What a Weekend

 Friday started with a quiet morning. Shane posed for a picture amidst many pets.

He was excited, because the newest season of Pokemon Sword and Shield came out. 

Carrie was less excited, because she can't stand the squiggles on Ash's face.

She decided to test Shane's resolve. He had to agree to have squiggles on his face to watch!

He hemmed. He hawed. He squirmed, kicked, and giggled as she drew, but he never washed them off!

They were still there when we met Hazel for a Friday evening play date!

We normally don't go out on Friday's, but the opportunity arrived. I picked up pizzas from Wegmans while grabbing Carrie's prescription and we met at the Brewery. 

Shane had been upset, because we made him take the Switch. 

You read that right. 

Shane wanted to take his tablet to play Roblox. However, the battery was nearly dead. This suited me fine, because I think Roblox is 98% crap. 

"You should take the Switch, too, because Hazel really likes Minecraft," I said. 

Shane threw a mini-fit which earned him Carrie's ire. Then he forgot to charge the tablet in the car. I didn't remind him, because I figured it was a good lesson. 

He had enough battery to show Hazel one video about tornadoes (Pecos Hank), but she wanted to....wait for...play Minecraft.

Which they did for the rest of the night!

I got to talk. To adults. It was great. We even played a few rounds of cards at the end. 

That wasn't the last of our social outings this weekend. We saw Dylan and Eli Saturday. Eli's hair was cut! The goal was to go on a walk.

The kids played around the house for a little bit before we left. 

He still had the face squiggles, so maybe he was a 'Zombie Ash?' (Ash and Zombies means something quite different from Pokemon to me!).

John and I got the boys outside before they broke anything. Eli and Shane started to swing sticks.

What John and I didn't realize at the time was that one stick was special. John's dad used it for mobility....and we lost it somewhere along the way!

Don't worry, though. John pulled out the handle of one of his old lacrosse sticks when we got back. It was deemed to be an upgrade.

Anyway, the goal of the walk was to get ice cream. We spotted an ice scream sculpture on the way (before we lost the stick!). John challenged Shane to lick it...and then immediately said, "Don't lick it," when it looked like Shane really considered it!

I hadn't been to the downtown mall in a couple of years. There were some street musicians and people walking around, but it wasn't crowded. "This is way more people than we've seen down here," John commented.

We made it to Kilwyn's for ice cream. Shane wanted Superman ice cream.

The boys ate in the window of what used to be Splendora's just outside (I appreciated the "So long and thanks for all the fish," quote in the window).

Instead of backtracking, we kept moving forward in a loop. Shane nearly convinced Dylan to spend some of his allowance on some jewelry. Eli was more successful when he convinced himself he could fit through some street art without getting stuck.

Which convinced Shane to try! 

Thankfully, no one was stuck and left to starve until they lost enough weight to crawl through.

I doubt we burned off all the calories from the ice cream, but we tried Eli out enough he made John carry him a ways.

I started to encourage the boys to walk on walls by the sidewalk to make room for other people. Plus, it's fun! I joined in some.

And if some walls seemed high, I would rather have my kid fall off a wall onto the sidewalk than step into the street in front of a car. I'm more used to Shane walking along trails by water or with precarious footing than alongside slow city traffic at this point. Go figure.

We hung around an hour after we got back. Sure, the kids pulled out their electronics, but I felt pretty good as a social secretary. 

Besides, Shane had earned the electronics. That morning, I'd put him to work.

"We're going to be out there for hours," Shane said.

"Oh, it doesn't take that long to do chores!" Carrie said.

"No, it takes longer," I replied and Shane agreed.

Shane's did a good job. He's becoming more reliable as help. I had him stuff hay nets, scoop, poop, and clear some obstacles in the arena so Carrie could drag. I sent him in for Pokemon episode breaks in between tasks to keep him fresh and his morale high. I wanted him to feel productive and rewarded!

I helped Carrie attach the drag to the mower. She said it's harder to make straight lines with than the gator, but the mechanics still haven't repaired the wheel bearing. 

Carrie had me use a rake to manually level out some waves in the gravel dust around the edges while she dragged. 

I thought it looked nice when we were done.

Shane and I started to work on clearing out all the old hay around the base of the feeders. 

It was an early spring cleaning of sorts. The dry lots were in desperate need of leveling, so Carrie did that while we worked (It's something she can do with a bum knee!).

Shane got to go inside for more Pokemon when I loaded the truck for a dump run.

The boys side is worse than the girls, but after 3.5 hours of chores Saturday morning I decided I was done. 

The last bit of work I had Shane do was on Sunday. I showed him how to manually detach and open the gate.

He was able to reverse the process without any guidance when it was time to lock up. I was proud of the booger!

Shane spent most of Sunday on electronics. He played Roblox and Minecraft with Cole and Hazel. He played with Landie some when Ellie came for chores and started the movie We Can Be Heroes with her (and finished with us after she left).

As for the barn, we've hopefully taken a turn towards easier days. Carrie deemed the fields dry enough for hours and their ensuing celebrations.

With the horses afield, their should be far less cleanup in the dry lots. We'll go through hay much slower, as well.

Abby made a beeline when I let her out.

Followed by Lilly in her brand new muzzle.

Carrie wanted to let those two ladies get their crazy and celebrations out of the way before she let Maddy loose.

They obliged.

They ran like banshees before settling down to eat. 

Compare that to Maddy who strode out all prim and proper.

She walked stately to the grass and immediately put her head down to eat.

She's a lot better, but she's not 100% sound at the trot yet. I want her to get better soon, so that Shane can do lessons again. 

Most of the work we done on Friday and Saturday. I did some morning chores on Sunday with Laura and Amy, but I got to spend a bunch of time catching up on the blog (I seem to be doing a full week each Sunday rather than writing daily...).

We did have some visitors. Carrie had a guy come by to give us an estimate for topping off the gravel for our driveway. 

A potential boarder came by to look at our place later on in the afternoon.

Carrie strategically offered to show her the place on Sunday, because Laura and Amy do a fabulous job cleaning up the barn Sunday mornings!

I did dishes on Sunday. That let Carrie use the pressure cooker to make some BBQ for dinner! She had me carry a plate down to the barn to share with Ellie and Landie when they showed up for chores.

And with that monster post, I managed to catch up. Phew! I still have some cat photos in my back pocket, too, in case I need to do a lazy post at some point next week. What a weekend!