The "Go To" House

A few evenings a week, Kat and Aleks' friends gather at our house for socializing around a bon fire, for hot tubbing, movie-watching and just chillin'. Tom and I are always home, but we're pretty hands-off, allowing Kat and Aleks to handle things -- again going on the assumption of trust until and unless proven otherwise. We've never had to come down really hard on them, other than asking them to quiet down after midnight, and things generally go smoothly.

(Oh wait -- yes we have! There was a homecoming party here last fall. It was a disaster! I did some major coming down on them that night. Grrrrr!)

I LIKE having Kat and Aleks' friends here and I'll miss it after they leave for college next year. When they were in high school, Elisabeth and Peter didn't have friends over as often, presumably because that was pre-fire-pit, pre-working-hot-tub, and pre-yard-re-landscaping... and heaven forbid they have a house that's not as nice as their friends' houses -- and ours really isn't (still).

(This is a town of young Microsoft retirees; the pressure is unfortunately pretty intense. Not good.)

I tried to be unobtrusive when I took these pictures this evening. But they caught me -- and then actually allowed me to take a few that even show their silly faces (Kat!!) while they were eating blueberry shortcake.