Creatively Weekending Activities

It's been a wild wooly weekend ride...

On Friday, Robb and I took the day off and headed to my home town to see my parents.  We picked up Dad at his apartment and then my mom from the nursing home, took them out to lunch where we met up with a sister and her kids.  

From what I understand, her kids eat out a lot...  

Brae and Brooke placed their orders like pros.  Chicken strips, fries and a separate bowl of ranch dressing.  Then Brae asked for chicken noodle soup.  

Apparently they didn't have any and he was so sad that the waitress got sad.  He tried to follow her into the kitchen to talk to the cook and ask him.  

It was a great visit!  We then went to another sister's house and worked on their computers for a bit while Mom and Dad took cat naps between kids running through the living room yelling.  

Yes, a shark...

The kids showed off their valentine boxes they're making.  

Rapunzel's tower...

They are SO creative!!! 

 a platypus.

Their dad is a professional artist and some of the genes didn't fall too far from the tree.

A unicorn...

My valentine boxes as a kid was a cereal box that I'd decorated with aluminum foil....  

Ryan really got into it one year when there was a competition in middle school.  I can't find the picture but the box stood about 4 feet tall and had a print out of his face on it with a sign that said, "GIVE ME CANDY".  Unfortunately we'd helped him put it together and only THEN found out that his class wasn't participating in the competition...  It was truly a winner tho!

After that, Robb and I took Mom and Dad back to Dad's apartment and we worked on puzzles for a while until my sister's family and my brother came over for pizza.  It was a rowdy crowded time but fun!  

We stayed in town and the next morning, EARLY, we headed to Minnesota to spend the day with Maddy.  We had lunch in the cafeteria with her and when Matthew got off work, he came to find us.  We were sitting in one of Mabs favorite spots where she could people watch but not be seen and he walked right past us looking all around except at our table.  We thought he was putting us on...  And we were giggling about it until he called, a bit confused as to just where we were.  :)  We must have had our invisibility cloaks on!  Whoops!

We all played Mad Gab in the game room and when the ping pong table became free, the four of us played teams.  I was on a team with Matthew luckily!  He was willing to chase after the ball even when Maddy repeatedly hit it out into the hall.  I think she did that on purpose!  

Then we played ping pong with the HORSE twist.  Where Maddy and I were on opposite sides of the table and the men were at the ends.  Everyone had a paddle.  As soon as Robb served, he ran to the right side of the table, I took his place at the end, Matthew hit the ball back, ran to the left side and Maddy ran to his end.  I hit the ball back to Maddy and then ran.  Only a LOT faster.  Whoever hit wrong or screwed up the play, got a letter.  H O R S E.  

When you got all the letters, you were out.  I was the first out.

Let me just say that all that running triggered a hot flash.  WHEW.

Then we lounged for a bit until Maddy remembered that she'd bought ingredients to make cookies for a Super bowl party she was going to go to on Sunday.  So we helped her in the dorm kitchen.  Matthew wasn't feeling well, so Maddy sent him off to nap til dinner.

At that time, Robb got a text from a college friend that said she and her husband were in town for the beer fest, apparently they're regulars there, and were in a restaurant downtown!  So letting Matthew sleep, we went down to visit with them.  

GREAT memories and Maddy heard stories she's NEVER heard before!!!  

Yep, her parents were young and stupid once too!...

After that we went back to pick up Matthew but he was still pretty groggy from his nap so we went to supper without him.  Going back to the German restaurant that we were just at.  Wiener schnitzel, potato salad, sauerkraut and lots of root beer later, we were stuffed.  I talked Robb into sticking around in town with me until we watched a little of that night's campus talent show.  Matthew came to join us and we gave him some leftover kraut.  no fork...

Those college kids have wacky senses of humor and a lot of the inside jokes, Maddy had to explain to us in whispers.  Too funny!  They had an Ugliest Man on Campus contest and a Colombian won by accident.  It was funnier when Maddy explained that the guy was actually FROM Colombia.    Then a skit about why they combined the co-ed teacher college and the seminary, because the teachers were all married before they graduated and the seminary students had never even SEEN a woman.  So it all balanced out. ;)  

Two of my aunts and two of my uncles had attended this college before the merge.  And yep, it was true!  They put a ring on it...  Well my godparents, one set of aunt/uncles, didn't even meet until much later, but they had attended the same college.

I will photoshop this one and make it brighter...  

We had to leave after an hour so we snuck out.  It was a long drive home... We finally arrived around midnight.

Sunday afternoon, I embroidered a friend's grandson's name on his letter jacket.  It turned out OK...  but since it's my first real embroidery for a real person, I'm skeptical.  I need more practice.  But knowing me, I always jump in with both feet without knowing what the heck I'm doing!

Then we visited my bestie, who had just moved into the local nursing home.  I'm not quite sure how well I'm taking this, but I'm sure it's a lot harder on her.  We're hoping it's just temporary but we'll see.  Found out that another of my closest friend's husband is now my besties main aide!

Small world!  He'll take good care of her.

Leon loves the nursing home!  I think he's looking forward to when I go there so he can play with the animals that roam and check out the birds and get free lemonade whenever he wants.

Plus, Ada has cable tv now... so he's in heaven.

Sunday evening, after making a bunch of beef enchiladas for supper, I sewed up the sample bowling shirt for Ryan and it fits!!!  So today over lunch, if I can, I'll cut out the two bowling shirts.

I've only got two weeks to get them done.

Well, my Vueminder keeps popping up reminders of things I need to do.  Darn micro managing techniques...  So I'd better get to it.  

What did you do this weekend?