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.