I debated what to title this post. Sundays in the Park with George, or Sundays with Morrie. Although I've never seen Sundays in the Park with George and have no idea what it's about, I'll take the thought behind Tuesdays with Morrie and smash the two together ;-)
John and I are tasting a big piece of heaven this summer with Mark, Allison and Glo all home at the same time. Every time John and I want to do something, we invite one or all of the three, and it becomes an instant party. This past week, we wanted to see the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" at the State Theatre. By the time we got to the ticket office, the 7:30 showing was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 9:30 showing and headed to Don Juan for guacamole and Baskin Robbins to fill the empty time in between. It wouldn't have been the same if we had invited random people--I would have worried about the show being sold out, would they want to eat, did I ruin their night--but with those three, I almost couldn't have planned things any better.
But the most delightful part of the last few months has been Mark and Allison coming over on Sundays. It's been a good five months now, but it still surprises me when Mark asks on a late Saturday night, or early Sunday, if they can come over. I don't know why I haven't figured this out yet, because I usually end up on the short side of food and have to "make do" with whatever ingredients I can find in the house.
This wasn't the case, however, for Father's Day weekend. Mark and Allison basically gave us their entire Friday night and Saturday to spend with John, and it was so fun. We caught double features for movies--Incredibles 2, and Ocean's 8--and ate and ate, and ate some more. So much food. We had burgers, and watermelon, and baked beans, and grilled chicken. And we must have played six hours straight of games--Carcassone, Nertz, Keltis and Seven Wonders. Daddy was in Father's Day heaven. And when they knew they couldn't come on actual Father's Day (because Allison obviously needs to give some love to her dad too), they came to church with us and stayed for an hour afterwards.
Yesterday though took the cake. John has been wanting to have people over for the past year, but with the house not exactly how I want it, I've resisted. However, this past week, the weekly Young Women's activity was cancelled due to rain so all 20 attending Young Women came over to my house for games and fun. I realized that I have the perfect party house, and I shouldn't feel any shame about the fact that the house isn't yet what I want it to be, especially when all of the parents were telling me what a beautiful house I do, in fact, have.
So during church, we were talking to our friends, the Barneys (who also were in the military and lived in Germany for six years), and John found out that their kitchen is completely gutted at the moment. They've actually gutted their entire house, but at to this point, they've had a functioning kitchen. Not now though. So John asked me if we should have them over, and I didn't even flinch. I texted Amber, asking her if this Sunday would work better, or next Sunday, and she said, "Today would be great!"
Remember what I wrote earlier about not really having a boat load of food in the house and needing to "make do"? That's usually the case with just two extra mouths, but with the Barneys, I expected six or seven people. And this is where the memories are starting in La Maison--where despite bad paint color, it's starting to feel like home.
I made a list in my mind of the random food we had in the house, I made a literal list of things to prepare on my cute Baby/Brother notepad, and our family was off to the races! Aside from John vacuuming the main floor of the house, we were all in the kitchen, working our tails off, preparing a feast fit for a king!
Thankfully, we had our last free meal from Blue Apron, some kind of beef pitas. I didn't look closely at the recipe, but it looked like Greek food. So Glo started in on the Blue Apron recipes, getting the cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes cut for the pitas and baking the baby potatoes. Allison, meantime, dug in (literally) to making a recipe that I had found for Mediterranean meatballs. I could hardly believe how perfectly she executed those things (and Glo later apologized for always roping her into handling raw meat when she comes over :-)). Mark was husking corn (which John had bought the day before) and dicing watermelon (which Glo had brought home) as well as concocting a cucumber-less Tzatziki sauce from the plain Greek yogurt we had in the refrigerator. John grilled the meat from the Blue Apron box, and I made a mulberry pie from the mulberries John and Glo had picked the day before as well as made homemade pitas on the stove.
I kid you not, it was a feast, and I doubt anyone would have known that we were just "making do". But how much I love seeing my family all working together in the kitchen.
Dinner conversation was fast, deep and loud (as it always is at the Kennedys), and the Barneys hung with us through it. And afterwards, Mark and Allison hung around to talk to the Barneys with John and me. And the Barneys had a lot of serious things to talk about, namely their two boys who want nothing to do with the church.
And four hours, as the Barneys were heading out the door, their daughter spotted our grand piano, and her dad asked if she could play it. Well, she had no problem playing and singing for us (with no piano lessons by the way), and afterwards, we all belted "A Million Dreams" (copies of which I had already printed and waiting on the piano from our Young Women activity!) In the words of Brother Barney, we couldn't have ended the night more perfectly.
I would think Mark and Allison would have yeeted out of here after all that, but they didn't. They stayed for a grand game of Nertz in which John (after a five year drought of winning) won, and Allison mocked me in grand Kennedy style for the first time.
