Here's how much we love our deck

This weekend was beautiful and we finally got our furniture and umbrella and we spent 85 percent of our days out on the deck. We set up the baby pools and the kids had so much fun, which meant we got to enjoy a few nice meals outside while they played.

Spring Recital

Jake's class has been practicing for their spring recital for weeks now. The songs were supposed to be a surprise for the parents, and when we asked, Jake would only say that it was a secret between him and his brain.

A couple of weeks ago, as we were all piling into the van one morning, Jake started quietly singing, "Sunday Monday Happy Days, Tuesday Wednesday Happy Days..." Ali and I did a double take and asked where he'd learned that song -- it's not like we watch Happy Days re-runs around the house. He looked surprised that we'd heard him, and we quickly realized this was probably his super secret recital song.

Anyway, last week was finally the recital, and it was AWESOME! All the parents dropped the kids off backstage, and then we waited while they got into their costumes. When Jake's class came out, all the boys were in jeans and black dress shoes, with white t-shirts that had the sleeves rolled up, and 45rpm records shapes sewn onto the backs. And of course, they had their first initials sewn onto the fronts, Laverne and Shirley style. The girls looked great in pink poodle skirts and scarves, and everyone had sunglasses on.

Here's a shot from the performance:
And here he is at the "afterparty" with Grace, his main squeeze:
Here's the whole gang:


And here's a shot from the behind-the-scenes rehearsal:
See the full video here:

Memphis

Our trip to Memphis (two weeks ago) was so much fun. We were anxious about the 13 hour drive, but everybody did so well! To break up the trip, we spent the night in Johnson City, Tennessee with Jake's cousin Arjuna. It was the perfect rest stop - the kids got to play, and we got to hang out with Kerry and Mike and Carol.

Here's Jake in Memphis, right outside of Deni and Patrick's restaurant, the Majestic Grille, standing on the trolley tracks. The trolley was a big hit with the kids.


Mike and Pat (aka Gram and Poppy) drove down separately, and gave us a mini-vacation by taking care of the kids for two nights. I wasn't too worried about Jake handling the craziness of the trip, but Sadie really surprised me with how well she did with sleeping in three different places, and with all the driving. Here are Jake and Sadie with Gram and Poppy on their secret late-night excursion:

We had such a great fun-filled week in Memphis. We saw the Pink Palace, a Red Birds game, took trolley rides, went out to great restaurants, explored the River Walk, ate all kinds of BBQ at Memphis in May, went to the zoo, and went to the children's museum. Here are Jake and Sadie playing dress up, and Deni taking Sadie down a slide:


We also did some relaxing at Deni and Patrick's, and here is Sadie having fun brushing my hair:


One night we grilled out on Deni and Patrick's lovely patio:


Sunset on the Mississippi. What you can't see is the organized chaos directly behind us which was the national BBQ championships held during Memphis in May. Patrick's team was competing and cooked something like 400 lbs of pork, not to mention chicken, lamb and Spam.


It was a great vacation, and I think we may make an annual excursion out of it. More pictures here.