I was pretty busy today and wasn’t able to help much as Amanda got the house ready for her own birthday party. Cyra came by around 4:00 and the two of them went to the Starbucks at Mayfaire to meet up with some other girls and drink some half-priced fraps then watch Dark Shadows, a Tim Burton film with Johnny Depp based on an old soap opera that Amanda and her mom used to watch. All the commercials make it look like a dark comedy, but apparently it had a bit more to it than that, which I’m glad to hear.
Milly and I took a walk down the street in the wagon and met the people moving into the house two doors down. They have a three-year-old that Milly saw sitting outside, so naturally she wanted to go say hi. Her name is Mariah. They played and talked for a bit while I talked to her mom, Mercedes I think? Mariah wanted to go for a ride in my car (which is what she called the wagon), so I pulled her and Milly while her six-year-old brother whose name escapes me walked along with us.
As we were getting back to the house I got a call from Amanda, who said that Amy said we could get some wood for a fire tonight from her house. Amanda’s mom was going to bring some, but she ended up working later than expected and would have had to go home and shower before driving all the way here. So I went by the Warkentiens’ and picked up some wood. I talked to Nick for a few minutes while Milly talked to Eli, and Amy appeared right before we left.
I was stopping by the store to pick up supplies for s’mores and was just about to get out of the car when I got a call from Simon telling me that he and the kids were at the house. He said they could wait, but I knew my trip would be much quicker if I drove the quarter mile home and dropped Milly off, and so I did. She was excited to see Rosa, of course, and vice versa. Rosa had a Blow Pop that Simon told me she had been excited about being able to give to Milly.
They all played inside for a bit, including dancing to The Distance by Cake. In the car Milly was able to sing most of the song all by herself, though she was too busy with the sucker and dancing with Rosa to do it at the house. We took a short walk a little later with me pulling the girls in the wagon and Simon carrying Emil. He let him walk at times but he kept running to get in our neighbor’s sprinkler.
Rosa had apparently been excited at the prospect of sleeping with Milly, and Milly had too, so we put them down together. It worked just as Simon expected it to. When I first left them I listened at the door and heard footsteps. It was Rosa getting up and walking to the door. I put her back down and was downstairs for a minute or two when I heard Milly crying. Rosa was sitting up in bed and wouldn’t lie down. She wanted to go downstairs, so I took her down to Simon, who stayed in the guest room with both of his kids for a bit, while I went to give Milly her customary two minutes.
After that Simon and I just sat around for a bit and chatted. I wasn’t sure when the ladies were coming home, but I figured Amanda would call and then I’d go ahead and lay things out and get the fire started. She didn’t call, but I had gone ahead and put some chips out. Jeremy and Heather from next door came over a few minutes before Amanda, Cyra, Monique and Ashley got back.
Amanda and I have invited Jeremy and Heather to a few things before, and they’ve done the same for us, but we’ve just never had a chance to really hang out at all until tonight. They fit right in and were conversational with everyone, so I’m glad we finally got a chance to do that.
Heather had never had s’mores before, which astounded me. Monique hadn’t either, but she’s from Africa by way of Germany (or is it Germany by way of Africa?).
Everyone stuck around for a bit and cleared out around 11:00. I was watching the fire and putting it out, so I didn’t see everyone go. Amanda went to bed shortly after that while I spend some time trying to get an achievement on Ticket to Ride. I hadn’t realized there were achievements on the game until tonight.
Zach Dotsey