Labor Day '08 - Best Birthday Ever

For those of you not around these here parts, we had an absolutely gorgeous weekend for Labor Day. I mean, it was so nice I even cleaned my garage, and that's saying a lot, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday night we dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's which meant Chris and I could go out together for my birthday. I met some friends for Open Mike night at our local cafe, and then we all trotted off to karaoke where we had too much fun and stayed up way too late... BUT since the kids were occupodo, we got to sleep in, which pretty much made it the best birthday ever.

Saturday we met my folks and the kids at my sister's house for brownies, cheddar brats, and ice cream cake. As a bonus my cousin Mike and his wife showed up which was almost as cool as getting to play with Uncle Paul's Wii. (What? Was it something I said?) Anyway, yes, the kids fought over it like thoroughbred Americans. Fortunately it did not end in a Wii remote clubbing, which pretty much made it the best birthday ever.

They also got one last dunk at the pool before the end of the swimming season. Habti learned one last important lesson about pool safety:
Long story short, he imitated the pictograph perfectly, but did not; however, pay much attention to the English around it. He came up fast, crying, and holding the top of his head, all of which are good indicators that he was going to survive. Amazingly, the sign made more sense to him now than it did when I showed it to him before he conked his head. Maybe he'll pick up calculus the next time he bangs his noggin. :-)

Anyway, we went all summer without swimming in a community pool, (other than one trip to the water park) so I didn't really think about how loose we were with the poolside discipline. I figured we were doing good just getting them to jump in this pool without a run up. Watch the movie for variations on that theme before the 'feet first' rule. Apologies in advance for the craptacular-camera-in-the-bright-sun quality...

Yordi did about 35 of these 'dives' but I'm hoping she got them out of her system and won't take it out on our beds later. Surprisingly enough, the kids slept in the car on the way home and went straight to bed without books, kisses, oral hygiene, or any kind of hassle which pretty much made it the best birthday ever.

And the weekend was only half over... stay tuned for more!