Honestly, so far this has been one hell of a crappy summer. There’s been way too much rain and while it may be great for the grass, we can’t enjoy it since we’re INSIDE all the time. Also, it is killing my flowers. Totally killing them. They can’t handle it and I’ve lost all the flowers on my geranium, an entire box of white pansies, and the yellow ones may be next. It figures that I wait ten years before finally planting flowers, only to do it on one of the most monsoon-like summers.

And it doesn’t help that it rained again today, and when I went to check the forecast I found this:

Well YIPPEE.

Anyway. It wasn’t looking good on Saturday, but Hayley had a birthday party in the early afternoon. This left Breanna very sad since she wasn’t invited (I told her she’d get birthday invites when she starts school but this was of little comfort) so I took her to the park for a picnic. We had to eat really quickly and get to the swings as fast as we could because I could see the clouds coming in, but we got some fun time in together before it started to pour.

When we had to go back out later it was just ridiculous driving. There was so much rain coming down that even though we parked all of 15 feet from the door we were all soaked by the time we got in.

Luckily it didn’t rain on Sunday though because we had an outdoor party that day. The sister of the drummer in George’s band was having a party at her house but it was intended to be outside in the backyard and the band was going to set up beside the back deck. A storm would have been a disaster. It ended up being quite chilly but there was nary a drop of rain so that’s all that mattered.

The house is in a rural area and surrounded by farm land. I LOVE it out there. They have two kids as well, not much older than Hayley, so their yard is like a child’s paradise – pool, treehouse, swing set, slide, trampoline, tons of toys. Hayley and Breanna were NOT bored, let’s put it that way. Also, they’re at an age where it’s so much easier to go out with them because I don’t have to hover and follow all the time like you do with younger kids. I just let them go and they had a blast – the entire day they must have jumped for a total of three or four hours on the trampoline. They slept SUPER well that night.

Meanwhile, I had a great time because I hadn’t heard George play in a really long freakin’ time. I miss that so much. Also, *rawr* and all that.

It was a really good time. The food was delicious (lots of grilled chicken, sausages, plus side dishes of pasta salads, potatoes, and oh my GOD Tabbouleh – I ate so much Tabbouleh), everyone had fun, and it was so nice to be out. Unfortunately, the second that the sun went down, approximately 500 angry mosquitoes came out of nowhere and attacked us so the show came to a stop at about 9 pm and we had cake and coffee in the kitchen, leaving by about 10 pm.

I love that my kids are growing up in a world where it’s totally normal to have parties that involve live bands.