All In A Day's Play

 What a great weekend!  I wish I could say that I sat down a lot, but well, yes I guess I can!  There was a lot of sitting.  I'll explain later.

Maddy and Matthew arrived in time for super secret steak night on Friday.  We try to live unpredictably...  And they wouldn't be here on Saturday night.

Since Leon wasn't here yet and Meri had already made plans to go to the local theater to see The Greatest Showman for the 75th time, Maddy and Matthew had to hang with just us two and Grandma for dinner.  BUT we had fun!  We brought down Ryan's game system and got the Jackbox game up and running.  When Meri came home, she played a bit with us too, then those three played board games until they couldn't keep their eyes open anymore.  

The next morning, I took the three Ms and Grandma to the pub where Ryan was working and got the full British breakfast.  I was actually able to finish mine this time!  Well, just barely.  It's huge.

 

Meri had to leave right after and catch the bus from school for the Jazz band competition.  Robb missed it entirely because he was picking up Leon.  We all enjoyed a leisurely morning and these three got reacquainted and they gave him an early birthday present. 

Then since the Jazz band competition made those two a couple hours closer to home, Robb drove their car and they rode with me and Leon in my mini-van.  That way they could leave for home from there.  Fun conversations ensued.  Poor Robb, he missed it all!  Although his was probably the most relaxing drive...  It had started snowing just before we left and the roads were terrible.  It took two hours to get there instead of just the 1.5 that we'd estimated.

Still got to the campus early enough tho for a quick sandwich lunch in the hall.  This is the photo I sent Meri to let her know we had arrived.

The band sounded great!  Unbeknownst to any of us or them, the writer of two of the songs they performed was sitting back with the judges.  Wow... 

 

and he was impressed with their interpretation of his music!   

The ballad knocked Leon out.  Which was just as well.  He'd heard these songs many times before and was really squirmy until he fell asleep.

 

 We got first place!!  The band director was very pleased.  I'm so glad for them!

 While we waited for the clinic critique to get done, these two got crazy...  I was trying to get a picture of them peeking out from around the post, but my camera was too slow...  or they were too fast.  Not sure which.

We waited.  and we waited...  It was a long clinic!

 We saw Ryan's girlfriend, Jen's mom and sister there.  

Leon said, "Hey - that girl looks just like Jen only Jen would never have a white purse..."  

And her sister looks exactly like a younger version.  Wow!

 But all the hard work and advice given paid off.  These guys were #1!

Afterwards, before we could let Maddy and Matthew go, we celebrated Leon's birthday at a bounce place Robb found online. 

 What a fantastic place!!!  It was HUGE!  And because SOMEONE learned a lesson from the old Discovery Zone places, this business insisted on selling you "special" socks to bounce in.  Discovery Zone's tunnels started smelling like dirty socks...  But this place smelled great!

  

So much to do!  Robb and I mostly sat on a bench and I filled out Leon's birthday card invitations.  AND we took tons of pics.

You can see in this one, that not even a split second later, he was on the ground.

 

There was an obstacle course that Matthew helped Leon climb through and then he fell and hit his knee on his face.  LOTS of employees around with instant ice packs for the kids.  PERFECT.

 

So much for little kids to do...

 

And the older kids too...

 

After we wore them all out, we went to a Perkins and got the worst service of our lives...  Well, if you DON'T count that one date Robb and I went on 25 years ago...  And I'm not.  It took almost 40 minutes for my milk shake to arrive and everyone else was done with their drinks way before that.  And then even longer for our food.

But I'm not complaining... much.  It gave us more time to visit with Maddy and Matthew before they took off for home.

I'll save my Sunday adventures for tomorrow.  I've got lots to do.  I hope you had a great weekend!