Dates and turtles and pools, oh my!

"We had a busy weekend" has become such a broken record in our family that I will not even preamble this post with a big ole paragraph, but instead I'll just launch right into the photos.

Friday night, Lester and I went out on a double date with our friends Antwyne and Mari. We had a great time eating up all the food at Fork &Wrench (and drinking a cocktail made just for me by the amazing bartender, Jay. It's called a "Squishy." Ask for it next time you go there. He puts it through the carbonater, so it's really fun watching him make it! Also it is GOOD.) And then we ended up having a few more drinks at Wit and Wisdom, which is Antwyne's fave spot.

Saturday morning, we dragggggggged ourselves out of bed and took the kids to Masonville Cove for Science Alive, where they learned all about turtles.

Here, they're watching a turtle race. I thought it was hilarious that Dean waited to see which turtle looked like he was going to win, and then declared, "That one is mine!" So when that turtle did indeed cross the finish line, he yelled, "Yaaay! My turtle won!" Hahahaa!

The turtle race was actually more thrilling than watching some of the World Cup games. IJS.

Here, all the kids are pretending to be turtles inside their paper-plate shells. Except for my child, Cary, who on his own decided that he was going to be an eagle instead, and scare all the turtles. He even tried to eat poor turtle Dean. All the parents were laughing at Cary's impromptu decision not to follow the crowd, but Lester and I already know all about that kid. For better or for worse, he does his own thing.

Flapping his wings and cawing, just to be rebellious.

The kids also made their own turtles. As usual Clair took her time coloring hers.

After Science Alive, Lester went to run our weekend errands (grocery store, Target run) and I took the kids to go hang out with my girl Kelly and her daughter Naomi at the Cheverly pool.

They loved this little wading pool but quickly decided they wanted bigger and riskier adventures. Who are these little thrillseekers?

At first, the kids played happily in the wading pool, but they eventually ventured over into the bigger kiddie pool, and wandered out into the water much farther than they ever have before. I was so impressed. Clair, especially, was fearless -- jumping off the wall into the pool (it was only a foot tall, so she still didn't get her head submerged), crawling around on her hands "like a fish" with her legs floating out behind her (which meant she had to hold her head up out of the water like a pro) and wading out until the water was up to her neck! I was so proud of her. I was proud of all my kids, actually -- they all did great, unlike at swim lessons, which were a bit of a bust, in my opinion.  We were there for four hours of non-stop splashing and fear-conquering, and it made me realize that if we just went to the pool more often, they might get over their fear of the water a lot faster. So we need to make a point of figuring out how to do that next summer.

There were two casualties - Dean slipped while running ("no running at the pool" now actually means something to him) and scraped his chest and Cary toppled over while sitting and conked his head. After the head-conking, it was time to go. The kids were sun-baked, thirsty, hungry and cranky, and exhausted from no naps and hours of pool fun.

So this happened about 15 minutes into our long drive home, which as you know is a RARITY with my three.

All three asleep at the same time! Praise the good Lord in heaven.

This meant I got to turn off the kids' CD, roll the windows down and drive the rest of the way home in SILENCE. 45 minutes of golden, delicious, breeze flowing through the windows silence.

Halleluiah for pool time!

Sunday we went to church, came home and napped, while Lester drove to D.C. to pick up a few remaining personal items from his house (we go to settlement on Tuesday - yay!) And after the kids went to bed, we spent almost 90 minutes watching old iPhone videos of Clair as a baby, and then the boys when they were just crawling, and going "Awwwww." So yeah, basically, we're complete and total suckers for these little crazies. We can't deny it.

Despite my nap, I'm still tired today from all that hanging out on Friday and sitting in the sun on Saturday and running around with kids and cooking dinner on Sunday.

But this is the best kind of tired, don't you think? The very, very best.