Sunday afternoon in the park

Today was one of those days when you put your kids down for a nap and they don't sleep.  You know they're tired because your daughter protested just a little too much at nap time, but they don't sleep.  So, for two hours, you listen to your son chatter in a way that only a one-year-old can, trying to decide how long to leave them up there before you get them up.  You also try to figure out what to do with them to fill those hours between nap and dinner.

Today I answered that last question by planning a little trip to our neighborhood playground.  Sadly our community pool has yet to open for a variety of reasons (they swear it will open by mid-June, but I'm not holding my breath), but luckily our playground just got a new coat of mulch.  Before I got the kids up, I packed up the side-by-side double stroller with a picnic blanket, a snack, water for us all, and sunscreen.  Then I changed diapers and loaded everyone up.  We set out for the playground with our dog in tow.

Yesterday was gorgeous.  Today was nice too, but a little warmer.  By the time we got to the playground, I was hot.  Unfortunately there aren't many trees by the playground, but we found one by a sidewalk next to a lovely community of ants.  Luckily they left us alone and we left them alone.  I put out our blanket and our snack:  string cheese and some of Annie's white cheddar cheese crackers. 

Afterwards, we played.  The playground is nice with lots of equipment.  We had the place entirely to ourselves.  My son enjoyed the swings the best; my daughter the slide. 

After about 25 minutes, my daughter started trying to get down off the equipment.  I asked her if she was ready to go and she walked back to the stroller.  We set off for home, up the killer hill in the front of our neighborhood, just in time to see some teenagers do a donut in a pickup truck in the area around the pool we're paying to have fixed.  Lovely.