For some reason, we had an incredibly beautiful weekend in February. It was sweatshirt weather. That calls for a trip to the Celery Bog!
We walked so many trails. The sun on our faces, it was such a beautiful day. I'm pretty sure I got a little sunburned.
We climbed trees! I'm not sure we were supposed to do that but we did.
It was terrifying for Charlotte. Not so much for Tommy. You can't tell from this picture but they were really high up in the tree. The tree was phenomenal for climbing. But we had to pick them up and put them in the tree reaching up really high above our heads. So no wonder Charlotte was scared and wouldn't let go.
There was a ton of running on the trails too.
Yeah I saw this coming. :-)
We walked down close to the water to see what we could see.
We saw tons of turtles sunning themselves on logs. By the time we got close, they all disappeared into the water. They could hear us coming even from far away. But a couple brave ones returned so I could take their portrait. :)
We stopped at every bench I'm pretty sure. Benches just need sitting, don't you think?
What a super Sunday at the park. Can we get some more beautiful weather like that again SOON????
Yeah my posts will need to be much simpler in the future. I can't keep up! I'm 6 weeks behind at least. Prepare for lots of catch up and one picture posts. :-)
I signed up for another field trip for Tommy's class. This time it was a trip to the farm at Purdue.
We hopped on the decrepit bus and took off.
Instead of going from one barn to another and another, they brought a sample of all the animals they had into one barn. They had a couple beef cows, a couple dairy cows, two pigs, hatching eggs, baby chicks, hens, fish, sheep and a tractor. Tommy was impressed, I swear. He just didn't want to have his picture taken.
He finally came around. My chaperone group was the girl with the purple hat, the boy in the navy coat (who specifically asked for me, awww) and Tommy. They were a perfectly behaved group. I was super lucky.
Check out those hatching chicks! They were pecking their way out as we watched. Very cool. It also looked incredibly exhausting.
We had to get a picture in front of the tractor! It was my group and Mrs. A's group.
After we visited the farm, Mrs. A decided to take the kids to Happy Hollow park. What an excellent park! We had so much fun. The kids were about to explode while they waited to cross the parking lot. As they ran and screamed across the parking lot to the playground equipment, Mrs. A said, "The natives have been set free!!!"
They certainly had. It was so fun seeing how much fun they had.
I made this happen. I'm pretty sure that's Tommy saying, "What is happening????" The kids LOVED it. They were having so much fun. More and more kids kept getting on. Less and less kids were holding on. One girl fell off and got a face full of mulch. It was the wrong girl to get a mouthful of the brown stuff. She has an easy gag reflex and started spitting. I thought we were going to having someone HURL. Luckily, she got all the mulch out of her mouth without vomiting and we moved on with our day. Thank goodness! What would you even do with a kid's barf in the mulch? Bury it? Ha!
So we made our way back to the school and picked up Charlotte who was crying/screaming about not coming with us on the field trip when we left the school. Poor thing. But all was well when we came back and informed her I was taking her home with us. We went home, ate lunch, and we all took 2-3 hour naps. It was an amazing day.
We took the recyclables to the center on Sunday morning which means we had to stop at the park.
Today we spent very little time at the park. We were able to swing for awhile but then we headed over to the pedestrian bridge because...
Tommy brought his bike!! Lots of space to ride! He was so excited.
The fountains were at full throttle!
A sweet Dada/Charlotte moment by the train tracks
Tommy waited for a train to come but we had no luck.
Then he got to ride his bike around the kid's fountain. That was pretty awesome. He stayed dry for the most part until he decided to throw his shoe in the fountain after we told him not to. Then he immediately decided he had to go get it. He walked directly into the eye of the storm and got completely soaked.
This was apparently a surprise for Tommy. He was not pleased. We only had an extra pair of shorts with us so Tommy had to go skins for the rest of the day.
Charlotte enjoyed showing off her new walking skills!
She also enjoyed sitting by the fountain and not getting wet. :)
There goes Tommy in only his shorts and wet shoes! I'm sure people were surprised to see that.
It was a long way back to the car but it was a super fun morning at the park/pedestrian bridge. Only one foul moment. Not too bad!
Andrew has been gone the last 3 weekends in a row for various reasons. So Tommy and I decided a trip to the park and zoo was definitely necessary. Since the last post was about Columbian Park, I decided to combine the pictures to save space.
He had an awesome time on the big kid playground equipment, playing in the water, and seeing the animals.
I randomly picked this outfit and it matched pretty much every piece of playground equipment which cracked me up. His face when I told him we had to leave also cracked me up. Those brows... love them.
After the park, we went to Chickfila for lunch. He really loves this place.
The day was eventful (we went everywhere) but by the end of it, Tommy had enough. He got a timeout. I told him to go put himself in timeout. He put himself in his duck in the middle of the living room facing away from me. He sat there for a long time. I told him when he was ready to apologize, he could get up. He kept saying, "I'm not ready yet." After like 10 minutes, he finally said, "Ok I'm ready" and he apologized. So funny.
Tommy had a quick visit from a friend. Nora and her dad, Kevin, stopped by. Tommy had to get used to someone playing with his toys that day. He wasn't too keen on it at first but he quickly gave in. He helped Nora when Mater's battery was dying. Too cute.
Then we went to the park. He loved the huge curly slide. I was super impressed that he climbed up and went down the slide with no help. So brave.
He also drove some imaginary ship on the playground, I guess.
Sunday morning we went to the Columbian Park Zoo. We thought we had better visit before it closes for the season.
One thing I didn't know about the zoo is that it's free. Sweet!
There are tunnels where you can peak your head up like a prairie dog. I'm not sure that Tommy is impressed.
Even Dada went through the tunnels with the Tommy Hawk.
We saw a 100-hundred year old turtle. She had to nudge him in the rear to get him to move. One hundred years old? Think of all the presidential elections he's lived through and gave absolutely zero craps about?
We saw some kind of dog species. Tommy was a little freaked out until he realized there was a glass window in between him and the dog.
Here's another example of Tommy not being too fond of animals. I tried to take a picture of him with a wallaby. There was no glass window. He was outta there before I could take a picture.
Things were going well until the "goat incident" (a goat walked near him... THINGS WITH FUR!! AAHHH!!! Plus goats are a little devious anyway) so we stuck to the non-furry activities.
They have a little area with specific playground equipment for his age and he LOVED it.
He also loved (and his shoes matched) the swings!
Then we took a $3 choo choo train ride. Highlight of the day! You can see how excited he is! (Maybe he's scared of dad's enthusiasm in the background.)
There's a smile! As we were walking to the train, he kept saying, "Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-CHOOOO CHOOOOO!!!"
The train took us all over Columbian Park and most of the ride was by the water.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Andrew is trying to tell Tommy something and Tommy is giving someone or something the side-eye.
Even our stroller got to ride on the train. CHOO CHOO!
WHY have we not been taking advantage of this place more often? Until next season I guess.
