That was a good weekend.

Friday night, Matt and I watched Dead Again. It was good, if not outstanding. A little predictable at times, a little cheesy at others, and some of the makeup was totally awful. While it was going, Karen and I chatted on IM about Kenneth Brannagh's horrible fake German accent and his missing lips.

Saturday was a pretty normal day. We ran errands, and in the afternoon we took Penny to the park to run around and play. There was a company or church picnic going on at the main shelter, and they were playing rap/hip-hop/dance music (but strictly PG stuff, which was a little weird). Every time they started a new song, Penny would stop whatever she was doing and dance. She has this funny little dance where she shifts her weight from one foot to the other while bobbing up and down and wiggling her butt. It's hysterically funny, and I was cursing myself that I didn't have my camera with me.

There was a woman at the park with quadruplets. Holy cow. I have no idea. NO idea how she does it. She was a tiny little thing, too - shorter than me, and no bigger around than my arm. I can't imagine how freaking enormous she must have been, pregnant, even though I overheard her telling one of the other moms that all four of them were between 3 and 4 pounds at birth. She didn't even have a helper with her. She just put all four kids into the two toddler swings (back-to-back - the swings are built so the kid can face in either direction) and pushed, and when one of them went off on a screaming fit, she pulled him out and put him back in the stoller to have at it.

Penny went down the slide a half-dozen times. She lost some enthusiasm when she realized Matt and I were trying to make her climb the stairs by herself. At least we no longer have to climb up and sit at the top with her. Toward the end, she was getting adventurous, coming down headfirst on her tummy.

Sunday was Mother's Day. I'd already opened my present from Penny - a votive candleholder made out of a baby-food jar that'd been cleaned and had its insides painted. (It was still wet when I opened it Friday evening and Penny threw a fit because it was her jar!)

Matt got me this really gorgeous little oriental-style blossoming cherry tree - about the size of a bonsai, but made out of jade and rose quartz. I was floored - I'd put it on my wishlist as a "maybe someday I'll be able to afford this" item. He just smiled and said, "Maybe these flowers won't fade as fast."

And then he did all the household chores and watched Penny while I loafed around and chatted on IM. (Well, mostly. I did do some dishes, and I took Penny for an hour while he caught a brief nap after his shower, but she was very much being Daddy's Girl all weekend anyway, so there wasn't all that much for me to do.)

Whoo, my guy!

After Penny'd had her nap, we packed up and went down to my parents' for the afternoon and dinner. Sam and I had arranged to bring stuff to cook so my mom wouldn't have to do anything. They brought chicken and dessert, and I'd made a salad and bought some frozen vegetables. It was all really good, even if Sam'd made enough dessert for almost twice as many people. (John took some hysterical pictures of Penny stuffing Jello cubes in her mouth as fast as she could manage. I'll post them when he gets around to sending them to me.)

Penny continued on her Daddy's Girl kick at my folks', too, though she graciously extended it to cover my dad, as well. She wandered all over their yard, gleefully pulling flowers off the bushes and collecting rocks and leaves, and my dad was thrilled to follow her around and pretend to be very interested in her finds.

I'd made both my mom and Matt's photo/scrapbook albums for Mother's Day. Now that they've got them, I'll post them to the photo album. Both of them seemed very happy with their albums, which is good. I had a lot of fun putting them together.

And then last night after we'd gotten home, K.T. and I managed to finally finish the Hall session we'd been working on in fits and starts all weekend.

So, yay, weekend! And now it's time to get back to work. Alas.

--Liz