Tuesday, July 12, 2005
The Perfect Suburban Weekend
Saturday was a busy day for us. Now that Nora's changed jobs to part-time work we no longer employ a cleaning service. Saturday was our combination lawncare/cleaning day and it sucked up most of the morning.
Saturday afternoon I had a tennis match (we lost and sunk our team's chances of going to sectionals) in the ungodly heat of the day. On the way home Nora called and asked me to pick something up for dinner. As I was pulling into our driveway, with bags of take-out Chinese food in the passenger seat, Isabell ran up to the garage and asked if Pierce could come out to play. For those who don't remember, Isabell is a few months older than Pierce and lives just down the street (she's also the one to whom Pierce announced "I've got medicine on my penis").
I explained to Isabell that we were about to have dinner and she plaintively asked "Can I come in and watch?". How do you refuse this? Of course we invited her in and, with the permission of her parents, had her stay for dinner. Immediately after dinner the doorbell rang and another of Pierce's friends, Ray, came into play (still in a wet bathing suit from playing in the sprinklers).
After a few minutes of inside play, all the kids -Anna included, grabbed some toys and moved out to the patio where they were joined by two more of the neighborhood kids (the twins that live across the street). Nora and I grabbed a couple of beers and sat out on the patio to watch them. Ray's folks were sitting out in their driveway so I invited them over for a couple of patio beers. As they walked over they were joined by another of our neighbors, Jean, and her son (Alex) and his best friend (Sam). A few minutes later the twin's mother came over to join us. For those keeping count we now had 6 adults sitting at the patio table having drinks and 8 kids of varying ages running around the backyard. It was awesome.
As the sun went down the kids started catching fireflies with butterfly nets. Is this the TV version of suburbia or what? Nora and I let Pierce and Anna stay up about an hour past their bed times just because we didn't want the evening to end. Of course all good things must eventually come to an end. Pierce and Anna got a quick bath and they practically fell asleep before their heads hit the pillows. Nora and I dropped off on the couch a few minutes after that.
-Eric (Dad)
Saturday afternoon I had a tennis match (we lost and sunk our team's chances of going to sectionals) in the ungodly heat of the day. On the way home Nora called and asked me to pick something up for dinner. As I was pulling into our driveway, with bags of take-out Chinese food in the passenger seat, Isabell ran up to the garage and asked if Pierce could come out to play. For those who don't remember, Isabell is a few months older than Pierce and lives just down the street (she's also the one to whom Pierce announced "I've got medicine on my penis").
I explained to Isabell that we were about to have dinner and she plaintively asked "Can I come in and watch?". How do you refuse this? Of course we invited her in and, with the permission of her parents, had her stay for dinner. Immediately after dinner the doorbell rang and another of Pierce's friends, Ray, came into play (still in a wet bathing suit from playing in the sprinklers).
After a few minutes of inside play, all the kids -Anna included, grabbed some toys and moved out to the patio where they were joined by two more of the neighborhood kids (the twins that live across the street). Nora and I grabbed a couple of beers and sat out on the patio to watch them. Ray's folks were sitting out in their driveway so I invited them over for a couple of patio beers. As they walked over they were joined by another of our neighbors, Jean, and her son (Alex) and his best friend (Sam). A few minutes later the twin's mother came over to join us. For those keeping count we now had 6 adults sitting at the patio table having drinks and 8 kids of varying ages running around the backyard. It was awesome.
As the sun went down the kids started catching fireflies with butterfly nets. Is this the TV version of suburbia or what? Nora and I let Pierce and Anna stay up about an hour past their bed times just because we didn't want the evening to end. Of course all good things must eventually come to an end. Pierce and Anna got a quick bath and they practically fell asleep before their heads hit the pillows. Nora and I dropped off on the couch a few minutes after that.
-Eric (Dad)
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]