Celebrating with Friends

Celebrating with Friends
By Allan Olson
Another weekend has flown by – as they usually do when you are having fun! We spent Friday night working to tidy up the house because we were hosting a party on Saturday to celebrate our 1,000th geocache find. While we were hoping we would be doing it mostly outside, we figured we shouldn’t gamble on Mother Nature.
The kids worked, but pretty slowly, and as a result they didn’t get screen time on Friday night. Instead they got bed time without screen time. My wife and I stayed up late to do some baking and more cleaning. I wasn’t going to move too early on Saturday morning, so I think we finally started working on the house some more around 8 a.m. All the kids were up and enjoying the screen, and as long as they were working on their project, too, I was going to let them have it. I soon was reminded of the fact that they don’t multi-task very well, instead getting wrapped into the screen, so I made them shut it off and split them up on different projects.
For a change, the girls complained less than the boys and really did a good job on their assigned tasks. The boys didn’t put as much effort into their work, and had to keep going back to finish it. We had made significant progress on our list, and I decided it was time to go get some extra firewood since the day was looking nice. Perhaps that is when I jinxed myself, because about 3 p.m. the rain started coming down! It looked like it would be done before the party started at 5:30 p.m., but the wind kept swopping things around and it poured some more, so we made the call to move the party indoors – there would be no fire (for now).
Instead, I put some hotdogs on the grill, and we served those to our guests, along with the several loaves of zucchini, pumpkin and banana bread. Everyone exchanged stories and visited, and the rain kept coming down. Finally the rain quit, and it was suggested that I try to build a fire. But of course, now all my firewood was wet. Thankfully, it was mostly some good old pine, and with a little bit of coaxing I was able to get a fire going.
Some guests left, while a few others arrived late. We gathered around the fire and enjoyed S’mores and some more stories. At one point, Marcus poked his head outside and yelled, “Dad, it’s after 10! Why aren’t you in bed?” I guess there has to be a smarty pants kid in every family. The last guests left sometime around 11:30 p.m., and I finally made it to bed around midnight. It was a fun night, even though the weather did not cooperate as well as we would have liked.
Our Sunday was really laid back. We cleaned up some dishes from the party and let the kids zone out in front of the television. Aside from that, we really didn’t do much more – just took the day nice and easy.
We have a variety of things we could do this weekend, but so far we have no set plans. Whatever we do, I’m pretty sure it will involve finding a few more geocaches – we need to get started on our next 1,000!
Please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

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