Weekend Recap

We had a nice weekend. A really nice weekend.

Friday after work, we picked the kids up from daycare and drove directly to the zoo for their Zoo Friends day. We caught the sea lion show (the first for me and the kids) and then we found a table and ate a picnic dinner—sandwiches, grapes, chips & homemade salsa leftover from Cinco de Mayo. We wanted to see the new sting ray exhibit, but the line wrapped halfway to the Art Museum, so we checked out the penguins and bears and a few other animals and then left. We stopped by Dairy Queen on the way home for Blizzards. Yum.

Saturday morning we first did a little Mothers Day craft project. I used iron-on transfer sheets to put photos of the kiddos on canvas tote bags. Then we had each kid put a handprint on each bag with fabric paint. Trystan and Charlotte each got a bag of their own to just paint, and we had to forcibly restrain them from painting the whole house with glitter.

Later, I did a bit more yardwork. This year, for the first time since, oh, early 2004, our yard is looking nice. Most of the flower beds are relatively free of weeds, and stocked with freshly growing plants. We have a mini pumpkin patch growing in our former vegetable patch. Well, I guess it’s not a "former" veggie patch if it’s full of pumpkins. We emptied our compost bin onto the patch, in which we had composted our Halloween pumpkins, and seeds don’t actually break down in soil. They sprout. Anyway, we had no set plans for the spot, so this ought to be fun.

Speaking of the compost bin, anyone want one? Its black, about 3 foot cube—four sides plus a top (no bottom—worm access). It doesn’t really fit in our yard at the moment (a new little swing set has taken over) and our city started offering free yardwaste pickup, so the bin’s become obsolete for us. I’ll probably attempt to Freecycle it soon, just to get it out of the yard.

I have one more garden bed that needs serious help. It now has three gaping holes where plants used to be, plus the trunk of an evergreen that I never planted and seem to be allergic to (juniper maybe)—The branches are gone, but I still have to find a saw to get the rest of the trunk out of there. After that, we need to remove the rocks, re-route the border, and make it into next year’s veggie patch. That’s the plan for now.

After fighting the juniper Saturday, I broke out in hives from fingertips to elbows, so I took a Benadryl. It’s the only stuff that works for that kind of thing for me, and it knocks me out. So I took a nap.

Saturday evening we all went to Sams Club for diapers, more of the recycled plastic-bag stepping stones, and steak. And then we went home and made dinner. I wrapped up the evening watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets on-demand, while my hubby played computer games. I made it to bed before he did.

Sunday morning, hubby made us breakfast, and we went to church. Afterwards, we went to a Mother’s Day Tea at the Butterfly House in Faust Park with my in-laws and sister-in-law’s family. We all ate lots of little sandwiches, and way too many chocolate-covered strawberries and other desserts. A photographer from the Post-Dispatch captured a cute photo of my niece here. The butterflies were beautiful, even the pair that landed on my bare shin and stayed there for nearly 10 minutes before I managed to carefully shoo them away. I took pictures. One day I may even post some of them.

Neither child took much of a nap at all. Despite that, last night we got together with friends for chaotic playtime and take-out. Bedtime was mostly normal, except for a yucky poop-in-the-tub incident. I hate those. They always involve an extra scrub of the kid, the tub, and every toy in the place. Definitely the high point of my mother’s day.

So to recap: wild things, hives, too much food, not enough naps. Yep, it was a nice weekend.