Perfect Saturday

Wow, what a terrific day we had yesterday! Rachel's preschool had a cookie decorating and movie party from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., which gave Drew and I time to catch the latest James Bond movie, "Skyfall," (TOTALLY AWESOME) and order a rod with which to hang a gorgeous wall hanging I brought back from the South Africa Jewish Museum. Anyone who visits us from the end of January on will have a chance to see it, since it will take about three weeks for the rod to get here.

Then we had arranged a surprise for Rachel -- going to see Zoolights at the Oregon Zoo with her friend Lila Anne -- but it was raining so we switched to Playdate PDX, a great indoor playpark that I've blogged about before. The girls had a lot of fun chasing Drew, playing hide-and-go seek with Drew, while Steve and Suzanne, Lila Anne's parents, kept Lila Anne's sister, 1-year-old Eva, busy. I got a chance to have long conversations with both of them, who were very interested in my trip to Africa. We stayed until around 7 or so, and Rachel was very sad to leave but cheered up when we got to Kenny & Zuke's, our favorite approximation of a New York deli. We had a good dinner, then Drew put Rachel to bed while I made pie crust for the chocolate silk pie I'm making tonight for dessert when Anne, David and Jean get here. We're also having lamb shoulder, red potatoes with rosemary, and a salad. I love having family stay with us for the holidays!

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Rachel saved a cookie that she wanted Drew and me to share, but then decided she wanted to give some of it to Lila Anne. So after we finished at Playdate PDX, they both walked to our car together to Rachel could share the cookie. During their walk, Rachel said:

"Friendship is forever."
Lila: "I wish we could live in the same house."
Rachel: "Then you could be my big sister!" (it's true, Lila Anne is slightly older than Rachel).
Lila Anne: "We could be twins!"

The girls had a good laugh over that one!

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As we were heading to Kenny & Zuke's, Rachel said, "I hate sleeping! It's BORING!"
Drew and I tried to explain to her that sleep is a very, very good thing (trust me, we know from personal experience) and that kids need sleep to get big and strong.

"Sleep is BORING!" Rachel repeated. "You can't read books, or play with toys, or even color! All you can do is lie there and pretend you're DEAD!"

Not much to say after that. When I told this to my friend David Jones, who has no kids, he cracked up.