Birthday week

I have enjoyed nearly a full week of birthday celebrations! The first event was a dinner party with my friends from Thompson (where I used to work) on Saturday night. Anne prepared an Italian feast that put any restaurant meal I've ever eaten to shame! On my birthday, Tuesday, my sister M and I ran 5 miles. She, my dad and a friend of mine are training for a half marathon in December, so we are "building our base" this summer. I spent the rest of the morning with a friend, and then M came back over with a delicious chicken and broccoli braid, acini salad, plantain chips and rhubarb pie for lunch. She spent the afternoon here, helping me with the boys. That evening when Daddy came home, we had a taco dinner and opened presents. I had lots of loving phone calls and well-wishes throughout the day, and just felt very loved. On Wednesday night, Staci had us over for dinner...cheeseburgers, her famous macaroni and cheese, butter beans and apple crisp. Yummy!

Today is the first day that we haven't had plans, so we are hanging around the house. M has come down with a little cold so he's been napping most of the morning. Yesterday he made big progress toward crawling - up on his hands and knees a little bit. He is highly motivated to reach N's toys.

N and I played outside, kicking the ball and pushing the yellow truck for a while. Then we came back in for a snack and reading time. I steamed some squash for M, and N helped with that. Then we did some squash print painting.