Play Dates & Road Trips - Part 1

Before the summer began I wrote on my blog that I had big plans for me and Luke during our summer vacation. For anyone who knows me personally, you know that I am a planner....I love my calendar (still the handwritten kind)....and, in order to make sure that I accomplished all that I wanted to do this summer, I planned our field trips for the whole summer. In this plan, I decided to use Thursdays as our "road trip" field day...by that I mean, any destination that takes more than 45 minutes, we will do on Thursday each week. For this post, I have documented our trip to Burlington City Park that we took last Thursday. You will see pictures and video below.

In between the road trips, I am planning to give Luke as many opportunities as possible to play with other children. Just about every week, I have planned a play date with someone. For this post, our play date was last Friday night at Matt Hill's house. Landis, Luke, and I went over to his house to grill and let the kids - our Luke, Matt's Madi (3 years old), and Matt's Connor (8 years old)- play. While the grown-ups played corn hole, the kids played in the dirt, on the slides, with the tricycle, and, of course, with the play lawn mower.

I already have pictures prepared for this week's play date and road trip so stay tuned for "Play Dates & Road Trips - Part 2" coming soon (hopefully, Sunday). Until then, enjoy the pictures....

Matt's fiance, Fran, said that a dryer sheet will keep the mosquitos away, so we tried it....amazingly, Luke had NO mosquito bites and I had several...I should have used the dryer sheet!> :)



That's Madi...isn't she cute???



Now...the 1st road trip of the summer...Burlington City Park. If you haven't been here, you should go. They have a playground and several super fun amusement rides. And, if you go on Thursdays, every ride is only 50 cents. Luke and I stayed at the park playing and riding for over 2 hours and only spent $3...in this economy, cheap fun is necessary! :)

Luke playing in the gazebo...


Luke riding the car ride....he was so cute on this ride. I made sure to put him in a car that had doors and a seatbelt. Every time that he rode, he rode with a girl that was at least 4 - a complete stranger, but that didn't matter to Luke, he will talk to anyone....he gets that from his daddy. :) So...here he is with (who knows what her name is) in the green jeep - at least he has already learned that the man does the driving! If the doors would have opened, I could have taught him another gentleman lesson - open the doors for the ladies! :)

This is Luke driving the boat....the boat ride at this park is great! Parents can actually sit inside the gate on benches while the ride goes, so, I was very comfortable letting him ride because I was literally 2 feet from the water.
Luke playing in the field watching a lady fly a kite...
Back to the boat ride...he loved this.
He's ringing the bell...

Back to the car ride...another hot lady in the passenger seat...
Fun times, I'm telling you....fun, fun, times!

By the way, I have had several of my blog readers ask, "How do you know where to find all of these neat parks, museums, etc?" My answer - this website....www.piedmontparent.com....you can sign up for email alerts on the local events/specials in the area and you can also read articles from the Piedmont Parent magazine, which will often times include information on local parks and activities. As always, if you have questions, email me at lnbumgarner@northstate.net....have a fabulous fourth! :)

Toddy

(In the car video, make sure you keep your eyes on the green jeep.)