This Friday, on my furlough day, I didn't have any paperwork to sign or any other obligations that couldn't wait, so the kids and I had a great day just hanging out together. We slept in (I even read my book for 45 minutes after waking up while I waited on the kids to get up), made a hot breakfast (farm fresh fried eggs and bacon - double yum!), and did a few chores around the house (dishes, laundry, and toy pick-up). Then we headed downtown to Catfish Row to play at the river model behind the Mississippi River Museum and the nearby splash pad, and were lucky to be joined by Michelle and her boys. James and Cora hadn't had a play date with Gabriel in quite a while, so they were thrilled when he showed up. For lunch, we met Jay at the new Bops in town for frozen custard, then, since they didn't have their full menu up and running yet (no sandwiches), we went next door for pizza. By the time I got the kids home it was 1:45pm and we all crashed in Cora's bed for a couple hours. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat, from the blankets, both kids hanging all over me, and the fact that we keep our AC set to a higher temp during the work day (and I hadn't even thought about it needing to fix it since we were home on an unusual day). I immediately thought popsicles was an awesome idea, and tried to wake James with the promise of "new popsicles". He blinked at me, then went right back to sleep. But when I mentioned it to Cora's sleeping face, her eyes popped right open and she said, very clearly and drawn out "Oh yesssss! New sop-si-cles! Hey Dames, lets get up!" It was the cutest thing! So we had our popsicles, then played with Maxine and white kitty (who is unnamed, since she's still just a random visitor), went on a teeny tiny toad catching spree (then promptly let them go), ate some pasta, and ended the evening with water balloons. A few books later and the kids were happily in bed (despite their very late nap). I still don't think I'd enjoy being a stay at home mom on a full time basis, but today was pretty awesome, and I do wish we had the ability for me to work part time so that I could have more days like this. Oh well, that's why our weekends are always so busy - soaking up every ounce of James and Cora time that we can with fun and adventure and new experiences and special treats. Bring it on!
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| Batman driving his monster truck Batmobile over the Mississippi River Bridge |
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| Double monster truck driving down the Mississippi River |
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| Pretending the cars are falling off the bridge... |
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| Showing me how high/far he can jump. Impressive, eh? |
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| Hanging with Gabriel |
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| Catching some rays (behind a thick layer of sunblock, of course) |
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| Monster truck races |
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| Trying to convince Isaac to get in the water... |
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| Enjoying the splash pad |
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| Jumping with her tongue out, just like her big bro |
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| Splashing mama (and Gabriel in the process) |
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| Isaac preferred this "clean" water over the brown Mississippi River model river |
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| Hugging while waiting for their pizza |
Catching toads and letting them go
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| Water balloon duel. Cora was not impressed... |
Catching toads and letting them go
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