Shabbat Shalom!

We received a very nice invitation to go to Rachel's friend Lila Anne's house for Shabbat dinner. Lila's mom, Suzanne, is a former colleague of mine from the Oregonian who now works at PSU; Lila's dad, Steve, is an architect who just got a job with the Portland Public School District. They have a younger daughter, Eva, who is 2.

I picked Rachel up from school and we headed straight over. The girls were adorable playing together; Rachel discovered a toy guitar and they pretended to be a rock group, specifically the "Rachel Song Group." Rachel was the singer, Lila said "I wanna dance!" at one point, and as far as we could tell, Eva played the role of...the toddling groupie.

We actually got to have lots of grownup conversation about the housing market (Steve and Suzanne are getting ready to put their house on the market and are looking at houses in Southeast near Lila Anne's kindergarten immersion program which starts in the fall), about living in the suburbs vs. the city, etc. At one point we all helped clean up the girls' bedroom because Eva had to go to sleep in her crib, and Rachel was upset that we might leave because she and Lila Anne were about to start playing a game called "travel." (It involved a tent and a fuzzy backpack). Just as they launched a pillow fight, Suzanne put in a video of "Calliou" and we resumed our conversation. We headed home at 9:30 (eek, but I was having such a great time talking amidst the flapping plastic at the windows -- they're having the house painted and the soft summer breeze kept hitting the plastic -- that I didn't want to leave). This is what I love so about Portland; we have a group of friends who like us enough to invite us over for dinner and with whom I can have long, involved conversations WHILE THE KIDS ARE OFF PLAYING SOMEWHERE AND I DON'T HAVE TO WATCH THEM EVERY SECOND. Yay!!

Tomorrow: Rose Festival parade! It's supposed to be sunny and warm, so it'll probably be packed. Pray that Rachel and I (and Erica and Sunny, who will go with us) survive.