the bestest saturday

(except, of course, the Saturday when we saw our niece...)

This Saturday was a great Saturday! It began with our five year-old friend Caroline coming to visit. We had great plans... some of which were sidetracked as we went along, but we made the best of it. It began in the backyard blowing up the swimming pool... but... Mr. Patrick and Mrs. Lydia didn't manage to charge the pump enough. So... we went to Caroline's friend Mary Beth's school to... RECYCLE! I know, it doesn't seem that impressive, but we needed to do it. Plus it gave Caroline a chance to ride in the green truck. It's a different perspective when you see the world from the front seat for once! Then we went to the barbershop to get Mr. Patrick's hair cut. It was quite warm by then, so we got Icees and went to Centennial Park and played on the playground and saw the Parthenon. We returned to the house, finished blowing up the pool and filled it up so Caroline could swim (and Mr. Patrick and Mrs. Lydia a bit too!) After we played in the pool, it was finally time for LUNCH! Since this is Caroline's first VBS next week, we thought we'd give her a head start on the subject matter by taking her to Lydia's favorite Japanese restaurant. When we got there, we found out that they were closed for lunch on Saturdays! :( So we went to McDonald's instead... much to the joy of Caroline.

When Caroline's dad came to pick her up, we entered into our running-around part of the day. Well, actually PATRICK's running around part of the day. Aside from running errands to Home Depot and the church, I went to my favorite cheapo computer place in Nashville (maybe the only cheapo computer place in Nashville) where I found lots of interesting things... but none more interesting than the built-in microwave. First of all, it was bizarre to find a microwave of any kind. Second of all, it was bizarre to find one that almost perfectly matched the one that we own. Third of all, it was bizarre to see it priced at $69.00. That's 79% off!!! Fourth of all, we coincidentally have a (cosmetically) broken door on the front of our microwave that's replacement part costs $50.00. SO... for an extra $19, you get a completely functional set of replacement parts. I was a good boy though, I came back and told Lydia about it before I went back to buy it. Now I just have to get my father-in-law to come over to help install it!

About the time I got back, it was time for our friends the Jeans to come over - Jason and Annessa and their kids 2-1/2 year-old Wesley and 9 month-old Morgan. Our plan was to let them swim, but cloudy skies seemed to be prevailing, so we kept them and the picnic inside. That ended up being nice too, because we got to spend the whole time talking and playing rather than running around the yard. It was also one less layer of cleanup for the boys! The Jeans brought chips and salsa and we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Everyone had plenty to eat.

One neat milestone in the evening was that Morgan figured out that the Lego cart was not only fun to pull up on, but also fun to push around... which was big because Morgan isn't walking yet! It was kind of like training wheels for walking. Wesley and Morgan had a big time with the toys and just running around a different house. It was a good test for when our new niece Reganne will eventually come to visit.

After the boys went home (and Mom and Dad,) we rented Spellbound a documentary on the National Spelling Bee. It's intense! All in all, this was a long, tiring, but great Saturday.