Out of the Rut weekend...most definitely!

What a great weekend! Well, except for the Mavs loss to Miami just now (not a fan of the Heat). It was a fun and busy weekend, starting off with Sally's 23rd birthday on Friday and a very busy day at work. We have a birthday tradition of having birthday cake for breakfast, but the bakery didn't open til 7 and Sally had to meet a student at 7, so that didn't happen. We were flexible (kinda), though we like (a LOT) our traditions here at our house :) Work was busy, too, and was followed by an end of the year/going away party for another Sally. One of our Early Childhood administrators is leaving for a great new job in Naperville (lucky them to get her) and there was a party to help celebrate that. I have worked with Sally for the past 14 years. Kacey, another administrator, had a gathering at her house and it was so much fun. It was a beautiful afternoon. I rode to the party with my coworker Lisa and then Jack picked me up an hour later so we could go into the city to help celebrate Sally's (my Sally!) birthday. It was at Howl at the Moon, a very fun piano bar. Jack and I went for about two hours and it felt like a Mom's Day at Illinois! Sally had a nice turnout of her awesome friends and family. The only problem was my camera ran out of batteries ten minutes after I got there, so I only got two pictures, but they were good ones!

Loving on Sally on her 23rd birthday

Sally and her cousin Lauren..so cute

Wayne gave Sally tickets to the Saturday night Glee concert for her birthday. They were going to take the el from the city out to the Allstate Arena, so Jack and I offered to drive Sally into the city to meet Wayne, Julie and Josh (the Australian!), the other attendees.  Also in attendance was one of Julie's fellow architecture grad students, Lindy, who is reportedly a total Gleek. In case you are wondering why Matt wasn't in attendance, it is because he sacrificed his ticket so that true Glee fans could go to the concert. What a guy!

the Gleeks, Julie, Lindy, Wayne, Sally and Josh

While the youngsters were at the concert, Jack and I decided that we would grab dinner and see a movie. It was so serendipitous. We found the most amazing place to eat right across from the movie theater. It was called Fat Willy's Rib Shack and it was so great! After dinner, all we had to do was walk across the street to the theater (which had $2 parking, by the way!). We saw "Bridesmaids" and it was one of the very best movies we have seen in a long time. SO funny, but also a great message. Jack and I (it is not a chick flick) have not laughed that hard in a long time. I have to qualify this by saying that there is lots of bad language, so if you find that offensive, "Bridesmaids" wouldn't be for you. But my goodness, it was an entertaining movie! Afterward, we popped back in Fat Willy's for a bite of dessert (coconut cream pie that was out of this world) and a diet coke, then met up with the kids.
Today, we went to mass and Father Edgar was saying the mass..total win for us. Love his homilies and masses. Later in the afternoon, Jack, Sally and I went to watch Kjell (my nephew) play baseball at the Kane County Cougars stadium in Geneva. Wayne met us there as did Jenny, Jay, Arne, Beth, Abbie and Nina.The Scorpions (Kjell's team) lost, but it was a good game. Kjell plays first base and had a "play of the week" kind of play as well as an RBI. Abbie and Nina enjoyed dancing on the dugout between innings (just twice). So cute!

that's our Kjell! right in the middle there

Arne and Nina

 What a fun way to begin summer!