Memorial Day fun

Yesterday, to celebrate the unofficial start of summer, Ethan and I took the girls to Artesani Park, which is a playground and water play area right on the Charles River; in other words, a perfect location for a beautiful spring day. The girls were crazy with excitement over the water park - Julia galloped back and forth between the sprinkler fountains and the wading pool, and Madeleine ecstatically whacked her hands against the surface of the water making loud quacking-duck sounds and getting all the more delighted when she splashed herself in the face. She even decided to take off crawling around in the wading pool:



Whereas Julia chose to squat down over the sprinklers so that the water was shooting directly against her bum:



After the pool, we changed into our clothes and the girls got to play on the playground for a bit, then we popped them into the jogging stroller so that Ethan and I could go for a run and take them for a ride by the Charles River. The change of scenery was exciting for all of us, but Julia seemed to especially love it. She took delight in pointing out everything she saw: "Mama! Look! Motorboats!" "Mama, I see ANOTHER boat!" "Look, Mama, ducks!" Perhaps the ducks are what inspired Madeleine, because she spent a fair amount of the ride continuing to quack excitedly, though a significant chunk of the ride was also devoted to chewing on the shoulder straps of her seatbelt, as well as smiling at me with utter joy and flapping her arms around with glee.

We stopped near the end of the run to take a quick picture by the river:


then headed home to barbeque and enjoy our dinner out in the backyard, complete with a strawberry muffin for Julia for dessert, and a tasting of the filthy picnic table leg for Madeleine's dessert.