The Freakin Weekend

The R. Kelly freakin weekend song played in my hot yoga class this morning, except a softer cover of it and I was so distracted by all the sweat dripping down my face and into contacts AND my all consuming love for my new yoga towel (bought $20 off at my new yoga studio boutique sale; that "free" first week ended up costing me a lot of money, but all on things I was planning to buy... just maybe not all at once. (Ahem, Lululemon yoga mat. But it was also on sale and I LOVE it SO MUCH it was almost too distracting to use in yoga the first few times. It's made of sticky yoga magic and I LOVE it.)) that it took me until nearly the end of the song to figure out why I could mouth the words even though I was certain I'd never heard it before.

[Side note: remember when I was done buying any more leggings? Well I was leaving the studio, all zenned out when I got distracted by a sign reading "75% off" by a basket with pants I'd been eyeing every time I passed them in and out of the studio- I'd been so strong- and then here they were in my size 75% off. It was a test- one I clearly failed, or maybe passed, but what kind of budgetary monster can say no to $70 pants for $17?

Not this one, that's for sure. So I bought two. But now I'm seriously done.]

But back to the freakin weekend because it was! Assuming "freakin" is good, right? It was a good weekend. But first we go back to the week and some blogworthy moments I missed while taking screen shots of heart rate charts.

First up, Cora got a new nightgown.

She likes it very much.

Every night when the girls go to bed, no matter how much they've hugged and played and brushed each other's teeth (we've nixed that, for the record) mere seconds before, Cora yells, nearly panicked, "YAYA HUGS!!! YAYA! HUGS!!!!!!". We've learned she's quite capable of saying "Claire," but "Yaya" is Cora's preferred name for her beloved big sister, much like "Yandon" was Claire's pet name for Landon until she oh so sadly dropped it a year or two ago.

And so Yaya hugs are given. They take a little while and genuinely don't seem to be a way to delay bedtime- Cora LOVES to sleep- she just also needs a lot of hugs from her Yaya and Yaya doesn't seem to mind.

[Speaking of loving sleep. A picture from Hour 4.5 of Cora's afternoon nap today:

Work hard, play harder, love hardest, sleep even harder than that. This is Cora's motto. The flash from my camera didn't faze her in the least and we finally woke her up at Hour 5.]

And while Claire and Cora are fast friends, Claire and Landon remain the original dynamic duo. Particularly while Cora is taking her marathon naps.

But mostly all 3 of them play together. Landon is the worker bee- he sets things up and does just about anything involving work. Claire is in charge- she sets the rules of play. Rules that frequently change depending on how they effect on Claire at any given time. Cora is cheerleader- thrilled to be there and part of whatever is happening.

Earlier this week they decided to play baseball. They've never played on a baseball team or seen a baseball game on TV or in person, so I have no idea what they're basing their rules on, but a game was quickly arranged with Landon pitching, Cora fielding (backwards, but enthusiastically so), and Claire at bat.

She missed all 8 pitches, set her bat down, and yelled, "Okay, it's time for my HOME RUN!". Then she threw a ball at Landon and ran in a circle around the magnolia tree behind him. Nailed it.

And now to the weekend- I went back to Orangetheory Friday morning to remind myself after 8 yoga classes in 7 days (free week!) that I could still run. It was an endurance day, so I'm definitely all clear on the running thing. Then yesterday I taught the most fun barre class. A bride and her girlfriends were apparently having a bachelorette girls getaway weekend in Fort Worth and found their way to my class on Saturday afternoon! It was SO fun and so high energy and everyone was dripping in sweat when they left in search of a brunch 1.25 hours later. I pointed them to my favorite place on Magnolia, while they all reassured themselves they'd earned at least 3 mimosas. I live to serve.

Later that day we took the big kids to the final play of our wonderful Casa Manana children's series - The Seussical Musical. It was a great play and we all loved it, as we do every play Casa puts on. We're so lucky to live a few miles from such a great theater with a dedicated children's series every year.

Cora stayed home with our nanny, and unbeknownst to us, Landon left her with some strict instructions regarding his baby sister before we left.

When we returned, we dropped the big kids to join Tara and Cora, who was clearly well cared for and screaming deafening screams of joy and welcome, so we could go out on a date. We accidentally ran into Brewfest on West 7th. Just like every time we stumbled upon South by Southwest in Austin, we only do cool things when it's entirely by accident. We enjoyed live music, fabulous people watching, and a great meal with even better beverages.

I took a picture of us, but this picture of my food is far more interesting. Those fries were amazing AND they didn't have wrinkles around their eyes.

Today was hot yoga, a bit of grocerying, and spectacular weather. Unfortunately it was also the day we had to work on Landon's science project. Last week he excitedly told me that "Mom, I got the BIGGEST board they had!" - JOY!, but it actually went much better than expected with only two moments of utter defeat and a few tears. Some of them his.

I believe strongly that kids should do their own projects and school work and I felt the pain of that belief while I sat on my hands and watched him SLOOWWWLLLLYYYYY and painfully hunt and peck his way around my keyboard to type up his hypothesis, procedure, materials, observations, and conclusion. Several lifetimes passed me by in which I contemplated our anti-electronics stance, but oddly, my single glass of wine was only just finished when he was through.

I helped with some ideas for layout and then he did the gluing and cutting and placing of carefully selected foam stickers and hand-drawn art. He's quite proud and he should be. And next year, he excitedly told me, he gets to do the history fair too!! Yay!

Freakin weekends ahoy.