Memorial Day 2013

What a weekend. Gus has been begging for a visit to the Children's Museum, so we started with that on Saturday morning. We arrived right after opening and the line was out the door. When we left at lunchtime, the line was still out the door. That's par for a rainy Saturday. Jed spent as much time as possible climbing the big structure, and then they took turns picking places to play. After the museum, we went to the local seafood place for lunch. Jed bopped wordlessly to Michael Jackson while we waited for lunch, and then he tore into Jim's salad. Gus shared some clam chowder, and I showed him the difference between and clam and a potato. Then we hung out at home for a while and I prepped half of a picnic. We headed to our (reasonably) local drive-in theater. It was raining, so there was practically no one else there. Unfortunately it was also too wet for our typical picnic outside, so after picking up the rest of the picnic at the snack bar, we put the rear seats down and spread a blanket out, and had a picnic *inside* the hatchback. The kids loved it, I was okay, and Jim had to be extracted afterwards. Then we settled in to see the movie, Jim and me sitting against the front seats and the kids on our laps, covered with blankets. We saw Epic, which was not the world's greatest movie but was absolutely gorgeous and had some great jumping-off points for imagination. Gus dreamed about riding a hummingbird that night. After the movie was over, Jim stretched out some more, we put the back seat back up and strapped in the kiddos. Gus was super-tired by then, but suddenly woke up and said with alarm that we hadn't had dinner. "Yes, we did," I said, "we had a picnic inside the car. That was pretty crazy!" "No," Jed said emphatically. "That was awesome." The next movie was Star Trek--Gus was awake for the first ten minutes. No "Gus beep car" this time. Home about 1:30 a.m.; brought kids inside still in sweatshirts and put them to bed. Everyone slept as late as possible, but we made it to church on time. Another slow afternoon, and then the neighbors joined us for an indoor picnic on the floor. Everyone had a blast. Our neighbor toddler had watermelon for the first time and tore into it like a Tyrannosaurus. They're from Mexico, so when she said my guacamole was the best she's had in years, I felt pretty good about it. Addicted the dad to the same puzzle ball that entrapped Kyle after Christmas. That thing is dangerous. Another late to bed. But we wanted to see the parade in Cambridge on Monday morning, so we set an alarm again and got everyone on the move. I wore red and dressed both kids in blue American superhero shirts. Jim may still be a little bitter that when he showed up wearing a Google I/O shirt I called him a corporate hack, but he changed his shirt and called me out on the Gap hat I was wearing later (one of my other baseball caps has mysteriously disappeared, and then Gus stole my hat. He also steals my socks. Yes, he's 6. Yes, I must be Tinker Bell). We didn't get started quite quickly enough, and so arrived in Cambridge just after the start of the parade. Drove right into a spot in Harvard Square that seemed too good to be true, and walked up the parade route to meet Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah. I'm getting weepy in my old age; all I did was point out to Jed that there were the soliders, and I about burst into tears on the sidewalk. One of the parade drivers tossed a piece of candy right at Jed, who couldn't believe his good fortune. He told everyone for 10 minutes that the soldier gave him candy, and then spent the next 10 minutes looking for another piece for Gus so that he wouldn't have to share it (successful mission). After the parade ended we played for a little while, but Jed wanted to go re-scour the streets for candy so it didn't last long. It was about a mile to the boat rental place, but we figured they'd never be happier to walk that far so off we went. After a few blocks a gentleman we were passing exclaimed, "Those kids don't have flags!" and gave us two. Apparently we'd broken a rule of Memorial Day in Cambridge, and were preceded by a color guard for the next half mile. The kids got a bit cranky near the end, but when Jim increased speed to try to take care of paperwork before we all arrived, they had enough energy to chase him down. No yellow jersey for Daddy. We rented a canoe with two big paddles and two little paddles (and lifejackets of course) for a 5-mile trip downstream to Kendall Square. Jim and I are out of paddling shape and I'm sure we'll be sore tomorrow, but it was fun. I sunscreened my face but not my arms which are now pretty pink. We passed a goose family with 5 goslings, and a lot of brown and white ducks, and a fishing bird that I didn't know what its name was, and a bunch of little sailboats and at least 12 bridges. We passed a scull and Jed hollered, "Ahoy, matey!" Gus was feeling a serious lack of snack (usually I would have had one but we were in such a hurry that I forgot) and whined for the last 15 minutes or so, but eventually we got everyone paddling to speed our way to lunch. It was a gorgeous day. The trip was about 1.5 hours on the river; we've rowed in Jamaica Pond before but had never made it up to the Charles before. Caught the T from Kendall Square back to Harvard Square and met the long-suffering aunt and uncle for lunch who we'd now met late twice. Washed hands well of river water. Nachos and guacamole. Back home for some rest and then finished out the day with a trip to the park, another picnic on the living room floor, and a bath. What a great weekend.