This weekend was our first one home in a few weeks after being gone on vacation, and I think we were all looking forward of having a few days that didn't require packing anything to go anywhere overnight. Somehow, as is usually the case, we managed to fill up the weekend without blinking.
Ever since our deck project was completed in October, Lauren has been asking me when we can plant flowers in the flower box on the deck. So Friday afternoon, after having been away too long long to let flowers try to survive on their own, Lauren and Mara and I got to work planting some flowers in the flower box. They had so much fun...and got so dirty! I'm pretty sure it took me longer to sweep all of the extra dirt off of the deck than it did for us to plant the flowers. But they do make the deck look very pretty. Anyone want to place a bet on how long I can keep these little pretties alive before they're scorched to death in the summer sun? I was not born with a green thumb, that's for sure. But we'll give it our best shot. Lauren was extra proud, because among the marigolds are a few that were part of a little cup of flowers that she planted for me at school for Mother's Day. So it will be fun to help her learn how to take care of them now that they're planted.
Mara has taken a turn into the "big girl" department lately and has stepped up from the tricycle to the little Minnie Mouse bicycle. She's still very unsure of it and has absolutely no idea how to steer or stop. As I'm sure you can imagine, this makes for very exciting rides around the neighborhood that usually involve me chasing after her to catch the bike before it hits the downhill slope of someone's driveway. While on a quick run through Target on Sunday afternoon, we got her her very own helmet. She was pretty proud wearing it to ride around our street on Sunday evening. Now if only I could get Joshua interested in learning to ride his bike without the training wheels. A little bit of my cautious personality may be shining through as he is petrified of a major wipe out without the traning wheels. But I'm getting there with him.
This post is all out of order. But oh well. On Saturday morning while Daddy and Joshua were fishing, the girls and I decided to make a batch of Aunt Pattie's chocolate chip cookies. We had a picnic to go to on Saturday night, and this seemed the perfect choice. Aunt Pattie's cookies are beloved in the Richard family, and I still remember my favorite day that I've spent with her as she taught me her recipe and showed me how to mix them. She swears by the "mix by hand" technique on these, and who can really argue with the deliciousness that happens. So we were a MESS...but we did a lot of giggling. My two taste testers and samplers were hard at work. They had to sample the chocolate chips before they would approve their addition to the batter, and wanted to sample at least one cookie off of each tray as they came out of the oven. I quickly put a stop to that before I had two sugared maniacs on my hands. Needless to say, the entire batch is gone between what our crew devoured and what literally disappeared in a blink at the picnic. Can't tell you how I love baking with the kids if I'm in the mood to be extra patient.
We won't discuss the trip to the park on Saturday afternoon that left me so sick I had to lay down for almost 2 hours upon our return trip home. Let's just suffice it say that Jason peer pressured me into getting onto a spinning apparatus and didn't heed my warning that I needed to stop, and so, I spent the ride home from the park doing deep breathing techniques that I didn't even need while hooked up to pitocin while in labor with Joshua just to keep from tossing my cookies (literally and figuratively) in the car. After a nap I was at least able to stand up, and we went about the rest of our business for the day.
Daddy was golfing on Sunday, so after church the kids and I headed out to Subway for lunch and then to Target and Sams for a few items on our list. Then we headed home for playing outside, bike riding, football throwing, deck sitting and steak grilling for supper. Not a bad end to the weekend.
Whatever this summer routine is that we're settling into has really been good. It's been busy, but we've been together and there's not much more I can ask for than that.
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