enjoying the company of each other

today we went to a local park...one where my parents took us when we were little girls. there is a pond/lake-ish type thing, swings, teeter-totters, a giant climbing apparatus, tennis courts, a shelter for picnicing, and a wide open soccer field. we had a fabulous time. it was the first time in a long time that mr. husband has been off of work for more than 12 hours at a time...we've really been enjoying each other...all of us. mr. husband and i sort of naturally switched off with the kids, as they changed interests at the park...i played with them on the swings and he took them to the soccer field to kick the giant tennis ball we brought. little sammysosa had a great time between the merry-go-round and the swings. he giggled his little heart out.

captain adventure and sammysosa sharing a snack on the merry-go-round

finally a peaceful brother-sister moment.

mr. husband teaching little mother hen and captain adventure how to throw rocks the right way. (as if CA needs help with throwing anything!)

we all really had a great time with each other. i can actually say that i really enjoyed my family today. yay for us!

no mushy brains for us, thanks.

we've been having a number of conversations about possible summer activities. i have never been one to "overschedule" our kids...mostly because then, i'd be overscheduling myself, since i am their taxi and chaperone. we've always done little things like the library reading program, swimming lessons, and of corse play dates with friends. however, we've been reconsidering our position on summertime activities. due to captain adventure's recent and increasingly prevalent shenanigans,we've decided to look for some things that he and his sister could be involved in. here's what we have so far...

little mother hen is already going to reading camp for 4 weeks. captain adventure is now going to 6 1-week sessions of camp at his school. they are both taking swimming lessons. LMH wants to take gymnastics (like her mother did when she was a girl, by the way.), and a 2 day martial arts class. captain adventure wants to play t-ball.

so, it looks like we're going to have a busier summer than i planned. that's ok. with the chaos in our house right now, i think this is a good idea. they need a little more structure than we have right now...and they need more of a schedule than we have right now. truth be told, their brains turn do mush every summer if i'm not providing constant brain stimulation (kind of like mine did when i quit work). right now just isn't a good time for me to be consistent with that. there's too much craziness around here. i know that we're definitely going to be busy and it certainly won't be a summer of laying around, but that's ok. we may end up regretting our decision to do so many activities. i doubt it though. i guess we'll see.