Weekended

Braz was crowing last week about how his apartment complex's pool was going to open this weekend.

"Be careful," I told him. "If Penny finds out you have a pool, she will demand numerous visits for the purpose of taking advantage."

"Y'all are more than welcome," Braz said.

And somehow that turned into plans for us to all go over to Braz's on Saturday to enjoy Pool Opening Day with him and the girls and Adin and Adin's two kids, Ripley and Henry. It was just a touch on the cool side for swimming, but we had a great time anyway. I got to see Penny's progress with swimming (she does pretty good until she has to take a breath, but apparently has not yet learned how to breathe and then keep going) and Alex was really excited about all the water and insisted on trying to jump into it even though he can't swim yet.

I foresee spending a number of weekend afternoons at Braz's, this summer. Just sayin'.

Swim-time sort of collapsed when Penny had a snack to combat a low blood-sugar and all the under-fives (which would be Alex and both of Adin's kids) decided that they, too, could not live without a snack, and we hadn't brought enough snacks for all of them.

So we trooped back to Braz's so everyone could have a snack, and changed clothes. (I couldn't resist saying something to Braz about the number of naked girls who'd been in his bedroom over the course of the day, since his room had turned into the de facto changing room.)

Matt had to leave after that to go to his monthly D&D game, but the rest of us (three adults and -- gods help us -- six kids) decided to go out to Wasabi for dinner. That turned out pretty well, though the kids were occasionally loud and toward the end, I had to bribe Alex with ice cream to get him to stay in his seat until we were all done. But we definitely had a good time, and I'm looking forward to more such gatherings.

Sunday was somewhat calmer. Penny spent most of the day playing with Ray, and Matt took Alex off to the park for an hour or so at one point. Late in the afternoon, I declared it too nice a day for Penny and Ray to play inside, and banished them outside -- so we took Alex outside as well to keep an eye on them. We were out for an hour or so, watching Alex play with Ray's old toys and Penny and Ray running from game to game, and chatting with Ray's parents and grandmother (who's in town for his birthday week).

All in all, a lovely and enjoyable weekend.