The Kids Can Have Fun 'Cause Dinner Is Done
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 9:51PM The last couple of nights dinner was taken care of long before dinnertime, so I was able to take the kids to the playground a couple of blocks down our street late in the afternoon. I thought I would take the camera since there aren't enough pictures of them on this website already.
It was a lovely evening last night; there was a gentle breeze and although it wasn't exactly autumn-like weather, the intense heat of summer was elusive for a while.
Christian and Eliana discovered that "X" marks the spot. Just what spot, I can't tell you, but I can tell you that it's marked.
It's hard to see in that picture, but the red circle has an "X" in its center. They thought this was so fascinating. It is so amazing to me how amazing the simplest things are to them.
Once we got to the playground, Christian disappeared in search of sticks and dirt. This is always a successful endeavor.
Michaela ran around the small jungle gym with Eliana right behind her the whole time. Eliana wants so much to be big, and thinks she is, in fact, a very big girl.
Once she was hanging on the bar, however, it was obvious that she still needs a great deal of help. It was a sweet moment to watch. She grabbed back onto Michaela's neck but then said,"Again?!" Sometimes the two of them are inseparable...wherever the one is, the other is right alongside or behind.
Meanwhile, Christian was up a tree without a ladder.
He doesn't need one, because he's a monkey.
We headed down to the creek because we discovered that a group of wild bandits messy boys had gotten creative with the sand from the sandbox and the water from the water fountain...this muddy concoction was all over the slides and other parts of the jungle gym. So, we wandered down to the water to watch the ducks.
I suppose we hadn't done that in a while because at first Eliana was quite cautious.
As she watched them, and heard them quacking and chatting with one another, and saw them waddling all around together (there were a lot of them) she was quite entertained.
Now, while I do not want a duck to come over and sit on my lap or anything, I can appreciate their loveliness from afar...they had very pretty wings; there were several different kinds of ducks, and then there were ducks that were the same kind, but that had different colored wings.
The kids had fun watching them for a bit, and we lamented the fact that we had a couple of bags of the end pieces of bread in the fridge which we forgot to bring. I told them we could do it another time. And so we did. This afternoon we headed back to the park to check out the ducks again, this time with our bread.
Eliana was so excited to take the bread to the ducks. She kept saying over and over,"Bread the ducks? Bread the ducks." I am pretty sure she didn't have a clue what it meant to take bread to the ducks but she was eager to do it, nonetheless.
On the way to the park, she and Christian played a silly game. She would run up to Christian yelling,"Getchou!" and then give him a shove in the back.
He good-naturedly tripped a few steps forward, and then she would run up and give him a tackly sort of hug from behind.
Joy.
When we got to the park Eliana held up the bread and said,"Yummy!"
I told her the ducks would think it was yummy. We got down to the, well, I don't really know what to call it. It looks like a dock, but without the boats. It looks like a boardwalk, but without the beach. It looks like a deck, but without the house. A balcony? A hang-over-the-creek? At any rate, we went on it in order to feed the ducks.
I opened Eliana's bread bag and gave her a slice; she promptly took a bite and said,"Yummy!"
I quickly showed her how to take the bread and break little pieces off, explaining that it was for the ducks, not for her. What a goof.
She had such a good time tearing her bread up and tossing little chunks into the water.
The ducks, of course, had a grand time.
But they had to fight the fish for the bread. I had never seen fish go after the bread like this. They made the creek look like it had come to a rolling boil.
There was also a shy little turtle who was trying to get in on the action. He really came out of his shell as we watched him swim over slowly!
We went to the park with four pieces of bread, and as we got to the water a little boy came after us; his mom said,"I'm sorry (his name), we don't have any bread today. I didn't know we were coming to the park." I told them we could share, and Christian gave him the first piece. They all had fun throwing the bread over the railing, and made it last as long as they could. And then, once Eliana had used all of her bread and Christian's was gone, too, Michaela gave each of them some of her last little bit.
My three little ducks in a row...
They would be the only ducks in a row I've got right now, but they're pretty important ones, so I'm all right with that today.
Reader Comments (5)
The other day when we went to the pond to feed the ducks, they weren't all that interested but the TURTLES were. It was so cool! Usually the turtles are scared off by the slightest noise (and we make lots!) but they swam close to shore and just chomped away. The kids (and parents) got a big kick out of it!
So fun! You need to steal Bobby's camera one of these times. Ha. Or take him with you.
So now what is going to be stuck in my head all day is:
Three little ducks went out to play
Over the hills and far away
Mama Duck said "Quack, quack, quack!" . . .
This was great! You will be so glad you documented such simple but special outings. They are truly the "stuff that dreams are made of." At least, to me they are. :)
Love this family expedition. We've had "cooler" weather as well and I've been loving it!