Weekending

 A two -day weekend is just far to short.  Especially when the weather is spectacular and your city is chock-full of beautiful places and wonderful things to do.

We kicked off the weekend with a relaxing picnic at Horseshoe Lake Park.  We've got ourselves a little routine there:  eat pizza, feed the ducks, run in the field, play hide- and-seek.  Having our friend Donna, and her sweet little dog Cheyanne, spiced things up a bit.

As did this great game, lava rocks, wherein we ran from rock-to rock to avoid the lava (aka mulch) an turned to lava monsters if we stepped off. Its amazing what will amuse these children sometimes.

 Running with, and being licked by, a tiny dog:  highlight of the evening for sure.  I love to hear Jack giggle when he is around animals.

 Back at home, we continued our rockin' Friday night by felting.  May have to make that a thing.  First Friday Fabric Arts, anyone?

Saturday:  Our inaugural weekend of  "The Morehouse Children Do All the Sports."  Off to swim practice at 10...

 Home for lunch and chores and then time to bake in the September-heatwave sun at soccer...

 (check out my favorite tree in the background of this picture!)

 For all his talk of not really wanting to do soccer, Jack had a great time, played his heart out, helped others, worked on his passing game, and generally was a rock star.

He was also pretty well exhausted by the time we made it to Chalkfest.

We sure are notorious for packing way too much into a day, and we did pay for it when Jack's drawing wasn't working out the way he planned and he lost his mind...  but he got it back together and we ended up enjoying our time at the circle.

We duly created art...

 Washed our hands in the fountain...

 Climbed trees....

 ... and appreciated the work of others.  What a great excuse to be out on a beautiful day. Music and people everywhere and the camaraderie of shared purpose filling the air.
Love our city!

Today:  no sports practice!!  So instead, Ivy and I filled our day by attending church, where there was a special event after-- the doll and superhero tea party!  This is what it looked like at the beginning.  I don't know what kind of crazy tea parties you go to, but at Disciples Church they involve silly string and slime and a  whole lot of cookies.  I should have gotten a picture of the disaster zone I picked Ivy up from.  She had a blast.

 We treated ourselves to lunch at the Chinese Buffet and then a trip to Columbia beach for the afternoon.

 Lucky stone hunting and dam building and watching some adorable dogs run and play... it was good.  Nat and I noted that even when we do not NEED to plan our lives around a dog, we find ourselves spending time in dog friendly venues more often than not.  Force of habit, I guess.  And preparation for the new puppy, whenever that may be.  Some days I think it will be any minute, we will need to get another dog SOON.  Other days I feel more comfortable with the state of cleanliness around our house and decide we can wait a while.  Either way it won't be too long, I hope, before we are chasing our own wild doggy around this lovely little stretch of sand.

Off to prepare for a short week of school -- three days on and then a day off (thank you Rosh Hashana!) and then just one more to go before the weekend again.  In the middle I have my appointment with the radiation oncologist.  Never a dull moment.

Holding the peace of today's lake with me as I head into the week...