Monday, September 1, 2008

Long Weekend - Too Short!

We had a hot, fun long weekend (Labor Day here in the states), but it was still too short.

Hightlights:

Friday night we biked to Thara Thai with our neighbors, Scott and Deborah. It was so nice to have this parade of bikes and to be able to chat on the way. We had four adults biking with five children in tow on Xtracycles, in bike trailers, on tag-alongs. We drew quite a few looks and some positive comments. Dinner was nice and the ride home was perfect with the cool night air.

Saturday morning was biking to the Market at the Square for produce and socializing. Then shopping at Common Ground and more socializing. We ran into my sister at the AWARE booth and she spent the morning with us before getting on her bike and we parted ways. On the way home from Urbana we passed our friend Leigh and Paul's house, but they were out on their porch so we stopped for a quick catch up on their lives, homeschooling talk, and dreaming about backyard pools. Saturday evening we enjoyed David's 30th birthday party. Rob had fun being on the winning football team and it was lovely having so much vegan food to eat (Loretta made the Prospect Park Potato Salad from Veganomicon which I will have to make sometime soon), plus a great vegan cake from the notorious Kris. I love that we have friends who are still turning 30! We stayed too late, ate too much, and can't wait to do it again.

Sunday morning we walked to downtown Champaign with the kids. We took our To-Go Ware with food for the children and went to Aroma for some coffee and fruit. We sat outside and enjoyed the morning. In the afternoon, I swam with the kids at our neighbor's pool while Rob played soccer. Parker's good friend from the neighborhood was over most of the day and so he asked if she wanted to sleep over. She got permission from her parents and we had our third sleep-over ever. We biked with all the kids to the Art Theater downtown to see Man on Wire. Dema and Josie fell asleep in the bike trailer on the way and the people at the theater were so sweet to let us just bring the wide Chariot inside next to us in the theater. They stayed asleep through the entire movie so the thoughtful person at the ticket desk offered my money back for one child as we were leaving...I love the Art Theater! With all the kids now awake, we walked down to hear the live music outside and get some diner food (veggie burger and fries with orange juice). Parker and his friend were asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

Monday morning Rob make pancakes for all of us. I love having Parker's friend over because she eats everything and seems to like it. She even drank two green smoothies over the course of two days (a pina colada smoothie and a new one I tried with chocolate soymilk, frozen cherries, peanut butter, and kale...her favorite one). She is 12 or 13 and doesn't mind playing Legos or watching movies my kids like or drawing for hours. As we were getting done with our late breakfast, our friend David (another one who is going to a 40th class reunion soon so a tad past turning 30) came over to have Rob work on his bike. We caught up and Rob tuned up his bike. The kids ended up at our neighbor's Scott and Deborah's and when I went to pick them up, Scott fed me a little more breakfast or more like brunch at that hour and then invited us to Sholem Pool. We all biked to the pool for closing day. It was very crazy and crowded, but lots of fun. We got a little too much sun and we were ready to take it easy for the rest of the hot day.

Now I need another day to get to all the projects I thought we could work on over the long weekend. Don't even look at my trashed house, but I figure I can clean when it cools off later this week.

10 comments:

half pint pixie said...

Sounds like a fun weekend, I love the thought of your little biking entourage!

VeganLinda said...

I wish I had a picture. It is interesting to see how people are much more positive about us biking around this year than they were last. People ask more often where we bought our Xtracycles and they are more curious and courteous. I guess gas prices rising here in the states has helped the cycling community seem more mainstream. :-)

Kristen's Raw said...

Those green smoothies sound FUN!!!

VeganLinda said...

Thanks to Vivacious Vegan and one of her posts a while back for getting me over my fear of green smoothies. :-) I hardly make a smoothie now without some raw greens and the kids love 'em. Yum!

Anonymous said...

I actually saw you Saturday at the market and common ground (though I didn't realize where I recognized you from until we were at the co-op). I would have said hi but didn't want to interrupt your conversation. So "hi."

VeganLinda said...

McBloggy,

Both the market and Common Ground were crazy busy! My sister was with my oldest right behind us and then we were turned around they were gone...took us an hour to find them again.

Hi! Next time come up and introduce yourself...I'm ALWAYS talking to someone so don't worry about interrupting. :-) I'm awful at picking out local bloggers myself. A lot of people look familiar from my business and things and it always takes me a second or a week to figure out how I know the person or where I've seen them before.

Misc said...

Sounds great! I know Scott & Deb (their oldest went to preschool w/Flynn) - they are awesome.

And how cool are the people at the Art?

Jenna said...

I wish my family would get over the green smoothie thing...I like to make all kinds but only my youngest will try it all. My hub is a berry/banana only.

VeganLinda said...

Misc. Yep, they are great people and lovely neighbors!

Jenna, Keep trying! My family must be a little off because the boys will remind me to buy kale so we can make smoothies. :-) The greener the better for my hubby. The other day an adult neighbor stopped by and Dema was so excited about his Pina Colada Smoothie that he offered some to the neighbor. The guy is sweet and looked at the glass suspiciously, but drank some since Dema was so excited. The neighbor said it tasted like grass. I think he was joking because of the green color.

Jennifer said...

Sounds like a fun-filled weekend! Just reading about your weekend wore me out! I am anxious to check out the new store.