Fantasy Weekend

Funny how children change you. Used to be that my ideal weekend was spent going away to the shore, lying around on the beach all day, retiring to our overpriced B&B for a nap, then topping it off with an extravagant dinner, probably filet mignon and lobster tail coupled with a fine wine. Oh how times have changed. We spent this weekend much differently, but it was the best weekend I can remember in a long time.
Here's how it went...
Saturday morning was spent emptying the crawl space under the house of the 4 inches of water left from the Noreaster last weekend. Very fragrant - and the dead, half eaten mouse floating near the broken sump pump was a bonus. Cindy sucked up water with the wet vac, lifted it out to me, Olivia and I brought it to the street and dumped it. Repeat.
After my lovely wife broke her back bending over down there for 3 hours (crawl space - 5 ft high, wife - 6 ft tall), we thought it would be a good idea to clean out the garage (AGAIN) and make room for both vehicles. Afterall, we do have a new minivan (UGHH) and we should take care of it, right? So it began. Olivia was very helpful. We dragged everything out into the driveway and she helped sort through it, in her very special I am almost 3 and everything here is a potential toy way. Fun! But, uh-oh, the shed is full and there is no where to store a lot of this stuff. I know, let's throw it out. OK. Done. Wanna tackle the shed? Nope - there's always tomorrow. Now Cindy's niece shows up unannounced. Awesome! She's 18 going on 40. She has an old soul, but I'll tell you more about her in another post. We need to get ready to go out tonight. Friend's birthday and we got a sitter - going to a fancy restaurant that serves alcohol - wahoo! But we're pretty tired and Cindy's back is really sore and she can hardly walk, so we made a decision that would turn out to be the best one of the day. We cancel with our friends trade in the fancy meal for sushi on the patio. Oh yeah - and margaritas - cold and refreshing. I left out the part where in between all that we were feeding, changing, soothing and playing with 2 particularly needy infants. They both have coughs and are very congested, so I also spent a lot of time sucking out the goop from their noses - yummy!
Needless to say, we were in bed by 9 and slept like babies.
Sunday - got the whole family dressed and packed in the car by 9 am and headed to Starbuck's. We sat and drank our coffee and ate fruit and fed the babies and talked and it was great. Then we headed to Walmart for a couple things, but by the time we got there, we forgot what we needed, so we just walked around for a while. Bought an Elmo plate for Olivia - had to have it. After all, it was only $.98. Then it was lunch time - how did that happen? Picked up some cold cuts, came home, made sandwiches and moved on to the next chore. You guessed it - cleaning out the shed. Cindy tackled that while I cut the lawn - my favorite chore (really). It's cathartic for me. Shed clean, grass lookin' good, kids fed, changed and sleeping...what's that? You want a margarita? OK, shake 'em up. Started getting dinner together while enjoying the icy treat. Chicken wings on the grill with a salad and corn on the cob. Perfect. Then we all (including the dog) took a walk in the park across the street, came home, put Olivia to bed, folded laundry, fed the babies and crashed.

While some of you may be wondering why I think this was the perfect weekend, others know exactly why.

I've attached some pictures from Sunday - Olivia feeding the babies. She spent over half and hour holding them in her wagon giving them their bottles. I was amazed at her patience. She is always amazing me - usually in a good way. I didn't take any pix of the garage and shed, though I was tempted, they are works of art.