Dancing, bowling, skating and other fun

So last Saturday, I temporarily became nocturnal to join a great friend at her birthday celebration, which started at 9:30 PM at a downtown club. Added bonus—it was 80s night, so I knew all the words. We had a great time and I came home around 2 AM. I might have been home about an hour earlier, except there was a bit of a SNAFU when I discovered that the parking garage where my car was had closed up tight. It was fun fun fun, and only took me 3 days to recover.

On Sunday, I dragged myself out of bed and took Kid 1.0 to a friend's birthday party at the local bowling alley. They really had a great set-up for kids, with "launch" ramps to roll the balls down and lane bumpers to prevent gutter balls. K1 really seemed to have a good time with her first bowling experience.

Kid 1.0's school celebrated Veteran's Day on Tuesday with their annual assembly. She was walking around the house practicing their songs for about a month beforehand, and really sounded good by performance day. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there this year, but I'm sure it was grand.

Of course, school was closed on Wednesday (for Veteran's Day), so K1 wanted to start the day with a thank you message to the vets and service members of our family. She created an original drawing which we shared on Facebook and by email with them.

I had also made arrangements for our Mary P. to come visit and spend some quality time with the girls. While they were busy with Thanksgiving craft projects, cookie baking, and book reading, I bugged out to run errands and get a much-needed massage. Did I tell you I've joined Massage Envy? It's the first step on my road to postpartum recovery :-). Hopefully regular attendance at the gym will be next.

On Friday, we were joined in the morning by a friend for a play date at our house. S. and Tot 2.0 played with toy phones, calling one another. They also shared a snack and painted with daubers. We had a great time and they got along really well, considering they are both "terrific two".

Saturday brought a much-needed chance for me to work on family photo albums at my monthly scrapbooking workshop. Tom took the kids up to his Mom's house for a few hours, too. They always enjoy seeing Grandma and Grandpa J. and playing hide-and-seek with Grandma's shy kitties.

And for the pièces de résistance of the week...today, I took Kid 1.0 to her first roller skating birthday party...actually her first time on roller skates period. So, in honor of the occasion, and anticipating her need to hang on to something other than the carpeted rail, I actually laced up and got out on the rink with her. Now, the last time I pulled on a pair of skates was before Tom and I got married, when I was a youth group leader at my church. So, it's been 15 years, two kids and at least one sprained ankle incident since the last time. I managed not to brain myself, and K1 seemed to enjoy the (roughly) 10 laps she made before she pooped out and headed for the bouncy houses set up at one end of rink. Ironically, her worst fall was plopping out of the bouncy slide exit onto the hard rink floor and smacking her cheek.

Next week -- play dates, art in Kid 1.0's class, and bunco night at our house!

Love to all.