Too much excitment for one day!

It was quite a long day on Saturday... Tom worked all morning, finishing up a flagstone walkway that he, Kent and Henry started working on, on Friday- so while he was out working hard and earning cash, us girls enjoyed a little free time. Carly studied for the math portion of the Ohio Achievement Test (OATs)--our little studious progeny! Abby played with Ashley (Henry and Pegs granddaughter visiting from Michigan). Isabella played and napped, while mommy cleaned and goofed around on the Internet... oh, and I also tried to irritate Carly by reading parts of a textbook that came via UPS for me :)




After Tom got home, we decided to run a few errands, get a bite to eat, figure out what to do with the car and come home. Onward we went. We don't get out very often (to splurge) as a family- so we decided to take the girls to Benihanan's... they have never been, and it had been about 10 years since Tom and I had last been--so it was a treat for all of us. Their amazement was priceless!
All of us really enjoyed the tricks that Chef Alex performed as he was preparing our meals. Carly enjoyed the onion volcano and the shrimp toss into his hat. Abby liked all of them... However, during the shrimp toss, Alex mis-shot one and it landed in her lap! It was too cute and funny! I enjoyed the egg toss. He took an egg and tossed it up and down on his spatula- I really thought it was hard boiled, that is until he let it drop! He then took the yolk and did the same thing... it was mesmerizing! Tom enjoyed when Alex took the bowl of fried rice, flipped it and tossed it to Tom. Tom honestly thought that the bowl was going to fly in his face and drop in his lap! Isabella just sat there watching in awe... it was priceless!
After the fun of food prep, soup and salad, we all ate our main-course. Tom and I each splurged and had lobster tail with steak (yeah, so much for the vegetarian lifestyle). Carly had veggie rolls, steamed rice and vegetable tempura (Isabella nibbled off hers), and Abby ate shrimp and steak-with veggies :)

Looking over the menu, to decide what to order



Isabella wearing a chef hat/kids menu

Abby wearing her chef hat!

When we arrived home, the girls wanted to make smores and take a dip in the hot tub. So after getting sticky with chocolate and marshmallows, the four of us enjoyed the sounds of nature and the warmth of the tub. OK, I tried... in actuality they played around and made more noise then I thought humanly possible! But nonetheless, it was a blast!

Abby blowing off the flames of her marshmallows :)