Pancakes, Pictures, and Party

Wow! I was really busy today! We started the day off by going to IHop for breakfast this morning. DH says that he prefers my pancakes, but IHop's blueberry pancakes are like comfort food for me. I've loved them ever since college! A couple of high school friends and I would meet at IHop every so often on Fridays and I always had the short stack of blueberry pancakes. Yum! Today I got the "double blueberry pancakes". DH had chocolate chip pancakes. DD had the "funny face" chocolate chip pancake which she said was bigger than her head! DS#1 had the special New York Cheesecake pancakes with sausage, egg, and hash browns. DS#2 had regular chicken fingers. DS#3 had a little big of DH's and DD's pancakes, but his favorite seemed to be DS#1's hash browns.

Some time after we got home at around 9:30, I helped DD practice her piano assignment. The new digital piano was delivered yesterday and I have to admit that it's making me want to take lessons again. I took lessons for a couple of years when I was younger, but I was never very good about practicing. Today, I actually enjoyed practicing with DD. I heard her practicing and didn't think she was doing the lesson right. Being the perfectionist mother, I had to try to correct her. Luckily, she let me. I was afraid at first that she wouldn't let me or she would get frustrated and just want to stop playing. We played for a while, though, in the morning and then later in the afternoon. She actually welcomed the direction, I think, because later she asked ME to practice with her and she didn't act like she was tired of practicing, as I might have expected from an almost 6-year-old girl.

At 11AM, I went to an aerobics class at our gym. Last week the whole family went, but DS#3 got up way too early this morning and DH had to get him to take a morning nap, so the rest of the family stayed home. My youngest sister introduced me to this class last month when she visited me, and I loved it so much that I had to go again. What's so special about this class? It's a "Dance" aerobics class. Instead of the traditional moves, it's like dancing. The music just makes me want to dance anyway. It is SO fun!

I went home from the gym and jumped straight in the shower. By the time I finished with all of that, it was time to go to our Picture People appointment. For those of you who don't remember, I'm trying to get a matching set of photos for every kid on their birthdays this year. I'm getting DD's photos done a month early because I had a 25% off coupon. :) I thought about doing DS#1's photos early because of the coupon, but DH and I decided that besides DS#3, DS#1 is probably the child who is changing the most right now. Luckily, the sales lady actually suggested that I prepay for another frame and set of photos to fit the frame AND she let me use the coupon for it. Cool! I'm ready for October now! Anyway, the photographer got some fabulous photos of DD. I'll try to post some tomorrow.

The Picture People studio was very busy today, so by the time we got home, it was almost time to go to church. DS#3 took a minimal afternoon nap, so I was a little worried about how long he would last at church and then tonight. He did do okay for most of church. He would have lasted longer except that he kept wanting to roam around. DH was having flashbacks of when DS#1 was a similar age and he ran screaming towards the altar. Luckily, that didn't happen today, but DS#3 did keep wanting to wander in the aisle so I had to take him out of the main church into the hallway for a bit. We went back in for Communion, but DH had to take him back out again after Communion. That wasn't too bad for a tired boy, though.

After church, we tried to go to PF Chang's for dinner. The wait was almost 2 hours! We went to Pei Wei instead where there was no wait. We usually prefer PF Chang's but Pei Wei was still very good. After dinner we headed to the 15th birthday party of the DD of a friend. DS#3 spent the time chasing some balloons. He kept trying to hold two balloons at one time. Since one balloon was all he could hold in his arms, trying to hold two balloons was quite a challenge. He was also fascinated with the colored lights that were flashing on the dance floor. DD was the only one (besides me) who wanted to dance as soon as she heard the music playing. DS#2 was busy eating candy. DS#1 was busy gazing at the high school girls at the party. *WINK* DS#3 started getting really tired after an hour, so we left and got everyone to bed as soon as we got home. DS#3 was asleep before the freeway exit to go to our house.

I thought about not posting tonight, but I'm sure I'll forget all about this tomorrow. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow since we're leaving early on Monday and I won't know when I'll be able to post after that. Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone! :)