Football, parties, wedding, etc…
Okay, there’s no point in trying to pretend that I’ll be able to weave a compelling narrative out of all of this. We’ll just have to go with the ol’ bullet points to get all of this stuff out there and see what sticks.
So, in more-or-less chronological order, here is what we’ve been up to for the past month.
The Boy and I went to A&M’s season opener against New Mexico. The Boy was excited because he got to ride a bus to the stadium. And eat a $6 hamburger. And some Dippin’ Dots.- Actually, before we went to the game, we went to a reception for the A&M Former Journalism Students Association (Of which I’m now the treasurer. That’s funny, seeing as how The Wife doesn’t even trust me to pay our own bills at home.). During the hour we were there, The Boy quietly sat in the corner and consumed approximately 3.5 billion sugar cookies.
- Once we made it into Kyle Field, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our seats were pretty good, although not as good as where I used to watch football games from.
- There was plenty of exciting game action, as well as the always entertaining Aggie Band, but by the end of the evening, The Boy started to find other things to keep himself occupied. A&M ended up winning 412-7 (approximately), which is exactly how it should be with these non-conference opponents.
The Boy’s birthday fell in the middle of the week this year, so we decided to extend the festivities to both of the weekends surrounding it.- The first weekend, we headed down to The Swamp to celebrate with the family. During the party, The Girl couldn’t wait to eat some birthday cake, so we let her do so while The Boy opened his presents. That turned out to be a good decision, as it freed her up to entertain the guests later on and mix in some playtime with her brother.
- Later that evening, The Wife attempted to teach her mother and sister how to play Guitar Hero with only moderate (but highly comical) effect.
- The Wife also made a disturbing discovery at the dollar store next to Hobby Lobby.
- On his actual birthday, The Boy went through the annual rite of having his picture taken in his birthday shirt. Once The Girl saw what was going on, she had to wear the shirt as well.
- The following weekend, we had a second party in College Station for all of The Boy’s little first-grade friends. We had it a place called The Bounce, which is basically an indoor area filled with bouncy castles. It cost more than I would have liked, but it was totally worth it since all we had to do was show up with a cake. The two-hour party package included a half-hour in a private play area, an hour in the larger public play area and time for cake and presents in the mind-numbingly aqua party room.
- Speaking of the cake, the fine folks at the Kroger bakery didn’t have the plastic kits for the first (baseball), second (golf), or third (Pixar’s Cars) cakes that The Boy picked out, so he ended up with what they did have – a military cake. Kinda random, but whatever. Sugar is sugar.
- Everybody got their bounce on, including The Girl, who demonstrated her total lack of fear by climbing ladders and sliding down slides all by herself. She’s not even two yet, people. We’re so screwed…
- At some point, it started raining again. After disappearing during our summer-long drought, two sure signs of superfluous moisture magically reappeared almost overnight in our back yard – toads and mushrooms.
- The Girl honed her messy eating skills, both with yogurt and cupcakes.
- The following week was one spent at the doctor’s office. The Girl survived the trauma of a flu shot. The Boy also got a flu shot, but that didn’t keeping him from hurling all over the back seat of my car and seeing the doctor again later in the week. (He’s fine now, but my car still has the faint scent of freshly blown chunks in it.)
This past weekend, The Wife and I ditched the kids and went to a mutual friends’ wedding in Horseshoe Bay. It was a long weekend with all the driving and the craziness, but we had a really good time.- The not-so-exciting wedding rehearsal was followed by a very nice dinner at the Flat Creek Winery. The Wife managed to down a glass or seven of the good stuff over the course of the evening. Just about every one on the shuttle bus (except moi) was totally drunk on the way back to the hotel. Fun times.
- The next morning, I had a little free time while The Wife got a manicure with the rest of the bridal party, so I set out to find the long-lost lakehouse we used to visit when I was a kid. I didn’t find it, but I did find plenty of deer who’d walk right up to the car.
- When I made it back into town, some last-minute preparations were being made by the bridesmaids, but otherwise the church was ready for the big show. The wedding started a little late and had an impatient organist who rushed things along to compensate, but in the end, the wedding happened and the obligatory photos were taken afterward.
- After the wedding, there was a brief cocktail hour before the main reception started. During this time, I found a mirror and snapped a pic, just to prove that I do, in fact, occasionally get dressed up.
- The actual reception was totally awesome. It was held outdoors and the weather was just perfect, aside from a rather bright sun at the beginning. Despite being blinded, The Wife persevered and chowed down on some tasty sea bass.
- During the reception, the bridal party (which included The Wife) kicked things off by doing what can only be described as a very special dance routine to “Footloose.” To The Wife’s credit, she managed to do the entire routine in her killer four-inch heels. I was impressed.
- The reception lasted well into the night with plenty of dancing and drinking. The band they hired was really great – honestly the best live entertainment I’ve ever seen at a wedding.
- Then we came back home. And The Girl was glad.
So there you go. Four weekends compacted into about a thousand words.