Weekend Shenanigans

DSC_0127DSC_0125DSC_0108DSC_0121

We enjoyed a great family weekend together. I’ve been meaning to go into further detail about our new Saturday morning ritual, which has quite unexpectedly become the highlight of our week, all five of us giddy with excitement every Friday night in anticipation of what’s to come. We had reluctantly entered the boys into an hour-and-a-half-long circus class, longer and more intense than their previous experience. Our reluctance had nothing to do with the program; on the contrary, we have long admired Circus Harmony and the amazing things they do with community, peace, and international outreach. Our only worry was that we would get sucked into the busy part of it, the go-go-go mentality that becomes shuttling your kids round town until no one is happy and no one has a moment to rest and relax and play.

But this class, this is truly something else. First of all, it appears that (for now at least) all three boys are totally and completely happy at the circus (Emil’s too young to start but has expressed how badly he wants to join his brothers) so we are going only one place, once a week. Secondly, all five of us truly smile, laugh, and have a wonderful time while we are there. The hour-and-a-half feels like 15 minutes and every time it’s over, my heart sinks a little. It’s just our place now. So we’ve embraced it. We go early to breakfast at the Mud House, taking our time and fuel up on coffee and banana bread and eggs and whatever else we are craving. Then we head over to circus class and have a blast.

Andrew and I were splitting up every Saturday, arguing lightheartedly about whose turn it was to take the boys to circus (we both always wanted to take them) so we threw our hands up and realized that we should just make this a family thing. Besides, Emil has as much fun as we do. He has learned Milo’s clowning routine down pat and demonstrated it not only in the other room while the older boys were practicing for an upcoming show, but also on the playground for a small crowd later that afternoon (he is SUCH a ham!). He really gets into it.

DSC_0122DSC_0152DSC_0141DSC_0155

I could go on and on about the lessons our boys have learned from taking circus classes, but I’ll save it all for another post. It really deserves one.

DSC_0093DSC_0096DSC_0095DSC_0001DSC_0009DSC_0011DSC_0014DSC_0016DSC_0017

I was lucky to get my boys all to myself for an extra day this weekend, as they had off school on Friday for parent-teacher conferences, so I took them to the Botanical Garden and we stayed for nearly 5 hours! We hadn’t planned to stay so long, but having nothing else to do, nowhere else to go, can be the best thing in the world when you find your groove! All of us were so content to go through the Children’s Garden slowly and purposefully. The weather was beautiful and the boys brought origami papers and set up on top of an outdoor table for hours. Milo found so much joy making origami and surprising random people by giving the finished product away. At one point there were six little boys gathered around and on top of that table, as two other families from their school showed up after we had been there awhile. Milo and Oliver were more than happy to share and teach their friends what they knew. It was so great to watch them all together!

DSC_0079DSC_0038DSC_0025

Emil carried around this bunny all weekend. He named it Pinky Pie then changed its name to “Pactin Merica” and then just referred to it as “Papa Bunny.” Whatever name sticks, that bunny sure is loved. And he has a wife at home, a similar rabbit puppet my mom got Emil a year or so ago, whom I found with a smaller bunny shoved up inside it’s… eh, em… hand hole. When I pulled the little bunny out, I looked at Emil with surprise and he simply said, “That’s a mama bunny.” Clearly we’ve covered the birthing process in this house. DSC_0045DSC_0049DSC_0041DSC_0057DSC_0053DSC_0058DSC_0059

With all the beautiful spring blooms, the bees were really active. All three boys were completely mesmerized by the colony and would have moved in right under the hive display if I had agreed to it. DSC_0069DSC_0070DSC_0072DSC_0074DSC_0082

So Friday and Saturday were great — Sunday, not so much. I had a stupid headache all day long and Oliver was in one of his desperate moods and no one seemed to know how to cope, so we all kind of struggled to get along with each other because of it. Oliver can’t help it of course, and we love him dearly, poor guy! It’s just so hard to know what he needs sometimes. At least he is always, always happy at circus class!

We also all worked very hard getting our garden and yard ready for the outdoor season. It is so, so, sooooo much work, but after cleaning and sweeping and raking, shoveling, weeding, tilling, hauling, and planting some flowers in pots, it finally feels like we have a hold on it all again. A good feeling. We hope to get our vegetables in the ground soon, but we’re looking out for more storms because we don’t want to drown anything!
DSC_0157And the reading bug is starting to spread in the house. Emil always brings Milo little easy readers to read to him, but now he has started asking Oliver to read them as well. Oliver is just becoming comfortable reading aloud and for now prefers to read to Emil above anyone else (Emil is a really good audience and doesn’t judge). It’s really sweet and for the purpose of respecting his sensitivity to it, I refrained from taking any pictures. But it was heartbreakingly tender and amazing to hear him slowly figuring it out while Emil followed along in the book all snuggled up to Oliver. I think it made Oliver feel like a really big deal.

Happy Monday. I hope you are finding joy in this day!

4 thoughts on “Weekend Shenanigans”
Post your thoughts

  1. The bunny story is too funny! Such sweet boys you have. I have to agree with you, our philosophy is also not to over do it with extra activities while they are so young and need time to just play. Love the idea of making it a family date 🙂

    Can’t wait to see your garden! We just sold our home (yikes!) so I may end up not having one this year if the process of finding a new home takes too long :((

    Happy Monday!

  2. “Nothing” days are the best kind of days! Also, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated your Boy Scouts post from earlier. Our family shares the same sentiment and apprehension about the whole ordeal (especially since it seems as though every family in our neighborhood with a son participates in the scouts).

  3. I LOVE that picture of Emil hugging his rabbit. How perfect childhood is that?

    FWIW, Rho always acts grumpy and weird when he is going through a developmental spurt (he will be 6 in July). I think his brain is growing and changing, which would probably mess with me, too, when I think about it. But I’ve noticed that when he FINALLY snaps out of it he has a new skill, or is more polite, or is more rational than ever before. Kids, man.

  4. We love The Mud House. Frances and I had breakfast there on Friday morning. She was off school too – which meant she spent half the day at my office and half at her dad’s, but we made it a different day by going out for a leisurely breakfast there.

    Frances still doesn’t enjoy reading aloud, but I catch her reading to her animals in her room, so I totally smiled at that last paragraph.

Leave a Reply to kay Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*