Red, white, and blue, and Harry Potter too

What a great fourth we had! We wore red, white, and blue all weekend, and had plenty of great company to keep us all entertained. I was THRILLED that Ben had the 3rd off of work, especially since the poor guy was going to have be on call on the fourth (thus spending the night through to the 5th). Ben's parents and sister's fam came to spend the night at our place on Friday - so we had 2 full days to hang out. And Ben's cousin Erik and his cute family came on Saturday to play as well (good luck to Diana whose having her second little girl on Wednesday!). So, we went swimming at two different community pools, bbq'd, watched a bunch of Harry Potter (in preparation for the Harry Potter 6 movie coming out next Wednesday (we're all nerds), played games, and just enjoyed hanging out and eating tasty holiday treats. And before everyone headed home, the kids threw around a bunch of poppers in the driveway. Now we're back to the regular routine which includes swim lessons, grocery shopping, cleaning, and taking our poor van into the shop to get fixed. You know I'm settling into the single mommy mode when I have the fortitude to take my own car in to get repaired with all 3 kids in tow. :)

Chicken and what?!

Can I tell you how much I love all the holidays through January and February? It's a great way to spring back from all the fun of Christmas since there is still so much to celebrate... and they're all simple holidays so all you have to do something small and it creates for such a fun day. Well, yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, so we had Ben's parents and sister's family over for a themed dinner. Now, you all will think we're super weird and crazy, but we decided to try eating chicken and waffles. Ben and I had been hearing about this for a while from Ben's brother and honestly I didn't believe it would be good (the concept reminded me of the Friends' episode where Rachel puts the beef in the trifle!). So, chicken and waffles is a southern dish and along with it we tried out a fun red white and blue drink in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day and the big Inauguration Day to follow. I couldn't believe how yummy it all was! Chicken and waffles with syrup drizzled all over the top was really delicious (and incredibly fattening... we opted against having a dessert to accompany the meal... but isn't that what holidays are for? to eat yummy fattening food?!)

So, other holidays/events coming up are the following (if any of you are looking for a reason to celebrate!):
January 26- Chinese New Year
February 1- Superbowl Sunday
February 2- Groundhog Day
February 14- Valentines Day
February 16- President's Day (and Emma's birthday!)

Happy celebrating!

A much needed holiday break

Happy Fourth of July everyone (a little belated)! I'm happy to say that Ben finished his second set of Boards on Thursday. He still has the DO boards to take on Monday (sigh), but he feels a lot of relief having gotten the USMLE (MD boards) all done.... but now he's just stressed about his scores, which he won't get for 6 weeks. I'm willing to bet he did AWESOME, because he did awesome on the first set he took. Ben is such a great test taker (and I am not!) - I guess it's good he has that skill, because he's had to take a lot of tests in his lifetime so far. :/ Anyway, we were happy to take a little holiday break from all this testing - we left after Ben got home from his Thursday test and headed to the Squaw Peak Hilton Resort in Phoenix (I love resorts in town, because you feel like you're really getting away, but still only 20 minutes from your house!). We shared a large casita with Ben's family - it was a seriously good time! We lived in the pool while we were there - it was fun because the resort had a fun mini water park (lazy river, super fun slide, and various pools)... we also had a small pool and hot tub right next to our room (which was only to be shared among a few other casita's) - so it was fun having a more private pool in addition to the big one. I was so proud of Emma and her swimming! She's been a real wuss this summer and not wanting to practice her swimming much without arm floaties (is that a harsh thing to say?) - well, she did so great this weekend swimming all on her own. She starts swimming lessons in one week, so I was glad to see her finally be brave and have fun in the water. She went down the water slide a few times too! On Friday we went to a movie - we saw Wall-E again! None of the rest of the family had seen it yet, so we got to see it twice. I liked it even more the second time - and I was glad to see my robot crush again... I was missing him. ;) Eve sure is a lucky girl. Friday night we played games and watched the fireworks on the tv. :) What a relaxing holiday!