Yesterday we finally closed escrow on our condo in CA.  We feel very thankful to have that over and done with.  Last night Doug and I went out to celebrate, stuffing ourselves on fabulous Italian food at a local eatery.  The "plan" at this point is to spend at least the next year or two recovering financially before we even think about buying a home here.

We had a big birthday/Mother's Day/celebrate everything weekend.  Ben actually managed to blow out the candles on his "dump truck" cake.  He's been very busy the last few days playing with his new vehicles (a train set, fire engine, and dump truck) and perfecting the classic 2-year-old art of tantrum-throwing.  Doug had a blast on the rafting trip last Thursday, although the long day (18 miles down the river plus a 3-hour bus ride each way) wiped him out.  Saturday we went to a community bike sale run by the parks & rec dept.  Basically, anybody with a bike to sell brought it on Friday, then Saturday afternoon the parks & rec folks held a gigantic bike sale (earning themselves a cut of the proceeds).  We spent a total of $65, and came home with a beautiful bike for Doug, an okay bike for Megan (needs a bit of TLC), and a bike rack for the back of our van.  We were very happy campers!  With those kinds of deals, the place was naturally pretty packed.  If we hadn't been there when it first opened, it would not have been worth going at all. 

The weather here has turned hot all of a sudden - it's supposed to near 100 degrees today through the weekend.  Over the last couple of days I've been packing away winter clothes, washing and packing away winter bedding, etc.  (Of course now that I've done all this it will probably snow by Memorial Day!)  I dug the popsicle molds out of the garage and filled them with juice, and we've actually had to start using our sprinklers again (I think it was October when we last turned them off).  Doug's students, my students, and their teachers all have a bad case of Spring Fever - everybody is SO ready for summer break...

Here's a few pics of the Birthday Boy (well - the littlest birthday boy!):

Go Speed Racer!