Park it Rocky

While I was in Boston last week, Daddy and Drew hit up the park.  Only Rocky made a guest appearance.  Here's the video proof:



Yes, he's still a Rocky addict.

Parkapalooza

Finally the weather was supposed to turn this past weekend into what would otherwise be known as spring in California - we have yet to see that as winter has hung on far longer than it should.  Saturday didn't turn out to be the low to mid 70's we were promised, but it was good enough to get out for a tour of a few new (to us) parks.

Park number one was an absolute hit!  I can't recall the last time I saw a tire swing up close and personal (it could very well be my elementary school days in Minnesota!).  

Drew seemed to love it too - refusing to get off unless some poor soul finally got tired of waiting from afar for him to get off and started forming a line right next to the swing. 

Although he was pretty exited to see this park not only had the tire swing, but some of his beloved "spinners".

After a bit, we decided to move on to park number two - which wasn't as exciting, but Drew did scarf down some of his favorite - chicken and french fries!

Daddy even got into the action at this park (not that he didn't at the other)

 Since this park was much smaller, so it didn't take long until we moved on to our final park on this parkapalooza tour.  At this third location, on top of playing on the swings, slides and sand - he caught up on his braille reading skills...

One would think that after such and adventure an afternoon nap would be in place for the child, right?  Nope.  But there was one for the Mama who worked hard at taking pictures and figuring out which location we were hitting up next!

Art, Wind and Family

 For the first time in about a decade, we didn't go camping for the long Memorial Day Weekend.  With arriving home from New York on that Wednesday before, and then trying to turn around and pack things up for a camping trip... I started breaking out in hives.

Instead we stayed home and had a great mellow weekend!  On Monday we decided to head over to our local Art and Wind Festival we've always heard great things about, but could never go since we were always camping.  It was a great time!!  The perfect ending to the weekend.

 Drew climbs to the top and does his Rocky Move.

The real "Kung Fu Panda" well one that was promoting a local Kung Fu location.

So he first rode in a play helicopter... only to get to sit inside of a real one.

I thought this was a great shot of Drew watching a puppet show.  It really was a great thing to do with little kids.

The point of this "festival" is to promote wind and art, so how do you show off the wind, but with a kite.  This octopus was a 133 foot kite!  It was pretty awesome to see them get it up in the air - after multiple attempts.

Oh Go Fly a Kite

Last week when I knew Dave had to go to softball (or was it just that a baseball game was on) I decided to take advantage of the windy afternoon and bring Drew to the park to go fly a kite.  Tata and Abuela sent the kite to him a few months ago, and it was finally the right weather here to take advantage of it.

So we drove down the street to the park and instead of hitting the playground we went uphill a bit further to the "grassy knoll".  Drew wanted to play with the kite for a whopping 30 seconds.  When I then started playing with it he suddenly became reengaged.

Yeah that last a whole 60-seconds before he decided he wanted to hit the playground.  That's when I lasted about 20 minutes before I froze my tush off and I forced him home.

Hey Batter Batter.... Swing!

In an attempt to wear Drew out and get him outside to play - we ventured to the neighborhood park on our anniversary to hit a few balls and play on the playground.  Daddy is trying to keep our 3-year old interested in hitting "bombs" by bringing the Tball set and trying to get him to catch a few balls.  At three, the attention span doesn't last too long... especially when the swings and slide call...

But Daddy did manage to get two rounds of batting practice in...

Dave tried to get Drew to switch hit - something he recently started working with him on (Drew bats lefty, throws righty) but the poor kid had enough and wanted to hit the playground instead of another round of tball.  A nearby little league game was going on, so Dave watched perched from the playground and Drew climbed, hit the swings and ran his little heart out.

Cabin Fever

I'm a little slow on getting this post to you - these pictures are from nearly 2 weeks ago.  Drew had a serious case of cabin fever and it was fairly nice out that day.  We started out the morning watching my co-worker's daughter play lacrosse for her high school - at one near our house.

Well if you were there, you know Drew spent the game doing his Rocky training - going up and down the bleacher steps.  Did I mention they were alluminum... so they were mighty noisy every time he did a "Rocky Jump"?

Then I had to run a million-and-one errands, while Drew and Daddy stayed home.  And since baseball was on, that meant Drew was contained to the house.  Which he's finding mighty boring as the weather gets nicer and nicer out.  By the time I returned he was begging to play outside and go to the park.  So the three of us made the trek.

