Kidnapped

Friday GR walked in the door, home from work 3 hours early, told the kids to get their shoes on and me to pack an overnight bag. He wouldn't say where we were going, only that he'd made reservations at a bed and breakfast and that we had a bit of a drive, so don't think too much about what to pack. So while he took the kids to his parents, I took lighting fast shower and packed.

This is not the first time he has rearranged my weekend for us take off for a surprise destination. The first trip we made was Halloween weekend 2004 to visit our friends Rob and Amy in New York City. With it being Halloween, he had lots of rearranging to do... covering all the things I had agreed to do for parties at school and church, etc. The number of people he involved to cover everything was pretty amazing - and he didn't leave anything out. It's scary and cool that he (his words not mine) "can control my life" ... meaning, cover all my responsibilities ... that he even knows all my responsibilities ... and can have them all covered behind my back, keeping the entire event a HUGE surprise without anyone spilling.

This time we stayed a little closer to home and went to an elegant Bed and Breakfast in Kansas City called the Chateau Avalon. It's up by the Speedway, so we spent the evening walking around Legends, a large outdoor shopping mall. The weather was shopping and since this was my weekend, I took the opportunity to shop! I got some fabulous pieces from Ann Taylor that I am really excited about! We had a simple surf and turf dinner at Outback and had a great time just catching up and allowing all the stresses of day to day life melt away.

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

A few years ago I started a tradition of having GR take my picture with the kids on or around Mother's Day and I wanted to share the results ... isn't he a fantastic?

The Birthday Party - Success!

We had four kids from school and three from church join us and I think everyone had a really good time. We read a few stories, ate dinner, did a couple Mad Libs and played a version of pin the tail on the donkey, ate cupcakes and ice cream, played an spontaneous, yet exciting, round of musical chairs, took a group picture and open presents.

A while back I learned about a little website called Leafletter that allows you to share tons of photos on your blog without taking up huge amounts of space. I thought this event might be a good one to test on this little deal. It's pretty cool! All the pictures have descriptions and you should be able to click on them to make them larger.