Today I’m linking up with Erika and Shay for this month’s Let’s Look post. During last weekend, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was going to be the topic for a blog post. So I’ve been having to think back and remember what I did all weekend long. And I did take some pictures, but not as many as I would have if I’d remembered I should be documenting it. It was a pretty great weekend, though, so I’m happy to be writing about it. 😄
Assuming that the weekend starts at 5:00 on Friday, the first thing that happened was I received an Amazon delivery of a book I had ordered for Helen. She has become a big fan of the Harry Potter series. Last week she finished the fifth book, so I got online and ordered her the sixth.
I snapped this photo this afternoon. Seeing the rate at which she’s moving through this one, I’ve already ordered her the seventh in the series.
Last Friday was a gorgeous day, so late in the afternoon we all played some badminton. I didn’t take any pictures at the time, but here’s a picture of the badminton court:
I was surprised that I worked up a sweat playing.
After the badminton, we parted ways with the Bovets for the evening. Big Eagle and I had salad for dinner and watched Game of Thrones. We’ve just finished Season 5 and have now started Season 6.
Saturday morning I worked in the garden a little bit. I had planted 3 watermelon seeds at the end of March. Only two of them sprouted. Then in April I found that one of those had broken off at the ground. We decided to plant the watermelon outside the garden this year, so there’s no fencing around it. It’s quite exposed, so no telling what happened to it. I mulched the one that was left to help protect it and planted an additional two groups of two seeds. They all came up. I was close to thinning them to one seedling in each group when I went out one morning to find another one broken off at the ground. So that Saturday morning I mulched the other two watermelon.
You can tell that the one in the foreground was the original survivor. We’ll see how they do being out in the open as they are.
We also had a volunteer tomato growing really close to one of the Celebrity tomato plants I had put in. So I moved it into the area where the beets had been, laid irrigation, mulched it, and caged it. It made the transfer just fine.
It is most likely a cherry tomato plant. We’ve gotten volunteers of them for a few years in a row now.
Don’t remember much more about that morning. After lunch Big Eagle and I donned our masks and went to the HEB store to buy groceries. He was going to grill seafood skewers for dinner that night.
Cara and Helen helped me put the skewers together later. It was such a nice night. We all had dinner outside. In addition to the skewers, we had wild rice, sugar snap peas fresh from the garden, and Paul’s homemade bread. All so good! Wish I’d taken a picture!
Afterwards we had dancing and foot races going on in the back yard.
Here they are toeing the line for one of the races. On your mark, get set, GO!
And here they are headed back. The winner is evident!
A fire had been started before dinner, and now it was just right for roasting marshmallows. We were going to have S’mores, but then we discovered we were out of graham crackers. Edie had the idea to roast the marshmallow, and then push a piece of chocolate into the middle of it. Worked pretty great! Then Cara decided to try roasting the marshmallow WHILE the piece of chocolate was inside.
That worked pretty well, too!
These two had plenty of marshmallow roasting time, but here they’re just watching Mama do hers. 😍
After the girls had been put to bed, the adults stayed up late playing Carcasonne. It was the first time we had played the river version with the abbots and the gardens. If you know the game, that makes sense. If you don’t know the game, I would recommend giving it a try. It’s pretty strategic.
Slept in later than usual on Sunday after staying up so late. I was pleasantly surprised to see a text from my brother Frank when I checked my phone.
As my reply to him states, his was the first Happy Mother’s Day greeting I received!
Next, I treated myself to a bubble bath. After drying my hair, I came out of my bedroom to find the Bovets had come over, and Cara and the girls had a homemade card for me.
I had a gift from the Bovets and one from Danny and Erin that I opened. Paul was busy at the stove making French toast using the bread he had baked the day before. SO GOOD! Quite a nice surprise!
Later in the morning, Cara, the girls, and I all went for a bike ride. We rode a low traffic route up to this building on the interstate service road. They just recently repaved their parking lot, and there’s a really fun down-hill slope that we did on repeat for a while.
Here they come down the slope!
And now they turn around and head back to do it again. So much fun! We had to pedal hard up a pretty stiff hill to get to this parking lot. On the way home, zooming down that hill was a thrill for all of us!
By the time we got back, we were all ready for a late lunch. Then Edie and I took what turned out to be a 1-hour nap together. 😴
My wish for Mother’s Day was to not have to cook dinner or do dinner dishes. And it pretty much came true! Cara made Chicken Parmesan and spaghetti. All I did was the garlic bread and simmered sugar snap peas. Everything was SO GOOD!
And afterwards Paul did the dishes, so Cara and I both got a welcome break.
Thanks, Paul! Your momma raised you right! 😁
After dinner Danny called from New Zealand. We talked for about an hour and a half. At one point he switched to video, and we were able to see more of where they’ve been living and the area around it. Just beautiful! They did good. Later he texted us a picture of Whio that they had seen on a hike.
It’s a rare duck that they’ve been trying for a while to spot. So it was a big deal when they finally did. New Zealand has done very well with their fight against the virus, and this past week they’ve opened up to the next level of normal. So Danny and Erin have left their sweet temporary spot and are now traveling around New Zealand in a van and camping. That’s what they’ve been wanting to do for a while now, so they’re very happy.
During the call, we had been recording American Idol, so afterwards we watched it. I was pulling for Dillon to make it in, so I was really happy to see him be the last one who did! This was the first night I actually voted. Wanting to see Dillon go further.
That was my weekend! And now we’re already at the beginning of the next weekend. We’re expecting rain most of the day Saturday (tomorrow). Sunday should be better weather. I hope everyone has a great weekend, no matter what the weather!