July 2021

 The Glorious Fourth

We had a pretty great 4th of July weekend — no company, of course, but the pool was in operation and the funky little neighborhood parade was back! There were only like three floats, but hey. We went bowling as a fam, got a lot of swim time and played Marco Polo and a variation on Uncle Ball that we called Cousin Ball (throwing those little spongy cloth-covered balls into a triangle float that had numbered holes); we grilled, we started the Harry Potter movies over from the beginning, we watched the illegal fireworks from upstairs, we took it easy. 

Summer Sauceage
This month, the Smeefers flew out from Kansas for a LONG-planned Sauce weekend featuring everything from Mason to Dong, Amanda and Lacie, custom T-shirts to the Egg Show, far-too-late nights to mellow mornings, and kids endlessly entertained by the house’s VR headset (playing into and deepening Lukas’s tireless campaign to have us get one). We were SO uncomfortable being in a house with that many people, even though everyone but Lukas was long since double-vaxxed by that point — but we got over it (more or less) and ended up having a blast. It’s hard to overstate the fun of a Sauce weekend, especially after all this time without. 

Potpourri
—The Journey of Orthodonture continues: Annika started Invisalign, and for the first few days, it looked like we were gonna have to abandon ship — she was in a lot of pain, and kept asking if we could bail and get regular braces. Having sunk $4500 into it already, we prevailed on her to tough it out, and it did get better; the constant teeth-brushing was kind of a drag, but she adapted to that too, and it seemed to be going well in general after that first week.
—Kids in the kitchen: Primarily for life-skills reasons, I wanted the kids to take an occasional turn making dinner; my plan for it to be regular failed because I’m bad at policing that, but at least a couple of times this month, they did it — kalamata pasta once, pancakes another time, spaghetti and salad. It ruled. I want more of it!
—Sports and film/TV: Lukas did a week of tennis camp with Ben (outdoors and in the mornings, so Annika and I took the opportunity to watch some stuff that’s too old for him: Mean Girls, and the first couple of episodes of Stranger Things, which she LOVED and can’t wait to see more of. Lukas also did another week of skate camp (this one with Manir) and had a blast at Ben’s blade team birthday party; we bowled a ton (one week it was Monday with the Patels, Thursday with the Grants, and Saturday with R., lol); we started the Lord of the Rings trilogy; and of course, we mainlined watching nonstop 2020-in-2021 Olympics (often from the pool). 

It’s so cool / in my pool
Speaking of which: If the sun’s out and the temp is over 80, this bunch of fools was in that pool. We’d go in the morning (like the day I had dinner plans with Anne), or invite friends over (Raina one afternoon, Ben another, Manir and Amira a third), or spend most of the day Saturday and Sunday both. Worth all the expense and stress of the remodel, absolutely!