Spring Has Sprung!

I love it when the dogwoods blossom in the spring!

Spring is officially here!  Although you wouldn't know it necessarily by the weather.  I went for a run the other night.  Granted it was at about 11 p.m., but the temp, even down here, was about 44 degrees!  I was so bundled up, I'm not even sure how I managed to run.  The days have been beautiful though.  Today might have hit 80 degrees!

More on S.'s Birthday Party

I love the California Poppies that grow wild at my parents' house

We went to my parents' house on Sunday to have a little family bday affair for S.  The weather was gorgeous.  I think everyone had a great time.  Special thanks to my dad for grilling some really, really tasty hamburgers for dinner!

Our newest Cub Scout

and thanks to my mom for making sure that S. has all the proper equipment for Cubs.  He is so excited to be able to start going "officially" to his den meetings and to the pack meetings.

Homework Night
I got a call today at the office from J.  She wanted to know what time I was getting home.  That is unusual in and of itself, because she usually doesn't care when I get home, so I knew something was up.  Turns out the kids were stressing about homework.  S., in particular, had some big book review project he had to do.  Since his book is in Espanol, J. couldn't really give him much help.

S. hard at work on a typical night en la casa...

So this is the scene tonight.  I came home and read S.'s book with him and helped him to understand it.  Like many things in life, the task as a whole seemed overwhelming to him.  But we were patient and broke it down word by word.  Then he got started on his little book report and just took off on his own.

Now I'm just eating dinner (that's my bowl of cereal on the counter) and blogging so as to properly document these moments for posterity.

He just announced that he finished and I couldn't be prouder of him for working his way through the project.  Hopefully the next time he has an assignment like this, it will not seem as overwhelming to him.

It has been a lot of fun to be able to help him through this.  I wish that I could say that every night in our household had this sort of Norman Rockwell-quality to it.  Truthfully, I can't.  But I can say that I wished it happened more often!  =o)

Other Odds n Ends
Thanks to Facebook, I realized that one of my very good friends had a birthday today.  Turns out its actually his 40th.  It kind of presented a little bit of a dilemma for me...Other than saying: "Happy Bday" on FB and maybe calling, what do you do as a guy for another guy friend?

I'm certainly not going to bake him a plate of cookies and take it over there!  First of all, it would take me forever to do that and second of all, I'm not even sure that they would taste all that good!  Especially because his wife is pretty much a professional chef.  (I still haven't forgotten the birthday goodies or the dinner that she made for me and my family in honor of my last birthday!--Thanks Nic!)

May the odds be ever  in your favor...

I told my friend that if he was up for it, I'd treat him to a midnight showing of "The Hunger Games" (which opens tonight at midnight).  I'm not even sure if I'd stay awake through the whole movie (neither was he...).  I guess we're both getting pretty old!  ;)  And so, I'm pretty sure that we're not going to be going.  (His other "excuse" was that he had to check with his wife.  I'm willing to bet that she is going to veto the idea!)

I ended up stopping at Walmart to buy him a card.  Yes, I felt kind of girly doing it.  But hopefully, he will appreciate the sentiment.  At any rate, I've always been told that it's the thought that counts, right?

I hope everyone is enjoying the new spring season!  And to my friend (R.), if you're reading this....Happy 40th!  (and remember, always be "Loyal to the Royal Within!")

PS--I would have put a pic of you up here, but I don't seem to have any of us together at any of our races.  I think that's because you always finish so far ahead of me!

Popcorn Popping...

Pink Popcorn Popping

This is a picture of my Purple Leaf Plum tree in my front yard that I took yesterday.  I don't know if the tree knows that it's still early February.  We just had Groundhog's Day a week ago for goodness sake, but it doesn't look another six weeks of winter to me!

I'm hoping that Spring is just around the corner!  =o)