A two-fer day

 Monday, July 1:  It's a holiday week this week, so Brendan's sailing classes were cancelled, along with his swim class too! So I picked up both boys at about 1:00 and since it was hotter 'n blazes, we drove over to Meijer Gardens to explore and play with the boats ...

 I'll be honest. I do not do well with two kiddos! Aidan has just turned TWO and Brendan is seven. There isn't a lot they do in common, although they play very nicely ... but their interests are completely different--naturally! 

I am much more comfortable with one-on-ones. I feel too divided otherwise. I cannot, for the life of me, remember having such a difficult time when I was a single parent of three! I guess I've gotten old.
I think we did okay, but it did not feel quite as fun for any of us. It has finally gotten HOT and sticky here in Grand Rapids ... the sun was blistering no matter where we were ...

 I used plenty of sunscreen--Aian was very put out with me about it too.

 Aidan is a very cautious little person. He wasn't too sure about these water fountains at first. He took his time to make sure nothing bad was going to happen if he got close to them.

 Brendan kept trying to hook a bunch of boats TOGETHER ... kind of like a boat/train kind of deal.

 It was finally too not to be in the sun, even if we were kind of wet. We walked on over to the treehouse area where it was total shade.

 We got ourselves comfortable for a little while there, but Brendan and Aidan kept going two separate directions ...

 Like I said, I don't do amazingly well with TWO ...

 We finally wandered INSIDE and found this kind of odd play area that was VERY air conditioned.

 Brendan and I played a scavenger hunt, looking for animal pictures on the carpeting. Aidan wandered around and had himself a good time!

 Before we went to the Gardens, we ate lunch over at Panera Bread. Note to Self:  Don't even think about ordering mac 'n cheese again for Aidan. He has now grown out of his dairy allergy (yes!), but he would not even TRY one single bite of his mac 'n cheese. He kept feeding it to me, so I just ended up eating the entire order. Aidan did, however, eat his apple and drink his milk. 

I think we'll have to stick to something more tried and true for this little one. Kelly says beans and rice are a hit always ...