She did it! and other weekend news

Rebecca finally made it through the reading page she had been stuck on. We finally had school Friday. So I took a little different approach to the page. We did it backwards. And we finally made it. I had to remind her a few times to look at the word she was reading, all of the letters in it instead of seeing the first letter and just saying any word that started with that letter. She was so excited to finally be able to move on. She got to read two new stories. One little short story and another book. So she earns two more stars!
We also worked on States and capitals. We reviewed the ones we have already studied and learned a new one. She loves learning the states. For math she did a few workbook pages that required her to count objects and write how many. Very easy for her but at least required her to practice writing her numbers. She is doing so good and although it requires her to miss her nap as I have found school works so much better while Zachary is napping for the most part, it is nice to have that one on one time with her.
Yesterday (Monday, a holiday) we did an impromptu math activity. It was a pocket chart activity where she had to match up the number, letter word for the number, and objects that equaled that number. We let Zachary find the object part while she did the number and word. I was pleased to see she recognized many of the number words. Maybe it was just lucky guesses but she did so well. I have been wanting to start addition with her and have so many activities running through my mind for that but I did not want to jump ahead and skip all the other stuff. It is so easy to do that with Rebecca because she can grasp so many concepts. She is so eager to learn some of it as well so you hate to continue doing the stuff that she already can do. But I do want to make sure she has a solid foundation before moving on and that means she needs to be able to write all her numbers and read number words.
I love doing school with her and wish I could devote more time to planning it out. Hopefully when the house is more organized I can.
As for this weekend.... It was a long weekend. No school or work on Monday. The girls spent the night at Audrey's on Friday. The two younger ones and Jim and I went to Katy Mills on Saturday. We were hoping to go swimming with our neighbors but decided not to when we woke up and it was rainy and overcast. We had plans to go out to a fancy dinner with friends that night and I really did not have a decent dress to wear so it gave us the opportunity to look at the mall for something and Jim needed to find some black shorts for band reunion. I did find a new dress, actually three! And Jim did get a new pair of shorts. So, it was a successful trip in that regards. We then decided to have lunch at Johnny Rockets at the mall. Both kids had been begging for food. Well, their attitudes changed once we were there. Rebecca kept whining. They both refused to eat so we decided to skip the play area and head home. They both needed to take a nap before our night out anyway.
As for our night out..... Our friend Rick turned 50 on Sunday. His wife gave him a cool present for his birthday. He was a Chef For The Day at a really nice restaurant called Brennan's. He went there in the morning and got to cook along side of the executive chef. He learned all about the different areas of the kitchen and cooked a little of everything. Then he also had to go up to their wine "cellar" and taste test all the wines and choose one for us to have. Then he, his wife, us, and another couple got to eat there. We had a special table right in the kitchen. We were able to see all that was going on in the kitchen and we were able to get up and walk around the kitchen as well to see what they were doing. We had a six course meal. The way they served it each couple had two different items from the menu so we were able to sample more then just what we had for 6 courses! Yum! I was a bit nervous as I am so much a fussy eater. I like plain and simple. But I did good! I made Jim proud!
We started with champagne. I actually like it okay. Then we tried a white wine and then a red wine. Then we had soup. I had Turtle Soup and Jim had gazpacho. I LOVED the turtle soup. It was delicious. The gazpacho was a tomato and cucumber with some scallops on the center. I liked it okay but was not a fan of cold soup. Needless to say I did not share much of my turtle soup with Jim! Then came the salad portion. I got some type of shrimp with some kind of sauce. (Do not expect real names here as I have no clue and do not remember.) I quickly traded Jim (no shrimp for me) and took his greens with grape tomatoes. Then we moved on to a seafood dish. I got groupie ( I had never had this before, and it was actually not too bad) with crab meat and mushrooms in some type of sauce. Jim got a crab cake with special green stuff on top. The crab cake was good as well. After the fish we had a meat dish. I got lamb with a special corn muffin and some type of cooked greens (can't remember). It was very good! Jim got veal and some delicious potatoes with some really good sauce on them. After the meat we had a cheese plate. We were given a wedge of three different cheeses with three slices of bread and some honey with the honey comb in the middle of it all. The honeycomb was to chew on to cleanse your pallet between cheeses. The first cheese was a blue cheese, a very strong blue cheese. It was okay. A little too strong for me. The second was a creme bere (sp) which was sooo rich. It was good but actually got too sweet after a few bites. The third I can not remember what it was but it was my favorite. It was a hard cheese. After that we had dessert. And all I can say is WOW!!! We had 11 different desserts to try. They were fabulous!
It was such a great night. good friends, great food. We all drove in one car too which was nice. All the kids were at one house and Caroline, Elizabeth, and Audrey babysat for us. They had pizza! It was a wonderful and fun experience!

Back to the long weekend....
Sunday was church and HEB. Then I called my mother to wish her a happy birthday! I still need to send her her gift. Sunday night Jim made jambalaya for dinner and the girls went out to a friends house again. Monday, we did a little yard work while the kids played outside with Morgan. Then we went swimming with our neighbors. We had to come home when it started thundering. Rebeca and Morgan watched a movie at our house while I chatted with the neighbors and watched the storm go through. I love that particular neighbor. Their whole family is great!!! Then that evening we met up with the Brimberry's for dinner at Skeeters. We had a good time with them as well! So, we had a good weekend filled with friends!

Now back to unpacking the house!!