Fun Family Weekend

I love weekends.  You would think as a stay-at-home mom weekends would be much like any other day, but now that Emily is at school I like having days when she's home the whole time, and I especially like having Will home.  I especially ESPECIALLY enjoy weekends that include days where I get to lay around and let someone else do all the work :-)

Our weekend started out at the Westview children's reading festival, which had to be moved inside due to rain.  It was a neat event, but made super-strange by the location, which was a bar/pool hall.  People were still coming in to eat and play pool, but it was also crammed with kids.  I'm not even sure it's legal to have kiddos at a bar that's actively serving alcohol, BUT it was better than being out in the rain!  There were games with prizes, and the biggest attraction was Mr. Jon, who does storytime and sings songs at the library.  He's a huge celebrity to the girls (he IS on iTunes!), so they were super-excited to be able to see him and chat with him.  I only managed to take one picture:

I was quite grateful to Carolyn and Christian for getting there early and reserving a table, which gave us a base of operation (so important when you're with kids) and access to drinks for everyone.

After that we headed to Brewer's Alley to have a mother's day lunch for Will's mom.  I'm sorry Brewers, I have been less than impressed with you food the last few times I've eaten there.  It's not BAD by a long shot, but not quite what they're striving to be.  I guess the main draw is the beer though anyway, which is always good.

The next activity on our agenda was heading up to the farm so Will and his dad could brew some beer!  Will got his dad all the supplies to brew a batch of beer for Christmas, and they decided to brew it up at the farm using the spruce tips that come out in the spring, so this was the weekend!

Grain

Malt

Spruce Tips

Licorice

Hops

Boil

Stir

Yeast

Beer!  In a few weeks.

In the meantime, the girls and I were playing down by the pond.

Pond hockey

It also rained quite a bit, but luckily we had just gotten the girls new umbrellas so they were excited to break them in (and soon they'll just plain break them if things proceed as they always have).

The umbrella really helps when you're walking through soaking-wet ferns

 Sunday continued with the outdoor fun.  It started with a lovely breakfast in bed, plus hand-made cards from all three of my favorite people :-)  Then we set out to go for a bike ride on the C&O canal towpath.  Emily had a rough time getting started, but ended up doing really well.

Ohm-ing out

 Will even sneaked in a workout, with the help of Emily.

Charlotte chilled in her trailer most of the time.

The Potomac was so high and muddy it looked more like the Mississippi.

We grabbed lunch at Café Rio, chilled at home for a bit, then went over to my sister's house to do my Mom's mother's day party.  Kathleen and Dylan set up an amazing champagne and hors d'oeuvres party in her backyard.

The fare included saltines because....

...my sister Krista is pregnant!

Telling the girls they're finally getting their first cousin!

I'm super-excited to finally be an Aunt this December!  I definitely need to work ahead to make sure everything is ready for Christmas early this year so I can spend lots of time snuggling my new niece or nephew :-)

The evening was extremely chilly for May, so there was lots of sitting by the fire with blankets.

 Except for Charlotte of course, because she is immune to cold.

 We even got a visit from a little deer mouse who lives in Kathleen's retaining wall.

See him?

If every weekend could be like this, I'd be one happy Mama!  I think Will might die of exhaustion though :-)