In Which Stephanie Wears Us All Out With Organized Activities

Two weeks ago, I got a text from Steph asking if we wanted to spend President's Day Weekend with her and Sarah Kate in Hunstville. She explained that Richard was going skiing and Sarah Kate was off school on Monday. Since we didn't have any plans, and since Hazel was off school as well, we decided to make the drive. We left on Friday after Hazel got out of school and arrived late Friday night. Little did we know how much fun stuff Stephanie had planned for us to do!

Saturday morning, we gathered everyone and all tromped to downtown Huntsville, where we painted some pottery at a cute little studio called Doodle Bug.

 Lisey's pottery turned out like most of her paint jobs, every color of the palette, all mixed into one brownish-grayish color. But she was proud of it, so who were we to argue with artistic genius?

Hazel painted a peace sign and Sarah Kate painted a really neat plate. We can't wait to see them once they're fired.

We worked up quite an appetite with all that creative inspiration, so we got some burgers for lunch. While we were at lunch, Steph suggested that since it is my birthday on Wednesday, she would take the girls back to the house for quiet time, while Glenn took me out to a movie. Such a treat! And I got to pick the movie too! We saw Argo and we loved it. After the movie, we headed back to Steph's where there was quite a surprise waiting for us. Literally, the girls had organized a surprise birthday for me! Complete with Twister:

And Just Dance on the XBox Kinect:

 

 And of course, cake and presents:

 

 

 Lisey helped me open my presents.

 And because Steph can't bear to leave anyone out, everyone got presents!

  

Look, Mom, AS SEEN ON TV!

And what is a party without silly hats and mustaches?

 You would think that all that partying Saturday night would have worn us out, and you would be right, but we had big plans on Sunday. We got up early and headed to the US Space and Rocket Center, which we had always wanted to visit, but somehow had never found the time to. Glenn was very excited.

 

 The Saturn V Rocket that you can see from the interstate. It was neat to finally see it up close.

 Sarah Kate and Lisey and I are ready to head into space, but why does Lisey look so shifty?

 I can't remember which number it was, but it is another Saturn class rocket, I think. Glenn wants to know what genius came up with the idea of riding an explosion into space. We found out at the Space and Rocket Center that that genius was named Werner Von Braun.

 I just liked it because I really liked the movie Apollo 13. Alas, we did not see Tom Hanks anywhere.

 Hazel thought the rockets were pretty cool.

 

And Glenn found this Command Module to play in.

 Oh no. He's pushing buttons...

 Gah! What did you do? What is all that beeping? Why does that sound like an alarm going off?

Lisey thinks maybe she would like to walk in an astronaut's footsteps one day. But her feet need to get a bit bigger first.

So, after such a big day, what do you think we did on Monday. We hung out around the house and played with Sarah Kate's toys, of course. Lisey especially liked the drums.

But all that drum-playing can make a person hungry, so we headed out for sushi.

 Aunt Stephanie got Hazel special chopsticks for her sushi, and she's pretty good with them.

 In fact, she is better than Glenn with her chopsticks.

Lisey doesn't believe you need chopsticks, especially when you are not going to eat any of that icky sushi. She'll stick with noodles, thank you very much.

Needless to say, we were completely worn-out by Tuesday morning, when we started the long drive home. We had an awesome time, though!