Wednesday evening we went to a cookout at one of my best friend's houses. We said we were getting together to celebrate a late Father's Day for all the daddies in our group, but really-- it was just an excuse for us all to get together ;) Hehe. We ended up with 9 adults and 12 kids I think, so it was crazy out there! Thank goodness Erika has a big backyard area where the kids could run and play. Everyone brought something for the cookout, and we ended up with hotdogs, chips, pasta salad, drinks, cookies, brownies, and popsicles! Unfortunately it was like 200 freakin degrees outside, so I was sweating like crazy and it was hard for me to get "into" the fun, but after awhile it cooled down a little bit. Arnold kept telling Brooke to be careful... but that girl just does not listen, and she fell off the trampoline! One of the reasons we don't have one at our house! Our kids are accidents waiting to happen. It was so cute.. Brooke has always liked playing with my friend Joanne's son Logan. He is a little older than her, and we go waaay back so they know each other pretty well. They swang together for awhile and were chatting away.. ah young love ;) I wish I had listened in to their conversation.. I know it was probably hilarious knowing those two! Later on Joanne asked Logan if he thought Brooke was pretty, and he said "We are just friends!" Adorable! ;) My friend Jackie asked me to take her camera around and get shots of all the action, and you know I don't turn picture-taking down ;) I got a lot of good shots of the kids.. even got a few of the little kids to smile at me! Some of the older kids wouldn't slow down playing long enough for a pic though (so sorry for the kids that weren't in the pics!!!!) Jackie wondered how I got her son Logan to smile for a pic and I said "Because he love his Abby!" Ha! Kids really do flock to me.. I just have a gift ;) But anyway, we had a great time. By the end of the night everyone was absolutely filthy, sweaty, and pretty disgusting. So we had to go home and give them baths before bed, even though we all were exhausted. (sometimes its ok to skip baths though, right Erika?! ;)
Thursday was another one of my best friends' birthdays. She just turned 27. As she pointed out, I am the youngest of the "Fab 4" (only by 10 days though!) and in another week we will all be 27! Crazy to think about! When I met alot of these girls I was only 21.. that makes me feel incredibly old! Anyway.... Jackie had planned a girls night dinner at Chili's, so I knew I'd be going there. Thankfully Arnold was able to come home from work a little earlier that day, so I got to go out shopping for a few hours before I went to the dinner. And let me tell you-- it was blissful!!!!!!! I haven't been "shopping for fun" in such a long time! I might have overdone it a little, but its almost my birthday, so I can justify it, right?! First I went to the mall, and went into Kirklands. Yep, I went to check out the owl stuff I had talked about in a previous blog! At first I didn't see any of it and freaked out, thinking they had sold it all. But they just moved it to the back wall of the store. I ended up buying a ceramic owl nightlight (its called a nightlight, but more like a lamp! Its big!) I ended up putting that in my room, because Arnold said the girls would break it if I put it in their room! I also got a little owl candle holder for our bedroom. I was temped to buy more.. but didn't! Then I went to Bath and Body works to take advantage of the Semi-Annual Sale going on. I stocked up on shower gel, body spray, antibacterial packs, and wallflower refills (trying the coconut scent this time for our bedroom-- those things always make a room smell SO good!) Then I bought a gift for Jackie's birthday. I was able to get a LOT of stuff at a great price. My fave sale of the year! ;) Then I stopped downstairs and went to Children's Place. Was just looking around to pass some time, but ended up finding the cutest pink dress for Brooke on sale! And then they had an additional 50% off their clearance stuff, and I found some pink sandals to match for $4.99. Did I mention how much I love sales?! When I finally left the mall I went over to Ross and bought our kitten Molly a new toy and some kitty treats (is that kitty spoiled already of what?!) and some "knockoff Tom's" for Brooke.. hey, they were cute, what can I say!
FINALLY, I made it to the restaurant, after my fun shopping adventure ;) I went inside thinking i'd just get a table for us since I was early, and the hostess even ended up taking me to a table, then I noticed Jackie already sitting down! So i said never mind and went to sit with her.. ha! We waited on Joanne to get there and when she got there we were ready to order because our other people had cancelled on us. But our waiter didn't know that so he kept waiting... and waiting.. and waiting... So eventually I yelled out at another waiter to get his attention, and he came running over. We gave him our orders real quick and he went to get it.. that's how you get it done!!! ;) Jackie and I did the "2 for 20" and shared cheese fries for an appetizer. Then I got the Bacon Cheeseburger as my dinner. MAN was that meal loaded down with calories and cholesterol. Oh well... its fun to live a little sometimes ;) Jackie wouldn't let me embarrass her by having the waiters sing to her for her birthday, so she didn't get the free dessert.. but that's her own fault ;) Hehe. We were going to go to Rita's afterwards, but I was stuffed from dinner, so I decided to pass. All in all I think we all had a great time though.. it had been awhile since just the 3 of us had been able to get together. Happy birthday Jackie!! :)
Brooke and Logan swinging together ;)
Caleb with his friends Chris and Logan (they are brothers!)
Rachel holding onto Erika's Tiki Torch. She was wearing her "Daddy's Busy Bee" shirt in honor of the "Father's Day" cookout ;)
I was able to get a smile out of baby Ben! He was strapped in the swing so he wasn't able to run away from me this time! ha! :)
All the girls at the cookout! Joanne, Jackie, Erika, Me, and the TWO Amys! :) I am such a giant, I tower over these girls! geez!
The girls at Jackie's birthday dinner. Our nice waiter took this for us ;)
Me with the birthday girl, outside of Chilis :)
awww, half a post dedicated to me <3 I'm so special! :D
ReplyDeletehaha, if I had known about the dessert for letting them sing to me, I *might* have considered it. :P I embarrass so easily though haha.