We live in an awesome place for kids. We've got lots of parks and activities nearby and even though some of those things aren't exactly in our backyard they just aren't *that* far. I'm not sure if it is hormones or just restlessness, but I've just been yearning to do some fun, out of the ordinary things with the three of us. The only problem is that this might not have been the best week to do it. I knew that rain was in the forecast in some capacity for each day this week, but we didn't let that scare us (maybe we should have!).
Our OT recommended that we visit the playground after each school day since miss L needs to unwind after the stress of school. So, after preschool was over we headed to a large park that's located around a half hour from our house. When we left our house the sky was spitting a little bit, but it wasn't really raining.
Miss L loves tire swings. She loves to spin! In fact, this is the only park that we've been to recently that has one (if anyone knows of others, I'd love to hear about them!) and she will often ask, "Can we go to the park with the tire swing?" They have two at this park and we took a turn on both of them the very first thing. You can see the joy on her face!
After that we gave mister W a turn with the swings while miss L climbed on some equipment nearby. He loves to swing as much as she loves to spin!
After that it was on to the play equipment. Mister W crawled right through this train to his sister. I love watching them play together. Most of the time he wants to be doing whatever she is doing and playing wherever she is. He's getting more of his own little opinions, but he still believes that his sister knows best!
In fact, he spotted this fish from a little ways away. He walked right over to it and stood by it patting the seat indicating that he wanted someone to lift him up on it. I was surprised that he knew what it was for and wanted to ride on it. I was surprised that he waited so patiently for me to come and set him up on it. I'm telling you, I just think of him as such a baby and when he shows me how big he is it just catches me off guard even though it really shouldn't!
Something we've always enjoyed at this park are the airplanes that both kids can sit in. You can see how wet things were on the wings.
I think this is the only shot I got of both kids looking at the camera. I think it's so funny that my previously (somewhat) easy to photograph children are now both so busy playing that they don't often have time to look at me. I'm sure photographing three at once will be even easier, right? :o)
Mister W was really into doing his own thing that day (as long as it wasn't too far from his sister). He was just sort of going places and getting into things that kept surprising me as really brave or the first time I'd seen him do this or that. He walked up to this plane and just got in the seat all on his own.
...and then it started really raining. We took shelter on some benches under a canopy.
You may not be able to see the rain in the photo above, but you can definitely see it on mister W in the photo below.
After a couple of minutes he just decided he'd had enough sitting. Miss L and I sat on the bench and watched him saunter out on his own. We both just laughed as he worked his independent streak.
He found his own shelter though.
Miss L ran out to tell him that it was raining and he should come with us. When he didn't listen, I guess she decided to join him.
We were trying to wait out the rain, but it just kept coming down. Mister W just didn't mind it at all. Miss L stayed in that little house for a while and mister W continued to walk around the play structures until he stopped at the top of two stairs and promptly slipped and fell down. He wasn't hurt at all, but he was mad mostly because of the little pieces of the ground that got on his hands and in his hair. The boy doesn't like to be dirty and he really hates those little rubber pieces. We decided it was time to go. Even if the rain stopped I figured everything would have been too slippery to play on and we made plans to come back soon. We opted for the mall playground instead and even got some ice cream afterwards. It was a really good day!
On Wednesday I decided to keep up with the exciting week of adventures and we headed to the zoo. We packed our lunches, put on our raincoats (just in case) and headed out. Where we live there was sunshine and a 10% chance of rain. I didn't check the forecast at the zoo.
When we arrived it was just starting to rain. I realized in that moment I'd forgotten the rain cover for the stroller, so I threw a blanket on the kids. We went to the children's zoo first where the animals seemed not mind. We saw cows and donkeys and some llamas. We kept going and noticed that all the other animals were in their shelters and couldn't be seen. We went into the ape house where we saw a gorilla do a few things, but there were so many people in there and it was so loud we decided to leave. We walked around for a bit and decided to try eating our lunch. We ate a few bites before we needed a bathroom break, so we headed to the elephants for the closest restroom. Luckily, the elephants don't seem to mind the rain! After that we realized that all of the inside displays had lines out the door because they were packed. SO we decided to finish our lunch in the car and head home.
I have no idea what miss L is seeing in this photo, but it's the only photo I have from the zoo. I just wish I knew what she was seeing.
Today we visited a local farm with miss L's school. Oh my goodness, it was fantastic. I was worried since it was supposed to rain AGAIN and we seem to be having pretty bad luck with that lately. On the other hand, we like puddles and mud so I suppose that the trip was bound to be a success. We'd never even heard of this farm/park before so it was a really pleasant surprise to see how lovely it was. We'll definitely be back!
There was a peacock near the entrance where we were meeting our class.
Some lady peacocks came around at one point and so this guy decided to show them how lovely he is.
I think miss L was surprised by how stinking loud he is!
While everyone was watching the peacock these guinea fowl were running across the picnic area. I think mister W was the only one who noticed, but he watched them for a long time. They were really fast!
There was so much to see!
There were oxen.
There were pigs. Miss L and her buddy J waited to see the piglets.
...and they were not disappointed. These little guys are two weeks old.
We loved watching them.
...and come on, tell me those curly little tails aren't adorable!
Miss L and her friend G check out the hen house.
Then it was on to the sheep, or sheeps as miss L calls them. She was less impressed here than with the other areas mostly because the sheep were taking their morning nap. There were some little lambs out there though and they were really cute!
We kept coming back to those pigs.
That mama pig just rooted around and everywhere she would go those babies would follow. I think miss L was surprised to find that baby pigs eat the way that people babies do.
Then it was time for us to have our snack.
...and play some tag.
After all that fun we ate lunch with some school friends and I was delighted to discover that mister W was ready for a nap and miss L was ready for some quiet time when we got home. She laid in my bed and watched a little tv while I snoozed and mister W slept in his bed. That was about the best afternoon we've had in awhile!
After mister W woke up, miss L announced that she'd like to paint. We decided to get the stuff out.
I am continually amazed at how these kids grow and develop. Miss L's pictures are changing from random painting to actually painting a thing. She works so hard at it and loves her art projects.
This one is a person.
Obviously mister W is still in the paint slinging phase in his art.
He only tasted the paint once, which I figured was a success. He kept asking for more paint.
She is just getting so very big!
See you after a great weekend!
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