This past Friday was our 16th anniversary.
As in Scott and I have been married for sixteen years.
Gulp.
Sixteen years (and for some reason I keep wanting to type Sixteen Candles) falls somewhere between just this side of forever and just yesterday I was walking down the aisle with a large bow on my butt.
You would think when faced with the opportunity to celebrate our sweet sixteenth we would have made big plans.
Alas, we did not.
Our sweet sixteenth was going to have to fly by the seat of its pants, and we were a-okay with that (really).
We started things off with lunch, party of three.
I finally
got my way and we tried Indian food for the first time. Annelise was even excited about it (?!?!) and bravely sampled several things. We heaped praise upon her head in the hopes she will continue to be adventurous in her food choices.
I neglected to take a photo of all three of us, however I did manage to take one of my plate. How do you spell priorities?
Everything was dee-lish, I can't wait to go again sometime.
Later that day, Annelise invited herself over to Pappo and Grandma's house for a sleepover (she's oh-so-subtle) so Scott and I were able to go out for supper at our favorite Mediterranean restaurant.
What?
Didn't you know 16 is the multi-cultural anniversary? Look it up.
We had never been there on a Friday night before, so imagine our surprise when soon after ordering we noticed a woman walk up to their little stage wrapped in silk and heard the music (they had a man playing the keyboard) suddenly, um...change.
As it turns out Friday evenings offer, um...lively entertainment.
In the form if this:
Could someone please enlighten me on proper belly dance viewing etiquette?
Do you feign ignorance of the fact a scantily clad woman is dancing gyrating all around you? Do you glance up occasionally and offer smiles of appreciation? Do you grab handfuls of pita bread and sit back and enjoy the show? Do you tuck dollar bills into her sari (some people did that and I get it, but still thought "ewwww")?
We were unsure and fell somewhere between occasional glances to uncomfortable embarrassment.
But we won't forget our 16th anniversary anytime soon either.
We even stretched our celebrating into Saturday by catching a matinee of
Super 8 (because let's face it, if we'd gone late Friday night I'd have fallen asleep). We both really enjoyed it, especially the storyline of the boys (and one girl) making their movie and being goofy, awkward preteen friends (think Goonies, Stand By Me) circa 1979. And I enjoyed it a bit more because Kyle Chandler (AKA Coach Eric Taylor, LOVE him) played the deputy sheriff. It's PG-13 so the kids kind of had potty mouths (why, seriously?) and there was plenty of humor/sweetness/action/special effects. We gave it four thumbs up.
We forgot to snap a photo on our actual special day (perhaps we were slightly distracted by the belly dancer tinkling her finger cymbals and balancing a sword on her head), so Annelise snapped this photo on Sunday.
And that was our fly by the seat of our pants, no plan sweet sixteenth anniversary stretched across a weekend.
Have you ever seen belly dancers, like while you eat?
Have you seen Super 8? Do you wanna?
I decided my nails needed a punch of summer this week, so I turned to my good friend Sally for help. If you've never tried her complete salon manicure (all in one bottle) you should. I fell head over heels last fall in love with her (I'm assuming there is a real Sally Hanson somewhere) Commander in Chic (a grey taupe) and Midnight in NY (a blue-black with sparkles).
Annelise occupied herself, along with Kit and Carly, most of yesterday playing school.
If Annelise is with me when I have to stop by the bank (drive-through of course), she pulls out all the stops, window down, leaning out, waving, silly faces, etc. to make sure the teller sees her in the hopes the bank tube will be returned with a Dum Dum or two. 
Annelise and I went to our happy place last week, otherwise known as the library.
And finally, I got my hairs did Saturday. Or re-did as the case may be.
Be sure to pop on over to Jeannett's blog for more InstaFriday fun!
And please pardon a partial picture of my heinie, but this pair of shorts has more, um, bling-ed out pockets and white stitching and I'm a bit unsure about my feelings of said bling on my bottom. I normally have pockets that are very plain or just a touch of stitching, but I know it's a look that's very "in" right now, but I'm still on the bling-y bottom fence I think.
So there you have it, my WIWW friends, two variations on my basic summer attire. If anything ever happened to my three pairs of long denim shorts I would fall to pieces, I wear them constantly.
He's a daddy who is always up for playing outside, having Lego Star Wars contests, making up silly stories and songs, sharing his quarters for those 
I may have mentioned once or twice that Annelise spent most of the week at a totally awesome (her words) basketball camp that just so happened to be at my former high school.
Scott and I managed two squeeze in two, count them two, lunch dates while Annelise was busy chasing her hoop dreams.
And? 
After four early mornings and days filled with chasing basketballs, running up and down the courts shooting hoops, followed by a few later nights (an Astros game and church and general dawdling last night), someone slept in this morning.
You drag your tail out of bed the next morning and run four miles (photo from the other day, but I promise I ran a quad this morning too).
In other news, Annelise is beside herself with excitement over basketball camp. I didn't quite know how she would take to so many hours of b-ball in one day and repeated for four days, but my worries were silly because our little sporty girl is eat.ing. it.up. I went a bit early yesterday to pick her up, you know, in case she was worn out and I was surprised to see her still giving it her all with a side serving of gusto as they played their last scramble game. 
Last Saturday I made the executive decision that we should go out for breakfast, so I hustled and herded my people (all two of them) out to the car and we made a mad dash over to the IHOP by 8:30.
Even though we've saved all the directions for each of her Lego sets I don't think she'll ever build the original things again. We even tried (briefly) to organize her Legos into different themed boxes, but I think it's all a hodge-podge now.
Does anything scream summer louder than a BLT with home grown, fresh from the garden tomatoes?
We are knee deep in reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe out loud most evenings and are l.o.v.i.n.g it. 
Can you guess why Annelise is grinning from ear to ear in this picture?
Could it be because she had an awesome week at the most awesome tennis camp ever?
I have no explanation for the goggles (that apparently still had the peel-off stickers over the eyes) but they were required frosting attire.
My dad and Peggy came over later that evening for cake and presents, but I forgot to take any pictures (hangs head in shame). They gave him three new shirts and Annelise and I gave him a new PS video game (Tiger Woods golf) that he'd been eyeing for a while because even 49 year olds still like their video games.
All in all I think the Birthday Boy enjoyed his special day.
Or if you have to use both hands.
Annelise has been spending lots of time with these guys again: