Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Memorial Day (two days late)

OMG. Last Friday feels like a lifetime ago. But I'm really trying to be better about writing regularly, and the further I get behind, the harder it is to catch up.

The long weekend started on Friday afternoon as I loaded up our Girl Scout troop to spend the night at the zoo. It was as awesome and as awful as you'd imagine (in hindsight, it really was amazing though.) The girls ranged in age from 5-9. We got to the zoo after dinner and set to work setting up the enormous tent I found in our camping gear, but failed to check to see if there were instructions. Luckily between the three adults, we figured it out! Then we were allowed to wander the zoo as the sun set. It was SO COOL but I was a little sorry that I read Fierce Kingdom. We got to see a lot of animals that either aren't out during the day, or are out and super boring. Red pandas, BTW, are adorable when they're moving around. We also got to see fornicating turtles, apologies to anyone whose daughter came home talking about the Great Wrestling Lake Turtle. That's not a real thing. I panicked and the girls were too short to see the sign I pretended to read. One girl asked if she could sleep outside, so she and I hijacked the rainflap of the tent to sleep under the stars, lulled to sleep by the sweet din of the flamingos and the occasional lion's roar.
Literally the only time she was anywhere near me

The next day, after we got home from camping, Syd and Averson had to hustle to get ready for a Mad Hatter Tea Party. I excused myself from attending because honestly, I was not in a kind or friendly mood. Luckily my friend lives next door so I snuck over to her house to bitch about my life for a minute. I heart friends who will let you sit at their kitchen counter and be petulant about your life.


Recovery mode

Sunday our friends had a barbecue to introduce their new neighbors. I made the most amazing Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad, so amazing that I documented the process on my Instastory which required me to learn how to do Instastory. So of course, C gave it to Sydney to carry in and she dropped it all over the driveway of my friend's house. Nothing says, "Thanks for the invite!" like covering your friend's concrete with mayonnaise coated pasta.  I salvaged half the bowl and totally insisted on eating it. I also made S'mores bars, which are amazing and I always forget about them when I'm in the mood to make cookies. I ran out of chocolate chips so I added a crushed up Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt bar that I had and it was a wise choice. Gee, I don't know why Weight Watchers isn't working for me? 

We left the party at a responsible hour since we knew we were getting up at 4:30 so that all THREE of our scouts (Averson became a Daisy last week too) could go to the local cemetery to erect flags. We started doing this with Eli a few years ago and have added in the girls as they became scouts. Its seriously one of my favorite community things that we do, and that's saying a lot considering that it's at 5:00am, often cold, and full of kids that aren't mine. I find it to be a really great way to impress on the kids what the day is about, and they get to work as a team to make this huge impact on our little town. Each of the flags is donated by a family and many were actually laid on the caskets of veterans and fallen soldiers. I was looking for a name to point out to my two Girl Scouts, and as luck would have it the only one that was labeled belonged to a female veteran. Ms. Edna Taft, thank you for your service.

Post flag donuts

We followed that with breakfast out with our friends, a nap, and then we spent the afternoon as guests at a super ritzy club pool. There are no pictures because I was too busy enjoying the water slide and the alcoholic sparkling waters I recently discovered (but not at the same time).

And because I'm already late, I'm going to include Tuesday too, which was otherwise unremarkable except that it was the opening performance of Eli's class play, Aladdin, in which he had the lead! He did an amazing job and it was so cool to see him up there. I was more than a little concerned after he told me that he had 22 pages of dialogue to memorize, but he totally did it, and even helped some of the other kids with their lines. Maybe he'll join the drama club in middle school (which is next. year. OMG.)

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