BUSY weekend!

So, yesterday we...

Went to Squish's soccer game, where they got blown away. She got to play goalie for the second half--and she made some pretty awesome saves.

"Hey, Squish! How do you feel about the game?"

"Bruised. I feel... bruised.

Went out to lunch, where Chicken got us an employee discount and she could play Pokemon on her break with her brother and father.

Went out to get a family portrait done together where we laughed way too much. Now, we'd debated getting everybody to match for this, or trying to get the boys in their funeral clothes and the girls in their sober formal wear, but in the end, we just let everybody wear something nice they were comfortable in, and the result was... well, we had fun. The best moment was when the photographer asked Squish to lay down on the floor with the intention of having her put her chin in her hands, and she went all the way down on her face with her arms out behind her.

"Squish, what do you think everybody else is going to do, poke you with their toes?"

Afterwards, we went to a party and the original plan was to take ZoomBoy and Squish, but the kids had so much fun taking portraits they all wanted to go to ice cream together. Mate and I went to the party instead.  (We took the picture as they left in the escalator-- that's them on the way down--it's probably a more accurate representation of the brood than the professional ones, but I still get a new portrait for my living room and I am happy.)

The party was for my friend Thelma, whose son used to play soccer with ZoomBoy. Her husband's family is Kenyan, and they do the birthday party thing right. When the birthday girl comes out to blow the candles on the cake, she is sung to by everybody gathered. They had a recording to lead the singing, but it was a group chant and next time we meet I'm going to ask her what the words mean because its a really uplifting tradition. She was dressed in a formal and she came out and danced while she and her husband held their younger children and you know, not all parties feel like they really CELEBRATE the next year, but this one did. We had the best time, and although we had to leave early (Chicken had to work the next day so we had to come home for the younger kids), the party promised to go on all night long.

As we were leaving, we met some more relatives coming up the drive.

"Have fun you guys," I said, pleasantly toasted. (When I asked for a screwdriver, Thelma's husband, Charles, gave me a giant power screwdriver that was mostly screw!) "It's a rockin' party and it's still going."

"You guys had fun?"

"Oh yeah--Thelma's a wonderful hostess."

"Were you the only white people in the house?"

"Nope! There was another white guy in the backyard!"

"Heh heh-- just messing with you. We're glad you had a good time."

We really did.

And today, we went nowhere, although my friend Ambrosia came by and brought her baby, and together we worked on the newsletter and on contacting people to get prizes for the last membership drive.  I got to hold a baby (and so did Squish!) and for once I got a picture of Ambrosia and not just the baby or Idris, so I told her it had to be posted, because her smile could light up a city.

And about the newsletter-- she's been looking up the e-mail for the people who've said it hasn't shown up, and the provider says the emails are getting there. I'm wondering if Constant Contact just doesn't trigger the uber spam filter that kills stuff and deletes it before it even shows up.  Our plan is to send out the February letter and put January's in an archive on my website, so folks who can't get the letter can at least read the "Ask Amy's Guys" part, because Kane's response to this month's question was pretty epic.

Don't forget-- you can ask for a newsletter --or talk to Ambrosia about the newsletter or submit a question to Ask Amy's Guys at amylaneromance@gmail.com  -- where all things newsletter related occur!

And for tomorrow, I'll probably be posting more Hiding the Moon-- because I love Burton and Ernie too :-)