A Saturday {Un}like any other

Saturdays as a family are a very rare and special treat since Dan's normal work schedule is Tuesday-Saturday.  This gives him Mondays with Emma but leaves us only Sundays together as a full "party of three" day.  When I found out that he had the opportunity to have Saturday off due to a schedule change with the other supervisor I was so excited just to have a normal Saturday with him.  Initially we thought we'd do all sorts of "special" things, but what we really ended up with was the perfect blend of normal that made it so special.

Emma slept until 9a.m.-ish, which meant that we got to sleep until 9a.m.-ish.  Then, the day started with some perfect hang time in the kitchen while Dan made his coffee and Emma sat on the counter eating a banana.  It might be boring to some, but with church on Sunday mornings we don't actually get to just hang out on the one morning per week that we have together.  Then we headed outside for some of this...

And some of this...

And some of this...

When Emma went down for her nap we decided to tackle a few projects that had been on the back burner, so we relocated all of my gardening supplies to the opposite side of the yard, and Dan got to hanging our surfboard rack in the garage AND fixing a side gate that was a little bent out of shape (so lucky to have a handy Dandy).

And then we went to not one, but two birthday parties that afternoon.  Usually Emma and I fly the birthday circuit as a duo because Dan's at work, but this time he actually got to come with us.  He even experienced Emma's first pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and her first hit of a pinata.

After making it home we were all stuffed full with Mexican food and monkey cupcakes so we put Emma to bed a little early and Dan and I totally cleaned up the side of our house and went to bed feeling extremely productive (and a little sore).  

All in all it was a perfectly plain, ho-hum, nothing extraordinary kind of Saturday which made it all the more wonderful.