you say it's your birthday

We celebrated Maeve's birthday just a little early this weekend! Maeve had a "girls night out" with her best schoolfriend Kaitlyn and Maeve's cousin Natalie on Saturday night. We took the girls to the movie (Space Chimps - how hilarious!) and to dinner at Petrow's. Then it was time for "girls night IN", as we went back to our house so the girls could enjoy Maeve's new karaoke machine. Quiz me. I could now tell you ALL the lyrics I was unsure about before to all Hannah Montana and High School Musical songs! The sleepover girls stayed up past midnight (they say until 1am, but they were awfully quiet just after midnight :) and then went to church and the pool on Sunday.

Sunday evening we had both sides of the family over for Sean's famous pizzas and his delicious chocolate cake. Lots of fun, more singing, great gifts, and awesome food made for a great night for the birthday girl. Fletch had a riot all weekend too. They both love it when they get a "gram slam" weekend (all 4 great & grandmothers were present)!

hot fun in the summertime

Lots of summer fun this weekend! Saturday the kids and I cheered on Sean's team at the kickball tournament (above). Very hot and humid, but lots of fun to watch!!

Saturday night I had a great time at Mamma Mia (the movie) with my girl friends :)

Then Sunday our family joined my parents, grandparents, siblings, niece/nephews at the Salt Dog game in Lincoln. We had the use of a skybox, with spotty air conditioning :) for the game - and we had a great time. Here are some photos: mom with Grandma Cushing - Clayton, Austin and Maeve, the kids with Grandma Haney and Dick, and Fletch hamming for the camera.





After the game the kids had a great time running the bases! Here's Maeve about to cross home plate, and Fletcher leading a small pack of runners.

the more things change, the more they stay the same

We had a very busy weekend! Sean's 20 year high school reunion was this week, which led Sean to yell "Class of '88 Rocks!" a lot. The Westside enthusiasm was in high gear, leading to a couple late nights. It's always a little strange to attend these functions as a spouse - even more strange when one girl said she remembered my name but couldn't quite remember what my senior picture looked like (maybe that's because I went to Lincoln East High School!). But Sean and I did both have a lot of fun catching up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

One of Sean's classmates did a presentation during the reunion about how much has changed - for example, 20 years later you're more than twice as old as when you graduated from high school. Very scary. Very true, but nonetheless very scary. From my perspective however, the essence of our friends hasn't changed much at all. Granted I have a limited view - just the last 10-11 years or so - but Sean still has a lot of great friends! A lot of their stories from "back in the day" or "those 80s" as Maeve calls them, haven't changed much either (save for the embellishments - which seem to be added either to make them more interesting, or because their memory is slipping just a bit in their old age).

The kids were busy Friday night with their Aunt Katie and Saturday night in Lincoln with my family at my dad's employee picnic at Champions Fun Center. Needless to say, they're quite tired. So exhausted in fact, that Sean tells me they slept in until 10am this morning!

Here's to another fun week :)

just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Maeve had another swim meet last night - and she did great! I think she is really enjoying it - or at least she's enjoying writing all over herself in marker (not sure why they do that, but they have fun doing it!). The writing amounted to: Eat my bubbles, I Rock, Rockbrook, Maeve, Kaitlyn etc. I'm sure my dad enjoys this picture since he never liked when I came home with marker on my hands! She was in the 25M backstroke, and in two relays - one doing the backstroke the other doing freestyle. The backstroke is her favorite! Maeve's the one in the front lane without a swim cap.

Fletch is so thankful that his buddy Jack also has a sister on the Rockbrook swim team!! :)
The dark looming clouds only produced a little rain at Field Club so the meet went on, and we had a great time there.

my best friend's girl

My vacation was complete with a visit at home from my best friend Katie, and her daughter Clara. Also joining us - Kari, Mary and Amy and their kids. It was a crazy little playdate, and a great time to catch up with old friends!

celebrating independence

Once back in Omaha, we did take Wednesday - Sunday to celebrate our independence! We had fun celebrating both the anniversary of our beloved USA, and my independence from work (I was still on vacation!).

The pictures are of the kids at the Henry Doorly Zoo and at Sean's parent's house on the Fourth (Maeve is being held by her 10 year old cousin, Lily from Casper).

vacation, all I ever wanted...

Just struggling to get back to work after a great family vacation! We left Wednesday June 25 for Kittredge, CO to stay with Robb and Mary. We were lucky enough to be joined by Alex, Leanna and Lacey Lepper for a combined vacation - which was a riot. Couldn't have asked for better hosts or better friends to share the time with. We had lots of fun in the mountains, at Red Rocks, shopping and even an adults night out Saturday to Little Bear in Evergreen - what a great, great time! :)

From there we trekked up to Casper, WY that Sunday to stay with Sean's sister Theresa and her family. They showed us a great time at Lake Alcova and up in the mountains for a little meadow picnic. It was great to finally visit them in Casper.

Then Tuesday it was back to Omaha for us, by way of lunch at Ole's Big Game restaurant in Paxton, for some rest, relaxation and recovery from vacation! The huge storm had hit Omaha while we were in CO on Friday - and our power was luckily restored Monday night, less than 24 hours before our return - whew!

My digital camera was delivered to my office the day after we left for vacation (nice timing) - so hopefully I'll have some photos to upload later to this post.