One of the best things about weekends like this one is that they reaffirm this basic truth: we -- my kids, my grandkids -- we really like time spent together. We like hanging out for hours on a deck or on the porch, we like watching the kids play, we like talking about the quirky aspects of life. We like to laugh at odd happenings. We like it all. Kids grow up in different ways. There are no promises or guarantees. Different interests, different convictions, different ways of approaching life. But we were lucky: we did not grow apart. Things we liked doing together twenty years ago we still like doing together now. And always there is laughter. Family gatherings are never serious affairs. They are gentle, kind, and most of all -- fun.
This Sunday began early, because there are kids in our lives who live by clocks that are set to their little person needs. At the farmhouse, Primrose is excited to start in on an art project even before breakfast, before switching out of her pj's.
We linger, we play, we nibble. And then I scoot out to pick up some brunch foods at Madison Sourdough. No need to cook up a storm today. We're taking it easy. Indeed, we pack up our stuff and head out...
(cool morning...)
(warm day...)
... to my older girl's home so that the cousins can log in some outdoor playtime. (Until they are vaccinated, we'll stick to the great outdoors.)
Sandpiper doesn't care for the heat and yes, today is hot -- one last heat wave pummeling us with sticky air. Nonetheless, he, too, likes family activity. The sound of sib voices. The sweetness of an aunt who, herself is pregnant with a cousin.
Family brunch....
I'm not sure anyone felt like pumping up and filling the pool one last time, or slathering the sun block on kids backs, faces and arms, but we did it all because the kids just love getting cool in these splash pools. So, one last time -- an ode to summer.
And then the young Chicago family has to head home. Good byes are tough!
I had the idea that I would catch my breath for a few hours before heading into dinner, but Ed asked me to run some errands with him, including one that required me driving behind him as he took his car to the other side of town, depositing it at his best mechanic for a brake job.
Are your brakes not working? -- I ask.
Not a whole lot. But I'll go slowly on the highway and you don't have to stop much between here and the shop.
I was not going to let him do this alone. Indeed, he could not do this alone.
And when we got back from the car deposit and from his errands (picking up a Craigslist very used seed broadcaster for $15), it was time to cook Sunday dinner for the gang.
(here they come! tree stop first...)
It's shrimp taco night tonight and the kids are delighted.
I think all the grownups are plenty tired by the end of the day. But it's a good tired. A happy tired.
With love...
