Luke and I are ending our summer with a bang....last week was the best road trip of the summer and this week included the best play dates of the summer.
Our road trip this week included a very special play date. My best friend since the age of 5 lives in Durham. She has two kids - Will and Kylie. Another one of my best friends since middle school is Lindsey-she lives in Lexingon. She has two girls - Layla and Adalei. We all decided that Burlington City Park would be a great place to meet in the middle of here and Durham. So, on Thursday, that's what we did - Tiffanie, Lindsey, me, and all 5 kids had a blast, even with the blaring heat, at Burlington City Park.
It is a rare opportunity that all of us are able to get together. I miss both of those girls so much - just seeing them put a smile on my face. Our kids have yet to understand how precious our friendship is - they have no idea how much us mommies love seeing all of them play together. Our friendship is the unique kind - the kind that lasts through elementary school, the crazy hormonal teenage years, the years of being miles apart at different colleges, and, then, now, the years where we are not only cities apart but are busy with our own kids and husbands. Somehow, someway, we find a way to reconnect. These are the types of friends where even though you haven't spoken in a month - once you see each other, it's like you saw them yesterday. Thank you so much Tiff and Linds for coming along with me and Luke. We truly enjoyed our time with you, Will, Kylie, Layla, and Adalei.
Luke's favorite part of the park was, once again, the cars. He loves these things. He rode them like 6 times...matter of fact, he rode so many times that he was able to ride every car they had except for the tractor because the seatbelt didn't work. Luke fell in love with the little lady working the cars. He would let her load him in and out without one fear or doubt. She was super sweet! In these cars, Adalei escorted Luke around for their first date on one of the rides...:)
The kids also enjoyed the train ride (except for the very loud horn). It was cute to watch them all cover their ears every time it blew. Hey Tiff- can you hear normal yet? (LOL) The carousel was pretty fun too.
The kids also enjoyed the boat ride but only enough to do it once. Luke got a little irritated this time because the bells on the boats were very loud. He just kept asking about the cars.
And, it wouldn't be a complete play date at the park without some fun times on the slides. Luke tried his best to chase around the big kids on the stairs and slides. They also swung for awhile. Then, after about an hour and a half in the sweltering heat, Tiff and Linds loaded their kids up and headed home. Luke and I stayed and rode the cars a few more times and then headed to Wendy's for lunch. Luke was starving! He ate 3 chicken nuggets, the whole bag of apple slices, some french fries and drank his whole cup of milk. You would think that a hot play date plus a full belly would equal asleep in the car, but, oh no, he didn't sleep and wouldn't go to sleep when we got home. So...he went the whole day without a nap and still was able to stay up until 8:00. Oh my! Mommy was exhausted - but it was all worth it!
Here are some pictures from the park...
There are the kids (from the left) - Will, Luke, Kylie, Layla, and Adalei...
Luke and Adalei's "first date"....:) (the next two pictures were taken by the infamous Autumn Song photographer - Lindsey) :)
And, now, to probably the best play date of the summer...Heather, wouldn't you agree?....our Friday night trip to Bumper Jumpers in Greensboro. This place was awesome! Landis, Luke, and I headed to Greensboro to meet Heather, Linda (Jay's mom), and Silas at Bumper Jumpers. It is an indoor playground with inflatable slides and bounce houses. The best part about this place is that it has a fairly large area for children 4 and under. This area contained a neat bounce house with pop up animals, a slide that the boys could climb into on their own and could slide down on their own, and it had a lego area and a few other random places to play. Parents are allowed to accompany their children on every inflatable so it is super safe. The staff was very nice - the place was very well supervised and clean. I highly recommend checking it out. (By the way - on the first Friday of each month, they provide pizza at 6:00 and give each child a goody bag with a poster, crayons, and coloring book.)
It's also a fun place for grown-ups to have fun! Landis, Heather, and I had a ball climbing the big slides with the boys - Heather and Landis even raced through one of the grown up inflatables (congrats goes to Heather).
The grown ups had the most fun laughing at the boys as they ran around, slid, jumped, and flipped like wild men! We nicknamed Luke "kamikaze" because he would literally throw himself wildly everywhere. I have the cutest video below of him throwing himself forward doing front flips. Thanks to gymnastics, he did several great front rolls. It was hilarious!
For almost two hours, we slid down the little slide, the big slide, and played peek a boo in the bounce houses. Luke not only loved sliding himself but he also would laugh out loud watching me and Landis slide down face first. :) It was so much fun to watch Luke have so much fun as he ran from one bouncy thing to the next.
He did slow down for a few minutes and play with the Legos. He did a great job putting the blocks together. I love to watch him "work his mouth" as he concentrates. While he was playing with the blocks, he did one of the most precious things - all of a sudden, he quit playing and walked over to me and Landis - he went to Landis first and hugged and squeezed him and then came over to me and hugged and squeezed me - so genuine, so tight, and so precious! He gave us both two of the sweetest hugs I have ever received from him - they were not solicited from us, but initiated by him - just his way of telling us that he loved us and that he enjoyed being around us - nothing beats the feeling you get when your child does that - maybe that's why this ended up being the best play date yet - or maybe it was the best play date because we all smiled and laughed so very much!
We ended our night with dinner at MiPueblos - Jay and his dad, Steve - met us there. Dinner went well. Luke struggled to stay in his seat - I know he had to be exhausted. But, we did get him to eat some rice and drink a little milk. After dinner, I put his overnight diaper on and his pjs on because as I thought - he was out like a light in 10 minutes. What a way to end the day!
Here are some pictures from our Bumper Jumper play date....
The first few are some pictures I took at home before leaving - I just loved seeing Luke in his romper with the socks on (that is a requirement at the inflatable playground - everyone must wear socks)...
Mommy and Daddy having some fun...
And...the best part the videos....#1 - Luke coming down the slide by himself...
#2 - Luke (the kamikaze flipping himself a hundred times)
Sadly, my summer is drawing to a close....next week is my last week out of work....then, I go back for a 3 day week the next week and then I'm back for good (with the exception of a 4 day weekend beach trip in September). Thinking about leaving my sweet Luke to go back to work keeps me awake at night sometimes - but, I know that thinking back to times like these where Luke and I have had so much fun this summer will keep me going each day at work. You all know if you have been reading my blog this summer - I have cherished each and every moment with my little guy - there were no wasted minutes - each day was cherished and was spent focusing on our time together. I'm thankful for that, I will always treasure that and those memories will get me through to Christmas vacation and then our summer vacation next year.
I'll post again soon with some other cute videos and pictures from around the house....and, I'm sad to say....no long road trip this week because the museum in Chapel Hill that I was planning on going to is still closed for renovations. Luke and I will visit there one weekend soon. I do plan on posting one last road trip blog post but it will include some pics and video from some short road trips we have taken around here. So...stay tuned! Have a wonderful Sunday evening and a great week - Luke and I will be savoring every moment!
Toddy
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