Summer Arrives

We had the first really nice weekend of the summer. Lisa was out of town for a wedding so the kids and I had a long weekend that started on Thursday. Sophia played soccer on Thursday night and had a great move using a back spin that we had been working on in practice to evade a defender. While she had 3 goals I was even more impressed with her looking for and making some really nice passes to her teammates. She plays on a team with some long-legged girls that move like gazelles. Merrick acts as team mascot during these games and I have to keep the subs from playing with Merrick so they come in and get some game time. Friday was general domestic stuff such as watering the garden and cleaning of bedrooms, but we found time to get Merrick his new summer hair cut. I cut off about 4 inches of white hair--the kid is clearly chalkasian. Friday night was also when I put Merrick in undies and told him to use the toilet. He pretty much like going pee, even though sometimes he just runs outside to use a tree rather than use the toilet. He did spend a lot of time peeing in the back yard and then telling me about it. He stayed dry all weekend for me however, so we are off to a good start. We headed out early on Saturday morning for some treasure hunting at thrift sales and made some great finds including some Boxcar children books and a malt maker. We spent the late morning with me mowing the lawn and Merrick waiting very patiently for me to finish up the front yard so he could swim in the pool. I wasn't in the backyard too long before he was naked and splashing in the water. We made use of the malt maker every night that weekend. Saturday Sophia spent some time playing with the neighbor girl and then in the early evening we called up her friend and drove over the the soccer fields that have the full size nets, the kids played for a while, but the game quickly turned into various versions of tag. We did stay at the field long enough that even Merrick asked to go home. When we got home it was bubble baths for the both of them, unfortunately we were out of bubble bath--but in dad's world that just means you use dish soap. The kids came out with a nice lemony smell and no streaking. Actually Sophia figured if I was using dish soap that she should do some dishes--I had no counter argument so I tossed in the spaghetti pans from supper. She got them very clean but when Merrick took his bath he was upset that there were no dishes left for him to do. I let him wash my feet instead, this seemed to please him. Sunday Merrick and I bottled beer and changed oil in the truck while Sophia went with a friend to the Y to swim for a couple of hours. With Merrick napping and Sophia still swimming I was able to watch most of a playoff hockey game--great weather and good times--summer is hear.

A Mother of a Weekend

The weather was a little hit and miss this weekend, we awoke on Saturday morning to find patches of snow. Although the snow quickly melted it did force us indoors more than the kids and I prefer. Saturday morning was mostly filled with the general trappings of domestication and we cleaned and primped the ol' homestead. We did find some time to put a dollar in each of the kids pockets and try to find a garage sale that might harbor a treasure. With the cold and rain there was little competition but also few sales, so no treasures were found. With Merrick asleep, I did teach Sophia how to make some hemp/beaded jewelery. A putzy little project but one that kept us busy while Merrick drooled into his pillow. We also burned up a large portion of the day turning a 15 minute car trip into an hour and half jaunt around the greater GB area. The idea was to hit the neighborhood Target to get the finishing touches for Lisa's Mother's Day gift and then head across the river to the cooking store, in order to buy a malt maker. The amount of construction in the area has now made that nearly impossible. In the end we didn't make it to the cooking store and didn't get malts. Merrick also used this time to ramble on in the back seat. When I asked him what he was saying he just shouted out, "I am talking about the money, Baby!" later in the day in the store parking lot, he also thought this was an appropriate way to talk to the women parked next to us--"Hey baby." With Nostradamus like skills I figure nothing good could come from such language. We had a nice talk about using Sir and Mama, so that is how he addressed everyone from his shopping cart political stump as we walked through the store aisles. The good news is that I was so tired of driving that the planned trip to do some grocery shopping turned into videos and a take out pizza complete with a big bottle of root beer. I think the kids were ok with the decision. We flopped the futon mattress on the living room floor and dragged out the sleeping bags. The kids decided to just sleep on the floor and that was fine with me, until they also decided that 5:30 am was late enough to sleep on Sunday morning. Fortunately the coffee pot was set to go and the day was full of sun. We did get the grocery shopping out of the way early in the morning and also picked up the seeds for the garden this year. We headed out for a short hike through the wildlife sanctuary and were able to find two of the wolves sunning themselves. The kids also were able to play on the inside toys and thought the idea of two-headed turtle was to much of photo op to pass up. Sophia actually asked if I had my camera and when I told her no she asked about my phone--in her world not only has every phone always had a camera but everyone always has phone. Merrick and I planted the seeds in the garden and Sophia played with the neighbor girl. As the day starts to slow down, I am thinking we all need a nice NHL playoff game and some cheesy popcorn to coast us out of the weekend and into the next week.