Wednesday morning after being up for 4 hours I decided it was now a decent hour to go take my young children out and head to the park. Kaitlyn had been wanting to go on a picnic and to take her baby somewhere in her stroller, I wanted some fresh air and exercise with my kids and Nathan is always happy with playgrounds and adventure. Winton Woods was a triple match.
We headed a few miles from home over to walk around the “lake” that has a 2 mile loop around it. There are plenty of ducks, geese, paddle boats and canoes, dogs, butterflies, birds, bugs, bridges, horses, fish (and even a kitten) to keep us fascinated for hours. It was a bit warm but 9 a.m. would be more bearable than the 98 degree oven the day would later become. Kaitlyn unloaded her stroller from the trunk as I unloaded mine and then we both loaded our babies into their respective strollers. We made sure to bring water bottles for all.
Kaitlyn and Nathan love to pick dandelions for me to smell and to tuck behind my ear. Kaitlyn enjoyed taking her Bitty-Bitty out for a walk and got a few people stopping her to ask her about her baby. She did a good job walking two miles with her stroller… a warning she received before deciding for sure to take all of her “extras” on a walk. But both kids had their heart set on spending time at the playground at the end of the walk.
Unfortunately by the time we got to the playground the kids were quite hungry, and I had to try to hold them off until 11:30. Also it was blazing hot which I try to ignore but it’s tough AND there was a large group of daycare kids there. Some schools here still don’t start until next week. But Nathan was pretty content to play in the little kids area while I kept a close eye on Kaitlyn who braved the crowds at some of the exciting equipment for big kids. Both children were quite happy when I told them it was time to go and eat lunch.
We drove to another area across the road and over a couple miles. There were some picnic tables but we opted to be more comfortable on the ground. Nathan lounged while eating his turkey and cheese sandwich, pretzels and craisins and I was amazed that he stayed so focused on eating his lunch without being strapped into something (not that he stays strapped in anymore, anyway). Kaitlyn made sure she served her Bitty-Bitty before herself as she whipped out tiny plastic utensils, plates, foods and bottle from the doll’s tiny bear shaped lunch bag. She even brought a bib and put it around her baby dolls neck. Kaitlyn is going to be a wonderful Mommy some day… if she can just get over the fact that she’s going to have to marry… “a strange boy”!!!
Just beyond our shady picnic blanket under a tree there was a swing set. Perfect for children who don’t finish eating at the same time. We had a great time swinging “to the moon” and back again. As they were swinging to the moon I told them not to forget to come home again.
Ninety degree temperatures by noon, full tummies, fresh air and exercise combined with the fact that they’d both been up since 7a.m. meant that it was time to start thinking about heading home for some stories and quiet time in crisp cool sheets for them. Chugging more water they were ready to go have a rest before the crazy evening hours of two school pickups and evening chores hit.
We had a great morning at the park.
Sounds like a fun morning! What time do your little children normally wake up when it's not a school morning?
ReplyDelete98 degrees? Autumn is definitely in the air here. We kissed 90 something degrees goodbye in July and it has mostly been in the 60's and 70's, only occasionally getting into the low 80's. The wind has a crisp, cool bite to it. And a tree around the bend from us is bright orange, no joke. We wore sweatshirts and wrapped a blanket around Porter's lap for a walk this evening. I'm sorry you still have such high temps!