Weekend Recap... these are the days

A friend asked me this afternoon how I was doing. I started responding (electronically of course!)...

"Good. Crazy busy, but good.

The wknd was nuts, this week is nuts, and next weekend will be nuts, and as much as I hate crazy busy, I kinda love it.

I'm just reveling in the warm air and the flowers and the birds and the kiddie pool and the cold beer.

Cliff was gone part of last weekend and I kept busy with the kids and having friends over. We had a friend over for coffee/breakfast Saturday and it was really nice. The boys played outside in the rain in their clothes and came in sopping wet. She and I had time to just sit and drink coffee and snuggle Addison while the boys were entertaining eachother playing with toy boats in the kiddie pool (in the rain) and play-fighting eachother while donning batman masks and swords. It was really a good visit. I made a bacon and fresh mozzarella quiche that would have been delicious had I not burned the bacon (twice). I also made a fresh blueberry cream cheese pastry that was delicious despite the fact that it didn't stay sealed (again!) so instead of a blueberry cream filled pastry it was like a blueberry and cream cheese topped pastry pizza. I've made it twice before and still can't master the folding and sealing - I think I'm trying to put too much filling in it. Despite the burned bacon in the quiche and the flat pastry, the visit was absolutely lovely! Such great company!"

(It was about here where I decided the instant messages I was sending my friend about my weekend were becoming a novel and could very well just be my blog update, so here is the rest of the story...)

Gavin and Dayton
(thanks Alli for the photo of the boys!)

I packed up my kids after lunch Saturday and drove into the cities to my sister's house for a couple of hours. My awesome nephew (who is...  nearly 15?) took Gavin to the playground and my sister and I sat on a blanket out on her lawn with Addison, soaking up the sunshine.

Cliff came home late Saturday afternoon and we spent the evening doing some yard clean-up, hauling branches, etc. Mostly Cliff did the yard clean-up while Gavin ran around the yard "measuring" distances with the measuring wheel and I wandered around with Addison on my hip and my camera around my neck, snapping photos of all of the blossoming fruit trees in the yard (finally). Gavin was hilarious with the measuring wheel and would run alongside Cliff in the Ranger measuring how far it was from brush pile to brush pile and would then read the numbers off to Cliff. Great way to burn off some energy! I was exhausted Saturday night and fell asleep putting Addison to bed some time around 8:00 or 8:30. Cliff came in and woke me up and asked me to go downstairs and give Gavin a goodnight kiss. I went down and snuggled up with Gavin and then proceeded to fall asleep there in his bed. Cliff came down and woke me up sometime around 9:30 or 10:00 and I came up and went to bed. I had washed our bedding earlier in the day and hadn't gotten the bed made again, but we were too tired to bother making it at that point and ended up sleeping on top of the bedspread with a quilt thrown over the top of us.

It stormed Saturday night, but it was a nice, easy thunderstorm. Some lightning and distant thunder and a slow steady rain. We had a slow start Sunday morning and once the skies cleared up, we spent the day working on house and yard projects. Cliff and Gavin mowed part of the lawn and Gavin spent a couple of hours "swimming" in the blow-up kiddie pool in the yard. It wasn't really warm enough for swimming, but we ran warm water from the spigot in the garage so it was more like taking a warm bath out in the yard.

 This is the playhouse that Cliff and I lovingly designed on-the-fly last summer and Cliff built with lots of sweat and love. It's a conglomeration of materials collected over time. We bought the slide itself on Craig's List, the long windows were actually the french doors on the back of our old house, the corrugated tin roof is from the farm and matches the tin roof of our shed, and the octagon windows were salvage that we bought years ago with the intent of using them in a garden shed. The playhouse was a labor of love. Now all I need to do is make the inside as fun as the outside and add some fun play things to the lower "level". 

When the storms rolled back in for the evening, we took cover in the basement. We had a quick wind and rain storm that upturned all of the patio furniture and blew a few things around in the yard, but it only lasted about 30 minutes. Once that passed, Cliff picked up take-out and a movie from the Redbox. He was back home again before more rain moved in and we spent the stormy evening snuggled up in the basement watching "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" and enjoying our take-out. It was a treat to just snuggle up with a movie with the kids.

Gavin was up bright and early Monday morning (6:20am) to work on a birthday card for our good friend Carrie, whose birthday is today. He was at my bedside, all bright-eyed saying "Today is Carrie's birthday!" and I almost didn't want to burst his little bubble by telling him that it wasn't actually her birthday yet! He was on his second gift for her and has since unwrapped that one too and decided to give her something else. He chooses things that he already has and then decides he wants to keep them, so he picks something else. The wrapping is almost better than the gifts themselves. He has wrapped two of the gifts in tinfoil and the third he put in a shoebox. One of the gifts was an empty (but mostly intact) real robin's egg that he and Cliff had found out on our driveway and blew out. Oddly, that was one that he chose to wrap in tinfoil, but it has since been unwrapped and returned to his special collection in his bedroom. One of the items was a tangle therapy anti-stress toy. She might actually appreciate that one! I know she will love whatever he gives her and I love that he is putting so much thought into it. I assured him that she would love it if he just drew her a picture and that he didn't need to give her anything other than his friendship and a card or drawing. He drew her a web.

So... needless to say, I was up and at 'em early since he was up early. We headed for my parents' house in the morning to spend the majority of the day there. He played outside (in the rain again), played legos, watched a movie, and played in the sandbox. He was a trooper. We snacked all day. Addison had a nice little nap. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and I had to wake them when we got home. We spent a little time outside, just cleaning up a few things on the front porch, and then headed in the house for bedtime snack and jammies. Cliff and I again fell into bed, exhausted. Cliff had worked all day at his "day job" and then spent the evening shoveling the last load of soybeans out of the grain bin. My visit at my parents' house was restful, both kids were relatively well rested and it was a nice quiet day. We were on our way home before it was too late and the "overtireds" hit us. It was a good day. Despite that, I was beat by bedtime. Once kids were asleep and Cliff and I had a treat of vanilla bean ice cream with fresh fruit toppings (mango for me and strawberries for Cliff) we fell into bed and were fast asleep.   

These are the days...  

  ...of the $10 kiddie pool from Menard's that provides $100's worth of fun
...and wet clothes everywhere, including on the patio.  (smile)