Hear my Plea! PLeaSe

No pictures, only a plea. I need suggestions. Working weekends is great for raising kids. I get to play a stay at home M-F, and still make a full time income working weekends. The only glitch, I am only allowed 2 weekends off a year. No more than two weekends, there is no leniency - you pay with your life. No kidding, I am very serious. Did you know there are 52 weekends in a year?

Anyway, the situation is: this coming weekend, I requested off in preparation for David's BIG kayak race. The kids and I were going to drive to St. Louis, the finish line, meet David and spend the weekend. Now, the race has been postponed due to flooding. Now, I have a precious weekend to spend time with my family. All four of us together for two whole days, and no where to go. My Mom has offered to watch the kids Saturday night, so that David and I can have a night to ourselves. What do I do? Where do I go? I need suggestions. I can't believe that I will have more than two hours to myself. The last time I had more than two unaccounted for hours, I baked a cheesecake. So watch out!

Everyday and the Fourth

I decided to sit and take a break and post some random thoughts and happenings. I have been craving coffee drinks like a mad woman. Specifically, Moo-Lattes from the DQ. But to save money and spare some calories, I have been making this smoothie. Not quite as thick as store bought coffee smoothies, but it satisfies my cravings. Today I added a few dashes of cinnamon.

Starting on Monday, David starts a new job. A Monday-Friday, 8-5 kind of job. I am expecting him to work lots of extra hours, but it also means more evenings at home together as a family. I won't have to do dinner and bedtime by myself all the time. It also means I will have to make some big adjustments to my daytime routine. No longer can I leave the kids at home with their dad while I run errands or get my haircut. A BIG change, but good for our family.

On the fourth, I felt like Martha when I made this Flag cake for my little family. As I post this picture, Joe is sitting next to me, and says, "that was a good cake Mom". I snapped more photos of the cake than I did the kids. We spent the Fourth at home - just the four of us. Shooting off smoke bombs, throwing Snappers, and a few simple night fireworks for Joe. We cooked burgers on the grill, corn on the grill, and potato salad. I made this potato salad where you soak the taters in red wine vinegar after you cook them but before you add the mayo/dijon dressing. Oh my, cream cheese and stars. That is my new, one and only potato salad recipe.

Hanging out on the Fourth. Charlotte loves Snappers.

Maybe I took so few pictures of the kids, because I would stress out about them using Snappers, let alone them being around smoke bombs and Black Cats.

Now for my one and only son, who desperately wanted a "baby brutter", he will be a big brother to two little sisters.

My break should be ending soon. Time to work on dinner, and clean for the weekend.