Monday, June 29, 2009

It's been a while... but oh the things that have been happening!

June is almost over which means two things:

1. One third of our summer is already past us

2. It's almost my birthday

Since the kids get out of school so early (May 22 this year!) our summer starts fast and keeps gaining speed. I feel it whizzing by and my head wants to spin because we haven't even done the things I wanted to do.

I start every summer with ideas of keeping the kids entertained. How I wish we lived in the days where you just rode your bike around the neighborhood and played games with the neighbor kids. My girls don't have video games that keep them in the house; there just aren't many kids in the neighborhood to play with. So I had planned on having swimming days, library days, craft days, and such. I was going to incorporate the rest of our study of Esther (which we started last summer and never finished). So far we have gone swimming once, been to the library once and haven't even cracked our Bibles (together at least... still hoping the girls are reading their Bibles on their own time). But to be optimistic, we still have 2/3 of our summer left, so there is no reason not to get started on some of these goals. I think I will do just that... tomorrow. :o)

Part of the reason I haven't done much in the way of entertaining the kids is that I have been busy with appointments and such. Orthodontic, dentist, and church meetings. Add in the fact that two of my girls go to their mom's every other week, and the whole schedule gets hard to maintain.

Another reason we haven't followed through is because of #2... June is almost over and that means my birthday!! July 1st marks my 35th birthday and I wanted to celebrate with a party. I Looooove parties. I love having a birthday and getting all the attention. Really, I am quite the birthday diva. Hey, it's only once a year! So, I decided to host a backyard bunco birthday bash. In MY backyard. The backyard that is full of weeds and such.

For the past two weeks Phil and I, as well as Melanie and my good friends Kim and Virginia, have been planning, pruning, tilling, and planting. It doesn't look like much work went into it, now that the areas we focused on are finished, but Phil told me that it shouldn't look like you did a bunch of work. Phil pruned trees and tilled up my flower garden areas, then dug up irises and transplanted at least 50... Kim and Virginia helped me decide what plants would work well for the areas to landscape. Kim and I did a bunch of shopping and I planted 2 pygmy barberry shrubs which I promptly dug up and replanted one full size barberry. I also planted 8 candytufts which will also be dug up and moved out (they are too close together). I put in 48 petunias, 8 marigolds, and 8 dianthus; 6 hostas and one bleeding heart finished things up. I also filled a broken whiskey barrel fountain with dirt and planted some nierembrugia (or something like that) with some pink carnations and cirrus (Dusty Miller). Phil hung up a planter I filled with petunias... the lemon zest are my new favorite. I have had so much fun learning the names of flowers and plants and knowing what they are and where to put them! It is not so overwhelming now as it once was. I am excited to see everything grow and fill in!

Once the planting was done, it was time to set up for the party which we had yesterday. I invited 50+ women and had 16 come; since Melanie and I played, it brought our total to 18. Some women brought their daughters, who entertained themselves by drawing, coloring, and playing in the treehouse.

Bunco was a blast. Some of the women hadn't played before, and our rules are a bit different, so there was some explaining to do, but everyone caught on and soon we were "ROLLING!" I missed Andrea (Moser, who was the leader of our bunco group...) I loved how she always got us back on track when we would start chattering... a hefty "ROLLING!" always got us moving again.

I appreciated the way these women were so friendly with one another. Each person there probably only knew three others, so there was a lot of introducing and getting to know each other. The only bummer is that Bunco doesn't give you much time to visit before you are moving on to another table.

I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The weather was perfect, the cake and punch delicious, the friends delightful! I was given cards and sweet gifts (which made me feel strange... just having my friends there was a gift to me. I was actually dumbfounded. I had no idea how to respond to such graciousness!)

Even my husband was picture perfect. Running the dog to the groomer, running back to see if I needed anything, running our daughter off to babysit. He didn't mind at all that we had a flock of hens (and a few chicks) running around our yard and in our house!

So, a beautiful backyard, a gorgeous afternoon with good friends, pizza dinner later... but wait, there's one more thing (that always makes me think of the old Ginsu knife commercials... but wait, there's more!) Anyway... all of this wonderful-ness, and it's not even my birthday! Nope... my birthday is coming up this Wednesday. THe party wasn't even the beginning. Angie and I went out to lunch last Friday, and then had pedicures together. Then the backyard bunco bash yesterday, and I still have two days until my birthday!! Wonder what will come next? Wish I could say "Disneyland" but that is just not happening this year. Still, I am excited to see what the next couple of days hold for me. Spontaneous road tripping? Dinner and a movie? Sitting in my beautiful backyard with a good book?

Life couldn't get much better. And that is good.