Catching up

Oh my, I'm so far behind in posting stuff. We went on a field trip today to the Arboretum with Grace's class, and I realized that before I put up some of those pictures I needed to put up a few from the LAST field trip. We took the kids on another trolley ride over to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Grace's class in their tie-dyed field trip shirts, waiting for the trolley to arrive. Two girls and seven boys.

This is Santiago, who recently moved to Houston. Grace was heartbroken - he had just become one of her favorite people in the class.


Grace, Cole and Andy on the trolley.


Brayden and Dalton also on the trolley.


The class and the WONDERFULLY helpful manager of Lovers Egg Roll. He was very accommodating for the class, and the kids had a great time. Everyone came home with a pair of chopsticks and stuffed full of chicken, edamame and fortune cookies.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The annual revelry occurred again today in our neighborhood. Greenville Avenue was turned into a big street party, and since we are two blocks down our street turned into a drunken parking lot. This year must have been a banner one - St. Patrick's Day is actually on a Saturday and the weather was beautiful in the low-70s. The parade starts at 10am further up Greenville, people start coming down here soon after, so by 4pm you've got drunken people roaming back to their cars.

This is the one time during the year that we are guaranteed to get traffic from Greenville (our street is nicely located between two entertainment areas, so it normally is not worth it for people to park along it). Jim and I last attended the street party almost 10 years ago. We decided then we are too old to enjoy crushing crowds of drunk people, plus drinking alcohol starting at 10am (or earlier) has little appeal because you end up wanting to go to bed with a headache by about 5pm.


Grace and I walked out on the porch around 3:30pm to see this. Grace looked at me and said "Mom, is this a parade?"


A picture from a slightly different angle showing the line of cars extending much further down our street away from Greenville.


Cutie Grace on the porch swing. Cousin Joey can note that she wore absolutely no green today.


And my wonderful surprise that arrived today from the mailman. My elisalou bag showed up, created by my awesome sister-in-law. I recommend everyone hopping right over to that website and picking one up yourself. I love it!

Have I just accepted it already?

I was talking recently with a friend of mine about her husband turning 40 in May. He's apparently pretty very freaked out about it. I too am turning 40 in May (less than 2 months away), and I realized it doesn't bother me in the least.

We'd originally planned on having a great evening out. My birthday actually falls on a Saturday, and even though I'll be volunteering that morning at the school carnival (yay - big 4-0), Jim and I planned on dumping the kids off with the grandparents and hitting a high-dollar steak restaurant that night. Yes, even though the parents are going to be getting in that afternoon from a week long vacation, I was still going to take advantage of Kamp Kennemer.

But then we were talking at dinner the other night about my birthday, and Grace said "Well, Mommy, we're going to Cafe Madrid for you birthday, right?". What could I say to that? So now the big night out is no more. I just can't deny my almost 5-year old daughter's wish to celebrate my birthday with the family at out favorite restaurant.

I also realized that I'm not freaked out at all about my impending birthday. In fact, I think I've come to see that I already feel like I'm 40. I don't know when it hit, but the years all seem to blend together now. And I don't know how long I've felt like I'm already 40, but it's apparently been a long time now.

Now don't get me wrong - I do plan on having fun this year. The girlfriends and I have decided to do a weekend away (no kids, no spouses) to celebrate all of us turning 40 this year. But I don't feel like I need this weekend to deal with turning 40. I just like that I have a good excuse to have a girls weekend.