Starting 31 off with a bang

Wow, it is Monday and I am happily exhausted from this weekend.  We kicked off my 31st birthday with a bang!  Friday began with the kids sleeping in.  I know, the greatest gift for a mom ever:)  When I woke up at 7:45am we had to rush around a bit to get everyone fed, dressed and out the door to take Dawson to school.  Once we had dropped him off I headed to Walmart to get our groceries.  The cupboard were getting pretty bare around here.  Emma came with me to help me shop.  She was great but had to look at EVERYTHING.  Sometimes though I wish that I could slow down more and be excited about all the little things like she is.  We made it home and between unloading the groceries, lunch, a small nap and a shower the afternoon flew by and it was time to pick up Dawson from school.  Our babysitter for the evening came about 5 pm and then Dan and I were off to my birthday date night.  Yay!

Here is Dan and I ready for a night out.

I picked The Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It was awesome as always.  Dan laughed at me because I took a picture of my drink.  It was so yummy and pretty though I just needed a picture.  My delish sangria:)

Here is a picture of me branching out and trying something new.  Usually I stick with what I know and love, the plain cheesecake.  I decided it was time for me to live it up and I got the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake extravaganza.  It was amazing!

After dinner Dan and I left for the concert.  We were going to see our favorite singer/songwriters Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken.  It was a home show so when we arrived at the venue it was an actually house.  The concert was being played in the basement of the house! 

Here is a picture of the basement and how close we were to the front "stage".

 Dan and I waiting for the concert to start.  We were both pretty excited.  It seemed so surreal that our favorite artists were so close to us.

 This is Sandra McCracken playing her guitar.  She even played one of my favorite songs of hers called Awake My Soul.

They played and talk for two hours.  It was fun to listen to them share a little about how they came to write certain songs and I enjoyed watching them interact with each other.  They took a few requests and wrapped everything up around 10pm.  Dan and I left and kept commenting the whole way home how awesome the evening was.  We had gone on one of our very first dates together to see Caedmon's Call at in Bartlesville Oklahoma 10+ years.  It was great to see Derek Webb again so many years later with Dan.

On Saturday we were up and around relaxing in the morning.  Emma had her very first soccer game in the afternoon.  She was excited almost beyond words.  Emma did a great job running after the ball.  It was pretty funny because at each kick off she would take off running after the ball and yelling this Braveheart like battle cry.  It was awesome!

Emma and her soccer pose:)

 Emma listening to her coach on what she is supposed to be doing and being reminded where her goal is!

That evening we had my birthday party with the kids.  We had a yummy steak dinner and opened presents.  The kids were so excited to have me open the gifts that they had picked out for me.  Emma picked out some pretty lotions and Dawson picked out for me a Harry Potter Lego set.  As I was opening it he jumped up and down in excitement.  I wish that we would have had it on video.  My brother and sister in law came a little later in the evening and we all had cake together.

I made a Battlestar Galactica cake.  This is the eye of Jupiter for all you BG geeks out there:)



On Sunday we spent the day hanging out with my brother Bryan and my sister in law Emily.  It is so much fun to have them come and visit.  Bryan spent a couple of hours playing on the trampoline with the kiddos.  It is one of my favorite things to watch my brother hang out with my kids.  Dawson just adores him.  On Sunday evening we had some friends over for a Fantasy Football draft.  We had a fun time drafting our teams for the new season.  We ended a little late but all the kids played so well and it was a great ending to the weekend.  Over all thirty-one has started out well.  What a memorable weekend we were able to have together.