On Memorial Day

I'm home with my boys today. My neighbors have their bass thumping away in their gazebo. They have a hot tub out there with one heck of a sound system. For whatever reason whenever they soak or get ready for a party they feel the need to let the whole neighborhood feel the vibrations. The only problem with this, of course, is their gazebo is right outside our bedrooms. Luckily they generally only do it a handful of times in the summer but it is the top reason why we will move from this house to somewhere where we can have lots of land around us. It took CJ an hour to settle into his nap today. I don't know why but when they have a memorial day or labor day get together they do it that night- Monday night when we all have to work on Tues. They could have Fri, Sat or Sun night, but no...they pick Monday & will play their crap until 2 am.

Thursday & Friday I cleaned and readied the house for CJ's birthday party. This year it went off without a hitch, except that I made too much food-but several expected people didnt show. Saturday morning I was still in bed when I heard CJ stirring awake then WC's voice filled with excitement, "Today's your birthday party." Of course CJ doesn't know what on earth that is. And then WC says, "They bring you presents." The inflection in his voice priceless. The only thing I needed to do by the time Saturday morning rolled around was pick up the cake and the side dishes. I'd bought the hot dogs, buns, plates, etc from a nearby store that sells in bulk. All my early prep work came in handy when my lovely brother in law & his clan arrived one hour early. They are always an hour late to everything and he stated he was determined that they wouldnt be late this time...Since I had nothing left but to boil the dogs and throw everything on the table it really didnt matter. I sent the kids into the backyard to play. My other brother in law didnt tell us until an hour after the party started that they wouldnt be coming. It didn't surprise me. Their lives revolve completely around their 8 year old daughters soccer. They have her playing year around. Right now she plays for at least three or four different teams and they've had her doing "try-outs" for a couple other teams. They do soccer, I estimate five out of seven nights a week. On Saturday's four or so games in a day. The haven't attended a birthday party since WC's in Oct and they didnt have one for their other daughter in November, that I know of. This year they only invited her soccer friends to the 8 year olds party- no family. But I digress the party went well and CJ seemed to have a good time.
We started today with a trip to Wally World to pick up a couple extraneous items- new swim trunks for WC. It was forecasted to rain this afternoon but so far we still have sunny skies. But afraid we'd be cooped up in the house all day I let them go outside this morning. They blew bubbles on the back porch. Well, more accurately WC blew bubbles. I kept having to pull the wand out of CJ's mouth. When I go to wash him tonight I have this visual image of soap bubbles exploding off his skin when the water hits. They had snacks and juice outside. Then they played in the sprinkler- it still didnt seem warm enough out but WC wanted in his new sprinkler badly. CJ more or less just stood and watched, didnt jump in but inadvertently got a face full of water and that did it for him & the sprinkler. I dried them off & could tell CJ was tired. Inside they sat on the couch while I prepared lunch & CJ kept dozing off. After lunch & CJ was finally a sleep WC & I headed back out to draw on the driveway with the sidewalk chalk that Nana brought him to CJ's party. The two o'clock sun was hot on the pavement. So we went into the backyard for another round of the sprinkler. His swim suit had been left on the back porch to dry and I sent him to get it, next thing I know there he is butt naked in the backyard- pale skin reflecting the glow of the sun. I wrangled him into the new swim trunks but as I sat & watched him run around the sprinkler giggling I kept getting peeks of his butt crack until one pass around when the waist band had finally slipped its way under the little derriere. "Don't you feel that breeze," I asked him. He just giggled and started pulling them up. When the area of the backyard resembled marsh land, it was time to turn off the water. I sent pic messages to Jay on & off all day. He's bummed about having to work today. To make matters worse- they are slow. So he has to be away from us & they have no business coming in today. Bad on two levels.
WC & I ate ice cream while he dried. He wanted to watch the Iron Man movie. I'm less than enthusiastic about this. It's PG 13. But Jay let him watch it before. Sigh. I expect CJ to be up from nap at any time.
Michele--I'm thinking about you and praying for you.

A special thank you for all the men and women who have died in military service. I remember my grandmother referring to today as Decoration Day and they would go the cemetery and decorate graves with flowers.