We had such a crazy weekend, that I can now bring you a 12 photo edition of Monday Mash Up. And I know I told you I'd try to take some photos to tell you about Cotillion. People. I took notes. It was a little stressful. There were so many rules (aside from making sure the kids were behaving we had to make sure they didn't go outside and the boys kept their shirts tucked in...stuff like that.), and we felt like we had to be vigilant the whole time. Vigilant while simultanelously trying to catch sight of Callum while not being seen catching site of Callum. Know what I mean? I must be getting old because the music was loud and the girls skirts were so freaking short. Seriously. I would not let my daughter leave the house in some of the dresses I saw. Mostly though, they were sweet boys and pretty girls. Trying so hard to be grown up. A couple times Neel and another dad had to cross the dance floor, parting the too-rowdy crowd. At one point a trio of wound-up boys started body-slamming each other right in front of me and falling to the floor. I really like nothing more than yelling at kids (Not really. It might be my third favorite thing.), but I just shook my head and they stopped. For a second at least. Before they moved to another part of the room and started doing the same thing. I watched another mom shake her head at them exactly the same way. And they stopped again. Beauty.

And at the beginning of the night one of the organizers asked that someone always stand in front of the light switch because the kids like to try to turn off the lights, plunging the room into darkness. Great. A little over halfway through the evening, I took over light switch duty and I was fine for awhile until I bumped against the wall and suddenly got afraid that I would accidentally shut off the lights. Like I needed another thing to worry about. Still it was a good vantage point, because as the girls walked past, they checked their hair. Over and over and over again. Sweet. The slow dances were sweet too, with super tall girls dancing with much shorter boys, although it was painful watching the boys scramble to find a girl to ask to dance. Really painful.

I finally decided that Cotillion is like a pre-teen epsiode of The West Wing. A lot of intense walking around and important, very important, conversations. Thank goodness we don't have to go again.

Neel and I put together our TV cabinet from Ikea and I love it! The dogs are less impressed. It's longer than our old TV cabinet and now there's no room for their bed in the family room with us. First we moved the bed outside to air it out, and that made them very nervous. Thea tried to sleep on it, but every time I looked at her, she got up. It was as if she was worried that if we thought she got too comfortable we'd keep the bed outside, you know, forever. With the bed in the dining room, it's barely two feet further away from where it used to be, but it's clearly requiring an adjustment. Violet was willing to try it, but she kept one paw in the old room. And, as you can see, Lucy kept her whole head in the old room. Gazing longingly at where the bed used to be.

We went to a wine tasting Saturday night. I'll tell you more about that later. Callum was tired and lonely after Cotillion and a sleepover, and those tally marks on my tasting notes are the number of times he called me. He was happy when we got home. He slept until 10:30 on Sunday.

10:30!

Gorgeous day though. Homework outside. Belly rubs in the grass (for the dogs). Catch in the front yard. Tomatoes, collards, beets in the ground. Not a shabby day at all. I cleaned off the island in the kitchen on Saturday with the thought of doing some kitchen photos. I feel like I've left so many comments on your blogs saying how much we love our kitchen...seems like a good place to start the house tour. I cleared off the island, bleached it and gently placed everything back, perfectly placed. Then Neel and Callum came home. Aaaaannnndddd....we're back to real life. Scattered and messy as it is.

How was your weekend, everybody? Anybody get to dance to Cotton Eyed Joe? Anybody sleep til 10:30? I got to have a lot of nice wine, and hey! No headache!