Laborious Weekend

I hope all of my readers have had an enjoyable Labor Day Weekend.  Mine was pretty much packed to the brim with activities.

Saturday
Ian and the kids came up to visit and we all went swimming at my apartment complex's pool.  Clara was happy to jump right in, but Henry took some time to warm up to the idea of getting in the water.  I've gone swimming with Ian and the kids before (Ian likes to have a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults when swimming) and Henry has a strong fear of water.  I'm not sure what caused it, but the last time we went to a pool, Henry was freaking out the whole time, even while wearing a life vest.  One big difference between the last time and this time was that this pool's shallow end was three feet deep rather than four.  That meant that once Henry worked up the nerve to get in the water, he could stand up with his feet flat on the floor and keep his head above water.  Simply doing that was a big improvement for him.  So while Clara started practicing basic swimming components like kicking and floating on her back, Henry being able to walk from one side of the shallow end of the pool to the other was still a big victory for him.

After the pool, we went to one of the dozens of Italian restaurants in my area and had pizza, which was really good.  The kids were a bit impatient while we waited for food to arrive, but I have yet to meet a kid that pizza won't improve their mood significantly.

After swimming and pizza, we went back to my apartment to relax a bit.  I got some pillows for the kids to lay on and Ian set up Up to play on his iPad.  As the kids watched the movie in the living room, Ian and I hung out in the dining room, about a dozen feet away.  Once the movie finished, I served some birthday cake that I had made (chocolate fudge cake with candied strawberries and whipped cream), in celebration of Ian's birthday -- which was the day before, but with a Saturday literally the next day, it made sense to wait to celebrate.

With all of the fun activities finished, Ian and the kids piled into their car went back home.

Sunday
After Church, I came home and did some laundry before packing an overnight bag (and the leftover cake) and driving down to the Larsen's.  Ian had had some trouble with a cat marking her territory in the living room, so he needed to replace the carpet.  I came to handle the kids the next day while he was busing with the installation crew.

When I got there, it was scripture-reading time.  It was great to see how excited Clara got for her time to read.  Henry's reading skills aren't to the same level as Clara's, but he still was happy to get to a chance to stumble through a few verses.

Monday
After a quick breakfast of eggs and frozen waffles (fun fact: I eat three raw eggs every morning and, yes, it grosses out everyone who hears about it), I took the kids in my car to a local shopping center.  I had a plan and a schedule to follow, but I had decided to keep the big activity a surprise, in case the installers finished early and we needed to go home sooner than expected.

Our first stop was at the local pet store to look at the animals on sale.  I wasn't sure about this as an activity, but Ian was the one that suggested it, so I decided just roll with it.  After the kids got bored with the animals, we walked down to a dollar store (really a five dollar store, so, you know, a fancy dollar store) because I knew the kids like temporary tattoos and figured that would be an easy win.  The girl running the register sent me to the opposite side of the store when I asked where I could find them, but based on her age I'm pretty sure this is her first job, so I probably shouldn't have expected much.  With the temporary tats in hand (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Henry and Disney Princesses and their pets for Clara), we walked to the first big activity, frozen yogurt, only to find that the place still hadn't opened for the day.  We were due for a bathroom break, so we walked down to the Target.  After everyone had gone, we walked over to the in-store cafe to see if an ice cream-like treat could be obtained.  While no ice cream was to be had, I did get each kid a slushy.  They were both excited because this was an even rarer treat than frozen yogurt.  With the frozen treats consumed, we walked down to the main event: watching a movie in the theater.

Ian had looked up the theater's showtimes the night before and found that there were only two PG-rated movies playing and only one that the kids hadn't seen.  We decided that I should take the kids to see Inside Out, the latest offering from Pixar.  With a large popcorn and custom drink (half-fruit punch, half-Sprite) for the kids to share, we all enjoyed the movie.  About an hour into the movie, I got a text that later turned out to be Ian telling us that the carpet installation was complete.  After the movie finished, we went home.

And while that could have been it, the kids asked that I stay a little longer.  Ian said that they needed to go grocery shopping, but Clara asked that I stay and play with her and Henry while their dad when to the store by himself.  We both thought that was fine, so Clara, Henry, and I headed outside to play Hide-and-Seek.  After a few rounds, it was decided it was a bit too hot and the kids asked if we could play a board game instead.  Since I was getting attacked by mosquitoes again, I was happy to change activities.  The kids chose Monopoly Junior, which Clara won.

Once the game was put away, Clara and Henry were sent off for some quiet time while Ian and I talked about some detail regarding a video for Danfoss.  With that completed, I said my goodbyes and came home.

It was nice to not only get to celebrate Ian's birthday with him and his kids but to also help him out and spend some time with just my niece and nephew -- and it was great to hear that they enjoyed it just as much.