Yes, I have trouble with math. And bowling.

After the kids' basketball games last week, we spent THREE LONG HOURS working in our church's concession stand. Ima just go ahead and point out that math is not my strong suit. I would also like to say that if I was in charge of the concession stand, everything would be an equal DOLLAR. None of this $.25 or $1.75 stuff. That's just dumb. You want an Airhead? Yep, a DOLLAR. A coke? That's also a DOLLAR. I was proud that I only had to break the calculator out for a few orders. Shew! (And you people with kids -- have them make up their minds before they come to the window. None of this changing their minds mid sentence!) I kid. Sort of...

Since it was such a long day for me, we decided to meet up with some friends and take the  kids bowling. I have a hate-hate relationship with bowling. As my husband puts it, "To some people, bowling just comes natural. That doesn't happen to you." Nice. Ha! I was happy to find out that only the children were bowling. The parents just got to sit and chat. (Thank you, Jesus.)

My kids LOVE it! Maggie was hilarious. She would walk up to the lane and literally throw the ball on the ground. It would then take about two minutes for the ball to travel to the pins. Levi is pretty good. Seems he is one of those people it comes natural to. ;-)

Love my babies!

Switching gears -- on Tuesday night, we channeled our inner "retirement home" personalities and headed to Levi's school to play Bingo. 

Reading Bingo, that is! Now THIS was something I could do.

Emmy was one of the first ones to get Bingo. They had a table full of fun books and anytime a child yelled "BINGO!", they got to pick out a new book. Super cute!

Levi picked out a book about Pearl Harbor. 

Super excited to be there...

See this lil' face here? Can you tell she'd been crying? Uh, yeah. Maggie started bawling because she didn't get a Bingo right away, so THE TEACHER CAME OVER, GRABBED HER HAND, WALKED HER TO THE TABLE AND LET HER PICK OUT A BOOK. OY. She can throw down tears like nobody's business. 

Super fun night! I was hesitant to go, but I'm so glad we did. Looking forward to many more fun things at school.

Getting old: Gretchen's birthday edition

So, THIS was a conversation between Jami, Gretchen and me the other night:

I couldn't help but chuckle the entire time! Oh how our conversations have changed over the years. :-)

It did get me thinking that I never blogged about GRETCHEN'S 40TH BIRTHDAY! What a bad BFF. So, I jumped into the archives of November and started downloading some pictures. It was a sweet reminder of a really fun evening. I'm kind of glad I waited. Now I get to chase away some of the January blues.

It was pretty much an evening a year in the making. A lot of our convos would end with G saying, "OMG, I'm going to be 40! What are we going to do?!" Ultimately, she decided on a night on the town when she was home over Thanksgiving break. That meant getting all gussied up. 

She picked a wonderful restaurant in Louisville called Varanese. It was perfect. Great atmosphere, fabulous food, and pretty awesome company. ;-)

From the beginning, our selfie game was pretty strong. 

Somehow, we managed a good shot after 49 tries.

Okay, back to the food. I mean restaurant. It was SO nice! They had our table reserved and it was very elegant. We thoroughly enjoyed just spending time together.

These are three of the best guys you will ever come across. Love each of them dearly.

And, I could not love these girls more.

There were two guys playing some great little jazz music and after dinner - as if on cue - they started playing "Happy Birthday To You". 

All for this little chica!

I think she was pleasantly surprised and loved her birthday dessert. 

Love these peeps!

After dinner, we headed to 4th Street to keep celebrating. (Hilarious moment: G thought she left her phone at the restaurant. She, of course, flipped out because she is very dramatic. Paul and Eric dashed off to make sure she hadn't dropped it in our car. While they were frantically looking, she found it in her pocket. If only looks could kill...)

On with the night! One more of the ladies (before my pictures came to a screeching halt.)

And, the guys...

Operation give-Gretchen-a-fabulous-40th was a huge success!

Sooo very thankful for this girl and that we get to do life together. I miss her dearly. When she moved, I worried how it would change our friendship. It has only made it better.

Love you, G. Happy 40th. Here's to 40 more!

When you're 10 and your uncle drives a limo, your birthday is pretty cool!

My favorite Griffin just turned 10. How is that possible? 

I guess seeing that he had heart surgery and all, his parents thought they would give him a big birthday bash. So, they rented this: 

Yes, that is a stretched Hummer.

How awesome is that?

They asked Griffin what he wanted to do for his birthday. He wanted to take some friends from school to Laser Blaze and play laser tag. So, Jenny sent out invitations and told Griffin she and Travis would pick him and his friends up from school last Friday. Yay, right? What they didn't tell him was that they rented a limo to ride in.

G's face was awesome as he walked out to the car rider line...

The boys screamed in excitement and rushed to jump inside!

I guess it's a pretty cool thing when your uncle has connections and can drive the limo. ;-)

Travis and Jenny were strong in their selfie game.

After a 30 minute drive, we had a whole lot of kids READY TO BURN OFF SOME ENERGY!

Suited up and ready to shoot people...

I'm thinking Eric and Travis were taking their sniper positions a little too seriously. I half expected them to break out some hand signals and throw some grenades. 

After shooting people, it was time for the kids to use up some tokens. I guess Travis felt it was his responsibility to show everyone his sheer strength. 

Yes, Travis, we are proud of the tickets you won.  Now, let's move on.

And, what evening would be complete without the girls wanting a picture in the limo WITHOUT all the stinky boys?! Too sweet :)

Happy 10th birthday, Griffin! We love you!!