Yesterday, the girls & I all got new pillows!  So we slept like babies last night.  Nate was wondering why he didn’t get one, but he never complains about his pillow, so I thought his was good to go.  Turns out, he could use a new one as well.  I guess I’ll we’ll have to make another stop at Kohl’s this week.

We spent the day cleaning our house today.  Nate’s brother & family are coming for the weekend.  I love it when people come to visit, the girls don’t want to be embarrassed by their rooms, so they did the “deep clean” and both rooms look spectacular.  I only hope they keep them that way for awhile.  Today…the house…tomorrow…the food.  Way more fun!

Today we met my brother, Jim, for lunch at Cassetta’s down in St. Paul.  This is a great Italian restaurant that makes terrific pizza that you can purchase by the slice.  And their slices take up your whole plate!  Such cheesy goodness in your mouth.  We needed to meet up with my brother because Megan needed to get her Nintendo back.  She left it as his house last Saturday when we were over for dinner.  So the trade was made and it was a good reason to go out for lunch.

Last night both of the girls started basketball camp.  They have a two-hour practice once a week, for 8 weeks, over at the near-by junior high school.  This is a new sport for us, but they really worked hard last night and seemed to enjoy it a lot and it’s definitely good exercise.  If they want to continue, the leagues start in October and then they’ll be placed on teams and will put their new skills to work on the court.  I think it’ll be fun, but of course I just get to sit and watch!   And take pictures too!

Today was in “iffy” looking day out but we decided to head over to the pool anyway.  It was very warm & humid, so the water felt good.  At one point, a big black cloud came over and sprinkled us with a tiny shower that lasted a couple of minutes and actually cooled us off.  After that, the sun was out and we were back to being sweaty.  The kids didn’t even notice that it was raining out.  Kelly saw me with my hood on and said, “Mom, is it raining out?  Why do you have your hood up?”  It’s a good thing we parents watch the weather or our children would stay in a pool when there’s lightening out!

I love just hanging out with my friends by a pool.  It reminds me of being in my backyard when I was a kid.  I miss that pool and the convenience of it.  I need to find a friend who has a backyard pool.  ha!

Today, the girls & I had lunch with my sister, Terry and my mom (Grandma to them).  She is leaving tomorrow to head back to Arizona.  We met out in Eagan at a restaurant called, Granite City Food & Brewery.  It’s become one of my favorite places to just hang out and visit.   We had a nice time with lots of ice tea!!  ha-ha.    Let me explain….I think they were a little busy today so our food was slow to get out to us.  So to keep us “happy”, they kept sending out ice teas.  At one point, we had 6 glasses of tea and two lemonades at our table!  All of which were full.  We just started laughing when yet another waitress came over to me and asked if I had ordered the “Arnold Palmer” (which is a mix of ice tea & lemonade).  I had two full glasses in front of me, but she obviously didn’t notice.  I turned it down & Terry told her that we hadn’t ordered that.  Funny…We  weren’t in any hurry, so we didn’t care that we had to wait.  And once we got the bill, we really didn’t mind.   I was able to feed three of us for $22.  Now that’s a deal I like. 

After lunch, we hung out in the parking lot and as usual, did the half-hour of saying good-bye.  The girls gave Grandma a big hug with a promise of visiting Arizona soon.   It was nice to see my mom again and hopefully I’ll see my Dad soon as well.  Wish they were a bit closer.  But it was a great way to spend a hot afternoon.

I got a call from my friend and co-worker this evening, asking if I’d like to go with her to the Burnsville Concert in the Park tonight.  There was a New Orleans Jazz Band playing and she knew one of the guys playing in the band.  They were called, The Jack Brass Band.  It was a gorgeous evening to sit outside and listen to good music and hang out with a friend.  Megan & Kelly joined us as did her daughter, Kristin.  The girls brought activities to do while in their chairs & even played a little soccer behind us while enjoying the summer sounds of the concert.  Burnsville has been doing these free Wednesday concerts for many years now.  I remember my friend Dawn & I taking the kids to their favorite concert….The Teddy Bear Band.  We never missed that concert each summer.

