Weekend Update

Whenever Adam has any free time he loves to set up elaborate scenarios that he calls "movies".

On Friday, my Dad came over. We've been trying to get together with him for a while, but we could never work it out. Finally, I just said to name a time and we could make it work. So he came over and went with us to Derek's soccer practice and then we went out to eat afterwards. Trying to organize the time to see various family members is always a logistical puzzle and we sometimes tend to look at it like a check on a list of "ToDo" items, rather than recognizing what a special thing it is. So, it's always refreshing when we see the unbridled joy that the kids get. They look forward to the visits from the moment they hear about them and they never fail to leave the visitors with the feeling that they were so happy to see them. That may all change when they become teenagers, but right now it's great.

On Saturday morning, I had my last tennis match of the season and the boys had their soccer matches. Adam seemed to have recovered from his illness and played well. Derek's team got throttled. They all looked like they were in slow motion compared to the other team. Somehow, Derek looks like he's gotten afraid of the ball and acts very tentative, although he won't admit it.

On Saturday afternoon, we rushed home from soccer and Helen and Adam went to our neighbor, Patrick's, birthday party. Derek and I watched some of the Georgia Tech game and then went to the golf driving range. We got Derek some clubs for his birthday and we've played around in the yard with them, but this was our first trip to the driving range with them. Derek had a blast and hasn't stopped talking about it. I'm thinking that since he's not the quickest mover, golf might be great sport for him. He's already trying to get me to commit to the next visit.

The boys came home and crashed. They were still asleep when Adam's friend, Ryan, came over to spend the evening with us. We've got a reciprocal monthly babysitting arrangement with his parents and tonight was our night to babysit. Ryan entertained himself with some toys until the boys woke up. The Levy girls had come over a little earlier and invited the boys to come and play in their yard. They were having a get together with some other neighbors. So as soon as the boys woke up they headed over for a kid block party. We visited with the neighbors and by the time we got back I didn't want to wait for Helen to cook dinner, so I suggested Wendy's which set off cries of joy from the kids. The boys were wired and having Ryan along took it up another notch. Helen cringed at the noise level most of the way to Wendy's.

On Sunday, Helen gave in to the boy's repeated requests for French toast. I went on my normal long Sunday morning run. Afterwards, the boys helped me plant 6 Leyland Cypress trees. We had 2 big Bradford Pear trees taken down in our back yard and were planting the cypress trees in their place. Trying to dig through hard red clay and some left over roots from the pear trees was back breaking. I decided that it would not be good if I ever had to go to prison and work on the chain gang - I'm too soft.

Helen also worked with Derek on his book report for school. It was such a nice day so we had the doors open and I could hear Helen's frustration as she tried to convince Derek that he needed to adhere to the teacher's guidelines, which were clearly written on the assignment, and that despite his belief to the contrary, maybe at age 8, he did not know everything.