A Perfect Summer Day

The kids and I had a perfect summer day.

I can't even be annoyed when Tory wakes up at 5:45am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed exclaiming, "The sun's awake, Mom! Make me breakfast!" It is finally warm in Minnesota. The days are long and they are full of fun.

Today was the first day in a while where the stars aligned with gorgeous weather and not a thing lined up on our calendar. It was sunny and 75 degrees by 10:00am so after breakfast I loaded up the double stroller with kids, snacks, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, sunscreen, sun hats, bottles of water and baby toys (phew!) and we were off to the park. It seriously takes 30 minutes to get out the door for a walk with kids.

At 2 years 9 months, Tory is such a dare devil at the park. My girl flies across the drawbridge, sails down slides and monkeys her way up the tallest climbing walls. I turn my back for a second to care for Aden to find Tory at the highest part of the jungle gym. She's fearless and completely in her element.

It's fun to see how much she's grown at this little park we frequent. It wasn't long ago, I cautiously held onto an unsteady toddler crawling along the smallest set.

Little Brother is chomping at the bit to be part of the action. He looks content here, but really wanted to be sliding and climbing alongside his sister.

Give it time, Aden. You'll be playing at the park in no time.

I promised Tory we'd swim after nap time. It was sunshine skies and 80 degrees when I looked out the window, so I dressed the kids in swimming suits and sunscreen. By the time I got everything together, of course, the skies clouded over and it seemed like rain was moving in. Since we'd have limited time to swim, I pulled the baby pool out of storage and filled it with warm water from the kitchen sink. This makes the third summer Tory's used this baby pool - poor girl can barely sit in it anymore and now has to share with her brother to boot! (I bought a bigger blow-up pool for Tory last year, but out of laziness and time we never used it.) Tory was happy as ever though, and so was Aden in his very first backyard swimming pool experience.

Why exhaust my air supply blowing up a big three-ring pool when this little ol' thing will do?

Baths and easy bedtimes followed. I'm hoping for two tuckered-out kids who sleep soundly tonight. (Probably not, but a mama can dream!)