Well the nice weather turned windy rather quickly and Daddy who was in shorts and a Tshirt was a little frigid.  After about 30 minutes we had to call it quits and head back home.  Of course we used the fact we needed to make dinner as the excuse...

Nature Walk

The other day while Dave was off for yet another softball game or two, I decided to take Drew out for a little hike at a nearby Regional Park.  Of course when I told Drew we were going to a park, he had visions of a slide and swings.  I squashed his hopes and told him, he was going for an old fashioned walk with mom and he could go stick hunting (he remembered doing this with his friends Aaron, Mitchell and Jake in Minnesota a few months ago).

So we set out for a new park (new to us anyway) and we walked through the trees and cows.  Drew had fun asking a million questions about why cows go poop on the ground instead of the potty.

Of course I took advantage of the limited daylight left and snapped a few shots.

 As we got deeper into our hike, Drew noticed many of the trees were leaning.  I tried to explain in terms I thought a three year old could understand about the trees leaning to find the sun.... well that lead to another million questions about why they do that. 

I happened to catch him just as his little brain was processing the reason the trees lean (and why some of them fall and break).

Despite my battling yet another sinus issue, Drew and I managed to make it a great evening with a 45-minute hike followed by a dinner date at Applebees (his choice).  I guess that hike was "rough," he ate every last bite of his dinner - which doesn't usually happen at restaurants.

Turning 3 - The Party

It was a big weekend in our household... not only did a certain little guy turn 3, but he also had a party in his honor!

If you couldn't tell  - it was a Hot Wheels Themed Party.  It was either that or "spinners" and well a windmill themed party wouldn't be so easy to coordinate - so, yes I took the easy way out.

For a second year we attempted  to have it at the Park (last year it rained and we went with plan B at the house).  This year we had a minor panic attack when we realized Memorial Park was so renamed in honor of the 9/11 victims (one who was from our town).  Um, our party was planned on the 9th anniversary of the attacks.... YIKES.

Thankfully the memorials were moved a few cities up, so we lucked out with our park day.  Drew had a great time!!  And it seemed most everyone else did too - despite it being a little warm.

Singing Happy Birthday....

Blowing out his candles...

The Guests...

(The softball crew and their kids - well some of them)

The Family - L-R: Grammy, GG, Uncle Doug, Aunt Connie

GrampC, Uncle Matt & Cousin Kady (she was in love with the sand box)

As well as the party favors and cake!

Of course the big hit was the presents!  Everyone wants to help open them.

L-R: Grammy, Mason, Adrina, Drew, Troy

L-R: Grammy Mason, Troy, Elijah, Drew

One of the big hits this year - the states puzzle
L-R: Me, Grammy, Mason, Adrina, Drew, Troy

The other big hit... the Math Mat.  Drew LOVES anything where he learns through fun.
L-R: Troy, Drew, Mason

Despite the heat, it was an awesome day and Drew couldn't stop talking about it - he literally had dreams about it that night... we can tell because of his sleep talking.

Plan C - The Park

On Monday we were pretty much exhausted.  We just wanted a lazy day without too much sun exposure.  We had plans to go to a nearby "lake" or perhaps drive up to Sacramento... but Daddy had a double header softball game, so that pretty much nixed both of those ideas.

So what to do with our day?  We went with Plan C - we hit up a few different parks.  I knew one of the nearby parks had a little fountain/splash area.  Trouble was it wasn't running on Monday!  I overheard the city workers telling someone that something wasn't working.  I'm thinking it had something to do with the 4th of July festivities that were going on at the park the night before.

Well we still made the most of it.

Drew climbed his heart out at this park, but he was disappointed because there weren't any swings (we never told him that there was supposed to be water - so he wasn't exactly disappointed the way we were).  The city is building the area where the swings will be, but it probably won't be complete for another month or two. 

So we hopped in the car and set out to find a new park - well new to us.  We found one in a completely different neighborhood.  The good news: this park had swings.  The bad news: the swing was really hot! More good news: Mommy had a towel for the wannabe fountains, and re-purposed them to keep Drew's legs and tushie from frying (he's really sensitive to heat after burning his hands last summer).

It was a great stop and Drew had so much fun that after he scarfed down a huge slice of pizza he took nearly a 3 1/2 hour nap that afternoon, while Mommy and Daddy each had one of their own.  Nap, not pizza.