One busy week!

Life has been busy in general, but the last couple of weeks in April I was busier than I have been in a long time....thankfully it was with normal life stuff!

Starting on Saturday, April 25, we took the opportunity to leave our kids with my in-laws and headed for one of our favorite restaurants...Sakura (a Japanese SteakHouse). Dinner was fun, Summer liked it too...of course she goes everywhere we do these days...she is quite the conversation piece! We headed back to my in-laws' house for dessert. The kids (ALL 11, including mine and the cousins) were hiding, oh, so well, and all jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE!" My mom-in-law ordered a Princess/Frog prince cake she assured me looked so nuch better in the catalog....she thought it was the ugliest cake ever...so we added this toy plastic toilet just to complete the look :)

The next day (Sunday), I made dinner for my sister, Debbie and her kids. After dinner, my parents arrived with a cheesecake, then along came our friends from Utah, Eric and Jessica with their daughter, Cleo. We had a nice visit with them between munching on cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, and of course, CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! Yum :)L-R~ Tom, Micaela, my dad, Debbie, Connor, mom, Jessica, Eric, little Tom, Summer, and me...in front, Morgan, Andrew, and Cleo.

Monday was my actual birthday. I got the boys out the door and climbed into my parents car to head to my sister's house to pick up my birthday present. Debbie just bought a new car and happened to have an extra Ford Explorer laying around...Happy Birthday to me :) Thanks Deb :) We went out to lunch, then it was back home with my new present. That night, m+++++++y hubby grilled steak and we had a quiet night at home.

Tuesday, I had a couple of appts. for Summer, then that night it was time for Tom's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. As we were getting ready to go, a friend of mine reminded me that the 1st graders had their Spring concert was the same night! Yikes!! It was a good thing my new birthday present was sitting in the driveway....my hubby threw Andrew in the Explorer and headed to the school. I finished dinner and threw the other 3 kids in the car and headed to the church for the Pinewood Derby. All went well...Andrew survived the concert and Tom's car did well in the race. He placed at least 2nd in most of the races and was very happy.

Tom's BIG cheese car complete with wingnut mouse for added weight. Grandpa Norris helped Tom cut the shape and drill the swiss cheese holes. It was a very clever design.

Tom earned a bunch of awards during the last month

Watching the cars race

Tom and his car

The 2nd place race

The BIG cheese won the award for the "Kraftiest" car

Wednesday we had an appt. for Summer at Children's, then running around taking Tom to scouts that night.

Thursday morning I dropped Morgan off with a friend and headed to the school for Tom's fieldtrip to the Science Center in Seattle. I had to take Summer with me, so I had to drive. I carpooled with a couple of other moms and we met the buses there. The boys had a great time at the IMAX Undersea movie, Planetarium, and GPS adventure.

The flash still hurts even with 3-D glasses on!

Tyler and Tom at lunch outside

Summer and Tom in the Duckbill footprint

Tyler

Summer and Tom

Summer, Tom, and Ms. Aulava

Mindy and Terri sporting the stuffed germs

Tom, Isaak, and Tyler

Tyler, Tom and Isaak

Me and Tom...had to force him to take this picture (in case you couldn't tell (: )

That night it was girl's night and time to shoot some pool. We all love to play, but can't shoot worth anything...but have fun chasing the balls around the table!

Cathy, Allison, and Angie...pool sharks, ha ha

Cathy LOVES it when I follow her around with a camera :)

Bridget always fools us into thinking she knows what she is doing :)

Me (with pool chalk tattoo), Cathy, and Bridget

Bridget looks on as Allison shoots with her cane....didn't work so well :)

Saturday brought us back to the Science Center! Yes, it is true....twice in one week :) This time I drove Tom and a couple of scouts with his den...Andrew came along with us :) We visited the Planetarium and went through the GPS adventure maze...geocaching is pretty cool!

Andrew, Jaron, Tom, and Alex

Here are some of the cool butterflies we saw...

Jaron had a friendly visitor

What a cute shoe accessory :)

Tom's goal is to always have at least one butterfly land on him...he did it again :)

This was fun...do you think I'm a little too old for this? haha

Tom, Jaron, Joe, Alex, and Andrew