New Scenes From The Weekend

I feel like I "pulled it off" this weekend. My goal was to have a balance of relaxation, fun and family time mixed with some chores and laundry.  It worked!  It still felt a little jam packed--like I would have liked even more unstructured time with the boys, playing games or something, but I realize with only two days in a weekend, some may be more quiet and others will have more outings.  I'm really caught up in pondering the weekends right now, so bear with me.

One really nice thing is that I have found a Saturday morning yoga class that I love.  I think I am going to make it a regular thing and I'm thrilled about that.  It is at our athletic club so it's "free" (in a way), and I can relax by the pool afterwards.  Ken and the boys met me there for a family swim.  Just about my idea of a perfect afternoon.  Other things we did:  out for frozen yogurt, a "late night" errand to Trader Joe's (the boys had an awesome time going around the store together looking for "Clark the Shark"), a beach trip, making cookies (not macaroons, alas, but those will be next weekend), and making a nice steak dinner at home on Sunday. 

How is the start of the week treating you?  I'm happy to say I got in a short walk today after work, so that is a good start for me.

festival weekend

We spent pretty much the entire weekend going back and forth to this storytelling festival.  We've attended this festival many times over the years, but this is the first year that the boys were really old enough for us to commit to the entire weekend--songs and stories from Friday Night through Sunday midday.  It was truly fun, and I was thrilled that John McCutcheon was one of the tellers this year.  I never knew that he worked the storytelling circuit (he's more of a folk singer, or so I thought), but we loved his stories just as much as his awesome singing and instrument playing.  He is amazing.  Otherwise, there was tons of eating out, playing, reading to the boys, and we even had a little Mother's Day celebration since I'll be visiting Carrie next weekend.

And now we are down to the last 6 weeks of school.  Crazy! And oh so welcome and exciting. 

scenes from the weekend

How was your weekend?  We had a very dreamy, stay at home weekend.  I forced myself to do some chores and cleaning too, but there were many dreamy parts.  Dreamy highlights:  my very favorite thing was when we sat down to dinner on Saturday night and Rainer let out a contented sigh and said, "I love it when it's dinnertime."  Then Dieter chimed in and agreed he loves dinner.  Oh my heart!  We had a lovely afternoon on Saturday.  I went to a 1.5 hour yoga class then read my book by the pool and later Ken and the boys joined me there and we spent most of the afternoon swimming and cooling off and I read a lot too.  Very fun and just my idea of a relaxing weekend.  Also Saturday--in the evening we got ice cream downtown and walked to the park and the boys played in the dusk.

On Sunday, Dieter helped me wash the car (it's usually Rainer who goes) and that was very sweet too.  The boys watched Alice in Wonderland (classic Disney version) on Netflix Instant while I worked in the kitchen.  I was successful in cleaning out the pantry.  We did not make it to Santa Barbara that day, as I had hoped, but we will in the future.  I have in mind taking a Sunday day trip every week, but that's not very realistic.  Maybe every other week is more like it.

I have in mind that each weekend is a study in how to do weekends.  I can tweak and refine to my heart's content and apply what I've learned to the future.  If you posted about your weekend too, please leave a link and I'll pop over!  Happy Monday, everyone.

scandinavian festival!

On Saturday we attended the best Scandinavian festival! This was our third year in a row and  was perhaps the best year yet. 

I've written about the Scandinavian festival before.  This year my boys were older with much longer attention spans and were much more happy, willing, and able to participate in all the crafts and activities that were offered.  In that last photo they are sanding down wooden butter knifes.  They worked so hard on them this year!

Other highlights were the Viking dress-up station and getting to pat and hang out with the most gorgeous Norwegian Elkhounds.  The boys and I are all obsessed with the breed now and are dying to get one. 

The weather was fantastic this year too--the most beautiful, temperate day you could ask for.  Once again, my mom went with us.  It has gotten to be quite a tradition now, as this was year three.  Can't wait to mark my calendar for next year. 

Thank you Scandinavian Festival!  We love you!

scenes from the past few weekends

I haven't been posting any weekend pictures lately, so here is my attempt at catching up a little bit.  There were various January birthdays--Dieter, Jacob, Ken and Ben are all January boys.  Genrally, my weekends have felt a little "off" to me.  I guess I'm still working to perfect my weekend formula! 

Weekend things I love:

• going to Saturday morning yoga class
• having a family swim at the club
• eating out
• any de-cluttering or cleaning I can force myself to do (because the results thrill me)
• movie date nights with Ken
• making a good Sunday dinner

One little weekend tradition that is very dear to my heart right now is the car washing ritual that Dieter and I have going on.  On Sunday mornings, with very few exceptions, we take the new Subaru to a car wash--the kind where you drop quarters in and spray the car yourself and then dry and vacuum it yourself.  I love having this time with my boy and he is a true help!  Usually we also stop for gas, go get cash from the ATM, and pick up any last minute groceries from the local market (I do the big shopping at Trader Joe's on the way home from work on Fridays).  Aside from spending one-on-one time with my boy, how awesome it feels to have a clean car, a full tank of gas, and cash and groceries for the week!

Are there any weekend rituals you are loving lately?

some scenes from the weekend

Our weekend included some pretty fun stuff: yoga class (for me), a movie and date night (sushi!), a trip to farmer's market, the natural history museum, and Crushcakes. Big hooray for weekends. They are so important to me.  SO happy that we have a holiday weekend coming up!  Do you have plans for the 3-day weekend?  We do not, but will enjoy having an extra day so much.

We saw "Last Vegas" Saturday night.  What a sweet movie!  I highly recommend it.  I know it only got 2 stars from the critics, but I found it sweet and funny.  Ken and I were both freaking out about how good Mary Steenburgen looks at age 60!  And I loved the way they styled her.  I want to see About Time next. 

scenes from the weekend

The weekend was good. The popsicle party on Saturday went off without a hitch. It was well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Ken placed a sprinkler under the trampoline and the kids jumped in the spray. They loved it! (Instagram video of it here).

My parents very kindly offered to watch the kids post-party, and Ken and I had our first date night in a month or so.  It was so nice to have time together, just the two of us.  Yay for date nights!  We grabbed burgers here and saw a movie (yay for entertainment!).  We saw Thanks for Sharing which I much enjoyed.   I don't need a fancy date night to feel re-connected.  A burger and a movie is fantastic, as far as I'm concerned.

Sunday we celebrated the equinox with a little tea party.  I attempted to make aebelskivers for the first time ever.  I bought a little pan at the Scandinavian festival last spring.  You guys--it's hard!  They were tasty, but none too pretty.  I will say they make a delightful tea dish.  We even got a touch of fall-ish weather, so the timing was perfect.

Otherwise, it was a fairly normal weekend with chores and hanging out.  I'm ready for another week!