Last Friday, we went to movie night at Desert Marigold School. This is something new they're doing as a fundraiser for the 8th grade. It was a chilly evening, so we wore jackets and brought a blanket. We grabbed some dinner from Chipotle and Ono Hawaiian BBQ and ate it at the school. The movie was Modern Times, one of my favorite Charlie Chaplin movies, and one that I used to teach every year when I taught film studies. I had told Alex about it, so he was anxious to see it. It was cool to see him totally enraptured. When it was over, I asked him what he thought, and he said it was too short (it was 87 minutes long). He loved it. After writing my "movie memory" blog, I wonder if, 25 years from now, Alex will reflect on this as an important night for shaping his movie tastes. You never know.
We brought Vivien with us, too. It's fun when we can take her on outings. It feels like we're including her more than if we just left her in the back yard.
Saturday was crazy full. In the morning, I attended a district training for 4 hours (I'll admit it...I did it for the money). Sofia had a piano recital at her piano teacher's house. She performed "The Entertainer." Then, Alex went to a birthday party. After the training, I picked up picnic supplies at Costco and headed home. Cristina, Sofia, Bella, Vivien and I went to ASA (Sofia's school) for a family picnic in the park. While that was going on, I went and picked up Alex from his friend's house. We all hung out at the park until 4, then headed home. It was a beautiful fall Arizona day (sunny, crisp, high of about 75) I went for a bike ride in the neighborhood with the three kids before the Gator game. The game started at 6 on ESPN2, which meant I could watch it at home. The Gators looked almost perfect. There was never any doubt about the outcome. Sofia went to a symphony performance at 8 with her piano teacher, Danya. After the Gator game, Cristina and I watched a movie. We had a slightly senior moment about 10 minutes into it when we realized that we'd rented the movie before. But we watched it again anyway. We both got more out of it this time. We must have fallen asleep the first time.
Sunday was much more low-key. I cleaned up the garage a little bit, my objective being to enable the bikes to be accessed easily without blocking in the motorcycle. Mission accomplished. That should provide more motivation to do more bike riding now that the weather is so nice. For the third day in a row, we took Vivien on an outing. This time, we hiked the Mormon trail on South Mountain for about an hour. Vivien did great. She was a total trooper on the rocky path. Only once did we have to give her a boost over a big step. It was her first hike, and she's a natural. Bella, on the other hand, managed to arrive at the mountain with nothing but flip-flops on her feet. She did fine too, but Cristina and I were rolling our eyes that neither of us had checked her choice of footware before we had left the house.
Monday, I had to work. Strange to have school on Monday and then be off Tuesday for Veteran's Day, but that's how my district does it. It was an easy day, though. We chose to get Alex and Sofia's passport renewals done that afternoon. Since both parents have to be present, it's been a challenge to find the time to do it. Luckily, we found a passport office on the ASU campus that did not require appointments. And even better, there was no wait, they were super fast, and they were even friendly! I've never had that experience when dealing with passports. We then went straight to Sofia's Junior Youth group. After Junior Youth, we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was DMS fundraiser night, so 15% of our bill went to the school.
Tuesday, we all had the day off. We were having the Eurythmy teacher from DMS over for lunch, so we got the downstairs cleaned up. I bought a new tank of gas for the grill and grilled steaks and stuffed chicken breasts. Lunch was great. Afterwards, we walked down to the park with Vivien and played. 3 of Sofia's old classmates from DMS came by and at one point there were 13 children playing together. Perfect evening, beautiful sunset, Vivien hanging out with us, kids playing...just a great evening.
To recap:
Friday: Charlie Chaplin movie night
Saturday: piano recital, ASA picnic, bike ride, Gators win big
Sunday: hike on South Mountain
Monday: passports done, Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
Tuesday: lunch guest (clean house and grilled steaks), playing at park
It's amazing how different the quality of life is here when the temperature finally drops!
5 comments:
Having been there when it was pretty hot, I can appreciate your last statement. Glad you had such a fun weekend. We wish we could take our puppies more with us but it is hard to manage the two of them. They can stay in the car now that it is cooler and just sleep until we finish our errand. They seem much happier being with us than staying at home in the laundry room.
Sounds like a fun filled weekend to me. Glad everone had a good time.
did Sofia like symphony?
What was the movie?
Funny how you called it a beautiful 'fall' evening. Over here I'm thinking November = winter. Fire on, heating on, jumper on, etc. Cold, but crisp, and occasionally even a bit sunny.
I played the Entertainer on the piano when I played the piano. And I have had senior moments with movies. I think the same thing happened, cause I remembered the first part of the movie but eventually got to a part I didn't remember, so I probably fell asleep. It's hard to remember every movie. OH, and our fall weather is a nice 60 something. Although it has been in the low 70s a couple of times recently.
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