i do have a real job, you know...

besides keeping my blog up. thanks for everyone's concern, though! you can always tell when my boss is out of the office. you'll see i have WAY more frequent posts. it's been a bit of a busy time in my working world. as for today, it's a friday afternoon and i should be packing it all in for another weekend but if i don't give out some kind of update, i'll be starting a trend of not following through on things i am supposed to keep up with-- kind of like my new years resolution and my lenten discipline!!

i'm a year older. nobody cares, myself included, but i'm officially middle-aged according to my own self-reflection. (nobody else's, so don't whine about how young i REALLY am.) my girls brought me flowers and we had a nice dinner and noone went to a lot of trouble and it was all very nice-- that's the way i like it.

now, my baby is a year older too. juliet turned four last sunday. sniff, sniff. as everyone in my world knows, we only do birthday parties when it is absolutely necessary. this was juliet's first celebration of her birth. georgia had one at four years also, and now i'm in the clear until at least--the very least-- georgia turns seven. or eight. or maybe even nine. i just hate the birthday party thing. but this year, it was fabulous. i broke out my old-school tricks and we had a mcdonald's birthday party. for less...way, way less... than i would spend for a party at home, eighteen of our close personal friends had 2 hours of crazy play time, a happy meal, birthday cake, a goody bag, decent decorations, and i didn't have to set up or clean up. this was awesome! i highly recommend it. however, the key was going to a swanky part of charlotte for the mcdonalds because the children refer to our local one as the 'dirty mcdonalds'. pictures are below, but i have a friend sending hers to me because my camera battery died. i'll post those when they arrive. we brought the loot home to open, so i have pictures of party #1 and party #2.

juliet got a bike from the birthday fairy. while kevin had the wrench out putting it together, he took off the training wheels on georgia's bike. we've practiced a few times and she's getting the hang of it. in the grass. without using the brake. on a completely flat surface. only time will tell how dramatic this endeavor becomes, and i'll keep you posted.

note the birthday cake. made from scratch-- my favorite, coconut!!! it was so good. i've convinced at least one of my kids that this, too, is HER favorite cake and she now requests it on her birthday. MASTER brainwasher that i am.... but no, of COURSE i didn't make it. this was my mom's contribution.

party #3 involved a cake at preschool. another sugar-infused afternoon of fun. by the end of the weekend, i was birthday-ed out.

on february 14th, my little valentines woke up with new t-shirts on their beds. they looked sweet for about four seconds yesterday morning, so i took their picture. sweet babies. they worked so hard writing their names on their valentines, and it's fun to see how excited they get when their friends give them valentines back. reminds me of when i was a kid....

that's it! pictures finally made it up here. it's president's day and noone told me until the last minute that my office is actually closed today, so here i sit. i guess i'll use my time wisely and clean up the mounting pile on my desk. happy monday.