Tonight, Nate & I taught the girls how to play Scrabble.  It was a lot of fun and they enjoyed it.  It was a bit confusing to them at first, but they got the hang of it.  Megan had a bit of trouble understanding that you couldn’t just put a word down anywhere you’d like.  She kept trying to put a word across the board, but it wouldn’t match up with the word going down.  After about six tries, we would just start laughing when it was her turn…curious to see what she’d come up with.  She was a good sport about it.  Family game night is always interesting and fun around the Solberg house.

It was a cold, cloudy day today with a high of only 60 degrees.  A great day to hit the mall, at least that’s what Megan and her friend Noelle thought.  The girls wanted to go shopping and just hang out, but I’m not ready to let an eleven year old girl walk around the mall without supervision, so Kelly & I tagged along (okay, we walked about five feet behind them), but they were good with that.  We hit the usual cool stores (I know them now), and both girls found a shirt to purchase.  They also needed to buy a birthday gift for their friend, so we stopped in Claires and bought a purse, nail polish & picture clip.  At this point, I was ready for a Caribou Coffee, so Kelly & I headed that direction while the girls went to one more t-shirt place.  After two hours of walking, I asked if we could go now.  Luckily, they were both in agreement and we headed for the exit.  Unfortunately, we needed to pass the makeup counter in order to leave.  They asked if they could try on some makeup…how could I say no.    Twenty minutes later, we really left.

Much to my delite, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my pre-teen daughter & her friend.  I’m glad they didn’t mind having “mom” nearby.

Last night I went out with my two BG’s (best girlfriends) and as usual, we talk about some funny stuff.  Somehow, we were talking about the Bee Gee’s and we could only remember two of them.  Barry & Andy.  Terry kept saying that two of them were twins and Dawn and I were telling her that we only knew of three.  Of course, Google has proved Dawn & I wrong and Terry was right.  Maurice & Robin were twins, they just weren’t identical.   I’m not sure which one of them didn’t like the spotlight, because when I went searching for pictures, most of them only had three guys in it! 

We also went and saw the movie, The Proposal.  Very funny!!!  It made us laugh from start to finish with a few “teary parts” as well.  Thumbs up from all of us.

I had such a fun night out and Terry brought me a couple of wonderful birthday gifts as well.  Dawn gave me her gifts last week when we were scrapin’.  Those two always know what I like.  Jewelry from my sister and scrapbooking items from Dawn.  They know me too well!

What a nice day I had today.  It started out with a walk around the pond with Kelly & Jazz.  It was a cool, 64 degree morning which felt more like September rather than July.  But we loved it!   When we returned, it was time to water the plants.  It’s been so dry here, that the leaves are all wilting on a daily basis.  The grass is brown as well.  We need a good soaking rain but that’s just not in our forcast.

Later on, Kelly & I went over to Schmidt Music and she picked out some fun piano music for the summer.  Her piano teacher thought she needed a break from all of the lesson books and would benefit from just letting loose on her own music.  Kelly liked this idea and picked out two books.  One is the music from the movie Enchanted and the other is just fun favorites like Happy Birthday and her favorite…Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.  I think she’ll have fun with these.

Tonight, Megan went to Valleyfair with her friend, Andra.  It’s Megan’s first time going and she was so excited.  She loves to go on all of the rides and the crazier, the better for her!  She definitely did not get this from me!!  I know she’ll have a good time, but I’m still a bit nervous and can’t wait for her to be home…..safe.  It’s hard having a “pre-teen” who wants to be out all of the time.  Now that she might just get from me.

Today, Kelly & I were beach bums.  We called a friend of mine and she & her daughter joined us for a relaxing day at Cleary Lake in Prior Lake.   We haven’t had very much rain here, so the beach was very shallow which meant lots of seaweed.  The girls didn’t care for that too much.  The water was only thigh high on them.  They couldn’t really swim in that, so they fun building sand castles, and filling cups of water and throwing it at each in order to get wet.  They still had a good time.  I enjoyed just hanging out in a chair,  talking and drinking my diet coke.  It’s what summer is all about. 

We may try again tomorrow but at a different beach.  This weekend is definitely beach weather….sunny and 78 degrees!  I love it!!