Friday Night Photos

I'm probably going to be late getting this post up. Luke and Riley are staying the night and holy smokes, it's been non-stop busy since they got here. Luke will be FIVE next month--can you believe it's been five years since I became an aunt?!--and Riley turned three in August. Hanging out with a three- and five-year old is super fun (and totally exhausting).

Becky and Brian wanted a "date night", so I volunteered to keep the kids overnight at my house. I also wanted a chance to take Luke to buy flowers for Becky for Valentine's Day. Luke really wanted to buy her flowers, so I told him he could pick any flowers he wanted--that his mom is SO special and she deserves really pretty flowers.

It was funny; we went to the floral shop (which I knew was going to be expensive, but this was a special thing I wanted to do for both Becky and Luke) and Luke didn't really care for any of the floral arrangements they had there. They were all $100+, which I would have paid if he found one he really loved, but he said he wanted to go to the grocery store instead where he knew they had pretty flowers.

So, we went to the grocery store and he picked out two bouquets (purple and pink), a little balloon, and a vase. I didn't want to influence his decision in any way, so I just let him pick what he thought Becky would like. It was cute to see his choices!

Anyway, here are the flowers he picked...

Isn't that so sweet? The kids made Valentine's Day cards, too...

Since I had the Elmer's glue out, I decided to show them something I remember doing back in elementary school...

Anyone else remember rubbing Elmer's glue on your hand and letting it dry, then peeling it off like this? The kids were totally freaked out and didn't want to try it! Hahaha, they said it looks like it hurts.

Some other fun from today...

I played this game that Luke brought (called "Eye Found It!") and it was actually really fun! You know those games you have to suffer through when you're a parent (like Candyland) and you just play because it'll make your kids happy, but you'd rather be doing anything else? Yeah, this game isn't like that at all. I thought it was super fun. Becky said there are other versions of it, too, so I'm going to have to look that up when I'm not so exhausted.

I thought it was so cute the way Luke (Lucas) wrote his name on the chalkboard. I didn't even realize what he'd done until he pointed it out when he was done. I guess the clock hands got in his way, so he just improvised!

Jerry let the kids "steer" him by pulling on his ears. So if they wanted to turn right, they pulled on his right ear and left ear for turning left. They thought this was hilarious. And pulling both ears made him back up.

Then I told the kids to try to make Jerry laugh. They could do anything they wanted and he would try to sit stone-faced. They acted super silly and Jerry scared the bejeezus out of all of us when he suddenly burst out laughing SO HARD and loud. (Clearly doing it for their sake, but it was really funny. One of these days, I'll have to post a video of Jerry's "ridiculous laugh"--you can't help but laugh out loud with it.)

We ended the night how we always do... a movie night. Riley said this was her best sleepover ever. (She always says the cutest things that just warm your heart.)

Despite how it looks from the pictures, *I* actually do fun things with the kiddos, too! Jerry just never thinks to take a picture of a cute moment. (It's the same from when my kids were little--I wish I had more pics with them, but I was always the one taking the pictures!)

Other random photos from this week...

Jerry, Noah, and Eli all watch some Star Wars show once a week or so and I usually just go read in my bedroom. When I was walking in there, I stopped to take this picture because I love that they have this little tradition that they all really enjoy together.

I was eating some of my olive tapenade and Duck came up to me to check out what I was eating, like he always does. When he sniffed the tapenade, he went nuts! He grabbed onto my hand and was pulling it toward his mouth. I thought he'd be repulsed by it (it's mostly olives). I dabbed my finger into the tapenade and let him lick it and he was on a huge mission to get more. So I had to google it, and this is what I found...

I thought that was really interesting! I know a LOT about cats, but that's new to me. The sources I read said that it's safe for them to eat olives (just a couple per week, and unsalted plain green olives are best).

Speaking of Duck... this was a really difficult and awkward photo to try to take, but this is how he sleeps from about 2:30 AM to the time I get up (anywhere from 4:00 to 6:00). He lies on my pillow and drapes himself across my face. It seems like it would be totally uncomfortable, but his purring while pressed up to my ear like that is the most soothing feeling. I love it.

I thought it was funny that Duck chose to sit right on top of my computer so I grabbed my phone to take a picture. The picture makes me crack up--he looks like a total emo cat! Jerry said it looks like a "please adopt me" shelter photo--a "before" picture, looking all depressed.

And finally, the random fact of the day...

I am totally guilty of this! Even in my blog posts I'll do it sometimes (I have to try REALLY hard not to put winky faces everywhere in my posts). I really think there needs to be a "sarcasm" font to really convey that you're being sarcastic! Because I am a shy introvert, people tend to think that I'm a very serious person; but I'm not at all. It's especially hard while blogging to show the "usual" side of me because sarcasm just can't be written!