peelosophy

At the beginning of the summer, our Thursdays became free all.day.long. (I used to babysit three days a week and now I’m down to two).  I decided we needed to reserve this day for some special excursions.  This was especially the case because JJ is going to summer school and I’d hoped this would give him something fun to look forward to at the end of the week.

I sat down with the boys and explained my idea to them.  We plotted out the Thursdays for the summer and each boy got to pick where we were going to go – they were super excited.  We decided it had to be places we didn’t usually go on the average week.(a.k.a. Larson Park, Warson Woods Park, etc)

So far we’ve gone to the Science Center, the Rocket Park and Kirkwood Park.  The Coaliers have been doing them with us (Sadie is in Summer School with JJ)  and the Olivers joined us for some wet fun at the Rocket Park.

This past Thursday, we went to Kirkwood Park and just when we were leaving we spotted the Kirkwood firetruck watering down some camp kids and we managed to join in fun…how often do you get to do this?!?!

I’ve been dealing with a sinus infection since last Monday. I’ve been getting them a couple times a year since I was pregnant with Henry. So “sinus stuff” is all a bit new to me. I was wise this time around and went to the doctor early before it got worse. Usually, I would tough it out until it got so bad I was rendered incompetent.
Now, I’m on antibiotics and am hopefully on the road to recovery. I still sound like I have been smoking 2 packs a day for the last 33 years.
I am not very good at is canceling life when I get sick, when my kids get sick I can, but not for me. Especially, when I get these sinus infections which aren’t contagious, I just want to get on with life, but I generally feel miserable.
I guess I just hate missing out when I am sick, it seems like such a dumb reason to me to not do something. There have been several big things that I have had to miss because of strep throat, which I am still bitter about.  The first, was the 8th grade end of the year field trip to Six Flags, I had strep throat and had to stay home.  The second was Mike and Catherine Schawackers wedding a couple years ago.  John was a groomsmen and apparently it was one of the best weddings of the year.  When I stayed home from that, I felt like I was in 8th grade again, except I didn’t have my mom to bring me milkshakes or cable to watch TV all day.

We had a fun day Friday morning at The Boathouse in Forest Park with the boys and Grandma.  We rented a one paddle boat for all of us – 2 adults and 3 children.  I started out in front peddling with JJ while Grandma, Henry and George were in back.

We were only out for about 20 minutes until George had a total breakdown.  He was hot in his life jacket, tired and hungry and only wanted to fling himself into a tantrum on the tiny back of the boat.

Really no matter how “fast” you pedal those boats they only go one speed – slow.  Grandma switched with me in front to pedal and I went in back with George.

So lessons learned:

1- Don’t bring anyone under 2 if you don’t have to

2- Bring snacks and water

3- If it’s sunny, bring an umbrella for shade

4- Don’t bring a purse – there is no where to put it

5- Don’t count on your 5 year old to be tall enough to reach the pedals

6- Go at 10am to beat the rush for lunch at the Boathouse after your ride

7- Bring a camera and keep your eyes peeled for some “wildlife” in the middle of the city

Here are some pics….

We had a great day today.  Caleb joins us on Tuesdays and since playgroup was canceled, we headed off to the zoo.  It wasn’t really a zoo day today necessarily, the weather was high about 58 degrees, it poured during the night before  and it looked like the skies were going to open up any minute.  But we had 4 train tickets (thank you Ewings!) that expired today and there were four of us (George doesn’t count yet).  So we made like we lived in Seattle and didn’t let the weather dictate our plans.  It was so fun!  As you can see from the picture…very few people had the same idea as us!

We hit the train first, in case we were rained out, then the Insectarium and ended at the somewhat new ZOOmagination Station.  The ZOOmagination station is awesome.  It’s basically a discovery room where there is tons of stuff for all the kids to get into animal/nature related.  It is FREE! and you go for 45 minute sessions that start every hour.  It’s one of my new favorite things.

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