Like good Hoosiers, we celebrated Labor Day by taking to the great outdoors and staying there until Monday night. Indiana receives the rest of the country’s leftover weather, so by October 1st, it will be snowing OR sunny and 90 degrees. We never know. We do know that all pools will close and all boats will be wintered by tomorrow morning. It’s the law, just like not buying beer on Sundays. That’s right. In Indiana, you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday. Because we’re all in church all day. Not thinking at all about drinking a cold one on a pontoon.
Friday, my best friend Amie and I, decided to take 4 kids to the Zoo. She’s a Southern Baptist, but we must have been doing shots to come up with this plan. No, just jokes. We had a great time. Our 2 year olds mostly just make animal sounds (is whining an animal sound?), but her son can say “anemone”. Sara can say “fffff”. It means giraffe. “Mommy?! Fffff!!” As she pulls at her tiny neck to illustrate a giraffe. Amie lives in Florida, and spending the day with her is like waking up on Xmas morning. Something you look forward to all year.
Saturday was an all-out, grand style Bethel Barbecue. Bethels is the collective name of my roomies from college. We lived on Bethel Avenue. We’re creative that way. Sara had the audacious pleasure of playing with all new kids and all new toys. It’s not, well ever, that she’s danced to a 5 year old singing Karoake at 10 pm. She was so tired that she took a nap at 10 am on Sunday. Pigs are flying somewhere. Too much Bethel laughter to mention, but what a great party. And trusty Lauren to watch over the kids as they played around us. Or to quote Miss Lolo, “you can trust me Lori…I’m in the 2nd grade”. By golly, she was right.
We topped it off with a cookout at Grandma Sally and Pa Pa Ray’s, who pulled out my childhood tricycle. That thing must break more child safety laws than a bag of broken glass, but Avery and Sara thought they’d won some kind of bike contest. They spent the entire afternoon picking up acorns and riding the bikes. Oh yes, and being stuffed full of more food than I’ve seen Sara eat in a month. Because if Grandma and Pa Pa cooked it, it must somehow contain a secret pound of sugar. Before heading up to Muncie, Sara packed up her purses. She explained to me that she was taking 2 purses, but she’d need 3. No argument there. Mommy wholeheartedly agrees. A girl must have her priorities. First, a respectable collection of purses, THEN potty training.
Kelly is still waiting to figure out what all this fuss is about. She was held by so many loving friends and family, that tonight when I put her to bed, she looked at me and seemed to say, “And where have you been young lady?”. Right here all along my darlin’. Drinking up the last bit of sunshine (in the shade and covered with sunscreen Mom).
