March 9 - March 15

Sunday March 9: I started on a project that I've been waiting to do for so long, and I finally had the time: painting our piano! (SORRY CINDY! I know it's a Hinckley Heirloom and was supposed to have museum status but I just couldn't help myself!). We used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, and that stuff is awesome to paint with. No primer, no sanding, two coats, and BOOM, your piano matches your dining room!

 (No makeup pictures are going to be grumpy pictures.)

We had a Hinckley family dinner that night after the painting was done. Per our usual assignment, we brought the cake. A birthday cake, to be exact, since it was Michelle and Patrick's birthdays, both on the 21st. We also brought them a present to perk up their new apartment, which I can honestly say is the first time I've seen Patrick get excited about anything:

Mon March 10: For our first official day of spring break, we trooped over to Grapevine to visit our neglected Legoland. I had a stroke of genius before we left. I brought five dollars worth of quarter, and let Tyler and Jamie choose whatever rides they wanted to ride out in the main mall area.

 You can't see it at all in this picture, but Tyler used a few of the quarters to make a Legoland penny. This is the only evidence we have that it exists, but we lost it just a few hours after it was made. There were many tears.

Tuesday March 11: McKay took the white car in to get some much needed repairs, and I went to Lowes and bought a power saw! Did you know they are like $30 at Lowe's? I have all these Pinterest projects that I've been wanting to do forever, but haven't had the tools to do them.

Wed March 12: Tyler, Jamie, and I spent the morning cleaning up and getting ready to go on our mini vacation. After McKay got home, we dropped the kids off at Lisa's house and then jetted off to exotic Fort Worth! We spent the night a this cool bed and breakfast in the middle of downtown called Etta Place.

This counts as a selfie technically, but I was checking out my outfit in this giant mirror, and it turned out to be one of the only pictures of me from the whole trip, so here it is, proof I was there!

It was based off Etta Place, the girlfriend or wife or something of Butch Cassidy, and the entire place was decked out in Old West theme, but elegant old West theme. It was pretty amazing. We spent the night walking around downtown Fort Worth all around Sundance Plaza, and had a ton of fun poking into places and checking out what was going on. We stopped in the Scat Jazz club in time to see this crazy awesome band:

Thursday March 13: We sort of got to sleep in, but there's a whole lot of construction in downtown lately, and the pounding and crashing right across the very echo-y street made it difficult to stay asleep. We cruised over to the Stockyards and shopped around all the little shops and stands and farmer's market places there.

(I forgot to take pictures down there, so I've borrowed these pictures from a girl I know who also went to the Stockyards lately. Thanks Melanie!)

I bought these cute little bird napkin rings at one place, and McKay picked up an obscene assortment of salsas and steak seasoning from another place. Then it was ELTON JOHN TIME.

As you can probably tell, we had awesomely bad seats. But it didn't matter even a little bit. This man is almost 70 years old and had more energy than anyone else in that venue. His band (all a good ten years younger at least, had to take breaks, but Elton just kept it going and played a solo while they were gone. He was hopping up on top of his piano, walking around the stage rocking out; it was so so good. We had these people sitting behind us who had obviously only come for the benefit of their one friend, who was REALLY into Elton John. He would be rocking out in his seat, and then prod his friends into singing along with him.

"Saturday! Saturday! Sat- Come ON Ryan!" Then he'd be joined in by a very disgruntled Ryan: "Saturday. Saturday! Saturday, Saturday..." It was so funny.

Friday March 14: We picked up the kids from Lisa’s in the morning and had a make up donut day for them. Then we all went home and slept off our respective vacations; we were pretty tired!

Saturday March 15: Poor McKay had to go back to word, but Tyler, Jamie and I had a grand time in the backyard building a new shelf for my side table. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while. The kids like to take running jumps into the couch, and since we have wooden floors, the couch just flies backwards into the front window, and each time I'm sure they're going to keep going through the window into the front yard. I brought it inside and weighed it down with a few cute suitcases, one of them being a 25 pound accordion. So far, the couch has stayed put.

I like my new saw :) 

That night we had a housewarming party to go to up in Frisco. The Murdock family made delicious carne asadas, and we brought our famous red rice to their carnita soiree. True to their heritage, that's all Tyler and Jamie would touch. It was a really fun night, and it was awesome to see the Murdocks in their lovely new home.

Funny Things:

We mentioned at the party that we went to a concert that week. Someone asked us, "Wait, did you see Miley Cyrus!?" We quickly reassured them "No, no, it was Elton John!" It took me just a second to realize that's only slightly less embarrassing :)

And not a funny thing, but a GREAT thing! Michelle and Patrick found out they are having a baby GIRL!