Summer - Week #10

The week started off in an exciting way with Will and Owen having their very first lemonade & cookie stand.  They've been wanting to do one forever and I finally gave in.  They stayed outside for almost 4 hours and made over $20 - what?!?  They must've gotten some big tips because I don't think they sold 80 items.  :)  It was a fun experience for them.

Matt turned 40 this Wednesday - shout out to the old man!  The kids spent Tuesday afternoon making these surprise posters.

  

 For his actual birthday Matt worked; such is the life of an old guy.  But, we had a great night opening presents and eating cake.  For his gifts, each of us gave Matt bags filled with his favorite treats and "dates" of his favorite activities.  Bradley is taking him hiking, Lauren is going on a bike ride with him to the movie theatre, Will is taking him golfing, and Owen is taking him to a Bees game.  After cake and presents, Matt and I snuck over to Oakridge to enjoy a nice dinner out and a few holes of golf.  Side note - Yes, there are 40 candles on the cake.  Yes, the 2nd picture below is blurry because there was so much smoke left behind from those 40 candles.  And, yes, the cake was nibbled on before Matt blew out his candles.  It was Matt that did the nibbling though, so when the kids got upset that someone had eaten the cake already, I had to explain that the birthday boy can do whatever he pleases. :)

 

 

On Thursday, Lauren left with the YW to go to girls' camp at Piuta.  She enjoyed the camp and said her favorite thing about it was going on a zip line.  I helped drive the girls up to camp and got the bottom picture of Lauren with the girls in her cabin.  They are practicing their "Cup Song" skit in this picture; the skit was so cute; almost as adorable as all the YW in her cabin... I love those girls and miss being an advisor to them but I am so glad Lauren gets to experience being with them now.

I drove home from camp just in time to see Will get a boat-load of awards at Pack Meeting.  He's been working hard this summer and got a bag full of belt loops and pins - 14 of them!!!  There were a lot of awards that night so the leader, instead of announcing every award, asked each boy about one of them.  When it was Will's turn, the Cub Master noticed that Will earned the video game belt loop and asked him about it.  Will had earned swimming, ice skating, soccer, chess, biking - a lot of really cool loops - and the one on top of the pile happened to be video games?!?  Will's response, spoken just like Napoleon Dynamite, was classic, "Well, this was an easy belt loop because I pretty much play video games all day long.  I don't have a favorite because I have like, a ton of games and I really liked playing them every day this summer."  Proud mommy moment there... ;-)

**This week was my 20 year reunion.  Am I really that old?  Don't get me wrong... getting older doesn't really bother me... but, when I look at pictures of some of my classmates that I haven't seen in a long time I realize how long ago 20 years really was.  In fact, when people from my class post high school memories on Facebook, I barely remember any of it - I guess I really am getting old!! ;)

Saturday night was my birthday gift/date for Matt... I took him to a concert in Deer Valley to see Lyle Lovett.  Lyle is one of Matt's very favorite artists and we actually have a long story/history of me giving him LL cd's for milestone birthdays so I was SOOO excited when I saw he'd be in concert so close to Matt's 40th.  We had a gift card at Wahso and went to a quick dinner before the show.  We assumed the card only had about $20-30 on it, we were in a hurry, and we weren't very hungry so we only ordered a couple of appetizers.  Imagine our surprise when the manager came to our table.  He explained that our card was almost 7 years old and he'd take it that night but couldn't carry over the balance for the future.  We were fine with that - we weren't expecting more - but then he told us the balance... $250!!!  Like I said, we weren't very hungry but ended up ordering 2 salads and 2 entrees in addition to our appetizers.  They were delicious!!  We still had over $100 on the card but there was no way we'd be able to eat any more so they suggested we take home a bottle of wine.  Of course we told them we didn't drink but the waiter suggested we buy a bottle for a friend or client so the $ didn't go to waste.  We used up the last of the gift card on a bottle of Pinot and surprised Matt's business partner with a super nice bottle.  Matt joked that he was going to post a picture of me on Facebook with the wine, I thought it was not such a good idea. ;)

Here we are at the concert... it was lovely.  As much as I loved the Bruno Mars concert we just went to, this is more my kind of scene.  It was super relaxed with everyone was sitting and enjoying the music.  I loved being outside cuddling in our blankets, and the best part was that my ears weren't ringing afterwards.  Happy 40th Matt... we all love you!!

One more week till we go back to school... we're gonna make it a good one!! :)