We took the kids to a park near our house on Thursday. Apparently they have not refreshed the mulch on the playground, because this bench was a bit higher off the ground than normal. So while the kids played, Brenda and I sat, drank our lattes, swung our feet and felt like little kids. It was fun.

We didn’t realize this playground was there till just a few days ago. It’s kind of hidden back in the trees around the block from our house, but it’s very close! We could probably even walk there, which is really nice.

Annalie and Bug both approved of the park.

Earlier that day we went out for lunch. Bug wasn’t quite ready for me to take her photo in that first shot, and after I took it she said, “That’s not how you pose! Here, I’ll show you how to pose.” Then she tilted her head and smiled sweetly for me.

Then I tried to get Annalie to pose for me since she was wearing the arm warmers CC knitted for her. I wanted to send Heather a photo so she could see how Annalie loves these and wears them all the time. But she gave me a fake eye-roll, the little stinker. She cracked up right after I took that one.

Notice what Annalie is eating? When we walked up to the register to place our order, the friendly young guy behind the counter said, “Let me guess…two macaroni & cheeses for the kids?”

I’ll admit I felt a little smug as I replied, “No, actually…my daughter would like a small tomato soup and a ciabatta bread, please!”

The guy laughed good-naturedly. I’ve said it before: I love that my daughter loves soup!

These are Troy’s lists. The one on the left (on the paper that says “This looks like a job for Superman!”) is the one Brenda and I have been adding to, with items like “hang knife bar” and “move boxes to attic.” The one on the right is Bug’s list. She told us, “it’s a little bit of work, and a little bit of party!”

We went to Chevy’s for dinner Wednesday night. It was supposed to be Brenda & Bug’s going-away dinner but, um…they’re kind of still here. We were talking about how we were thisclose to finishing the house, and how Brenda hated to leave with it unfinished. One thing led to another led to Brenda calling Toby to see if he could manage without them for a few more days, and he said he thought he could do that. So we got their tickets extended for a week, and it’s already paid off because we got a ton of work done in the next two days.

Me and Troy at Chevy’s. I was going to use this for my 7 Days shot, but it’s not really a self-portrait. Brenda suggested the spot for the camera and pressed the button for me.

An attempt at a 7 Days self-portait with a star-shaped light at the restaurant that didn’t work out. But still, it’s kinda cool.

Probably none of you reading this have any clue that I like the TV show Chuck, right? I’m pretty quiet about it.

Lauren had the idea for one of the days of 7 Days to be a Chuck day, just for fun. Here you can see me very obviously speaking into my spy watch, without anyone around me even noticing. Also, I’m wearing my orange Chucks, a mustache from our Chuck party in January (also seen in Sonja’s Flickr stream), and my Orange Orange t-shirt. (Appearances to the contrary, I’m not obsessed. Chuck isn’t even my favorite TV show. I’d have to say my favorite show right now is probably Castle. Nathan Fillion is only one of many awesome things about it.)

Brenda and I had to go to IKEA for the 37th time in two weeks yesterday, and mamalang couldn’t make it to the meet-up yesterday so she drove all the way to meet us at IKEA instead. We shopped, we chatted, we ate meatballs. It would almost be boring how all these internet meet-ups go so well if they weren’t so much fun.

I’m getting a bit behind in my 7 Days blogging because we’ve been scrambling to fit in all the things we want to do before Brenda & Bug go home. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is their last full day here; they fly back home Thursday morning. Brenda was worried that two weeks would be too long, that we’d start to get sick of them, but it seems like they just got here! They could stay another two weeks and we’d probably still be finding things to work on in the house, or fun touristy things to do. But they miss Toby, and he misses them. And the house is almost completely done, which it wouldn’t have been for another six months if it weren’t for Brenda.

We’ll be sad to see them go, but we’re so very glad they came!

Brenda has written about what we’ve been up to in a bit more detail, if you’re interested.