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Monday, March 30, 2009

Sunday perfection

What a great weekend I just had. Whew! I needed that. Sunday was pretty perfect in itself, but I'll recap everything, starting with Friday.

After school, Z & I really didn't do much of anything, but unwind. We took our weekly excursion to McDonald's for his nuggets, but then went home to relax. We played some games he made up, including "restaurant", but then decided to go see Daddy at work since he works late on Friday nights. It's so nice having Aaron work so close to home again, and it gives us the opportunity to visit him entirely more than we did at his last store. Luckily, we caught him before he had gone on his dinner break, and went to eat together at a restaurant close to his work. Afterward, Z and I made our way to Toys R Us to pick up a birthday gift for one of his classmates, since we had been invited to the party on Sunday. While at Toys R Us, we found this really cool "alien lab", and raced home to play with it before we went to bed:

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It comes with fake tweezers, a fake knife, "martian matter" which
is essentially Play-doh, "lava liquid" which is colored gel, and the
center of it lights up so you can better examine the aliens you create.

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A close-up of one of the cool parts -- molds of a heart, brain,
and spine. You fill them up with the gel, so they come out wiggly
and weird, then you cut them open and everything oozes out.
Awesome.

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Some martian matter nuggets we made,
then covered in lava liquid.

Who knew $9.99 could buy such fun? We played with this thing for quite a while, then it was time to retire. Saturday, Aaron had to work until dinnertime, so Z and I met my sister for some breakfast and shopping. "Shopping?!!" you ask? No worries, I haven't morphed into someone else -- I still don't "shop", but this was for something fun. My sister was attending an 80's themed party on Saturday night, and enlisted my help in putting together an outfit. So, we met her in south Austin at Kerbey Lane for a delicious start to the day, then tackled Goodwill, Planet K, and a few shops at the mall. We ended up with a fantabulous combination of my old Doc Marten boots, fishnet hose, a jean mini, an old Depeche Mode shirt, rubber bracelets, retro earrings, and blue temporary hair color for her to streak her hair with. I'm still waiting for a photo of the entire ensemble, but she sent me this one the night-of, to tie me over:

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I can't wait to see the whole thing.

After our day of pseudo girly activities, Aaron came home and we got ready for our family night out. We went to dinner in Georgetown, then headed to one of our favorite movie theaters for a night of Monsters vs. Aliens.

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What a cute and funny movie. The only downside was little Johnny Tuberculosis who, of course, sat directly behind my son. He stood up for 90% of the movie, only mere inches away from my kid's head, and proceeded to cough this chunky, terrifying cough through the entire film. Mind you, neither of his parents remotely attempted to cover this child's mouth, or instructed him to cover his own damn mouth, when he coughed. Aaron & I shot every nasty version of the stink-eye that we could think of at those two adults, but our efforts were in vain. We tried not to let that dampen our time and ended up thoroughly enjoying ourselves. But, we saw a 7:00pm show, which meant bedtime once we got home.

Sunday, we woke up and went to have breakfast at a local mexican dive, and discovered a new favorite place. After getting some energy for the day (ie - coffee & huevos rancheros), Aaron & I put our game-faces on and drove Z over to his classmate's birthday party. It was in one of those inflatable places, where everything is soft & fun to play on, but most likely covered in 6,000 different strands of influenza, viral infections, and other commonly spread nastiness.

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As if Johnny TB the night before wasn't enough, we had to watch Z slather every square inch of himself in this air-filled petri dish. [shivers] But, again, we put the grossness factor aside, and enthusiastically watched him have a ball with his friends. I even jumped in some of the things with him, which he thought made me the coolest Mom in the universe. (No other Moms were jumping.) I drew the line at the foam pit, though. Even I have my limits.

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Z and his buddy Robin.

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A very happy, not-yet sweaty kid.

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A real-time photo of my son trying to paralyze
himself by wrenching his spine out of place.

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Chatting with another good buddy, Thomas.

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I nearly threw up as I snapped this photo.
Face-down in foamy grime. [gag]

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They act like brother & sister.

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Aaron was all the rage, throwing them
into & dragging them out of the pit.

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Resting.

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His "Superman" dive into the pit.

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Another one.

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Replenishing with a tasty organic fruit punch.

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Right before they got chided by a staff member for going
two-at-a-time. Rebels.

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Someone yelled out "cake time!" &
they were at full-attention.

After the party, we stopped by Target so Aaron could fulfill a bet he had with our son. You see, at breakfast, Z put tons of salt, pepper, and sugar on some of his leftover eggs. Then, Aaron dared him to eat a bite of the nasty result and said if he did, he'd take him to Target after the party and buy him an action figure that was $10.00 or less. I don't think either Aaron or I thought Z would actually take him up on it. So, we went and got Z his prize for enduring cold, super salty, super peppery, super sugary eggs and then stopped by HEB to get some food to grill for dinner. The weather was absolutely PERFECT Sunday, so we knew we'd be outside most of the day. Once home, Aaron tackled trying to fix our leaking lawnmower, and Z & I played some baseball in the front yard.

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My Mom got him a hard hat when he was like 3.
It now seconds as a batting helmet.

All three of us played a round of frisbee shortly after, and enjoyed a few cold ones in the sun. I tried Michelob Ultra's Lime & Cactus beer (it's good!), Aaron had his Sol, and Z had a Sunkist. Even our fur children were out there with us, because the weather was too beautiful to ignore.

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I guess the "gross" theme carried through the rest of the day, because Z asked if he could use one of my near-empty beer bottles to make an "experiment". When a six-year old boy says this, it generally means he wants to mix together a myraid of condiments, drinks, and dirt to see what it becomes. (Get ready for this Becca - Luke will do this! It's a-coming!)

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First stage: a small amount of beer, Sunkist, ketchup,
mustard, and ranch dressing.

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Stage two: all the above mentioned, plus lemon juice,
pink milk, Pepsi, dirt, and shards of sidewalk chalk.

Jimmy Buffet played through the speakers we brought into the backyard & Aaron grilled us up some dinner, which we ate out back on the patio furniture.

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Think steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, grilled onions, and salad - sublime! Our feast ended just in time for Z to jump in the shower and scrub himself as he had never scrubbed before. Then after his shower, we hung out in the living room for a bit, listening to the Forrest Gump soundtrack and Led Zeppelin, and laughing while Z entertained us with his rock moves. All in all, I honestly couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

I normally cherish my weekends, but this weekend was one that was good for the soul. I'm so lucky, and I know this to my core. Hats off to sunny, mild days, laughs, and family time.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Friday.
2. Saturday.
3. Sunday.

I hope everyone else enjoyed the outdoors as much as we did this weekend, and I hope you all spent time doing things you love, with people you love. Now I'm off to conquer the rest of Monday, and pray that my son didn't catch something this weekend. Peace & pastries to all.

1 comment:

Becca said...

I just threw up