On Saturday we had 40 some odd people in our backyard for a retirement/birthday party for Brad's Dad, Glen. It always amazes me how many days of preparation and how much clean up goes into a 4 hour event.
We were all set for the heat. Ice baths for the salads, Brad made big timber benches for the shady side of the yard, shade tent and umbrella. It was a good thing we had the shade tent up because just as the guests were arriving it began to rain and it rained pretty much all evening. You know you're at a party on the west coast when it is raining and everyone is pretending that it isn't. Just carrying on, standing outside, sans jacket, as though it was a beautiful sunny day.
There were speeches and toasts and cakes.
My father in law is a pretty amazing person. He certainly deserved all the accolades, although he hates being the center of attention. He is very well known on the coast for his work with forestry bridges and he may just be the only truly humble engineer I've ever met. I work with a lot of engineers so I would know:o)
On Sunday we had a 30th birthday party for Brad's brother, Don.
I was up until 3am on Saturday morning putting together salads and prepped all day Saturday for the retirement party. I took a few hours off after the party to visit my Dad who was spending the night and then cleaned up until 1am. Sunday while I was cleaning up from Don's party, Brad meekly admitted that he had invited people over for lunch the next day. I must be getting better at this marriage thing because I didn't even hit him!
Then (there is always a "then") a friend called and asked if I could watch her daughter all day while she worked...shortly after which our social worker phoned asking for copies of paper work which she had lost....ummm, what? We were under the impression that our home study had been submitted weeks ago?????
Then (seriously) while I was trying to get caught up on chores this morning before the lunch company arrived, a group of folks showed up to U-pick blueberries. They also wanted to buy raspberries. The raspberries are in my garden and the patch is at that stage were next years canes are taking over but you have to be careful not to break them off while they attack you. Also, I'm not so keen on letting strange people tramp all over my garden, call me crazy. So I was desperately trying to get raspberries picked and while watching the kids, but not letting them into the berries because 2 of the 3 will eat themselves sick, guaranteed.
We had a nice visit with the folks and thankfully had lots of leftovers to serve them. By the time they left I was done. D.O.N.E. done. So we decided to make the most of the 2 hours that were left of the long weekend.
We quickly packed up the 3 kids and hit the beach.
Then walked over to the nature house
Looped around to the playground.
Before heading home so I could clean the house and be ready to host Bible study by 7:30pm. No body better ask where all the left over chocolate cake and wine got to because I'm not telling.
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