Weekend in Suburbia

Friday night, we had dinner plans with friends. We had reservations; we had a sitter all lined up; we had on nice clothes. We'd planned to leave once the girls were in bed. Andrew was giving them their bath when suddenly the power went out. Our entire neighborhood was pitch-black. There were some minutes of chaos as we grabbed the girls out of the water and put their (battery-operated) night-lights on. The power stayed off for an hour, putting our dinner plans in jeopardy; but five minutes before we needed to be at the restaurant, the lights came back on. We speed-walked into town and had a lovely dinner. On our way home, we ran into a neighbor walking her dog and accepted her invitation to come in for a drink. It was nice to be so free-wheeling until reality struck with Greta's 6:30am wakeup. Sigh.

Sunday, our same dinner-friends came over in the morning, and the dads watched all five kiddos while the moms went to yoga. Then Andrew and our friend went out to chain-saw some logs. Greta, thrown into a tizzy by my departure for yoga AND having to share her toys for an hour, screamed until naptime.

This morning, Lucia didn't have preschool but Andrew and I had the babysitter come anyway and headed out--just the two of us--for breakfast and shopping. We ate at the local diner, lingering over our coffee; then drove to a DSW and tried on lots of shoes. Andrew bought two pairs, and I bought one pair. Then, all too soon, it was time to go home, where the girls seemed to have had a fun time. It was a little date-morning.

This afternoon, it was too cold to go outside, but we got the girls into the car (after some high-level coat-donning negotiations with Greta involving M&Ms) and went to Home Depot so Andrew could buy an ax. The girls were thrilled at the chance to ride in a "fun cart." When we got home, Andrew chopped some wood while I settled the girls in for their TV time.

And another week begins.


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