Memorial Day Weekend 2010!

Don't you just love the feeling of Friday afternoon before a long weekend? A whole three days of fun spread out before you? This past weekend was exactly that. We spent a lot of good times with our family and friends, had the cops called on us twice, stayed up past our bedtimes, and laughed hard. As usual, we packed in the fun.

Bill left on Saturday. I can't express enough how much we appreciated all that he did to help us with the deck. We absolutely could not have done it without him. Plus, we loved that he got the time with Marin, and Jason adored getting to spend seven days around the clock with his dad.

Saturday night Erica, Craig, Kai, and Meg and Rob (in town from Nashville!!) came over for an event that we will forever refer to as "The Inaugural Calling of the Cops". We really weren't that rowdy, but I guess our neighbor's bedroom window really isn't that far from our deck. We were in such disbelief that someone would call the cops- at 10:30-on a Saturday night- of Memorial Day weekend, that we almost accused the cops of being strippers sent as a joke. It's probably best that we stopped short at that accusation, or else perhaps the cops wouldn't have been as understanding of our situation. (Two babies asleep upstairs, just a couple of girls on the deck- come on now.)

Ross and Emilie arrived Sunday with lunch in hand and their adorable puppy in tow. Marin loved Charlie, and showered him with plenty of hugs and giggles when he licked her. That afternoon we all headed to Erica and Craig's for a party to kick off the summer. They had lots of kiddie pools and water fun at a water park that Erica set up on the side of her house. Marin was in heaven. She hopped from pool to pool, splashing in the water, and strangely, washing her hair. I think at first she thought she was in the bathtub?? Molly and Brian made the drive out and Marin promptly helped herself to half of the food on Molly's plate. We stayed into the evening eating and drinking and sitting around the campfire. I loved hearing Meg and Rob's daughter express her vivid little three-year-old imagination of "big pretend storms" and hilarious made up words. We also decided to teach her the words to a few rap songs. I have no idea where that came from, but it was really funny to hear her repeat "Bow wow wow, yippee yo, yippee yay" in her little giggling voice. When Marin got really fussy, we left to take her home to bed. The four of us ventured out on the deck again, and Meg and Rob (who also had a toddler to put to bed) left the in laws in charge and rode their bikes the short trip over to join us. Enter "Cops are called Part Two". This time they were just plain embarrassed, but explained that they had to come because they got a call. We should have called the fun police on the neighbors- charge them with not having any.

The next day Ross, Emilie, Jason, Marin and I met my parents and walked uptown for the Memorial Day parade and the annual pancake breakfast. There were a lot of jokes on the way, about asking the cops in the intersections of the closed off parade route, if they had been to our house yet. "Morning Officer. It was a heck of a bash last night, wasn't it!? Looking forward to seeing you next weekend. Same time, same place?" :)

Marin was mesmerized by the parade, and not really sure why everyone was throwing things at her (candy). I scored a mini sized snickers bar and snuck it right before I told Marin that we shouldn't eat candy before breakfast. Come on, moms. You've done it too. It down poured on our pancake breakfast, but we managed to grab a few quick bites before the storm hit.

Monday afternoon Lindsay drove out and although the rain ruined our plans to sit poolside, we enjoyed seeing her all the like, and Marin loved showing her the (soggy) ropes at the park. We ended the weekend with dinner with Lindsay and my parents back on the deck. No cops called. Whew.

Yesterday, Marin was back at it. She "brushed her teeth" (just like Mommy and Daddy) grabbed her shoes (even though she already had another pair on) brought me mine from where I'd left them by the door (which means- come on mom, let's go outside, you're all set!) , saying "oosh! oosh!" (shoes! shoes!) and walked me to the park.

Often times after fun packed weekends like this I get the post weekend blues. When everyone has to go back to "normal life" the following day and the carefree fun and games are over. But, as they say, all good things come to an end. And in this case, I think our neighbors, if no one else, are relieved.