cousins at the playground

Aunt Amanda and Gavin stopped by yesterday to invite us to go to the playground! It was quite an adventure getting three of my kids dressed for tromping through the snow (Luke was with his grandmother -- more on that situation later) and getting Seth and Gavin in strollers to be on our way. Then we encountered a springtime middle-of-the-road lake. We had to take the strollers one at a time through someone's yard -- quite difficult since the snow is getting slushy. When we made it to the playground, though, the kids had SO much fun!

Joel surprised us by helping Seth and Gavin get in the swings and then even pushing them for quite a long while.Then he got tired of being Mr. Helpfulness and went to play on his own.

So then Sweet Makenzie took over with helping the little guys (since Amanda and I had parked our rears on a nearby bench and weren't getting up except for emergencies :-).

Seth and Gavin both did an excellent job climbing the little stairs and sliding down the slides pretty much on their own.

Gavin usually went over to the bigger "tornado" slide, but he did use the smaller one a couple times, too.


So back to Luke -- I was waiting all afternoon and evening for the phone call to come get him. He has only spent the night away from home when Joel and Makenzie stayed with him, never alone. But 9 p.m. came and went, and I thought he was actually going to sleep away from us (and I admit that I had a little frown over that). But then the phone rang at 9:04 p.m. and my smile came back -- he's still my baby Lukie :-) He really wanted to sleep in my bed with me, but Jason was already asleep after spending the day at a track meet. So I lay in Luke's bed with him for a little while talking about everything he'd done all afternoon and evening. He had started getting a little homesick when he ate pizza for dinner: "Pineapple pizza -- Mom's favorite :-( " His favorite, too, but he was thinking about wanting to be with Mommy. And then he cried when he found out that we'd gone to the playground with Gavin. I think he's decided to give up the idea of spending the night anywhere other than his bed or mine -- at least for now. And I have a feeling that we'll get strict instructions next time to NOT do anything fun without him!