Family day

So, with the big guy back home again, we decided to do a little family day together...mainly because we needed to get some good feelings between us flowing again. For some reason, we inevitably get into a fight 3.5 seconds after he comes in the door from a trip. I think it's because of the expectations. I've cleaned the house, cleaned myself (that's huge right there...and this time I had the new rollers to top it off!) and usually stocked up on food he likes. So, if any kind of criticism comes out of his mouth...whatsoever...I'm crushed and devestated. Granted, I can get crushed and devestated pretty easily, but it happened. Then, because I had pictured a totally romantic happy reunion, if things don't go as planned, I can't recover. It's ridiculous, I know. But that's me. Sooooooo....to get the good loving feelings flowing again...we went on a family date.

Downtown Oak Park never disappoints. It's just a few minutes away from us on good ol' 290 West, and there is one beautiful thing in this neighborhood that we never get in the city...free parking. That's right. There are actual spots to put your actual car. We love that. We also love...

Gepetto's Toy Box, which I mentioned back around Christmas time, because it has all these wonderful naturally/non-plastic/non-battery-operated toys. And the people are really nice, and even if you buy a tiny $10 toy, they wrap it up all pretty for you so the recipient of the gift is impressed. This time we were buying for cute little Nora, who is one of our favorite curly-haired sisters that I mentioned back in my tea-party post. Her birthday party is tomorrow. Then, we headed across the street to

New Pot and had a little Pad Kee Mao and Pad Thai. We got the kids sweet and sour chicken but they both kept begging for our noodles. That Pad Kee Mao was REALLY good and had tons of basil in it. Sammy ate most of mine, but what I had of it was good!

After heading back home, we put the kids down for a nap, managed to mend our relationship, and then laid around reading until Claire came up looking for some attention. Sammy also woke up and joined her on our bed. They borrowed this toy princess computer from a friend and it has a game on it where you spell 3-letter words and then the princesses say things like "marvelous" or "splendid" if you spell an actual word. Well, Claire typed in "B-U-T" to which the princess replied: "You spelled Butt....that's lovely!" At least, that's how my kids interpreted it. They laughed so hard Sammy was choking. Repeating this over and over again kept them happy pretty much until dinner. And guess who made dinner! That's right...the big guy himself.

He makes really good pizza...it's the only thing he cooks, but it's really good. And I had purchased a bunch of good toppings like sundried tomatoes, giardiniera peppers, pepperoni, spinach, and mushrooms (my favorite combo). He made the crust really thin, like I like it, and we were all happy to eat it.

Especially the mommy, who was happy to NOT cook for a night. He even did the dishes afterwards which was a good husband thing to do. I think he decided he loved me again. :)

And, last, but not least, my new laptop came in the mail today!!! Granted, it has no internet access yet, because we are in discussions over whether to get REGULAR wirless access or to take the plunge and get CABLE, which is against his religion (of fuddy duddy-ness). Of course cable would make it all faster, which would be nice. But we'll discuss that later. For now, look at the big nice screen! Claire said to him that it is the "girl's computer" and that he and Sammy would have to use the other one. She said "Mom...now I can lay in your bed and do PBSkids.org!" Could we get any lazier? But I totally know what she means...