Girls Day Out

Grandma made the three hour trip down yesterday to babysit, so that daddy and mama could have a night out. We had a blast! My friend and band director invited a few people out for his birthday bash (I'm honored to have been on the "A" list:) We started with cocktail hour, then moved on to hors d'oeuvres and pizza in an Italian restaurant. He brought a birthday cake in, it said "Happy Thanksgiving." Since he's a big turkey, we thought it was appropriate:) We then went back into the lounge for a few more cocktails and to listen to some questionable karaoke--it seemed like a bunch of regulars--they weren't bad, but they didn't let any "newcomers" give it a shot--a few of us were going to go up to sing Summer Lovin' from GREASE (the gals would have been Olivia and the guys John)--but the same people kept getting the stage--so the band people never got their shot at vocal fame:( (I must assume they found out there were a bunch of rowdy band people there, and they knew there was a reason why we play real instruments:) But, as soon as some one went up to sing SWEET CAROLINE by Neal Diamond, a couple from our party literally got up and RAN out of the room, I mean RAN--apparantly Neil Diamond makes her physically ill, and she meant this literally (so sorry Mom:) From there we hit a sports bar that had the band director's wife's guitar teacher as part of a great local band called Mt. Olive--and they were really good, and the music was GREAT--we enjoyed singing, dancing, and more "cocktails"! So we had a ton of fun! Happy Birthday Jay! Thanks for a great night! I think my ears have stopped ringing, so hopefully I'll be able to hear for rehearsal tomorrow:)

So today, as a thank you to grandma for making the drive down, we had a girls day out. We went out for a yummy breakfast. And after I've always wanted to show her The Gingerbread House--it's a very quaint and adorable coffee and pastry and craft shop just a couple of miles from us. I remember not too long ago when it was a beautiful old farm house, and watched the renovation for over a year (waiting and wondering what was to become of this old farm house!). I LOVE quaint shops like this--it seems like everytime I go into a really cute and quaint country type shop, I want to turn my house into that--but then if I start to do that with my home (making it country), I get sick of all the clutter and start bagging stuff for Goodwill and changing it back to more clean and simple (as much as you can with small children--I'm thinking in my next home, I should have one country room, but only where I can close it off if I get sick of the clutter:)--but it was a bit crowded for the girls, so we bought a couple of cookies, took a quick tour, enjoyed the beautiful original wooden flooring and all the decor, and left. Now the girls are enjoying their turkey cutout cookies. (And Thank you to Grandma for bringing the movie August Rush to me, I can't wait to see it!)