bag in botanica - ON SALE SINCE IT IS A RETIRED PATTERN! I love to get Vera on sale!

I'll post some pics later from last night and today. Hooray! A good birthday and surprisingly, I didn't go to Pump It Up! like we did this summer so many times. HA!

quick!!

This is going to be a super quick post because the premiere of the new 90210 is about to start!!! But I did want to add a couple of pictures to the blog. Here's my semi-famous "ringy-dingy" bell:

and my class' ABC Scrapbook pages for letter "A":

cute!