Mama and Papa don't get out much, but when we do, watch out people!

My birthday week is officially over, and it's been super duper. My birthday was on Wednesday, which was not the most fun, since Mr. James had that fever and rash and all, but he was on the recovery by Thursday when we dropped him and his sister off at one grandma's house, while we met the other grandma and grandpa for dinner at PF Changs. Dinner is so relaxing when no one is smacking your chest to nurse, or needing pieces of chicken to get cut. After dinner we picked the kids back up and went to my parents for chocolatey chocolate cake. And I got a camera!!! A very cool little camera that takes very nice pictures right when you want it to take them, and my picture taking frustration has ended. It's so small that it's easy for me to take with me everywhere, which means more pictures! Yay! Thanks to my generous family!

Friday night I was able to get some coffee with no children (again!) while dear Jason put the kids to bed. I met some girlfriends at this coffee house we'd never been to before in a sleepy town, and as soon as I got there the shop closed! We walked around for awhile hoping for a Starbucks or anything like it, but we ended up at a cute little bakery instead. It was so nice to yakkety yak, and my friend brought her little newborn who was so sweet and cozy in her mama's sling. I was sort of anxious to get home though because I was worried how bedtime went with out me to over see it, but of course it went without any problems, and it was comforting to know it could be done with out me. Coming home to kids already in bed is equal to coming home to a house that little fairies have magically cleaned while you were gone.

The very next morning we got up early, packed up the beach bags and fishing poles to go surf fishing. Jason's dad lives by the beach so he went with us too. It was so beautiful and warm even at 8:30 in the morning. The kids had a great time trying to catch sand crabs and then watching them bury themselves in the bucket. No fish were caught but sand cakes were made and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We got out of there before the crowds infiltrated and had some lunch at grandpas.


And then on Sunday evening Jason and I had tickets to see Chris Isaak at the OC Fair. His dad gave us the tickets for my birthday and thanks to a babysitting godmother and a good friend, we left the kids in good hands. While we aren't gigantic Chris Isaak fans, we have a couple of his cds and find him enjoyable and relaxing to listen too. We had heard he wasn't great live, but thought he put on a pretty good show. That's us at the concert.
And this little lady opened for him - that's Vanessa Carlton. Girl, where have you been? You just try to listen to that song and not sing along. She was a treat. It was just her on piano and her guitarist. I cracked up just a little bit when she was singing her last song, stopped in the middle of it, said, "F! That's not how it goes!" and had forgotten her own lyrics. Whoops. He he he.
We had really good seats too. Jason got this picture. He learned the new camera zoomed in a lot further than I thought. Nice suit, Mr. Isaak.
We had a smashing good time. And the kids did great too. Hannah woke me up promptly at 6 am to tell me all about her fun evening of practising ice skating and watching funny videos "that was almost ovew, but then we watched a house show about a boy bown with no eyes."