Weekend Recap

Well. Monday has been eventful enough to get its own recap, so for now I'll just backtrack a couple of days to last weekend.

Friday kicked off with the much anticipated girls night out to see the new Twilight movie. 12 friends, all but one of us way too old to be watching teenage vampire romances, opening night. And it did not disappoint. Sometimes, no matter what you do, a night that was supposed to be fun, just isn't. And sometimes, nights that sound like they might be fun, just fall into place perfectly and are so. stinkin'. fun.

Silly, unintentionally matching t-shirts certainly help.

Telling funny stories while standing in line outside the theater, surrounded by Twilight-obsessed high school girls an hour before the movie is never what I would plan to do for entertainment, but it was so, so entertaining.

And RUNNING to the theater, smokin' past the gaggle of Twilight-obsessed high school girls so we could try to find 12 seats together, made my night.

There's a rumor floating around that pubescent manager at the theater wearing a vest and bow tie may have threatened to kick us out for running and a brief near-tackling episode. Don't believe everything you hear. We did NOT knock that 15 year old down.

After Twilight-appoluza, Saturday morning came much too early. Especially since we had to be at the parade site at 8:30am, looking cute and happy and ready to wave our pageant wave and smile "till our gums hurt", according to Dane.

We were asked to ride on a float for a local pregnancy center who advocates for adoption. Since we're pretty big fans of adoption, and have the requisite token adopted kid, we agreed. We met in a church parking lot, and were subsequently greeted by this sign:

Of course.

Now, let's have a little 4th grade math review.

We were asked to be at the parade site at 8:30 in the morning.

For a parade that was scheduled from 10am till 12 noon.

And we were riding float #116 out of about 130 floats, with horses, football teams, marching bands, and the like interspersed throughout.

If you've done the math, you'll quickly realize that Brandon and I, and the four children, were to sit on a float for about 4 hours. 3 1/2 of which would be basically parked, waiting for our turn in line. Outside of a donut shop, which is just torture for a float full of children on a Saturday morning. Speaking of torture, the music playing out of the back of the truck that pulled our float was "Greatest Hits From A Mississippi Children's Choir That You've Never Heard Of".

Which my daughters were not afraid to dance to.

Harper-lo found someone to walk her around for most of the morning.

If I had a bucket list, and it had "be in a parade" on it, I could check it off. It was a different experience for our family, something we don't normally do on a Saturday morning, and I'm glad we got an opportunity to participate. We did get some significant bonding time (4 hours of bonding time) with several other adoptive families, which was pretty neat. The kids loved the actual "parade" part of the morning, waving and holding their signs.

Saturday wrapped up with a blissfully unscheduled remainder of the day, gearing ourselves up for yet another very busy Sunday. After church Sunday morning, I loaded up the kids before 3rd service and headed home to get Harper down for a nap before a 2pm birthday party that she was invited to. It was a party at one of those "paint the piece of pottery" places, and we decorated a purple Tinkerbell that, according to Harper was "just so beautiful". (This is one of Harper's favorite phrases currently, and she is just so cute when she says it). This is the first time we have been to a birthday party for one of Harper's friends, and to her credit, Harper only once tried to strip off all of her clothes and try on some of the birthday girl's new outfits from her grandparents.

Sunday evening found me wishing that I had not left my camera at home. Brandon had a high school Pilgrim Night, complete with high schoolers Turkey Bowling. What is Turkey Bowling, you ask? Officially? My absolute favorite Thanksgiving-themed contest involving frozen poultry and baby oil. A quick how-to, so your family can enjoy this friendly family competition on Turkey Day:

Participants: 2 frozen turkeys, large tarp, 12 2-liter sodas, lots of baby oil. And an iron stomach.

1. Set up soda bottles at one end of tarp to resemble 2 bowling-pin formations, side by side.

2. Pour 1-2 large bottles of baby oil all over tarp.

3. Form 2 teams of bowlers, and, using the (packaged) turkey as a ball, see which team can be the first to score 10 spares or strikes. Don't worry, the turkey wrapper will only last a few throws, you will soon be bowling with a naked, raw bird, legs flapping with each toss, gravel embedded in the slimy skin from the over-enthusiastic throws of competitive teenagers.

4. Do not put your hands in your mouth until after you have washed all of the raw turkey nastiness off of them.

5. Just throw away the tarp. It's not worth cleaning off.

You're welcome in advance for introducing your family in what will become your most beloved Thanksgiving tradition. I promise you will enjoy this more than you like that yucky cranberry sauce with the "can imprints" on it.

I for one am looking forward to a week of Thanksgiving, spending time with family, and a little black Friday shopping. I love the predictability of Thanksgiving, especially after a few days of anything-but-routine events!