Marcy’s birthday dinner at Charcoal

Saturday was Marcy’s birthday. The weather was decent so Marcy wanted to spend some time outside. First, she wanted to clean up the trash on the main road near our house. She takes this walk regularly with Anna, walking her to school, and the amount of trash is quite staggering. We picked up about 10 trash bags full as well as five election signs that were on the side of the road.

Cleaning up trash along University Boulevard

In the afternoon we played soccer in the park with the neighbors. It was quite an epic game, it lasted a full 90 minutes and we were all delightfully exhausted in the end.

After the epic soccer match in the park

In the evening we walked down to South Gaylord Street and had dinner at Charcoal, a place where Marcy actually had her birthday lunch last year. We ordered a cheesecake for dessert and we all sang Happy Birthday.

Speaking of birthday’s, our neighbor Hilmar turned 80 this week. So the kids got together at his place to help him celebrate.

Our neighbor Hilmar celebrates his 80th birthday

Today, we went to get a Christmas tree. We usually like to wait until after Marcy’s birthday before we get fully into the Christmas decorating here. Anna and Marcy dressed the tree just like they always do with Marcy marveling at the age of some of these ornaments. This afternoon Anna and Marcy went to Wash Park to meet with one of Anna’s school friends and Jude and I played another game of soccer in the park.

Our Christmas tree for 2018