Red Plate Weekend

Another busy weekend has come and gone following a pretty common pattern of events, common but comfortable. The three of us sneaked out on Friday evening for some open skating and Merrick pushed the chair around the rink for an hour and worked as much on his form as his confidence. Sophia mean while was off knocking down high school boys, as two skaters were trying to avoid her in the corner, but she had the angle on them. She dumped them as they tried to avoid her and then she just skated away. Saturday was soccer for Merrick and then a quick jaunt across town for a Girl Scout Make and Bake badge event. Merrick did well at indoor soccer and although he cracked skulls with one of his friends, he rebounded in time to finish the drills. Merrick and I did the grocery shopping while Sophia was baking and then it was back home for a quick lunch and the domestic duties. Merrick and I cleaned the gutters and got the yard raked up. The kids helped with the raking, at least until they had a pile large enough to jump in. Sophia continued to play with the neighbor girl as well as call another friend over which eventually turned into a sleep over. We did end up having a pretty good game of poker with all four of the kids playing and me generally loosing. Sunday was a morning filled with last minute fashion shows and various games before the sleep over ended. This did give Merrick and I enough time to bottle up several gallons of Cyzer. We did do some shopping for dress clothes for an upcoming wedding and I was again reminded of how open a Dad's wallet will get for his daughter's dresses. Merrick gets a single hanger--boy in a bag type of clothing. With Sophia I was just happy I was able to appease her within a single store--did make for a good lesson in double standards. The afternoon was rainy but that was fine considering we all needed a nap and some downtime. After our recharge it was off to Hockey again and Merrick is doing really well and enjoying it, although he was a little confused by the other players taking his puck. We worked on jersey jacking after practice so we will see what Wednesday's practice brings. I gave him the red plate for his hockey efforts. As always just a great weekend.

Halloween Just keeps giving

Merrick started his Halloween season last week with a party at his school and the season just kept coming for almost another week. Friday we sneaked out and watch some deer after work/school and then prepped our guts for a weekend of junk food by starting out with movies and take out pizza. Saturday morning was some domestic chores and getting ready for the big Zoo Boo. Merrick and I did some grocery shopping only to find out that we would not be getting away from mindless begging quite so easily. Festival was filled with children in full costume, I was unaware of this so Merrick was dressed as The Merrick, but they gave him a bag and by the end of my list he had racked up more goodies than I had. He even slung his bag over his shoulder on the way to the truck to carry it out like a Sherpa. Mid afternoon we headed over to the big zoo to trick or treat with all of the animals. Merrick was dressed as Captain America this time and Sophia donned her Ghoul outfit. Her outfit coincidentally looked an awful lot like the swamp thing that was wandering around the penguins pool. After the candy gathering it was off to some friends house for pizza and play time for the kids. Sunday was the kind of day that makes you happy you own a couch, the wind was blowing stank all day and the intermittent rain meant that we spent a good deal of time in doors. In the early afternoon we did head over to the YMCA for some wetness of a warmer variety and hit the water slides and splashed around in the pool until our eyes were red from the chlorine. We did get out a little and tried to shoot the bow and arrows, but it turned out that the kids were too small for the draw length so it is shelved for another year. Monday of course is the big gig and we pounded the neighborhood for candy by the pound. We did meet up with some of Sophia's friends from the neighborhood but then it was back home to count up the loot. Merrick has gotten very good and packing up to about 8 suckers in his mouth at a single time--very efficient.