What a Day!

Such a great day!!!!

We started our day at the pool for the commercial shoot. Gretchen invited us and a bunch of other kids to be extras in a commercial shoot. I picked up our neighbor's children (Patti and Ricardo - I talked about them here.) and a couple of their friends and we went to the pool:

If you click on this picture, you can see the two boys, W and M. They're Gretchen and Bob's boys.

They must have cranked up the heater because the water was sooooo warm - I didn't bring my suit, so I just dipped my feet in - but it was nice! I wish I would've had my suit. The kids had a BALL. They could do whatever they wanted and even though it was cold outside, the sun was shining and they were playing like crazy, which is exactly what Producer Bob wanted. Here's a picture of Producer Bob and my beloved pal, Gretchen:

Isn't Gretchen pretty? She just got a sassy new haircut.

I got to invite my friend Carrie and her little ones to the shoot. I met Carrie at the pool last year. She's sooooo nice and her husband (Corey) is the one who will be doing our kitchen floor! Carrie and Corey have 3 beautiful wonderful children. Here they all are:
Carrie. Isn't she beautiful?

This is A. She's going to be a star someday. I just know it.

Sweet little A and boy J. Baby A is two. Sooooooo cute!
This little family is so nice. Carrie is such a great Mom. I'm constantly impressed with her kids. If they are eating a snack, they immediately ask the Noodle if she'd like to share with them. Amazing. And that's with no prompting from Carrie.

Here are our fabulous neighbor kids:

This is D. So pretty and smart and polite! What a great kid. She's Patti and Ricardo's youngest. She and the Noodle had a playdate after the shoot.

This is E, Patti and Ricardo's boy. He's a little older than D. Great kid.

This is R and R. The R on the left is Patti and Ricardo's older boy. Such a great kid. The other "R". is his buddy from school. So polite and friendly. I can't say enough about these kids. I love them and I'm totally impressed by them.

This is J and I. Such good boys - I have a feeling J (The older one.) will be visible in the commercial. The Director just loved him and he loved being there! He's such a good boy. I'm sad because he and R. will be going to Jr. High this year, so I won't see them at the bus stop every day anymore. They were always making sure the younger kids were taken care of.

One time, when the Noodle and Gretchen's boy, W., were in kindergarten, Gretchen and I were waiting for the school bus and it came to a different corner 4 blocks away (There was a lot of construction in the neighborhood at the time.). J. walked the Noodle home and made sure she was safely in the house while R. took care of W. and walked him home. J. and R. were in the 5th grade at the time. How many 5th graders would think to do that? These are two well brought-up boys.

In other news, J's dad, Jose, and Ricardo are good friends and they just opened a Mexican Restaurant in our neighborhood!!!! I took the Noodle, D., and the Noodle's pal, Ana, there for lunch yesterday.
Ohmygosh.
It was soooooo good! Their tacos were very authentic - unfried fresh corn tortilla with seasoned steak and onions, Cojito cheese, cilantro, lettuce, onion, tomato. Yummy. I ordered some "to go" for Zuddy and brought them to his work. He LOVED them. We've both decided it's our new favorite place to eat. I can't wait to go back. It might be a weekly thing for us.

Then we had the wedding......my cousin, Angie was the bride. SO beautiful. Really. Probably the most gorgeous bride I've ever seen. I had my camera, but forgot to take any pictures. Maybe someone else in the family took some. I've got to share her beauty with you all.

Also, the Noodle, Lulu, Schmackie and Sweet Angel were tooooooooooo cute!
Lulu caught a ride with us to the reception and we were cracking up at the conversation between her and the Noodle. Those two are best pals. First of all, they were making a date to get online at the same time and play with their Webkinz together. All of this talk about setting alarm clocks and what their alarm clocks look like, etc. Soooo funny.
Then the Noodle said something that didn't make much sense and Lulu says, "Uhhhhhhh, O-kay?" Just like a teenager. My Mom was in the front of the car with me and Zuddy was in the middle row of seats and we were all just laughing. Kids are just pure entertainment, aren't they??

The reception was at the Science Museum of Minnesota and so the kids were even MORE excited (even though we didn't go see the exhibits). They were running up and down the musical steps and twirling and dancing around.

At dinner Noodle and Lulu were very impressed with the chicken nuggets. VERY impressed. Apparently the most delectable nuggets EVAH! They were comparing them to other nuggets they've eaten in the past.....like two little wine connoisseurs comparing their favorite vintages. What a hoot!

And the CAKE!!! I'm so picky about cake and this one was really good. I need to find out who made it. Really nice french buttercream. Mmmmmmm.

That's my day. I included the Noodle and Lulu chicken nugget talk as a shout-out to my sis-in-law, Myrna. I know she reads this blog and I didn't get to talk to her about the cute things the girls were talking about.

I'm very thankful for my family, friends and neighbors today.