Tornado, Bunko and a Birthday Party

That pretty much sums up our weekend here but I'll elaborate a bit for our virtual nearest and dearest.

This week I got a call from the head of the neighborhood Bunko group and was offered a permanent position since someone pulled out. (I've been subbing for a few months now.) I enthusiastically accepted because this really promotes you to varsity cheerleader status in our suburban neighborhood. The only bad thing is now once a year I'll have to host the monthly bunko game. This will entail cleaning my house with a toothbrush (because the Bunko ladies notice), purchasing a $20 door prize which will be reimbursed by the Bunko pot, cooking dinner and providing snacks, drinks and alcohol for 12. This year I'll be hosting in May but GG (my Grandma Anna) will be visiting so she'll be able to help me whip up all the food.

On Friday I had my first Bunko game as an official member. I actually "won" my $5 back for having the most "losses". Go figure. After the game I went outside around 11:30pm and watched the sky light up over and over again from lightening. I never once heard any thunder . There was no rain or wind, only the silent lightening. I thought that was pretty eerie and cool at the same time. When I got home I turned on the news and saw that a tornado had caused massive destruction in downtown Atlanta. It took out all the windows of the Omni hotel which is connected to CNN center and also tore up the CNN cafeteria which I've eaten at many times. It did a lot more damage too to downtown and apparently this is the first time in history a tornado has hit downtown. It was pretty crazy. I'm anxious to hear what Matt has to say after he goes to work downtown on Monday.

Saturday, Lauren had her birthday party at Jump 2 It. This is a huge inflatable toy warehouse. She had 7 friends come and enjoy the party with her. We had our party hostess who did EVERYTHING. From the time we walked in to the time we left I felt more like a guest than the host. She timed the playtime, cut and served the cakes and drinks, helped Lauren open her presents and even wrote down who got what. She also took photos of the whole party and put them all on a DVD for us. It was great. Lauren had a lot of fun but I think Tyler enjoyed it the most. He always had a huge smile on his face. Lauren really wanted Matt and I to be jumping with her so we both got a good workout. While Matt was taking Tyler down the slides, I was jumping around with Lauren. After the jumping part was over we headed into the party room. We had chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a real strawberry filling. (Lauren's choice) Then it was time for presents. She got a couple outfits, some play Chinese food (with chopsticks, soy sauce and even a to-go container,) a Webkinz pink and white cat, a Barbie, and sidewalk paint. She was very happy with her birthday party. We got home and immediately played with everything she got. I still need to figure more out about the Webkinz though because we were both getting frustrated on the web site.

Today we are just finishing up our weekend to-do lists. Planning the weekly dinners, Groceries, cleaning and of course, updating the blog.

I just uploaded all the photos we took this weekend onto my Flickr account so you can see them all there. http://www.flickr.com/gp/30259490@N00/GhtCh6

Enjoy.