Hope everyone had a good weekend! If you’re interested in the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community, we have our monthly meet-up via Zoom today at 1 p.m. Sarah will lead us in a discussion of weekly planning rituals.
On Friday night, my husband took our little guy night skiing. They had talked about doing this for a while. The 6-year-old had been excited but then he had a big day on Friday (he was off from school, and went to the zoo) so he wasn’t sure. But he was bribed with the promise of a Wawa stop. So they got in their gear and went to Blue Mountain, and despite the rain, had a fabulous time. I love this picture of him in the fog skiing. It seems like there weren’t too many people there!
In the meantime, I took the other 3 kids out to our favorite Mexican place. The 11-year-old was reluctant, but they do have fries on the menu, so he got those and the rest of us got our actual favorite dishes. Taking teen and pre-teen kids out to dinner is such a different experience from taking little ones. They were good company, and we talked the whole time. Mostly not on their phones. Very nice! My husband and the 6-year-old got home so late that the little guy had fallen asleep in the car, so bedtime was pretty easy.
Saturday was a fairly chill day. I went for an hour-long run, and then took my daughter to a library craft fair + Starbucks. I rode bikes with the 11-year-old to a neighborhood swing. The first box of finished copies of Big Time arrived from the warehouse! Then we all drove to New Jersey to go to my parents’ joint 80th birthday party. They got a private room in an Italian restaurant and both my brothers and their wives came plus a couple that my parents have known for about 45 (maybe 50?) years. The 6-year-old did complain that the pasta was not the shape he wanted but other than that we did pretty well. And then he fell asleep in the car again, so that’s a second night in a row that bedtime was easy!
Sunday was the usual mix of activities and playdates — both the planned ones and a surprise. I had just brought my daughter to tennis at 12, and was home about 12:05 when I checked my phone and saw one of the 6-year-old’s buddies’ mom was asking if he could come over that afternoon. He had a parkour class at 1:20, but I called and asked if a 45-minute playdate would work, and it did. So I dropped him off 12:15, came back to bring the 11-year-old to tennis, and my husband picked up the 6-year-old from his playdate at 1:05. It all worked. I also did my “run in bits and pieces” form of exercise. I ran for about 6 minutes before bringing the 11-year-old, then another 10 minutes after bringing back the 14-year-old, then another 20 minutes after tennis and before supervising a different playdate.
The older three kids and my husband all went to go see Project Hail Mary, so I had the little guy for the evening. It was so beautiful outside we played in the yard for about an hour and a half. He had quite this inventive game going where we were in a Minecraft world, and then we were trying to master a slingshot class. Now today is rainy, alas, but at least the nice weather was on the weekend…
Would you mind sharing your family’s go-to Mexican restaurant? I’m in your area and haven’t found our Mexican spot yet. Thanks!!
@Hillary- Coyote Crossing in Conshohocken. They have an outdoor area that’s nice in spring/summer/fall as well.