Category: outing

Today was one of those days where we had nothing on our plate, and, quite frankly I needed a little bit of me time. So we loaded up and went to the Children’s Museum several towns over. And they have this really rockin’ dinosaur exhibit, so that’s a reason to spend a stupid amount in gas getting there, right?

These photos make me realize that my compact camera is completely inadequate in situations where there is no natural light.

We’ve lived in this town for a while now, and I’m always amazed when we discover something new to do.

Today’s playgroup met at the playground near the community center since it was going to be hot and that location offers some shelter from the sun. As they were kicking balls around, someone mentioned how fun it would be to roll the balls down the ramp in the skate park next to us. And all of a sudden, it was a mad rush to the skate park. Since it was school time, there wasn’t a single skater, so preschoolers ruled the roost.

I don’t know why we never thought of this. The kids ran up the ramps and slid down on their bottoms. They jumped off platforms and balanced on rails. They rolled balls down ramps and watched how far they would roll back up. Best of all, what damage could they possibly do that could be worse than a teenager with a skateboard?

Huge naps from both kids. This one will definitely be a repeat activity.

We went to a working farm today. Kate had taken Irene before and raved about what a good experience it was. It did not disappoint.

During our two-hour guided tour of the farm, I expected there to be some interaction with the animals, but I had no idea the kids would be allowed to do EVERYTHING. In two hours they watched the baby pigs eat breakfast, fed goats leaves, gave baby goats bottles, played music inside a teepee, petted sheep, gathered freshly laid eggs, nuzzled with a cow, milked a goat, and harvested veggies.

Even though they kept thing moving at a good pace, we almost lost everyone around 11am when all the kids’ blood sugar started crashing. Luckily, I had a bag of muffins Tom had made for us this morning, and once the kids started munching, they got back their oomph. Tom saves the day!

The kids obviously had a great time. Shep had to hug every single goat, and Neko couldn’t have been more excited when the baby chick stood on her head. At one point she looked up at me and said, “Thanks for taking us here, Mom. This is really fun!” Unsolicited gratitude from your children? I am all in.

It’s stupid-hot outside. So going somewhere outside sounds revolting. But since everyone else is hot, all the good indoors places are stupid-crowded. So instead of going on an outing, we had an inning, and declared it Arts & Crafts Wednesday.

I should also mention that this was also a small deadline for me to get the basement back into working order, since it had been blockaded by all the boxes that came out of hiding. I haven’t unpacked everything, but it’s all shoved neatly against a wall, which gives me much less anxiety. I can now deal with one box at a time instead of killing myself to deal with it all rightthisverysecond, which is much more in my nature.

We did a bunch of good crafts including this digger project I found over at Kids Craft Weekly. But today the median age skewed young, and we ended up doing much more playing, climbing, swimming and frolicking than crafting. But that’s awfully fun, too. And no one keeled over from heat stroke.

A repeat field trip, we headed to the Big City and the city’s biggest sandbox. It’s always a hit, as most kids love to dig and dig. I’m always amazed at bath time how much sand they’ve managed to sneak home in their clothes and, ahem, other places.

Neko and Irene were actually playing and building together. As a mom, particularly as a mom of Neko, I am always super-excited when I see her playing cooperatively with others. It makes me think we may survive pre-school after all.

Thanks to Kate for snapping some photos. Shep, I’m sorry that I have no photos of you, but you insisted on spending much of this 95 degree day in my sweaty lap.

A few weeks ago Beth shot me an email saying that she and Dave were bringing Jamie and Carter down for a baseball game. Tom had to work and the game was right during naptime, so we made it a girlie event. Neko, Ellery and I loaded up and headed to the Big City. We had to park about a zillion miles away, so we missed the beginning of the game, but we finally settled into some seats.

While we were there, I wasn’t sure if Neko had a good time. She was a bit shy around Beth and Dave and she didn’t even know the rules of the game. But she ate an enormous bag of popcorn and a serving of Dippin’ Dots. Jamie and Carter even let her eat some of their cotton candy, which may have been a life-changing experience, since she’s still talking about it. We spent a good amount of time walking in the stadium and soaking up the vibe.

I don’t like baseball, but I like baseball games. I love the cheap seats. I love that it’s such a family affair, with kids everywhere. I love those big pretzels with mustard. I especially love night games where it’s just a little bit chilly and the lights make everything have these surreal saturated colors.

As we tried to beat the rain on the way to the car, Neko looked up at me and said, “Mom, I really liked that baseball game.”

Me, too.

“Ellery, the service here is lousy.”

“I know, Scarlett. I swear I ordered my margarita at least half an hour ago. I’ve been chewing on these fingers for ages.”

“No one takes us seriously. What a racket.”

“And what does Ketch do about it? He sleeps. So typical.”

Okay, really nothing happened in our day that had one thing to do with the number seven, but I thought I should acknowledge it. Perhaps Dan stole all our sevens, having his birthday today and being the seventh son and all. That’s just a wacky number of sevens and he obviously used more than his share.

Tom and I split the day in a vain attempt to get caught up on that silly part of our lives that doesn’t involve work or children. Tom took the kids to his mom’s for the first part of the day. During the second half, Tom went to the Big City, and since Neko was hell-bent on going to the aquarium, we decided to head there toward the end of the day and meet up with Tom.

But not without eating dinner at The Best Pizza Place Ever That Refuses to Open a Location in our Little Tiny Town. This is a terrible photo, but I just had to illustrate that they have this window where the guys throw the pizzas in the air and wave and laugh and make faces at the kids so that you can actually breathe and your meal out is kind of, oh, I don’t know…FUN.

It had been a while since we visited the zoo, so we decided to make it our morning destination.

The highlight of the day? When we went into the new building at the zoo (I really have no idea what it’s called…the education center, maybe?), Neko was excited to show Susie the sloth. When we saw it hanging from a tree, we watched with amazement as a visitor reached out their hand and the sloth reached out its hand in return, holding hands for a few moments.

Neko couldn’t have been more excited, and we raced down the elevator to take our turn. Both Neko and Shep got a chance to hold hands with the sloth. Susie, being quick with the iPhone, captured the moment.