I had a very nice weekend, thank you for asking.

On Saturday, K.T. and Kevin came over, and then K.T. and I left the babies in the care of the menfolk, and we went over to the Brandt's, where we met up with Kris and Elizabeth to do scrapbooking.

K.T. was extremely nervous about this, as she'd never done any before, and she wasn't sure she would be able to be creative enough. She was especially disappointed that Kris's sister, Heidi, couldn't make it - Heidi's a Creative Memories consultant, and K.T. was counting on her to help her with ideas.

But I think it turned out for the best that Heidi wasn't there, actually. It forced K.T. to come up with her own ideas rather than rely on someone else - a little scary to begin, but more of a confidence-builder in the long run. Once she got her first page or so done, she started feeling much better about things, and really got excited about it. Judge for yourself how it turned out; I think she did a fantastic job.

(Also, why didn't I think of taking pictures of my scrapbooks? At the very least, the ones I'm not keeping for myself? I think I may start doing that. Though I'll keep those pictures separate from my regular photo album. Otherwise, it would seem entirely too meta.)

Kris was talking about making this a regular activity - once a month or so. It was really great to have some non-family social time (even if all we did was talk about our families), and it sounded like the boys and babies had a lot of fun, too. (Of course, Kris's new baby is due in March, so we'll see if the gathering survives that upheaval.)

After that, we went out to eat with the Hickses, which was fun, even if Penny got restless about halfway through dinner and I spent about half an hour outside, trying to herd her away from traffic. Good thing I was more or less done eating.

Sunday was a pretty typical lazy day... But when we ran out to go to the comic shop, to pick up the week's comics and get Penny out of the house for a bit, we discovered that it was an absolutely gorgeous day - bright and sunny, with temps in the mid-60s. So we took Penny over to the park and let her play for an hour or so.

She got to to all her favorite things, too - there was a doggie for her to pet, and she spent some time in the swings, and then Matt and I introduced her to the slide.

I wish I'd known we were going to go to the park; I'd have grabbed my camera. There's a little play-house there that's exactly the right size for Penny. Her leaning out the tiny windows to grin at me would have made the most adorable picture. Not to mention her manic grin as she came down the slide. (Though I don't know if I could have taken that picture; I needed to be ready to catch her. But another parent would probably have been more than happy to help out.)

It was a good weekend, marred only by Penny's burgeoning sense of independence (and her insistence on continually testing our boundaries - like the how close to "throwing" can I get before the toy is taken away game, and the will Mommy really call a halt to dinner if I throw food on the floor game, as well as others in this exciting vein) and the fact that she decided to wake up at 5 this morning.

So, y'know. I think I need to go get myself some tea before I get started on the day's work.

--Liz