The simple pleasures of family time

We've had the sort of lovely week where the fun keeps piling up with little time to record it along the way. How often do you get to say that?!

Part of what made it so lovely was the three-day weekend -- and the fact that Scott was home. This is notable, because he used to be gone a lot of Saturdays. It's always nicer when he's home with us! He made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and then took the boys to see the new "Star Wars: Clone Wars" animated movie. He said it was better than the original six films! The boys liked it, too.


After church on Sunday, the boys had a lemonade stand in front of the house. This is something we've been talking about doing for over a year. They worked very hard in the spring to keep up with the Meyer lemon tree in my parents' backyard. They picked, and juiced, and picked, and juiced, and packed a couple gallons away in the freezer to await warmer weather.

I realized on Friday that this could be our last really hot weekend of the season (I can hope, anyway!), and it would be a good time to finally have that lemonade stand! The boys had their first sales experience at our July yard sale, where they sold chocolate chip cookies. But we ran out of time to make the lemonade that weekend. This weekend, we took it a step at a time -- thawing the juice in the fridge overnight, and making the simple syrup on Saturday. Then the movie trumped the lemonade stand, so we waited to make the lemonade.


After church the boys made the lemonade, I made a sign, and we set the picnic table out on the sidewalk. It was hotter than we expected by the late afternoon, and not too many people were out on the street. But the boys still managed to sell two pitchers worth to our neighbors, friends and family in an hour and a half. It was a lesson in patience and persistence, not to mention what it feels like to make minimum wage working in the heat of the sun.

Monday morning we went bowling to celebrate our friend's ninth birthday. It was the boys' first time, and they loved it so much, we stayed after the party for another hour to bowl a game as a family. The big boys did really well (gotta love those bumpers!), and our littlest had fun pushing the ball down the lane and waiting to see if it would make it all the way.

When we got home, it was time to read the final chapter of "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone" -- and then watch the movie. The cherry on the top of our ice cream sundae of a weekend. After we watched the film together, the boys admitted that the book was better. It's fun to see it come to life -- but there were too many funny and interesting things left out!

And then there was Today. The Big Day. The day the boys have been anticipating for weeks. But today deserves its own post.