Monday, August 27, 2012

Plan B

It's getting to be THAT time of summer. 
It's the time of summer when all semblance of productivity or creativity seems to have flown right out the window with the final vestiges of my patience.   

It's the time of summer when the kids ask for computer time or a treat or a movie and I say yes without hesitation, just because it's easier than keeping an eye on them while they play outside or making the effort to find them a healthier snack. 

  It's the time of summer when any shred of a routine would be a welcome reprieve from the sleep havoc we've been wreaking on our bodies lately with the über late nights and random wake-up times we've been keeping... if only I could roll out of bed before 8:00am to make it happen.      

 As mentioned in this recent post, I truly do enjoy having the kids home with me during the summer and I treasure the family memories we make together each summer, but there comes a day when I just have to say....

it's time for school to start.  

We've still got another week before it begins, so to assuage my guilt for being so lazy lately, I thought it would be fun to take the kids on a fun outing today.  I did the research, made the plans, bribed the kids to clean their room, packed lunches, and took them to Butler's Orchard so we could do our traditional  Labor Day weekend raspberry picking (a little early). 

Too bad I didn't read the fine print...

We'd traipsed over 30 miles to get there and it seemed too sad to just turn around and go home, so we opted for Plan B and decided to stop at a playground that happens to be not too far from the pick-your-own farm. 

The Adventure Playground at South Germantown Park is a humongous, unique playground that is fun no matter how old you are.  We've been there a few times over the years and it never fails to impress the kids.  

The younger kids ran, slid, jumped, swung, and in general had loads of fun burning off energy and exploring the humongous playland. 

It was a little toasty out there, but that did little to slow them down. 

On busier days, there's a line of kids for these super fun saucer swings, but we practically had the playground to ourselves today...

What's not to love about a swing built for a crowd?! 

Cami and her friends made the best of the unexpected detour by allowing me to snap some fun photos of them...

They only agreed though, if I promised to put them on the blog....



Which when you're as lovely--inside and out--as Cami and her friends, Katy and Ashley, it wasn't too hard to convince me to blog about them.   The three of them are great friends and it's always a delight when they hang out with our family.    In particular, I'm always impressed with how sweet and accepting they are of the younger kids.  That's an unusual trait in teens and truly my younger kids consider them to be their friends too. 
The cute guy in this picture thought the girls were pretty fun and cute as well, since he followed them around and "flirted" with them the entire time we were there.  It's a good thing he wasn't any older or Glen might have had to start shooing him away.  :)

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Now I either need to get unlazy enough try raspberry picking again later this week or I need to stop daydreaming about homemade raspberry jam on my toast!

2 comments:

annalisa said...

How sad that the farm was closed, but glad that you all had fun at the park. It looks like a fun park :)

What a cute little boy that flirted with Cami and her friends. It makes me laugh :)

alexandra said...

My kids have been begging me to take them to Adventureland Park all summer - and I haven't. And I've been lazy and saying yes to all of the "more computer time" and "eat whatever you want" requests all summer long. So you're the best mom ev-ah!

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