Book club, Pipes Birthday, Visitors for Labor Day Weekend

I missed posting last week I know my mom was sure disappointed, right mom? So 2 weeks ago I was busy getting my house ready to host book club by doing things like washing all of my windows inside and out. Ha. Sometimes it takes some kind of obscure excuse to push me to do crazy annoying things I wouldn't do otherwise but I want to do. So I cleaned and organized my house because you know we would be in the backyard and not in my closet. Makes sense right? Point is it helped me with my cleaning goals. My new book club friends came to my house and it was fun. The next day was Piper's birthday. We had a special breakfast and met Lexi at Carl's Junior for lunch. Another friend came over to play in the afternoon. We ended up going out to dinner as a family for her birthday which we rarely do. We came home and I attempted to quickly make a barbie cake which was marginally successful. The Piper potato got the most appropriate gift for her birthday: a phone. We took one of Scott's old phones from the closet and Nicole loaded it up with some movies and now she is set.

For labor day weekend we had visitors. Scott's parents and Nicole and Rustin came to Boise for the weekend. His Aunt Anita and Uncle Bob also drove up to Boise to visit with us Friday night since they were driving up to Yellowstone anyway. You know it was only a few hours out of their way...like maybe 9! They're retired, why not? We went to the same Mexican restaurant that we went to for Piper's birthday. I thought maybe it was just our particular waitress that wasn't good on Piper's birthday but it turns out that the different waitress wasn't good either. The service was not good and the wait was long but I do think the food at that restaurant is good. After dinner we came back to our house and sang to Piper again and had cupcakes and she opened some more presents.

On Saturday we went swimming at the hotel in the morning and then we had Five Guys and Sub zero ice cream for lunch and dessert. We came home and rested for awhile. Janet took me shopping to pick out some kid clothes at Carters while I had Scott cook my homemade rolls for me. That was a bit of a disaster. He put all three pans of rolls in at the same time! Anyway the things that you don't think you need to explain you really do need to explain. They were kind of a mess but ended up being edible enough for dinner the next day. That night we went to the Spirit of Boise celebration where they light up the hot air balloons. I was under the impression that they flew the hot air balloons but at night but they only light them up. There were a million people there and we had to walk about a mile to get to the park and when it's dark they randomly light the balloons. It's pretty cool but I don't think it really justifies the crowd and all the hub bub. Sunday was Sunday and on Monday we went swimming again and played at Pojos and had lunch. It was a great time. Gabby was even brave enough to do the bumper cars and she loved it! Poor Pipes was just barely too short and that made her very sad. The Cannons left after that. It was great having them for a visit. We love it when they come!

This last week I was busy trying to finish organizing my house. I organized my huge walk in closet that has been a MESS for 7 years and now it looks so good! I also organized the bathroom cabinets. I also canned pears and peaches all last week and upcycled an old dresser I bought from a facebook friend. It is now sitting in the garage for the next two weeks so the paint can cure. I can't wait to move it into the kids room and have more storage. I need it bad! I will post pictures in a of couple of weeks.

Friday night we went out with one of Scott's bosses. He really gets along with him great as they are both super nerds. He and his wife took us out to dinner and brought their 14 year old over to babysit. It was great! It was a really good time with them. The restaurant we went to had the most amazing bread pudding for dessert. Bread pudding is not something I would ever order on my own but they ordered it and it was amazing! But seriously anything hot with ice cream and caramel on top is going to be good.

Yesterday I escaped to do some shopping. I found some great stuff at several second hand stores. I found a pair of brand new shoes I've been wanting for $4 at the DI. I love that!

I just have my kitchen left to organize and I have totally kicked butt on cleaning and organizing my house. I may need someone to come visit me to keep me motivated to finish up the job though. Any takers? Come visit me, I really need to clean under my oven.

Cute Pipes pic.

Happy 4th Birthday Piper!

Nana brought cool bubble guns.

Ahh...Ha.

Ryan commandeered the puppy from someone at the park.

Catch the bubble.

Corbin and his Rapunzel hair.

Part of my preps for my book club hosting was buying some patio furniture as I had none. I found this bench at a thrift store for $50 and then recovered some old pillows. I ended up finishing my last stitch 1 minute before the first guest arrived. Phew!

"Spirit of Boise" night glow.

Oh so serious

Gabby and Uncle Rustin. So cute!

Birthday girl at PoJos.

Ryan attacking his ice cream.

Mac nerds!

Cute!

We bought new couches two weeks ago and the big couch has a hideaway bed. The first thing Corbin said to the babysitter was, "we have a hideaway bed and we sleep on it every Friday night." Ha. So cute!