This was a very full weekend, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Everyone got to do something fun, including me!
On Friday, I’d managed to get most of my work done by early afternoon, so I drove over to Chanticleer Garden for a quick look at the fall flowers. Then, in the evening, the whole family went out to a local Mexican place we like. We came home and most of us went in the hot tub — one of the last nights we can do that before we close it for the season! I actually wore my coat and boots over my swimsuit when I walked out there (and so I’d have them for walking back) and my kids were mocking me but whatever. I don’t like being cold!
On Saturday morning I met my friend Jane for a 6-mile run along the Schuylkill River, starting at 7:45 a.m. I had packed my bike in the car, so I took off directly from our run to drive to the shore in order to go biking there. This was on my official “fall fun list” (that I published over at Vanderhacks). Originally I thought I’d try to do this on a weekday but the weekdays tend to fill and I tend to need to be available to drive someone so…Saturday it was. I drove to Ocean Grove, and biked a few miles south to Spring Lake, and then back. Originally, my plan had been to bike on the boardwalk (forbidden during the day in summer, but OK in the offseason) but there was a charity walk in Ocean Grove, so I couldn’t go on the boardwalk there, and then I quickly realized that for a lot of the boardwalk, it’s narrow enough that I would constantly be going around walkers/runners. So I wound up on the road a lot of the time in order to maintain some speed, but that was fine — there was little traffic, and I could still see the ocean. It was lovely. I sat on the sand for a while afterwards watching the waves.
Meanwhile back at home…my husband had dropped the 16-year-old off at the scout house because he was on his way to an overnight troop backpacking trip through the Pine Barrens. The 5-year-old had flag football, then went with his Saturday sitter to Linvilla — always a popular time. The 10-year-old had a friend over for a chunk of this time too. Then I got home mid-afternoon, and had about 90 minutes to decompress before getting the 5-year-old back (during which my husband played tennis with the 14-year-old, and then he went to the gym – so he got his me-time too). The 5-year-old and I went over to a group playdate at a new friend’s house. This was fun as I got to chat with a lot of the parents too — always good when a little adult socialization gets thrown in!
I made it home before 6 because my daughter then had a crew of her friends show up for her belated birthday celebration/sleepover. My husband took the girls over to Top Golf (her choice!) where they played and ordered food and such. Meanwhile, I hung out with the two younger kids. I managed to get the 5-year-old down before the girls came back, which was good, because I think he would never have gone to bed if trying to hang out with them had been remotely an option. We had birthday cake around 10:30 p.m. and then the girls stayed over. I managed to sleep. My husband reports that they were watching movies until 3 a.m….
In the morning I went to choir rehearsal, and came back to get the two little boys for church. The girls left around 10:30, at which point my husband went for his long run (in absolutely beautiful fall weather — we really lucked out this weekend). I took the 14-year-old to/from her tennis lesson (with little kid tag alongs – no other adult at home at this time) and we stopped at Starbucks. Then after my husband got back, we made a fairly brief trip to Boo at the Zoo.
The 5-year-old was excited about this. He eagerly put on his skeleton costume. The 10-year-old was not excited, but he was coaxed into it with the promise that he would be trick-or-treating and he didn’t have to wear a costume. (Meanwhile, the 14-year-old slept). We live only 20 minutes from the zoo, and we’re members so it’s fine to go briefly, so we drove there, and circled the place in approximately 50 minutes. The kids did not really stop to look at animals in their quest for finding the snacks/candy stations, but we did manage to see the giraffes, rhinos, hippos, and an eagle. We were back in the car at 3, and home before 3:30. When we got home, the 16-year-old was back from his camping trip — he had a good time, he reported.
I chilled for a little bit before a friend picked me up to drive to a concert about an hour away. This was an early music group, and they performed a lot of Palestrina work, and even a short motet from Victoria that my choir had performed in our last concert a few weeks ago. It was beautiful and such a nice end to a great weekend.
Listing it all out it does seem like a lot but it all worked and I had enough downtime that I made progress on my puzzle, did some reading, etc.
Now it is Monday and back to things like figuring out where a missing trombone has gone but hey… Sadly I think this weekend was it for semi-warm fall weather, but I guess it is late October and has to get cold eventually!