Busy & Fun Weekend!

Sometimes I have to ask myself . . . Where did the weekend go???

We had a busy yet fun weekend full of food, parties, excursions, and motorcycles! We started off on Friday by going to the 2nd Annual Dad's Club Grillin' and Chillin' event at Grant's school followed by Emily's 1st Birthday Party at a nearby park.

Saturday morning I got up and drove to Cincinnati to the new Ikea store there. I picked up my mom and we were off to buy Evan some new furniture for his room. After shopping for over 3 HOURS at Ikea (that store is super addicting) I met up with my best friend Linda for dinner. On my way home I found out that my sister-in-law Stacy and her husband David had driven their Harley Davidson's to our house. So we all hung out by the firepit with our neighbor Pam until the wee hours of the morning.

By Sunday it was time to unload my car and start putting together Evan's bed, nightstand and bookcase - but before we could finish, we decided to go to the Harley Davidson store. So, Shawn took the kids in his car and I rode with David on the back of his Harley. Now I've never been much of a motorcycle fan, but I have to say that after this ride (and seeing my sister-in-law ride her own) I'm officially hooked. Someday, Shawn and I will have our own - but until then, I shall live vicariously through my Stacy and David . . . as will my children!!! When we got home, we finished putting together Evan's room, then it was off to life group for the remainder of the evening!

Shawn's DJ/Karaoke company (Grasshopper Entertainment) provided the music for Grillin' & Chillin' - he's also a Dad's Club member, so this was a perfect event for him and all the kids loved it!

Here are some of the Dad's Club members "Grillin'"

Our favorite principal Mr. Miller is the one waving while serving up the food.

An early shot of some of the kids on the playground (Grant and Blake have on the striped shirts on the left). I had to take most of these pictures early on because we couldn't stay the whole time, we definitely didn't want to miss . . .

Little Miss Emily's 1st birthday party which was going on at the same time as the above-mentioned event. This picture cracks me up, it's like she's telling Lauren "give me that cupcake - NOW"
Emily was sharing her birthday party with her sweet twin cousins Lauren and Jillian who also just celebrated their 2nd birthdays.
Jake (Emily's big brother) and Blake are joined at the hip lately. They both attend the same school, and I also watch Jake and Emily on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after school - so prying them away from each other when they get together can sometimes be a difficult task! ;o)
This was also a funny night because Blake has always called the sweet little princess you see here his "wife" - but now I think he believes girls have cooties or something because every time he saw her, he would tell Jake that they had to run and hide because his "wife was here". Guess in this instance, his ice cream was more important than running from her!
Aunt Stacy on her Harley Sportster
The boys decided they wanted to start riding motorcycles too - but Harley doesn't make kid-sized bikes, so I guess these Honda's will have to do!
If my kids were younger, I probably would've bought one of these Rocking Cycles. They rode these for quite some time while chowing down on the free popcorn, soda and monster-sized gumballs (which are currently in their mouths in this shot) the Harley Davidson store provides.
I guess Grant and Blake figured that if I got to ride on Uncle David's Harley Electra Glide for real, they could at least sit on it before we left the store!
The finished product of my labor - literally! Evan's new bedroom. Here is his new bed and nightstand . . .
and here is the bookcase! Next time I'm either paying someone to put it all together or I'll wait until Shawn is around to make him do it all! He put this bookshelf together in minutes while it took me - well, we'll just say it took me a loooonnnnnggggg time to do the nightstand (the bed actually wasn't that hard).