The Meaghers are HERE!

We have been waiting for the arrival of our good friends from Baltimore for a month or more. It is their spring break and they are traveling south to visit colleges, go to the ACC, play golf in Pinehurst and visit us! They are 7 and we are 5 so the house will be full of 12 (plus 2 dogs). After arriving Friday night, the boys all went to the ACC, and the girls went shopping a little and out to dinner. We all gathered back at the house later, and stayed up visiting until 1am . OMG I was tired! Saturday, I went to a Girl Scout event then by noon (after the boys hit golf balls, little ones went to the park etc..) we all headed to Chapel Hill for the afternoon. Beautiful day! We had a late lunch at Top of the Hill, which was yummy, then walked around campus. Probably would have stayed longer had we not been chased back to our cars by torrential rain! Everybody crashed on the way home and when we got back! Later we ordered pizza, the big kids went "out" but all managed to be in bed by midnight. Sunday was laid back. The dads took all 8 kids to the Fan Fest at the coliseum for a couple of hours. Then the boys played golf all afternoon while the girls lunched out, shopped, and went to the Bog Garden. Grilled out for dinner and final night celebration (with many bottles of wine!) with great friends! Sad to see you go but had so much fun! See you on Thursday when we go to the zoo! Check out her blog too! diaryofanoverachievingmom@blogspot.com

lunch with an author

My St. Patty's Day keeps getting better and better! Today I had lunch with author Sarah Addison Allen! Okay, it was with about 20 other people too but who cares! It was at our downtown library and the lunch was barbeque because that meal is featured in her book. The library was celebrating SAA's newest novel, The Girl Who Chased The Moon. There was a door prize of a charm bracelet because it is featured in the book as well. I did not win, exactly, but my mother did and she gave it to me!! So I did WIN! Thanks, mom! I love this native Asheville, North Carolina author. Her first two books, Garden Spells and Sugar Queen are two of my favorite "magical realism" books. They are sweet stories with quirky magical elements intertwined. I can't wait to read the newest next week on spring break. Great day and it is only early afternoon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

One of my favorite holidays!! This is M. before leaving for school. She was ready, dressed in green and wanted to put bubble wrap in front of our doors to "hear" the leprechauns when the come visiting. The big girls did not even care about wearing green. Oh well. The day started out good and will only get better, ending with date night on the town with H!

Finally Finished!

I have finally finished my ruffle scarf!! I bought the yarn when I was in St. Helena, California at the beginning of February. The yarn is variegated in color and you have to use tiny needles and knit from one side to the other as opposed to end to end. So you cast on 658 stitches and decrease to 150 then add back to 658! It took longer than expected, obviously, BUT I love, love, love it!! Yea me!

Knock out punch

Biggest news of the weekend. . . M lost a tooth (#4 but whose counting). She did not however loose it in the traditional way. She has become a wrestler! Yes that is right! She now wrestles. But having grown up in a house full of girls she did not get any practice at home. This is a new sport for her and she does it with a neighbor, A BOY! M has done it now about 3-4 times and really enjoys it! Well Saturday night, while wrestling with Thomas (aka her "boy toy", by her sisters) she got a fat lip and her tooth came out! There was some commotion at first because she thought she had swallowed it but after scouring the rug, the tooth was found! Yippee! She was VERY, VERY excited about the fact that Thomas and she had both lost teeth on the same day and that he had knocked hers out! She told EVERYONE- neighbors, friends, strangers, clergy, and more. Thomas's parents were not quite so thrilled. Oh well, she is a third and we didn't think twice about it! M. left a note for the tooth fairy asking to please leave the tooth because "it is special".

Dr. Seuss Week

Big week in first grade! Dr. Seuss's b-day is March 2nd so the whole week was comprised of Dr. Seuss activities. The kids ate green eggs and ham ("it looked like barfe" according to M), read almost all his books, learned about the author's life, wrote their own rhyming tales and dressed in crazy outfits with funky socks for the Foot Book on Friday. M. had such a good time and really learned a lot. But now she really only wants to wear socks that DON'T match!

Girl Scouts on Thinking Day

We celebrated Thinking Day, where you "think" about girl scouts around the world and celebrate scouting with others at Skateland. Big fun for the little ones especially! My two older girls decided not to participate in Thinking Day and stayed home- party poopers!!