I would have loved to have slept later this morning, but the girls did a drive-by “we’re hungry” which woke me up. With the stress of shipping NCAA Football weighing heavy on my mind, I haven’t been sleeping well. I rolled out of bed and tried to wake up enough to make some waffles in our well-used waffle iron. When Jennifer woke up I almost relented going out to the Townhouse for breakfast, but figured it would be packed for Mother’s Day. Jennifer was greeted with a bunch of “Happy Mother’s Day” from the kids and we gathered in the living room to open presents. She received some earrings from James Avery from me and a special Filled-Pancake pan from the kids. The girls also piled on a ton of gifts they had made in school and girl scouts. It made me realize that I miss out on all this stuff because they are out of school once Father’s Day rolls around. Oh well.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Carbone’s for lunch and some swimming in their pool. Jennifer made an awesome spinach and cream cheese ball. We tried to make some toasted bread to go along with it, but while trying to hurry up and get out the door, they got burned to a crisp in the oven. We had to settle on swinging by Publix while driving over to the Carbone household.

There were plenty of appetizers that we filled up on while Tom smoked some chicken in his smoker and made some hamburgers on the grill. We stuffed ourselves and then filled the rest of the afternoon with pool volleyball, a tradition at the Carbones’. It was great to get out of the house and hangout with friends. By the end of the day, we were exhausted. Emily even more so as she fell asleep with a cheese stick wrapper in her mouth.