More Weekend Randoms

Last week was what I call socially exhausting, even for me. We had friends over Wednesday, I went to girls-nite-out on Thursday, and we got a sitter and went out with friends Friday. Whew! Thank goodness for the weekend. Once Saturday hit we enjoyed some at-home activities.

Monica had her friend Alice over to play on Saturday morning. Thankfully she is one of Monica's calmer friends. The weather was sunny all weekend, so the girls took advantage of the swing set. Poor little brother didn't have big sis to push him on the swing this time!

...But he did have his dad to hang out with! I have to say, Jack LOVES his daddy. He follows him around constantly (so cute). Luckily he didn't get too close while Anton spent the better part of the weekend splitting wood, however Jack did watch with fascination from afar. Below you can see him standing close to the action while Anton is on a break.

Sunday while Anton was out helping his dad, the kids and I went to the garden store and picked out some flowers. Monica is REALLY into helping me these days, even with something as dirty as planting flowers. However, she opted to pull them out of their pots while I planted. Her comment when I'm up to my elbows in soil: "Ugh, I'm glad I don't have THAT job!"

We also went to the library. We have always loved using the library, but never with the zeal shown so far in 2009. Both J and M are very into reading these days and both will spend hours reading on their own (or in Jack's case, turning pictures and pointing at things). Anton and I also spend a lot of time reading to them, and I recently realized that I enjoy this activity a lot more if I haven't read the book to them A HUNDRED TIMES! So, we are now checking out at least a dozen books a week. We usually go on Wednesdays when Monica is out of school early, but this week we waited until Sunday. Since library visits have become more frequent, we have been clearer about our library ground rules:

1. Read to yourself first, then Mommy will read. (This gives me 10 minutes or so to browse for myself.)

2. Pick out 4 books you want to take home. But Mom also gets to choose some. This brings us to about 12. (I've taken to bringing in one of those re-usable shopping bags for our weekly book haul.)

3. No choosing books we've recently checked out or already have at home. Yes, they do actually try this!

4. No using the games on the kids computers. We came here to read, not to play video games. (Aren't I mean?)

5. And finally, only one book per series at a time. I'm not going to suffer through a week with nothing but Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder to read!!!

Despite this questionable look, Jack was quite enthused by his new stack of books today!