Picnic in the Park

Gorgeous! That is the word that describes the glorious sunshine, calm winds, no clouds and warmer temperatures of yesterday.
Spring fever had struck our home. What to do? How about packing sandwiches, water, stroller and heading to Pioneer park?
Lucas was ecstatic! He sat in the living room singing at the top of his lungs about going to the park.
After fixing our lunch I stuck my head in the van. Shoot! Abrianna's car seat has made it's way to Richland in the car with daddy.

I told Lucas we probably couldn't go now. He erupted into disappointed tears. Oh dear! What to do? I choose to be a creative and irresponsible momma, taking Abrianna's booster seat from the table and used it as a booster seat for Lucas. Lucas seat became Abrianna's and Jojo used her seat as usual. I drove VERY CAREFULLY the approximately 2 miles to the park.

Spreading a quilt on the warm grass in the glorious sunshine, I passed out sandwiches. Jojo was so excited to be toddling free gnawing on a crust of bread. Lucas and Abrianna set to the serious business of polishing off sandwiches, apples, and mini cupcakes while trying to decide how threatening the buzzing honey bee was to them. I simply asked them to make sure not to eat it. That may seem a strange request to some. Miss bee kept landing on and tasting my sandwich.

Lucas and I put the picnic quilt and remnants of our lunch back in the van. The girls rode in the stroller while Lucas walked beside me.
There were a fair amount of ducks in the pond. Now Lucas knows the difference between the male and female ducks.
There is a nice little kids play gym set Lucas and Abrianna played on. Abrianna, of course, shows know fear when copying her big brother, scrambling up the slides and sliding down on her own. I had to keep insisting that she slide on her bottom and not face first on her tummy. Jojo was well occupied in the swing, unless I didn't talk to her enough.
We spent a few minutes on the big play set. I set Abrianna up near the top of the tall slide. Low and behold, down she slid, BY HERSELF! I caught her. There are reasons why she breaks bones.
On the way back across the park, we paused for several minutes by the ox and wagon statue waiting our turn to climb on it.
Lucas scrambled all the way up onto the ox's back without assistance. He is growing up so fast.

It's a balancing act to try to let him do what he's capable of and not allowing him to do what he THINKS he's capable of doing. Can be dangerous when it's trying to warm food on the the stove top- spaghetti noodles, or want to cut bread with a knife.

Our adventure lasted just about an hour and a half of filling little love cups. This is something I need to make time for more often. The down side is that I was exhausted the rest of the day. I forget how much energy it takes to be pregnant.

God blessed me though last night with children that BOTH slept through the night. Neither one is up yet. I'm rejuvenated now.