a long weekend

It was the May long weekend here these past four days...yes, four days. The kids had Friday off school as well as Monday. It started off in fine fashion my birthday Friday. The weather was perfect, nothing but sunshine and blue skies, so the girls treated me to a tea party in the garden - they got beautiful little porcelain tea sets from my parents for their birthdays earlier this year, "real tea sets" as the girls call them - and we had a lovely morning out there. I took them for Slurpees later on that afternoon, first really hot day of the year definitely required Slurpees I figured, and apparently so did everyone else in the neighborhood! Usually I have to give them a hand with the Slurpee machine, but I took a chance and sent them over on their own, since I could see quite a few of their friends already over there. They managed quite well of course, although they did put them in the Big Gulp cups instead of the slurpee cups, which caused the cashier to give me the evil eye as she tried to figure out what to charge me, oh well! Then home to lounge on our deck, with some intermittent jump rope action now and then. My mother in law called with exciting news - she and my father in law were on their way to pick up the kids and take them for a sleep over so that Mike and I could go out for dinner, so I sent the girls off to pack up some clothes and before long, I had the house to myself. Now it was time for the ultimate birthday treat...a cold beer and a good book on the deck in the sunshine, ahhhhh. I am really pretty easy to please! In fact, I was so comfortable by the time Mike got home that I suggested we do take out sushi and stay home and watch the hockey game instead of going out. He's pretty easy to please too, so that was the just right end to my just right day.
Woke up the next day to rain. Since we were planning to have our traditional May long weekend barbecue the following day, we went into battle mode, and took advantage of the kids being otherwise occupied at Grammy's house. Made the shopping rounds for our supplies - we were expecting about 12 kids in addition to all their parents, and the forecast called for more rain, so we hit the dollar store and stocked up on a wild variety of crafts and deadly toys made in China - and then worked on getting the house organized. The kids arrived home, and for once didn't go into total post Grammy and Grampa sleepover meltdown, but instead maintained their composure and played fairly decently with each other while Mike and I spent the evening doing really important things to prep for the party, like set up the outdoor canopy, arrange lawn furniture, and test out the new karaoke CD on the machine, you know, to make sure it worked properly...
Anyway, up early for soccer Sunday. The twins were up first. Em was in her usual aggressive form, hit the post twice and the goalie in the face once, but didn't actually score. Kate tripped and fell early on in the game, immediately jumped back up and started to cry, and so we spent the rest of the game telling her she was fine and to go go go! She carried on, just barely. I have a feeling winter soccer is not going to be on her to do list, sigh. Elizabeth was next. She had a great game - the rest of her team was a bit sleepy the first half, but not E, and the second half they all perked up and did well. She didn't score, but seemed happy enough with her performance afterwards. Then it was onto phase 2, the hockey game!
Yes, home to watch the Canucks win another game, a good omen for the rest of the day for sure. And the sun came out! Yes! So by mid afternoon once the game was done the party guests began arriving, and soon we had a yard full of kids gone wild. All the parents either lounged on the deck above, played bocce ball out front, or rocked it out with the karaoke machine in the living room. It was a perfect party with no drama from the kids, other than when one of the boys cracked open his glow in the dark baton, causing it to leak glow in the dark fluid all over his hands which he promptly rubbed in his eyes. By chance I happened to be standing right there, so I grabbed him and hung him upside down in the sink with his face under the tap until his dad came and relieved me. Other than being wet he was fine, phew. Unfortunately after witnessing the incident half the girls were somewhat traumatized and wouldn't go near their glowy batons after that. Probably for the best...!
After being up till nearly midnight, I figured the girls would be disastrous the next day. Maybe it was the sunshine, maybe it was the all day Sweet Life of Zach and Cody on Family channel marathon, but they held it together pretty well. Mike and I actually got to sit on the deck and read for a couple hours that afternoon, with minimal interruptions. When they got antsy after dinner I sent them outside with tin foil pie plates to make "pies" which we got to down and "buy" sometime later on. Other than Emily, who was covered in mud right down to her toes the other two were pretty clean, but it was a good excuse to force showers upon them all and get ready for bed.
It felt like we'd been away for a week when I took them all to school this morning. The twins face the first day with a new teacher, and Elizabeth is supposed to find out whether she is going to be in the talent show, so I will most certainly have some good writing fodder by this evening!