Bidding farewell to one of last summer weekends of 2008

I guess it's fitting that tonight I sat and watched part of the Olympic Closing ceremony. In a way, we are also celebrating our summer which is waning faster than we want it to. Local school children are heading into a new school year, and Labor Day - the unofficial end of summer - takes center stage next weekend!

So this weekend was a worthy contender in the Summer Weekend sweepstakes! It started on Friday - when Liesel and a friend took their children to the Cleveland Children's Museum. Nathan and his friends had such fun playing and pretending in the various imagination stretching exhibits!


On Saturday, we headed to the store to get Nathan his own double bunk bed set! Both his cousins in the USA and in South Africa have them, and they are so useful. Besides that, Nathan seems to be outgrowing his toddler bed faster than Usain Bolt can cover 200m! That afternoon, Nathan and I had some great moments playing together! By far our highlight that day (confirmed by Nathan at dinner time) was swinging together in the back yard whilst trying to avoid the inevitable soaking of a sprinkler. Having the temperature hovering around the 90F (33C) mark, we found the cool water from the sprinkler refreshing!


Sunday arrived - and we headed to Church. The service today was really upbeat, with good worship and a humorous preacher! Once we got home - Nath needed another round of swing and sprinkler. Then it was time to tidy up and prepare for our friends. Brian and Robin, with their boys Ethan and Isaac, came over for dinner. I made use of my trusty gas grill and supplied us all with hamburgers and hotdogs! Robin brought a delectable chocolate cake with her in honor of Liesel's forthcoming, and my past birthday! It was sooooo good!

After dinner - Brian and I retired to the lounge. This was a perfect time to challenge him to a round of Wii golf! His real-life golf skills were advantageous as he forced me to a draw over the 9 holes! Then Nathan and Ethan took up the challenge and played a couple of games on the Wii!

The evening, as well as the weekend drew to a close with a friendly, impromptu soccer game in the front yard. It was wonderful watching the 3 boys chasing the ball around and trying to gain possession from their father's, who were dripping with perspiration as they realized that they can no longer claim to have youth in their favor :P