August 11 At the park and at home

Tuesday: Kelly asked me to meet her and the kids this morning, 9:45, at Roselle Park. At first, I couldn't picture WHERE this was. Goodness! Then I remembered!

At Roselle Park: This play area has received an upgrade or two in the last few years. Kaity and I used to come here and play often! So did Emma, Chris and Matt many years ago! 

This little fake tree that Cal is balanced on is exactly where Kaity and I crawled and hunkered down in a rain storm way, way back!

Since Gregory was wearing GREEN today, he was happily imitating a FROG--notice the tongue is out and ready for any bug that might just possibly fly by.

I remember, like it was yesterday, all of Jesse's children climbing on this fake rock. These guys are great climbers too!

I missed out on seeing them climb the outside of the tower using the hand holds, but they all told me they DID climb up as far as they could go.

This park is surrounded by grasslands, wildflowers, little streams, and beauty everywhere you look!

Kelly had an appointment to keep, so I talked the kids into "walking to the river", telling them it wasn't TOO far. Truth is, I had quite forgotten just how far the river was! Brendan had been at the park earlier practicing for Cross Country with Forest Hills High. He told me they ran this pathway and that he'd already SEEN the river, etc. Brendan and Aidan were less than enthusiastic walkers, but they were very good sports about it. I told them that if we walked as far as the lookout (below) and still didn't have a view of the river that we could turn around and go back to my car.

We made it to the lookout and took a vote. Who wants to turn around and return to my car? Brendan and Aidan voted "yes", but Erin and Greg voted "no." So we split up, and the 2 littlest walked a bit further until we finally reached the Grand River.

The kids had fun throwing rocks and watching them "plop" in the river. They were not throwing these huge gigantic rocks (!!), but just a few smaller ones they found in-between the big ones.

If we had just walked maybe another .10 mile, we would have reached a much better place to throw rocks; but these little ones were quite exhausted at this point and we still had to walk all the way back (!!). You should have heard the moans and groans--but again, they did really well and seemed pleased that they'd made it all the way to the river!

We heard all kinds of birds chirping, as well as crickets, bees (they were NOT chirping), and met many other walkers who had their dogs with them too. We got to pet many dogs on our way back to the car.

I've been inside these silos with Jesse's kids ... all the way to the lookout deck. The annoying thing about it was that after walking ALL those stairs and reaching the top, the door to the outside deck was always locked! Goodness. What a disappointment. And dear Emma--it was all she could do to look down! She has a pretty morbid fear of heights.

At my house:  We arrived at my house at nearly 11am. The kids were ready for some French toast, and even had seconds--except for Erin, who said she'd had enough.

We had a very low-key few hours over here, just hanging out, playing with so many nice toys, doing some sketching, etc.

Erin grabbed my phone and took a few "selfies" ... she is so funny when she does this! It was a pretty humid day today (notice Erin's curls), but thankfully the temperature was just in the upper 70's.

We played a very fun game of "Apples to Apples". It's so great to crack up with these kids. We laughed a LOT.

I love their ready sense of humor, and I like the way the play games together. Little Greg isn't a reader yet, so he needed assistance. Aidan was very willing to help him read his cards, and Gregory was a very enthusiastic participant.

Erin won! Aidan and Brendan were tied ... then Gregory, and then ME! 

After we enjoyed our root beer floats, I introduced them to "Tweety Bird and Sylvester" (on Youtube) while I cleaned up the place. They had never seen one of these cartoons! Can you even imagine?!?!? A few months ago, I introduced them to the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote! They love watching them. As I am picking up the stuff in each room, the sound of their laughter carries all through the house. It's one of the nicest sounds ever.