Three-Barbecue Weekend

 You know it's summer when your weekend goes like this:

Friday late afternoon - Jada's after-school program puts on their musical, so I leave work early and catch the tail end of it.  There's a huge barbecue afterwards, and we stuff our faces and socialize and are still home earlier than usual.  Plus with dinner already taken care of, Amy and I are able to send the kids off to bed, deal with our bills and mail, and still have time to relax a little before bedtime.

Saturday morning - The usual sprint for me of groceries, Y with family, and off to teach my class.  Meanwhile, Amy takes the kids downtown, drops Jada off at a birthday party at Franklin Square, and goes shopping at the Gallery Mall and Chinatown with Aaron.

Saturday afternoon - Jada is highly motivated to do all her chores, because the prospect of her first sleepover is on the line.  Amy is similarly productive with her own chores.  Aaron and I bum around. 

Saturday evening - We head over to our friends' house for a barbecue with a Nepali twist.  Translation: lots of really delicious food.  We leave Jada there for her sleepover, return home with Aaron, put him to bed, and watch some TV before bedtime.

Sunday morning - We pick up Jada from her friend's house and go straight to Aaron's baseball game, where we sweat in 90+ degree heat while Aaron and his teammates take turns baking in the field and flailing at pitching machine pitches.  Even though we only go three innings, the game goes almost two hours. 

Sunday afternoon - We head to New Jersey for a barbecue at our pastor's house.  In the car, the kids are so whiny and intolerable that Amy and I consider - several times - turning around and calling it a weekend.  But within minutes, both are asleep, and even though it's a relatively short drive, a little cat nap is all they need to recharge.  Sure enough, once we get to the party and they see a really big kiddie pool with a bunch of kids already splashing around, they are rejuvenated.  They proceed to splash around and then we eat a bunch of really good food and bid adieu so as to get home at a decent hour.  If summer weekends are measured in sweatiness and quality and quantity of barbecues, this weekend is an A+.