Outingz
In an effort to pretend that house-cleaning does not exist, I've been taking the kids on a lot of outings. Here we are at Drumlin Farm, family photo courtesy of our friends Eunice and Jun.
The boys can't take their eyes off the tractor to look at the camera.
Zion thinks the "natural" playground could use more steps and slides.
We also took our first ever trip to the Discovery Museum, and it was a smash hit despite the 50 minute wait to get in.
playing on the playground while we wait for the museum to have room for us
We ate lunch at the outdoor picnic tables and because of the nice wet jaunt on the playground Zion was actually interested in eating! (I feel like whenever I hit an eating moment with him I should cram in three days worth of food.) After our lunch the crowds had cleared and we headed in for two hours of sheer baby amazement. I mean come on; it's a museum for toddlers. People had some good ideas in the 70s.
this is awesome!
We also went on our first picking outing of the year. Zion was much more helpful than last year, and gave me a good fifteen minutes to pick before he got fussy and needed to visit the animals.
kept himself busy in the field by eating unripe berries
Dan even took a personal day to help us on the outing. I'm pretty proficient at getting the two kids in and out of the car and fed and entertained and all, but I wouldn't trust myself to pick eight quarts of strawberries at the same time. Especially when we're counting on it for jam.
The older farmers at work
Sorry to dump all these photos at the same time. I'm trying to keep the computer closed during the day so I don't have to negotiate with Harvey whether he can watch a show.
We went to Walden Pond yesterday but I don't have photos of that expedition, which is probably for the best. Zion was so snotty he couldn't fall asleep by any normal means, and two minutes after getting home from food shopping it became apparent that we were going to need to leave in the car for somewhere, like, NOW. So with the knowledge that there was already a beach bag in the trunk I grabbed as much food as I could assemble while holding a screaming baby and fled with a gleeful Harvey to the car. When we got to the pond I almost broke down in tears when I realized I didn't know how I was going to get my suit on with one kid sleeping in a car seat and the other refusing to leave the stroller and a line in the bathroom where neither car seat nor stroller would fit. Thankfully some stray women saw my predicament and helped watch my kids while I changed and THEN helped me get the whole ensemble, car seat, stroller, and 4 bags down the hill. It was both heartwarming and incredibly embarrassing (and next time, no matter how much the baby is screaming I put on my swimsuit BEFORE I leave the house.) Harvey was an incredible angel, though, and he had a great time, so we may throw dignity to the wind and do it again some day.
Also, while we were playing in the water a woman showed up with 7 kids (!) and she had the same amount of stuff as I did. And just as I was starting to feel really ashamed of my lack of parenting ability I realized that she had 6 kids who could walk and two teenagers who could reliably carry things. And then I was like, I could totally have more kids, I just need to add them over the age of 10. And then Dan's like "Leah, you can't 'adopt' a maid, that's called slavery."
Who knows where we'll go today?
comments
Nice Blog. Your both children are very lucky that they live so close to nature.