Panda's new do

When Dan was here for Erik's birthday he showed us pictures of his one-eyed pirate cat. His cat had an eye infection and it had to be removed. Panda has had a bad eye for a few months and we just assumed it was cataracts since he is old. We took him to the vet and it turned out he had a mild infection - nothing serious. But while we were there, we asked them to shave him since he has had difficulty grooming himself. Again, he is old (much like my husband!). Panda looks hilarious now but is actually much happier. He comes out a lot  more and is more interactive with us. He loves his new do!

Panda's new do

 We've been really busy with Girl Scouts lately. I've had a meeting every week with one troop or another and this upcoming weekend we are going to Mansfield for a Girl scout drawing workshop. It's been a great year for the girls and we are on track to earn the bronze award for Jenna's troop.

Cute animal at Girl Scout Thinking day - I thought he was super cute!

 Our church had a fun activity this weekend called "Guess who's coming to dinner?". We hosted dinner and didn't know who would come or what they would bring. We just made the main dish and everyone else brought dessert and salad. I loved it! This is the group who came to our house.

Guess who's coming to dinner

 The most important event this weekend was pi day! Saturday was March 14, 2015. I love pi day and we are required to celebrate every year. The Masts, Brubakers, and Stoutenburgs all came over to eat round food. We had deviled eggs, orange slices, cheeseball with round crackers, guacamole with round chips, donatos pizza, and pies. The pies were Kentucky bourbon pie, key lime pie, chocolate peanut butter, and cheesecake. Yum! I ate 3.14 slices of pie too.

our pies!

Jenna and her blessings paper

 Jenna has been asking for approximately a million years for her own pet. We are planning on getting a hamster for her in a few weeks assuming she does her chores. She is so thankful though. Look at this sheet of blessings she made. It is so precious!

Jenna's blessings

In other news:

• I've finished a lot of the books I was reading: City of Stairs, Firefight, Revenge of the Witch, Blood of Olympus, etc. So I'm waiting for the next book we will read with our book club
• Lately I've changed my workout schedule. I always did a body blitz (weights) class on Tuesday, spinning on Wed, elliptical on Friday and zumba on Saturday. But now I've changed and am doing yoga on Tuesday instead. I love yoga. I always feel so good afterwards. I just hope it is just as good a workout. 
• This session I'm teaching a hardware class on onsite Monday nights. I found out the linux server I used before is no longer available. So I set up my raspberry pi as a linux server for the students to login to. I've had this raspberry pi for about a year and am finally putting it to use!
• I gave up pinterest for lent and it has been difficult since I love looking at pinterest. Of course it was taking up too much of my time so this is much better.

40 is the new 20!

I wanted to do something really fun for Erik's birthday that he would love. Some ideas were skydiving, a giant party where he would be required to talk to lots of people, or a raw fish sushi/Indian buffet. 

Okay - so those would be Erik's least favorite things.

Instead, Dave, Joel, and Dan flew here for a weekend of gaming which Erik said was "wonderful". More like epic!

Thursday David flew here and stayed at his parents house. He actually stayed there all weekend and was able to do some projects they needed done. Then he came over on Friday and Erik put him to work cooking for the game night that evening. Friday afternoon Joel and Dan flew in and that evening we had an epic game night at our house. Several people came and played games until 2am. Erik had so much fun. 

I took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge where we also had a blast!  My sisters Missy and Amanda came too. I rode every water slide with the girls multiple times. Matthew played in the little kids section the whole time. For like...7 hours!

Sarah on the water

Jenna on the water

Matthew on the slide

 While I was sliding, Erik, Joel, Dan, David, Dave M (Missy's husband), and Matt all played games! They picked up some pizza, took it to the Growler (a local craft beer establishment), and gamed. Most likely getting pizza grease all over the games....

On Saturday evening I came back with the kids for a family birthday party.

Happy Birthday Erik! Dan has a halo ;). I need to work on my photoshop skills

Family picture

Hey which one of these guys is 40!!?!

Dave and Joel "dancing" to Just Dance

Jenna made a book for Joel titled "My Uncle Joel and His Big head"

Saturday night we played Amun Re after the kids went to bed. Sunday morning we all went to church in the snow and cold. Of course Joel and Dan made fun of Ohioans that they thought this weather was too cold and snowy to go to church. They were out sunbathing...

We also were treated to Joel and David using our new wii to play Just Dance. They danced the Macarena. At least, I think they were dancing. 

Dan got Erik the Game of Thrones card game which they played on Sunday afternoon. It was true to the book and looks amazing. 

Unfortunately, Dave, Joel, and Dan had to fly home on Sunday. The weekend was so much fun, and Erik won most of the games he played (shhhhh don't tell him we let him win!). 

Happy Birthday Erik!