In like a lion, out like a lamb

My DD's birthday arrived recently. She sang "Happy birthday to me" a multitude of times. To celebrate, we loaded up in the minivan and crawled (awful traffic!) to dinner. She had chosen the restaurant several days in advance, but DH decided to play a little prank and told her that we were going to a different destination, to which she interjected: "Red Lobster is di'gusting. I looooooove Chuck E. Cheese! Yum, yum!"

She had a marvelous time - Chuck E. Cheese came out to sing to her, and the DSes seemed to enjoy themselves, too. At least until the end when exhaustion and impatience took reign. We returned home and shipped them off to bed. DD, of course, decided she didn't want to sleep and spent the next 2 hours getting up and being put back into bed. I woke up with her in our bed, again.

Monday, my parents come to town for a week. The kiddoes are rather excited. I'm trying to come up with ideas to keep everyone entertained: rodeo (not that I enjoy it that much, but the kids seemed to enjoy the getting their booklets stamped and petting the animals last time), children's museum, and who knows what else. I'm actually taking a full week off from work! I haven't done that in years...other than when I got married and became a SAHM for a couple of years. They are staying in a motel so that they don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn with the grandkids, who are notorious for bounding into grandparents rooms by 5:30 a.m. to "snuggle" (which really means roll around and chitchat and bounce and say "shhhhhh" to each other.