Saturday, May 01, 2010

Friday, Just In Time

Friday really did come just in time... I needed family time, and a slow dinner, laughter, and breathing room between me and a schedule.


Time to do any random thing that came in to our heads. Evening sunlight time.

Maria was puzzled about all that sunlight during dinner: "Why are we having dinner, if it's still morning?"

Some day we are going to make something with those bamboo poles, but until then, Max and Alex find no end of amusing activities to try out.


After dinner, and the Bamboo Olympics, we went on an evening walk and bike ride. Geoff, Max, and Maria rode. Alex, William, and I walked. And talked. Ideas and plans, observations... all the good stuff came out. We even made it to Maria's Park

Before dinner, and follow the leader at Maria's Park, we were already having fun...


Can you see something is up her sleeve?
Maria what's got you grinning?


Maria, what makes you wiggle?
And Giggle?


And out comes Pepper.


Hello Pepper.

Yes, Friday came just in time. Nothing was on the schedule. We had no place to get to, no deadline to meet. I grilled, and we ate more corn on the cob. Geoff could get home before dark. And it's not as though any of our worries or concerns were gone, but we granted ourselves a long overdue respite.

And now, Saturday morning, the day already looks fuller than a month's worth of Saturdays, but I am oh-so much better prepared.

Bring it on!

5 comments:

Danielle said...

For your bamboo poles, a couple of suggestions:

http://www.bambooscreens.co.uk/Bamboopoles.htm

I'll tell you about something really fun we did on my 17th birthday when I visited Japan. You cut the bamboo pole in half (length-wise) and clear out the insides, so that there is a long, half-moon shaped bamboo stick. You then tier the bamboo chutes so that if you ran water down from the top, it would waterfall from one to the next. At the bottom, place a bucket to catch water.

Now you can play a game! Take a couple of packages of Ramen noodles and heat them up with the broth. Separate the noodles and place the broth in several small cups (enough for each person playing). You run water from the top of the waterfall and slide the noodles down the chute. You have to use chop-sticks to try and catch the noodles, and you can dip it in your broth. It's really fun!

If you get a chance to play, I'd love to hear how it goes!

Mama Spark said...

I love the new header! ADORABLE!! And speaking of adorable, Maria and Pepper are adorable too. I thought I was one of the only people that thing rats make fantastic pets! My Kelsey has 2 of them at the moment and they are such lovies.

Tiglizzyclone said...

Sweet! Pepper and Maria are so cute together!

Unknown said...

Awww, Pepper's giving kisses!

Anonymous said...

I can hear the exhalation of relief from here! Glad you got to spend some time relaxing after so much high energy cheering :-)