This year for Memorial Day weekend, I was blessed to have Lilly for the entire time. Usually, Cait and I split up the weekends, but this time she was going away, and got the chance to spend some much overdue quality time with my muffin. I picked her up from school Friday at 12:30 (yay for a half day!), stopped at the firehouse to drop off some things, and then headed home where her and I planned what promised to be an epic weekend. EPIC indeed. Friday night my sisters convinced their father (yeah, he's technically mine too but...that's another entry) to let them stay at my house for the night so Lilly, Dana, and Emily played for a bit while I braved Stop & Shop, on a Friday, at 5pm, on a holiday weekend. I don't need to explain that any further do I? Anyway, 13 hours later I came back home and served up a dinner of BBQ chicken, sweet corn on the cob, pasta salad, and iced tea. So good. Afterwards, I attempted a small campfire in our patio fire pit and we made s'mores. Again, amazing! Then, because Lilly has been bugging me about camping, we made a tent in the back yard. I was sure we'd ultimately end up in the house at some point but the girls surprised me, and we made it all night. Lilly woke up before anyone else (except me) and in a kind of joking manner asked, "Mama, do you think Daddy would have built a better tent?"
Now, truth be told, he totally would have. I'm no girl scout, that's for certain, but I somehow had to make that moment about Lilly remembering Daddy...so I said, "Ya know Lil, I think that Daddy helped us make this one we're in right now. I bet he even slept in here with you last night too. Just to keep you safe out here."
Lilly half smiled, laid her head back down, and went back to sleep. My answer must have worked for her...I just wonder what she was thinking about.....
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| Eatin' s'mores. |
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| Sleeping away out back. Yes, unfortunately, I had to sleep out there with them. |
When everyone woke up, it was raining. Not heavy rain, just a few drops, but the girls looked at me as if to say "WHAT THE HELL?".....I told them we'd go to Harkness for the day. Luckily, by the time everyone was up, dressed, fed, and the cooler was packed, the sun had started to poke its head out. Unfortunately, it forgot to head to Waterford because it was so foggy and cold there, we lasted all of an hour before packing back up and heading home where, guess what - the sun came out. Jerk. My sisters headed to their Dad's and Lilly and I came in and relaxed.
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| Dana, Emily, and Lilly attempting wiffle ball. Hysterical. |
Sunday was a pretty calm day at our house. Calm, but one of the best we've ALL had in a long time. Lilly and I started off playing paddle ball in the front yard, which turned into wiffle ball, and then Gram joined in. Here's the thing that makes this story GREAT - i SUCK at wiffle ball. So does Lilly (my child is NOT an athlete). My mother though, at 65 years of age, was AMAZING! She was hitting the ball clear into the neighbor across the street's yard, catching everyone we managed to hit, until....I was "pitching" and she smacked it with bat beautifully sending the little white ball of fury STRAIGHT into my face. Holy mother of God that hurt! It stung so bad I was near tears...laughing my ass off of course but MAN! Never again are we playing wiffle ball with Gram unless we have more room!
After that, we decided to play a few round of Guess Who? on a blanket on the lawn, soaking up the remainder of that day's sunshine until dinner - hot dogs, corn on the cob (again...hey, it was on sale at Stop & Shop), and left over past salad. For dessert, fruit pizza.
The next day, Lilly was going to host a lemonade stand. Naturally, I had to make some sort of baked good to go along with it, so I made Lemonade Cookies. These were so good, I made 4 batches. We woke up Monday morning to rain....if looks could kill, I'd have died 4 times over. Luckily, the rain was a quick passing shower and by noon, the kids were set up with pink lemonade, regular lemonade, and lemonade cookies. Lilly, Dana, and Em started it off but soon Austin came over to join them. The story with Austin is long and complicated but rounds off to his mom dies about 2 months after Todd passed away and so he and Lilly, although worlds apart as far as upbringing, are very close in terms of understanding each other's emotions. I never lost a parent, so really, I don't get it fully, but watching a 8 year-old and a 10 year-old talk about what happens after mom or dad died brings you to a whole different place. In any event, he got all kinds of excited at lunch - all I made was hot dogs, mac & cheese, carrots with ranch dip, and apple slices with peanut butter. He shouted, "Screw McDonald's! This lunch rocks!" Can you tell how many homemade meals he's had? Sad really. Again, I digress. After about two and a half hours, they all kinda got bored and so they packed it up. After taking the money it cost to buy supplies out, they were left, with $10. Lilly decided to put it all in the bank and put it toward a donation to Alex's Lemonade Stand when we do a bigger sale in July. Such a good kid. So giving.
Finally, we finished off the weekend with a little cook-out at Beth and Erik's place. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and of course fruit pizza! We all sat around chatting about our embarrassing moments in life, work horror stories, vacations, high school. It was a ton of fun. Oh, and in the middle of it Baxter got away and led everyone on a chase before being captured and tethered on the dog run. A s'more for the road and we headed home.
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