Activity Day Talent Show. This one actually took place the end of January. It was such a cute show! The leaders did such a good job. They had a red carpet and created a mock stage. I'm sure each of the girls felt like stars that night. Shelby and Lauren did a dance together. Fun night!
Valentines Day. For the last years or so this has become more a family celebration. Kerry and I have forgone the romantic dinner for two in order to spend it with the kids. I imagine that someday before we know it, it will be back to just the two of us; but for right now we don't mind making it a family affair. As tradition has become, we had a nice dinner set with Valentine decor. This year we bought the kids a few new Wii games and packed a few treats to boot and enjoyed a game night together. It seemed to be a big hit which made me very happy considering that it has become very hard to find a group gift that fits both the gender and age gaps between my kids.
Birthday lunch and shopping My mom, grandma, and aunt all have birthdays in February. My sisters and I like to take them out for lunch. A few weeks ago we got together for lunch at PF Chang's and a little shopping to Rod Works. At lunch, we had the nicest waiter who turned out to be a member of the church. Towards the end of lunch and after overhearing bits of our conversation, he said, "I thought you were a bunch of Relief Society sisters." Nice to know that he suspected that of us. I am so lucky to have such great women in my life and live so close to each other. It was a great day! I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of this. I really need to invest in a little camera that fits into my purse!
Lion King and Texas Brazil. We took Brayden to see the Lion King for earning his Eagle Scout. It was such a great play. I'm so glad that we saw it; I hear that it is closing sometime this year. Brayden has been wanting to try the Texas De Brazil restaurant so we went after the play. It was packed. It was a good thing we had reservations. It is not a place for vegetarians even though the salad bar is fantastic. You are given a little card that had a green and red side to it. As long as your card is green, an endless supply of meat could be brought to your table. We had to make sure to turn our cards to red before our plates were filled with more than we could eat. Brayden seemed to enjoy the night. We are proud of him for getting his Eagle.
Last but not least, we have a new baby in our house. Brayden is definitely the most excited about it. Thankfully it's not the kind of baby that wakes me up in the middle of the night. We found it on Craig's list. Actually Brayden found it on Craig's list. His teacher told us months ago that we should consider upgrading pianos. I have to say, I did not see this one coming. I guess that's what happens when you don't play yourself. I was so nervous about trying to buy something like this. To be honest, I just put it off; then Brayden found this one and wrote the phone number down and asked me to call about it. I told him I would try to get to it (not sure that I really would). Kerry called me during his lunch and asked if I had called. I had not, of course. He said that he thought that I should just call. I guess that was the push that I needed and I made the call. I found out that the man was moving in two days and needed to sell it buy then! There was no way I saw us buying the first piano we looked at in just a few days. I totally blew it off, but something kept pressing me. So I called the man who tunes our piano. He also restores pianos and knows quite a bit about them. He immediately looked up Craig's list to see the piano. He expressed some minor concerns and preceded to see what else was for sale. He saw another piano that he thought might be a better buy and said that he would take a look at it after he finished work. I certainly didn't expect him to go that same day but he reassured me that it was fine. After seeing the piano, he called and said that it was fine but nothing special. We decided to wait. Then we received a phone call about a half hour later from him. He made a last minute decision to visit the piano that Brayden had first seen. He told us that he had been wrong about it and that it was an unbelievable buy! We jumped in the car and took Brayden to see it and the rest is history. The man who owned it, did not play and so it sat unplayed. Now it gets played and boy does Brayden play it. I hope he will get every benefit from it.
