It has been a very busy past three days....

So much so, that the weekend review in pictures is the best way to summarize....

Saturday, Tabitha went to her first friend's "invitation-only" birthday party. Swam for almost 3 hours. Had a great time even though she was an 8 year old hanging out with the 10 yo set.

Earlier Saturday had involved a trip to Walmart to look for a "mid-sized" bike that would be easier to pedal and easier to stop. Tab didn't like the aesthetic choices, i.e. if it's not pink, it's not coming home. So instead, she ended up with a basic silver Razor scooter like the one that the new girls next door have. She also convinced Dad that she needed the $4 Cinderella wig for Halloween, but she needed it now to practice her princess skills. This is a stretch to imagine, but she wants to be a princess for Halloween.... We just didn't see that one coming.... {sarcastic snickering inserted here....}

She also played with my camera for a bit and got this unusal perspective of Tucker.

Sunday she was still zonked so I went to church by myself. That was a nice change. Got home and found this.

Safe to say.... It is Official....

I Live With SLOBS!!!

For self-torture only, I added it up last week and on average I spend 35-45 minutes a day, every day picking up after Tabitha & Michael. All six cats take less work....

Miss E. from next door adopted us this weekend since her mom was out-of-town on work. So she took part in Tabitha's first batch of chocolate chip cookies. Yum! Want some right now actually. The girls were in fact, thrilled with themselves. And Michael cleaned up most of the mess....

After the cookies were done we headed to our friend Ellen's home for some holiday R&R. Took Miss E. with us, since otherwise Tab would be the only "child-sized" kid there. All of us had a blast. The girls had fun swimming in the pool and diving from a real authentic diving board. But the favorite was all the arcade games that Ellen & Kenny have collected. No quarters required. 'Nuff said. I even got in on the action and set the new high score on the vintage pinball machine. Who knew I was so talented with the flipper bar? (185,580 points by-the-way!)

Once we got home, both girls campaigned for a sleep-over, so next thing I knew, we'd adopted Miss E. for the night. The girls had fun. Played on Michael's flight simulator for a bit. Watched Project Runway with me for a while. Then they camped out in the media room and binged on three movies in a row. Apparently they fell asleep at 02:30am and were up at 9. Our block lost power from about 8:30 to almost 11am. So once the girls were fed & cleaned up, Em went home. Tab was a whiney tired crank-monster all day. The kittens were non-existent all day too. They'd apparently stayed up with the girls to check out all the goings-on, and such a late night really put a crimp in their usual 18 hours of sleep!

Tab was determined though. She had one more day of bike practice to meet my requirements to ride her bike to school on Tuesday morning. So in spite of 8+ hours of rain, she got out there and practiced. Hard! See here for the beginnings of the bike saga. She has made some good progress in only about 5 days. Controls the 16"wheels well. Can ride with one hand, stops on a dime - with the brakes instead with feet, turns tight corners and still maintains her balance. So this was Labor Day, biking in the rain....