Memorial Day

Ahh... There are few pleasures in life that rival the three-day weekend! And Memorial Day weekend is usually one of the best, since the weather is not too hot yet and the end of the school year is finally in sight. And, as you can probably tell by now, we have made the most of it!

We started the morning off with homemade waffles and whipped cream, topped with the blueberries and strawberries we picked this weekend. In a word: YUM!! Nikos opted for syrup instead of whipped cream, but both kids devoured their meals. And so did I! It was heavenly, and such a nice way to begin the day!!

Later on, we eventually got dressed and played outside for a while. I introduced the kids to the art of tossing water balloons, which they both found infinitely entertaining! That didn't last for too long, though, since they were tossing them faster than I could fill them, and I got tired of crouching by the hose spigot. So we resorted to bubble-blowing, pretending to be pirates, and riding tricycles. You know, the usual.

After lunch (where Maya consumed another INSANE amount of food-- growth spurt, anyone?), Maya took a nap and Nikos... didn't. I am not sure about that kid. There are definitely still days where he NEEDS a nap, and goes down right away (like yesterday). Then there are days like today where he stalls and plays around and then eventually comes out and lays on the couch with his bear. It seems like those days are getting more and more numerous, so maybe we are approaching the end of naptime. Nooooo!!! I think all kids need to nap until kindergarten, at least. Don't they know what they're missing??

Anyhow, I digress. After Maya woke up, we went to a local park, per a specific request from Nikos. He knew that there were no play structures at this park, but insisted that he wanted to see the "bridges, trees, and train tracks." It's actually the park that I end up doing 90% of my photo shoots at, so he is always seeing the pictures on my computer. And he had been there before, but it had been a while. At any rate, it's a beautiful little park, full of Americana-style things-- wooden bridges, a little meandering stream, old train cars, a large gazebo, etc. Stuff like this:

I thought for sure we would be there for ten minutes, and then he would ask to go somewhere with swings. Instead, we were there for over an hour, and had to drag the kids away! They loved exploring all the nooks and crannies-- touching the train cars, walking on the (not-in-use) tracks, seeing the koi in the small pond (Nikos named them all), running across the bridges, looking for birds and lizards, climbing on the low trees, climbing on the benches at the train depot, and just generally being curious kids. It was such a great experience, and it was made better by the fact that most of the park is shady in the afternoon. And since I knew there would be tons of great photo ops, I made sure to bring my camera... and it was a good thing, because I got this photo, which is definitely one of my most favorite ones ever of the two of them together!! And yes, it's huge. Because I love it! ha!

Here are a few others from our visit, though I took more than 200 pictures. I kid you not. And I narrowed it down to about 40 that I LOVED. It was a miraculous day!

We capped off the afternoon by grilling up some burgers and hot dogs, and life was good. Back to work tomorrow, but at least my battery feels somewhat recharged. Eight more days of teaching!