shooting stars and boats

Our weekend was a busy one. I say that like it's an anomaly! Ha! Filled with little special events that John and I wanted to enjoy and that we hoped the kids would also enjoy.  An art show, touring replicas of Columbus' Nina and Pinta, the Perseid meteor shower. 

I'll be honest it was a fairly unpleasant weekend. The kids were just not into what we were doing (at the time) and excelling at the art of whining, being an obnoxious little brother, and a bossy older sister. Oh the arguing and eventual tears. So irritating. Growing pains or something? Need for getting back to a school routine? I don't know. Exhausting is what it is. 

The thing is though that 2 days later I've overheard both kids talk about how awesome the weekend was. Even the parts they cried through. So, I guess we're doing something right by keeping on keeping on. No matter how painful for us?

There were a few sweet spots though.

Late on Saturday night we packed up the kids, the dog, a blanket, some hot chocolate and drove up to the local county park to find some shooting stars. Last year we had camped and it was so cloudy that we couldn't see any stars. This year it was perfect - we could even see the Milky Way. Laithe slept through most of it which meant Guthrie got some one on one time and once she settled in (which took about 30 minutes of transition (which is FOREVER in a dark field hiding from park rangers)) it was pretty great. We saw some incredible meteors. Some with long tails, some that moved slow enough across the sky that when one person spotted it other two had time to find it before it disappeared. It was easily the best I've seen in 15 years (since that one year on River Rd). And then we couldn't get out of the park. Seriously, they padlock the gates. John and I found it kind of humorous, Guthrie was really nervous. She is so like her mom!

Before we went to tour the ships I told the kids a brief and G- rated story of Columbus hoping to impress on them why these boats were something interesting to see. I love telling stories to Laithe. He sits so sweet and intently. I have no idea what all he gets out of it, but my dad was a great storyteller (still is) and having had that in my life I know that Laithe is getting a rich foundation for an awesome imagination --- which I think we are already witnessing. 

Sunday afternoon, after the boats and a ridiculous quiet time - that was not quiet - we decided to each take a kid for a couple of hours. Guthrie and I went to the pool for a few hours and John took Laithe to a movie. The pool was good for my soul, soothing, and at one point Guthrie sat on the chair with me and said, "mom, this is really fun, just you and me." And it was. We'd tried to come swimming on Friday with Laithe and he was full of fury and angst. It was unpleasant. And then it rained. This was so much better. Eventually I kind of crapped out because it was really cold and can I tell you how enjoyable it was to sit on the lawn chair and watch Guthrie happily splash around with the other kids? 

Sometimes these days are so just continuously challenging with these kids of ours. I know it's the season, both end of summer and the ages of the kids, but it's hard to stay above all the crap you know and not cave to the lowest common denominator. 

Because after all that they had an "awesome weekend." Apparently.