My birth week celebration began with a visit last week from my parents.

They came and watched one of Sam's soccer games with us.

Sam is the one in the orange shorts with blue socks.

Mom and Dad brought over some presents for the kids that we had forgotten from Easter. Here's Sam with his cool styrofoam plane.

And Afton with her bracelets.

After that, we headed over to Maymont (a park with a nature center and an old house) to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Next we headed up to Cafe Rio for dinner and then a few doors down for some delicious gelato. It was really nice of them to come and visit me for my birthday!

On my actual birthday, Dan got me flowers and oreos,

and a sweet card in the morning with a button that said "Another year sexier" which he made me promise to wear on a lunch date with some friends.

I did, but not for very long. There's another girl from church who's got a birthday two days before mine so another kind friend coordinated a birthday lunch for us both at Panera. It was delicious and fun. But Afton wanted to sit with me at a booth for two, so I felt kind of out of the loop through no fault of theirs. She's funny.

Since I didn't really know what to ask Dan for (I don't need anything!), he gave me some money to buy clothes with since I said I'd like to get some soon. He didn't just hand over the dough, though, he turned 20-dollar-bills into clothes! I thought that was cute and clever.

He also offered to watch the kids while I go on a shopping trip. Here's his Roald-Dahl-esque rendition of that:

 

After we picked Sam up from school, I coaxed the kids into going for a walk with me around the neighborhood.

Dan came home early to work on his latest cake creation. Then we had chicken divan for dinner, cake for dessert, and I opened the rest of my presents.

 Mr. Drooly watching the action.

It was a great day!

Spring Break 2015

We stuck around for most of Sam's spring break this year. Here's how the week went down.

The weather was looking great for Monday so we chose that as the day to go downtown and visit Dan for lunch. He wanted to take us to eat at Capitol Square so we picked up some sandwiches and ate on some benches near Virginia's capitol.

Then Afton had a potty emergency so we rushed into the capitol to use the bathroom. First time I've ever had to go through a metal detector to use the loo.

Tuesday was gray and rainy, but we found a little snippet of time when it wasn't raining and went to the middle school track to practice bike riding skills. Sam is getting much better. Afton still isn't really interested and walked/ran around the track instead.

Wednesday I took the kids to a branch of the Richmond Children's Museum that I thought was closer to our house than the main branch, but it's not really. I think it was probably less crowded, though, so that was a bonus. The kids loved it and went spent two hours there.

 (Above: Sam taking orders at the diner. Below: Afton manning the register at the grocery store.)

Thursday we headed over to Earlysville again for more Cheney grandparent time. We met my dad for lunch at Bodo's and Mom watched Eli while I took the older kids to see Cinderella. It was cute, but I don't go to movies very much anymore and it totally gave me a headache to have such loud noise and sit so close to a big screen. I'm getting old.

On our way out of the theater, I saw a sign for a new donut place I've been wanting to try (we just got one in Richmond, too) and you know I couldn't pass that up!

They make 'em while you watch so they're nice and warm (like Krispy Kreme) but they're better. More dense.

Friday we went to a pie restaurant to meet Dad for lunch again (he had meeting late Thursday night so we didn't get to see him much). Thanks to Candice for the recommendation. It was good.

Then we played at Mom and Dad's, had dinner, and headed back home.

Saturday was spent prepping the garden and planting our new crop. We ditched cucumbers, onions, and carrots this year. We're still doing cherry tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, and romas. We're going to attempt broccoli, pole beans, and zucchini, too. We'll see how it goes.

I just noticed how much food I mentioned in this post. I really like food.

Easter

We began Sam's spring break with General Conference and Easter. Last Saturday we watched/listened to Conference and Sam had a soccer game. Saturday night we drove over to Earlysville to spend the night and Easter with my parents.

We woke up to a chocolate egg hunt (a Durst family tradition).

Grandma Cheney generously contributed these babies to their baskets.

We ate a delicious breakfast and then went and hid plastic eggs outside for the kids.

We went to church to attend the morning session of conference and then back to my parents' house for another wonderful meal. Steak, cheesy potatoes, jello, the usual Cheney fare. Yum! I made an Easter cake the kind of ended up looking like a white football.

I am so grateful for my Savior and such a special day to celebrate His resurrection!

Date with Destiny

My fabulous friend and former roommate, Destiny, is currently living in the Raleigh area, but her family is moving this summer to Alabama. She used one of her spring break days (she teaches) to drive up and see me with her son, Parks.

It was so fun to have her here, if only for the day. We hung out at my house most of the time so that the boys could nap (which neither of them did very well). We took a walk around the neighborhood, and just spent lots of time catching up and chatting. It was so great to see her and hopefully I'll get to see her once more before she leaves for good.

Thanks for coming, Destiny!

Here's a picture Afton drew of us together with our babies.

And even though it pretty much looks like the above, here's a real picture.

I am grateful for good friends!

I did another Eli photo shoot last week. Here are some favorites.

(I was trying to capture his eye color in this last one. That's why it's so in-your-face.)

He is consistently sleeping through the night (8-11 hours). Oh, man. It's so nice and makes such a huge difference! He has outgrown his 0-3 month clothes. I can't believe it. Those months really flew by. He is such a sweetheart.

This last Saturday (two days ago) was our ward Easter party. They had a yummy food table, a petting zoo, a station where kids could plant seeds, a craft area, a balloon area, and an egg hunt. It was 34 degrees outside and windy. SOOOO COLD. It was a nice activity, though, and the people in charge put a ton of work into it.

They asked Dan and the other members of the bishopric if they could man the balloon station. Before the activity, I asked Dan if he needed to watch some youtube videos or something to figure out what he was doing. He said he'd just wing it. This guy is some sort of renaissance man because he whipped out those balloon animals/swords/flowers like a boss.

It took forever to find the kids' eggs because you were supposed to only pick up eggs that had a specific sticker on them. Sam and I walked around this field forever and only found 8 (of the 12) eggs.

Since next week is General Conference, I had the kids wear their "Easter" clothes to church yesterday. I was trying to make Afton a dress, but quit halfway through because I don't understand the pattern. It's so confusing! So I made her a seersucker skirt and the boys bowties to match. Not a great picture, but it was the best I could do before running out the door for church.