Weekend in Review

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

Okay, there was no crying involved except for those who fell like Jasmine. Poor girl! Steve and I had Bubble's 9th birthday party at Roll-R-Way, which is a small skating rink in the York area. This is a wonderful example of the lesson we all had to learn as a child...don't judge a book by its cover. The outside of the roller rink did not do the inside justice. There was a disco ball, funky lights, and up to date music (which as time went on caused me a huge headache, which is a definite sign of old age). The kids skated for four hours and we had 45 minutes in the party room. The only negative is that you think the 45 minutes is enough time to round up sweaty hyper kids, keep them still long enough to actually eat something, push Bubbles along in opening her gifts, and once again make the kids stand still long enough for cake and ice cream. WRONG! We were given free passes which we were supposed to hand out to all the kids who attended, but we totally forgot. Now, we have 15 passes to use between Bubbles and RB. That's okay because even though we tried to keep everything to a minimal, we still spent a small fortune which is why Steve wouldn't allow me to accompany him when he paid the bill. So the free passes will come in handy. Luckily for Steve and I, we didn't spend a lot of money on Bubble's birthday gift. HOW MUCH DID WE SPEND YOU ASK? Well, I'm so glad you did because here's another chance for me to illustrate our creative ways of saving mucho dinero. We bought Bubbles a SpyGear tank which she can use to spy on us and listen in to what we are saying. The original price tag was $100 and Target was overstocked with them during the Christmas season. By early February, it was marked down by 75%. I traded in my gas points and received a $25 Target gift card, so the total was $0. Of course, this tank required 12 batteries, but we already had Target gift cards totaling $10 from a few weeks ago which was part of a promotion with cat litter. So even the batteries were free! Hallelujah! Later that night, both Steve and I felt a little like "Jon & Kate, Plus 8" when we attempted to feed 9 people with hamburger helper and a pound of beef. We did by making sure everyone filled up on Crystal Light Rasphberry Ice and butter/jelly bread.

Rednecks in the big city...

Sunday, we spent the day at Washington, D.C. visiting the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining brightly. The metro is always a fun experience for me and after so many times of riding it and having to pee so badly, I've gotten smart and made everyone use the rest stop before we arrived at the Greenbelt station. Along with Steve, Bubbles, RB, and myself was Kathy (real name is Kandace, but Jasmine kept calling her Kathy the first few times of being around her that we all adopted that name for her as well) and Lizzie. Kathy is RB's best friend and Lizzie is Bubble's best friend. Everyone was well behaved until the end. I still can't get over how kids act when they are tired. You would think we had 50 lb weights strapped to their butts the entire time. Come on ladies, toughen up! Steve is old and I'm pregnant. I just like to take this time to thank a good samaritan who helped us by giving us a package of tissues. Poor Lizzie's nose started to bleed and while Steve was looking for the bathroom, which is difficult to do in the Natural History Museum, some lady walked by and noticed our dilemma and gave us tissues. An act of kindness is very scarce in this world nowadays, but we were witnesses to the fact that it still exists yesterday. Thank you kleenex carrying lady!

No caption necessary on this one

Bubbles being swallowed by a Great White

Is this really necessary?

Our dangerous journey up the metro escalator onto the streets of D.C. If you tried to look backwards to see how far up you were, you lost your balance because it looked like a straight fall down....ARGH!

Poor Lizzie! I wonder if some of the attendees though she was an exhibit?

Hey, this is the same psycho look RRF had before her daily regimen of prozac.