A Week's Worth of "Nothing to Do"

As Carter is here playing his new Nintendo DS on Sunday evening, Nana asked him what he was going to be up to the upcoming week. When he asked Mommy and she responded "not much", he interpreted it as "nothing to do". This is perhaps a welcomed reaction due to the fact that he's been a pretty busy guy this summer. So far, he's had a week of cooking camp, a week of vacation bible school, a week of science camp, and a week of baseball camp. These activities have been all week and have lasted throughout the morning. (And, we've fallen into a happy routine of eating lunch, putting Amelia down for a nap, and then spending the next 3 hours around the house reading, playing, and doing his summer academic skills workbook...poor boy having a teacher mom, huh!) In August, he has a week of day camp (Camp Kota) that lasts until 3:00 and a week of "Twist and Shout" camp. So, with nothing specifically "scheduled" for this week, I guess we do have nothing to do! We seemed to fill those days, though...
On one of the days, we headed off to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. Right now, we're enjoying the fact that both kids are interested in this one place of entertainment. We imagine that soon, Carter will feel he has outgrown it and Amelia is not yet interested in the events at the Science Museum across the street from it. However, in the here and now, both kids had fun playing together.


"Chalk...inside...Mommy, can we try this at home?"
"Look Daddy...we can rock out on guitar too!" (This part of the museum is really cute...the kids are on stage and then they can see themselves on a projection screen with a colorful background so it looks like they're in a music video!)
Again...the water is such a big hit! She's definitely a Pisces baby!
A crown made from recycled newspaper...way to go green Cart!
Clifford is on TV during lunch prep time, and it is one of the 2 shows that attracts Amelia's attention (along with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). So, needless to say how excited she was to take note of the Clifford exhibit!

We cannot make a trip to the Children's Museum without a stop next door at Candyland. (I think we've blogged about this in the past, but it's similar to Canelakes for those of you Virginia folk!) This trip's selections were sweet-tart-style Lego bricks and wafer UFOs that have little candy pebbles inside when they dissolve. Great choices Carter!

On a side note about our day to the Children's Museum...Mommy made a HUGE mistake in the morning as she was so excited about the fact that we were ready to head off for fun at the early hour of 9:30 and forgot all about her mental note from the day before to get gas before the daily happenings. She drove all the way to St. Paul with the gas light on (without her remembering it), and on our drive home, in the left lane on 35E, the Jeep started slowing to a gradual stop. She managed to get over to the shoulder - with one very sleepy and crabby toddler and one very scared and crying 7 year-old. As we were getting the stroller out of the back of the Jeep with the anticipation of walking to the nearby exit to get some gas, a VERY nice mom-like lady pulled over and asked how she could help. Thank goodness she gave off the overall "positive" vibe (Mommy says that mommies have a sense for stuff like that) and we welcomed her offer to drive us to the nearest gas station (which ended up being a least 2 miles away) to buy gas, drive back to the Jeep, and wait to make sure that everything was OK. So, a problem that would have taken us over 2 hours to solve was over in 15 minutes thanks to the caring and compassion of this wonderful lady! So, we learned a valuable lesson that day...well 2 lessons actually:

1. Always make sure that you have gas in the car.

2. When you get the opportunity, do something nice for a stranger. It may mean the world to them.
This week's Poplar Bridge playdate crew met at a wonderful park in Shakopee! It was great! We love those kind of parks that have only 1 entrance with the rest fenced off and two sections for big kids and toddlers!
The Dvoraceks invited us to join in their fun at the Como Zoo and ride the rides at Como Town! (Mommy works with Pam - who is also known as Mrs. D and who will be Carter's 1st grade teacher; Zach and Carter went to Carrol's house for daycare together; Addy and Amelia go to Carrol's house together and are the best of girlfriends being only 6 weeks apart; and Carrol is Pam's mom!) So, the 6 of us were like 6 peas in a pod!
What a lucky little girl to have such a wonderful big brother to ride on all the "kiddy" rides with her! (And, what a lucky little guy to have a riding partner for the "big kid" rides! Thanks, Zach!)
Don't let the smile fool you...it was followed by kicking and screaming when she had to get off at the end of the ride!

9 more years, buddy, until the real thing!
At the Hodgepodge Park in Como Town (which is filled with climbing stuff and floored with tiny pebbles), the staff thought it would be great to cool off through the addition of sprinklers. The boys made "potion" and Amelia was just thrilled to carry wet handfuls of muddy rocks and dirt to and from the buckets. Thank goodness for OxyClean! And, thank goodness that she's the 2nd and her brother paved the way for an understanding that kids are, in fact, washable, or her mother would have never allowed such messy fun!
Under a little overpass is the "Mist Zone"! What a great way to cool off on a warm and sunny day!

Wasn't it only yesterday that these two boys were babies? And, now here they are all grown up (well, OK, not exactly yet, but...) and swinging on the tall swing ride all alone!

When we finally dragged the boys from the rides (thank goodness for the all-day riding wristbands...we definitely got our money worth) and took two very sleepy babies out to the cars, we were shocked to discover that it was 5:00 already! The kids had a so much fun! Thanks for sharing in a "day off" with us Dvoraceks! We're glad to have such great friends that are off for the summer with us...we'd be lonely without the company!
On Friday, we headed off to the nearby splash pad / sprinkler park with Carter's friend David. It was a little breezy and not hot at all, but the kids had wet, chilly fun for at least 30 minutes! Carter loves having playdates, so the boys filled the rest of the time with basketball, Pokemon, Indiana Jones, and Batman.


OK, I'll cave and tell you (against better judgement) what the boys were doing here. Doesn't standing over these streams coming up from the ground in just the right position and pretending like you're peeing tremendously sound like such a 7 year old boy thing to do? Pay no attention, Amelia...



We had a great time with you David! Thanks for playing with us!

Also on the docket for this week was a dinner date for Mommy with Mrs. Heil and Mrs. Schulz (aka Mommy's friends Karin and Kristin / Carter's kindergarten teacher and the student teacher that worked with Mommy 2 years ago). They met at 6:30, and Carter learned what the other men in their lives already know - do not expect them home any time soon. When they get talking, it's just too difficult to stop. On that evening, Billy laid down on the floor next to the crib because Amelia was having a difficult time getting to sleep and fell asleep, leaving Carter to just hang out. After calling Mommy once at 9:00 and again at 11:30 (both of which she didn't hear because the restaurant was so noisy and the phone was in her purse), he left a very tearful message asking if she was ever going to come home. When Mommy did arrive home, he was still awake (and watching the Twins game on TV) and said "You were gone so late. It must almost be the morning already!"