I’m so ashamed

as the consummate hostess, I am apparently not.  Though I was 15 minutes early to the airport today, with 3 kids in tow, a near-miracle in my opinion…in other words, I started off slightly on the right foot.  Not only was I early, but had no traffic, the airport was practically empty, many planes thoughtfully flew in and out to entertain Nicholas, there was plenty of parking and we only paid $2 for quite a bit of time in the hourly parking garage.  I don't know what I did right for a change, but seriously, you can't buy that kind of driving/parking ease at any DC airport.  So, we picked up Grandpa on time, had lunch and headed home…where any good hostess points were lost since most of my basement is still taken up by boxes (I swear they will be opened and sorted prior to Peter's retirement).

I had managed to get Kelsey's room as ready as it could be and the house was mostly presentable. However, I realized I failed miserably at the small details when I found this sign on the bathroom door.  C had not only organized and cleared out the bathroom cabinet (under the sink) with no prompting from me, but also the medicine cabinet, so Grandpa Kirk had plenty of room for his things.  (He is sleeping in Kelsey's room as, despite the comfort of the couch, the idea of anyone sleeping in that castle of cardboard gives even me the willies.)  That bit of straightening up was not enough, though, so she created a sign in order to indicate if the bathroom was in use.   And to think I was proud of myself for remembering to get an appropriately chilled six-pack (Blue Moon, folks, calm down… ).

Many thanks to C(and Sweetwater Tavern) for making our first guest happy enough to have not yet run screaming for the Residence Inn one day into his visit…success!  Oh, and welcome, Dad!  Now off to create that list of chores, I mean, fun things you and the girls can do this weekend…