the squibix family blog

We got up nice and early Saturday morning; around 6:00 for me, as Leah reports. I spent some time outside enjoying the cool of the morning then read for a while while Leah played with the boys, then I made us a breakfast of pancakes, ham, and fried potatoes (well, the potatoes were only for me). Then more playing—it was Legos, if I recall—until around 8:45 when Leah headed off to exercise with her dad and we boys took Rascal out for a stroll (with stops for playing, or course).

When we got back at 10:00 it was so hot that Harvey reconsidered his plan of riding bikes and we huddled inside til Leah got home. Then we initiated preparations for the year's first trip to Walden Pond, preparations that were slowed significantly by a missing Pow-Pow (the working theory was that Harvey left him at the park, but a trip out there to search turned up empty; don't worry, we found him behind the couch later).

Our relief from the heat was delayed still further when we found the pond closed due to overcrowding. It was just before noon then, and we had to wait until 1:30 for it to reopen. Luckily we keep a Mass Audobon membership for just such an eventuality, so headed over to Drumlin Farm to have our lunch and hang out for a bit.

Of course, we took in the sheep and birds while we waited. Zion is a big fan of sheep.

Back at the pond at the appointed hour, we waited for a while in a line of idling cars (sorry, Thoreau), then dealt with a bathroom emergency (compounded by some bathroom obstinacy) but eventually, by about 2:15, we made it into the water. It was lovely. We stayed a while.

We headed home a bit before 5:00. Had dinner, did a little work in the garden, played for a while—neither parent can actually remember this time period in any detail. Should have started this write-up sooner. Clearly, we went to bed at some point.

Sunday morning much the same; hanging out in the garden I picked the first strawberries of the season. We left church around 8:30; for the first service we were each teaching Sunday school, Leah with Harvey and Zion and I in the 4th-grade classroom. Then we played on the playground for a little while, but the heat kept most of the kids away so before long we went in to the second service; the boys played with toys while we pretended to listen.

We planned to meet up with some friends for lunch but none of us are much for planning, so we just wandered towards Mass Ave and eventually ended up at an Indian buffet, where we gorged and chatted for an hour and a half or so. Then we faced the long walk back to the car, which we almost completed; I only had to do the last two or three blocks by myself to bring the car back to the stragglers.

After a brief stop in Arlington to drop off plants and pick up compost and other trash we made it home a little before 4:00, with both boys sound asleep. We read and relaxed for a while and then decided that, in the interest of ever getting them to bed, we'd better wake them up before it was too late. Happily the weather was cooling quickly and they were happy to get up and play outside for the next several hours while I worked in the garden and Leah got some things done inside. A picnic supper was involved, before a few raindrops chased them up to the porch.

Since I was trying to get a whole lot of things done before the forecast rain I kept working outside until 8:15 or so, then we put the boys to bed. I would have happily gone to sleep myself then, but I was writing this blog post and waiting for the bread I somehow managed to bake while doing some of the above activities to cool enough to put away so I stayed up a bit. I also finally got hungry for dinner at around 9:30, so I was glad to be still awake for that.

So there you have it; our weekend, such as I can reconstruct on Sunday and Monday evening. It may be, as I just described it to Leah, the longest and most boring blog post ever, but not all history is exciting. And it was all good fun at the time.