quiet ending to a lovely day....

We started the day by going to the parade in town, watching it in our friends' driveway. Emily's house is just down the road, and she had the day off from work, so she took Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Camille home from the parade with her. Sonja K. stayed at our friends' house, as they have a little girl her age, who spend the night here last night. Just Evelyn and I headed home in the van that was packed with kids on the way there...

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside. Sunshine, warmth, breezy. I sat in the sun for a bit, then decided to do some tidying up outside. I swept the grass from the mower off the driveway and sidewalk, and pulled weeds from the back patio. I talked with Paul while he fixed the glider on the swingset...he has done this before through the years, when he was done he said that it ought to last 'til the little girls get too big for it.

We have a project, or rather Paul has a project. Our swimming pool is 18 years old this summer, and has been as much of a pain as it has been a blessing. Liners and motors and pumps and skimmers and ladders...oh, the things that can go wrong with a backyard pool! Money pits, they are! This year a new problem arose: a few places in the metal sidewalls are totally rusted through, with the liner pushing right through. So we have to drain the water low enough to pull it out of the broken parts, then patch the sidewalls up...Paul has a plan....hopefully it works. Although I did suggest we just get rid of it and get a built-in one with a diving board:)

Anyway. I grilled chicken and made a salad for...just five of us. Seriously, only three kids for dinner. The older kids all went to Susan and Thomas's (my niece and her husband) for a a youth gathering/cookout. I made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies to send over, and Mirielle cut up a watermelon. Anyway, only five of us for dinner. Jonathan lit some candles and set the table, while I made some broccoli for the little girls who don't really like salad. We got to hear all about the exploring they did over at Em's house. They made fairy houses because Emily said they didn't have any. They had a picnic lunch outside with Emily. They are going over there after school on Thursday, and cannot wait!

So Paul set up one of the tents just to make sure it was all there and had to correct poles, because we are going on our camping trip this weekend, just he and I. We have a new rechargable lantern (charges a.c. plus includes a car charger), which is a far cry from the Coleman lantern my parents used to have, which ran on lantern fuel and was lit with a match. We also have a new queen sized air mattress, which we will inflate with a battery powered pump. Oh, camping ain't what it used to be, but that's a good thing! We have a camp stove, no slaving over a campfire for us. It is supposed to be a really hot weekend, 90 degrees. We are camping, then walking into town to the wine/food tasting event.

I was busy today, took my walk, then walked quite a ways from where we parked for the parade to our friends' house. My knees are stiff, I can't wait to get into that pool in the morning. Tomorrow afternoon I have to pick Margaret and Sonja up from school, pick Samuel up from his Criminal Justice program, drop girls off at dentist, bring Sam to his interview for a school job over the summer, go back and get girls, go back and pick up Sam, then go somewhere to get more peanutbutter, as we are out. Not a good thing to run out of! And of course it isn't only peanutbutter I will buy...milk and bread and yogurt and bananas and veggies....

And now...time for bed....