We had a very busy weekend, and we knew it was coming, so we started with a leisurely Friday night with a lot of reading, a little laundry, and everyone in bed early.

Ready for the SAT

Saturday morning my DD1 took the SAT. Duke University has a special program to try to find “exceptional 7th graders”, and it all starts with a really long test on Saturday morning.

The high school near us hosting the SAT had a separate room set aside for the 7th graders taking the exam, so they did not have to be intimidated sitting with older kids. But I think it would be funny to the looks on the faces of those 17 year olds!

My friend E also had to drop her daughter off for the test, but they live clear across town, so I invited her to come back to our house to hang out afterwards. She said she was going to hit my gym for BodyFlow class. When she told me it was part tai chi, part yoga and part pilates, I said, “That sounds delicious!” and decided to take the class with her. So we dropped off our girls, came back to my house, caught up for a couple hours, and then hit the 10:30 BodyFlow. You use 2 yoga mats in a plus-sign formation so you can do side poses and front poses and still see the instructor. Speaking of, our instructor had a 10 year yoga background, and led beautifully. I wore my yummy butt Lucy Hatha Power pants and my vintage weightlifter Tshirt that is supposed to be Brian’s but I stole from his side of the closet.

After class we went back to the high school, thinking we had to get our girls by noon. As it turned out the test ended at 1pm. We could have easily hung out talking for an hour in the 75 degree sunshine, but DD2 had an eye doctor appt. E said she would get the girls after the exam, I gave her a spare key, and took DD2 to have her eyes checked out.

Turns out she’s not nearsighted, not farsighted, but just having trouble when she has to transition from seeing far (blackboard in classroom) to close (paper she’s writing on at her desk). Most kids hit a point where their eyes adjust slower around 6th grade, and most don’t notice it, but my daughter is able to detect the softening and focusing of her eyes and it’s causing strain and headaches. So we made her the first kid in her 6th grade with granny glasses. Stupid little readers from the drug store with only a +1.00 should help her eyes adjust easier and relieve her symptoms without hurting her eyes. They are dark blue with little rhinestones.

Then we had to be home for 2 of her friends to be dropped off at 2:30 so we could drive across the bridge to Tampa for a birthday party. They were asked to bring a digital camera or cell phone with camera, and were split into groups of 3 to go on a mall scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun. Most of what they had to find they could see right through store windows without walking in, but a few things they had to do, like try on a mans shoe. They got photos of “Cinderella in her coach” (window of Tiffany’s) and “3 ways to say I love you” (all the Valentine’s stuff…) I think there were 32 things. In the meantime the mom of the birthday girl and I just cruised the mall, trying on Mac and looking at formal dresses. 1.5 hours later we all met back up at the food court and discovered what the girls found. They were quite creative. One team looking for a “roller coaster” went to the iMac store and Googled roller coaster and took a photo of it. There was actually a cardboard roller coaster in the Express or Forever XXI store that the mom expected them to find.

Then we all went to the Cheesecake Factory. Lots of pasta, rice, chicken, chocolate and strawberries were devoured. The pot stickers tasted right out of the frozen package I buy at home, and I’ll probably never get them there again. But the teriyaki chicken, virgin daquiris and 4-cheese pasta were big hits.

I let the kids ride home with the music blaring and the windows down - giggling and making fart jokes the whole way. I was home at 9pm, and my husband had enjoyed his girl-free quiet time and was a bit refreshed. We played Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party on the Wii for a while and went to bed. This game is total, utter silliness - to the point where sometimes it is frustrating because you don’t even know what you are getting points for, but it’s so stupid we just laugh.

Sunday I took care of laundry, dropping off the recycling, grocery shopping (with Brian), making bread dough for the night’s calzone dinner, baking stuffed peppers with brown rice, broccoli and leeks to have for lunch during the week (bastardized from this recipe), picking up DD1 from her friend’s house and dropping off DD2 at her friend’s house to work on a board game for French class. I cleaned out a cabinet and a closet, and we washed the sheets. Then I finished reading “Goodbye, Jimmy Choo”which was suggested by a friend. It was fun and not too cheesy or trite. The homemade calzones came out great. Everyone else had mozzarella and pepperoni. I have mozzarella, bacon bits and peas. I warmed up a jar of pizza sauce to dip them in. We also tried some chocolate peppermint bark we received over the holidays and hadn’t opened yet.

And now 48 hours later I am “judging” my daughters’ drawing contest while trying to type up a few paragraphs so I can look back on the past 2 days when I wonder at my desk this week where the weekend went!