I've been collecting cute and entertaining stories to blog about, but it turns out keeping them tucked away in my brain is about as safe a place as the backseat of any vehicle I've ever owned (i.e. many a thing have entered that danger zone never to be seen again).  So, needless to say, I pretty much don't remember anything I was going to blog about for the past five-ish days.  But I do have one story that survived the craziness in my brain, and I'm throwing in a few pictures for good measure.

sToRy:

I spent a fabulously relaxing (well, minus a super stubborn migraine) weekend with some wonderful women at a cabin in Wisconsin to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a good friend (shout out to Becky!).  Of course I missed my family, but I also definitely thoroughly enjoyed only having myself to take care of for 48 hours.  Anyway, when I approached Brian about going in the beginning stages of planning the event, he immediately was 100% wonderful and genuinely expressed that he didn't mind parenting solo for the weekend.  So I got home on Sunday evening and the house was in a good state, the kids were happy, and all appeared to have gone super smoothly.  Which it did.  And then we were eating dinner two nights ago, and Ivy blurted out, "Dad!  Can we pull your finger again and see what happens?!"  And both kids burst out laughing while Brian looked at me half sheepishly, half proud (why again are men so proud of their gas?).  Apparently Brian has a few tricks of his own up his sleeve for entertaining when I'm away.  :)

pIcTuReS:

Milo the Smilo (creative, huh?...we came up with that all on our own):

My family room, mid project to go through all of the kids' clothes.  Except that it took me twice as long as anticipated.  And this is what it looked like on Day 1 when it was time to go pick Max up from school (i.e. when I thought I'd be completely done; so our house looked like this for about 12 more hours before I completed the task):

My Mini Me.  And I can't figure out how to rotate pics in blogger, so turn your head sideways for the full effect:  :)