Moving Weekend

Whew, what a busy weekend! After a Friday of morning playgroup and afternoon home appraisal and trip to Target, we enjoyed the arrival of Mom and Dad, in Indy to help Julie move into her new downtown apartment.

Saturday morning brought the arrival of my Aunt Donna, Uncle Richard, and cousin Dustin, in town to celebrate cousin Marcy’s birthday and to help with the big move. Richard, Dustin, Dad, Andy, Julie and I caravanned downtown to begin lugging Julie’s belongings up three flights of stairs. I think I fulfilled my yearly exercise quota in just one morning. Having six sets of arms and legs made the moving process go more quickly than planned, even including several heavy dressers, a big-ass TV, and even-bigger-ass sofa. Soon we were down the block at a sports bar, enjoying lunch and a celebratory beer.

On Saturday evening, the clan had a lasagna supper at my house in honor of Marcy’s birthday. We had birthday cake from my very favorite bakery, and the four experienced parents in the room looked on and SAID NOTHING while I decided that sure, it would be a swell idea to let Henry and Eleanor join us in a big, icing-laden slice of cake just an hour before their bedtime. THANKS A LOT, PEOPLE. Granted, it was very cute to watch them eat—Henry was totally digging his dessert, putting his head down and licking crumbs off the plate after finishing his piece. But then they proceeded to run around like wild, rabid, possibly drunk monkeys for two hours. Bouncing off chairs, tackling Mom, running through the room while pulling each other by the shirt. I’m sure Henry and Eleanor now think that cake is the best invention ever, and Mommy has learned to confine the insane amounts of sugar to earlier in the day.

After supper, I left Andy to tame the sugar junkies while Mom and I headed downtown to help Julie settle in a bit more. We made up her bed and broke down boxes. Then it was time to head home to make up our own beds and call it a day. Henry and Eleanor enjoyed some more Grandma-and-Grandpa time this morning before they had to head back home. As they were leaving, Mom hugged Henry and Henry said, clear as a bell, “Thank you, Grandma,” which immediately reduced Grandma to a pile of tears while the rest of us got all misty-eyed, too.

I promised you some photos, didn’t I? Here they are: