Monday, November 19, 2012

Summer's Best Two Weeks - week one

So let's go back again.  Back to the summer.  I wanted to write about this as it was happening as it was truly magical, but we were so busy and life was so full, that there was just no time to even comprehend all of it, no less write about it.  But let me start at the beginning.

You see, for all of the summer, Little G had attended 'camp' at his former school.  I dropped him off at 8:30am and picked him up at 5:00pm and while he was away he did all SORTS of things: the Children's Museum, the Science Museum, the Frog Pond, a community center with a pool, the Arboretum, various playgrounds, etc. Many times doing two of those things a day!  He often came home exhausted, having not napped, but deliriously happy.  Little G had camp for five weeks during the summer, prior to and just after going to the beach for the summer*.  Then, after that camp ended, he attended a Welcome-to-School camp for a week at the school where he started this past Fall.

At the end of a full summer, there were two weeks staring at me on the calendar.  Two weeks with no camp and no school.  Two weeks entertaining an energetic, feisty three year old.  We were hoping that the woman who was going to start nannying our daughter and our neighbor's son in the Fall would be available to help out those two weeks, but she had a gig for all of August for the mornings.  I ended up hiring her to come to our house in the afternoons so that I could run to a whole host of appointments varying from physical therapy to the dentist to the orthopedist, etc.  In the meantime, I needed to figure out what we were going to do to keep ourselves from going crazy.

I was terrified.

So, I defaulted to the plan I always make when faced with such a dilemma and I made sure we got out of the house every day...and when I say get out, I mean we got OUT!!  Here's a not-so-quick rundown of our very full days:

Our VERY full calendar.  I didn't write our daily activities on there, but you can see I had something going on pretty much every afternoon after the kids went down for their naps.
WEEK ONE - Monday
I don't have any pictures from this day - but we were lucky enough to know about a story-time and lunch time activity at a local church, so we headed there.  Afterwards, we went to a playground and then headed home to meet the nanny so I could head off to physical therapy.

Tuesday
Over the summer, Tuesday is the day we pick up our CSA box.  The previous summer, when Little G wasn't in camp, we would head out together on the bus and then the subway to get to a sprinkler park where we met friends.  Then we would head to get some lunch and afterwards, we would pick up our share and take the bus home in time for Little G to sleep.  This summer, with him in school, he missed most of the pick up days, so it was nice to head back to our stomping grounds with his sister along as well.


Little G pushes the stroller at the subway/bus stop

After nap time (there was no nanny that day) we were able to get some play time in in our back yard...because he seriously never quits!


Wednesday
I decided to head out to the Science Museum with the kids since Little G always talked about how much fun he had there.  We left the house with the stroller and took the bus to the T and then switched lines at some point and walked over to the Science Museum.  I had never been other than for specific exhibits like the StarWars exhibit or Lord of the Rings, so it was great to witness Little G rediscover some of the things he had liked earlier in the summer.  After the long treck home, I headed to Physical Therapy.

Checking out the Charles River view from the museum

Little G explores a wind exhibit
Thursday
Little G has a friend from his camp who's mom has become a good friend of mine.  She is funny and friendly and she gets my jokes and I just love her and her son.  She's also expecting a baby daughter in early December so she claims she's been using me as her mentor for getting out and doing things with the kids.  We decided to head to the beach that day. Unfortunately, where we headed was rather mucky and it was low tide, so we made a last minute change to the plans that added at least 40 minutes to our drive!  By the time we found a place to park in the crowded beach town where we ended up, we really only had 90 minutes to eat our picnic lunches and enjoy the beach...that said, we had a blast.  But a beach with babies and preschoolers is not a great place for picture taking, so I only got this one of both my kids sleeping in the back seat of the car.  This was HUGE as I can't remember Little G falling asleep in the car since he was a baby.  After tucking both kids into their beds to continue their naps, I headed out to go grocery shopping.


Friday
My husband took Friday off from work that week and instead of all of us hanging around at the house, I thought it would be fun for him to see just what it is we do with our days.  So we all headed out on the bus to the T and decided to explore a park near the Charles River.  It was great for my husband to get a better idea of the enormity of what I do every day logistically to get our kids out of the house for the day.  Eventually we made our way back home and I got ready to go out with my 2nd time mommy friends.

Little G rides the T

I loved being able to take a picture back towards the Science Museum, especially since we had been there earlier in the week.


I'm not sure I would allowed this were I on my own, but with my husband right there, we let Little G explore the floating docks so he could see the boats more closely.  He's actually very trustworthy in situations like this because he's used to the pool at our neighbor's house that has a deck surrounding it.

I met my 2nd time mommy friends at Legal's Harborside and it was DELISH!! Smart me - I took the bus and the T for the third time that day, just so I could drink respectably and cab it home at the end of the night ;)

Saturday
As per usual during the summer, we spent our weekend over at our neighbors' house enjoying their pool.  This picture seriously makes me miss summer.


Sunday
I don't have a picture of this, but we had a playdate for the new students at Little G's school that day after church.  He had a great time meeting some new friends.

The week came to a close and I realized that it hadn't been nearly as scary as I had thought it would be...but there was still a week to go... (click here to read the next post in this series)

* I haven't spoken up on this blog about the complete and total heartbreak I feel over my beloved Jersey Shore.  The beach I call my own that I grew up with, as well as the town that they were in, are completely decimated.  There isn't a single structure that wasn't affected.  Most are unsalvageable. In time, I hope to write more about my thoughts on the storm and the aftermath, but this post is not the place.
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Interested in seeing what we pack for a day out like this?  Click HERE!

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