Yep, come August, we sure are going to miss Sundays in the Park with Mark and Allison <3
John and I are tasting a big piece of heaven this summer with Mark, Allison and Glo all home at the same time. Every time John and I want to do something, we invite one or all of the three, and it becomes an instant party. This past week, we wanted to see the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" at the State Theatre. By the time we got to the ticket office, the 7:30 showing was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 9:30 showing and headed to Don Juan for guacamole and Baskin Robbins to fill the empty time in between. It wouldn't have been the same if we had invited random people--I would have worried about the show being sold out, would they want to eat, did I ruin their night--but with those three, I almost couldn't have planned things any better.
But the most delightful part of the last few months has been Mark and Allison coming over on Sundays. It's been a good five months now, but it still surprises me when Mark asks on a late Saturday night, or early Sunday, if they can come over. I don't know why I haven't figured this out yet, because I usually end up on the short side of food and have to "make do" with whatever ingredients I can find in the house.
This wasn't the case, however, for Father's Day weekend. Mark and Allison basically gave us their entire Friday night and Saturday to spend with John, and it was so fun. We caught double features for movies--Incredibles 2, and Ocean's 8--and ate and ate, and ate some more. So much food. We had burgers, and watermelon, and baked beans, and grilled chicken. And we must have played six hours straight of games--Carcassone, Nertz, Keltis and Seven Wonders. Daddy was in Father's Day heaven. And when they knew they couldn't come on actual Father's Day (because Allison obviously needs to give some love to her dad too), they came to church with us and stayed for an hour afterwards.
Yesterday though took the cake. John has been wanting to have people over for the past year, but with the house not exactly how I want it, I've resisted. However, this past week, the weekly Young Women's activity was cancelled due to rain so all 20 attending Young Women came over to my house for games and fun. I realized that I have the perfect party house, and I shouldn't feel any shame about the fact that the house isn't yet what I want it to be, especially when all of the parents were telling me what a beautiful house I do, in fact, have.
So during church, we were talking to our friends, the Barneys (who also were in the military and lived in Germany for six years), and John found out that their kitchen is completely gutted at the moment. They've actually gutted their entire house, but at to this point, they've had a functioning kitchen. Not now though. So John asked me if we should have them over, and I didn't even flinch. I texted Amber, asking her if this Sunday would work better, or next Sunday, and she said, "Today would be great!"
Remember what I wrote earlier about not really having a boat load of food in the house and needing to "make do"? That's usually the case with just two extra mouths, but with the Barneys, I expected six or seven people. And this is where the memories are starting in La Maison--where despite bad paint color, it's starting to feel like home.
I made a list in my mind of the random food we had in the house, I made a literal list of things to prepare on my cute Baby/Brother notepad, and our family was off to the races! Aside from John vacuuming the main floor of the house, we were all in the kitchen, working our tails off, preparing a feast fit for a king!
Thankfully, we had our last free meal from Blue Apron, some kind of beef pitas. I didn't look closely at the recipe, but it looked like Greek food. So Glo started in on the Blue Apron recipes, getting the cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes cut for the pitas and baking the baby potatoes. Allison, meantime, dug in (literally) to making a recipe that I had found for Mediterranean meatballs. I could hardly believe how perfectly she executed those things (and Glo later apologized for always roping her into handling raw meat when she comes over :-)). Mark was husking corn (which John had bought the day before) and dicing watermelon (which Glo had brought home) as well as concocting a cucumber-less Tzatziki sauce from the plain Greek yogurt we had in the refrigerator. John grilled the meat from the Blue Apron box, and I made a mulberry pie from the mulberries John and Glo had picked the day before as well as made homemade pitas on the stove.
I kid you not, it was a feast, and I doubt anyone would have known that we were just "making do". But how much I love seeing my family all working together in the kitchen.
Dinner conversation was fast, deep and loud (as it always is at the Kennedys), and the Barneys hung with us through it. And afterwards, Mark and Allison hung around to talk to the Barneys with John and me. And the Barneys had a lot of serious things to talk about, namely their two boys who want nothing to do with the church.
And four hours, as the Barneys were heading out the door, their daughter spotted our grand piano, and her dad asked if she could play it. Well, she had no problem playing and singing for us (with no piano lessons by the way), and afterwards, we all belted "A Million Dreams" (copies of which I had already printed and waiting on the piano from our Young Women activity!) In the words of Brother Barney, we couldn't have ended the night more perfectly.
I would think Mark and Allison would have yeeted out of here after all that, but they didn't. They stayed for a grand game of Nertz in which John (after a five year drought of winning) won, and Allison mocked me in grand Kennedy style for the first time.
Yep, come August, we sure are going to miss Sundays in the Park with Mark and Allison <3
Awwww thanks mama for writing this(: I’m glad you guys like having us over, cause we like coming over(:
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