Playground fun

The kids and I have been trying out new playgrounds lately, and today was no exception.  The difference, however, was that today Ethan got to come along too, since he had taken the day off from work.  This made it extra exciting for the kids, and much easier for me, given that I didn't have to try and monitor both children at once.  The playground we tried out today is right next to the church where our chorus rehearses; on many occasions, Ethan and I have mentioned, as we walked into the church for rehearsal, that it looked like a playground our kids would enjoy.  So, seeing as the weather was gorgeous again today, and we had the afternoon free, we decided to trek out there.

The entire playground had a fire truck theme, which instantly sparked Julia's imagination.  Suddenly, she and Madeleine were firefighters, sleeping on their bunks (which, in Julia's case, was a bench inside one of the play structures; Madeleine decided to drape her always-graceful body across a mere beam inside the structure, then half-hang off it, fake snoring.)  I was instructed to sit on an actual bench outside of the play structure and yell, "I need some help!"  It took a few tries before I mastered my line to Julia's satisfaction.  But once I was adequately convincing, she and Madeleine leapt to my rescue.

"Come on, Madeleine!"  Julia shouted.  "Into our truck!"  I expected they would run over to the larger climbing structure, which just happened to be shaped like a gigantic fire truck:

But, nope.  Julia decided to be extra fast and furious rushing to the scene by rocking back and forth on the little tottery toddler fire truck:

"Julia, don't you want to go over on the big fire truck?" I asked her, nervous that, as I awaited my rescue from fiery danger on my bench, the measly little toddler truck wouldn't be fast enough.

Julia glanced over at the big climbing structure and advised me, "Uh, no, Mama.  That's our SUPER DUPER fire truck."

Oh.  I guess my emergency wasn't worthy enough of the SUPER DUPER fire truck.

As you may notice, Julia is not in the above picture.  That's because she scampered off before I could even take the picture, let alone be rescued.  Next thing I knew, she was on the swing, pumping as hard as she could, which, as she told me, was "pumping the gas into the fire truck, because we're OUT OF GAS!"

I never did get rescued.  I have to admit, I'm not 100% sure I would recommend Julia as the firefighter to come to your aid should you have an emergency.

Madeleine, however, was ready to have me join the ranks and help her out in her firefighting duties.  While she had initially been thrilled to play with Julia (MADELEINE: -upon entering the small play structure - Julia!  This is AWESOME!  Let's check it out!), once Julia ditched us all for the swings, Madeleine turned to me to be her playmate.  She immediately climbed through one of the tunnels leading into the small play structure, inviting me to come through with her:

ME: Oh, I don't think I can go in there.  I think I'm too big to fit.
MADELEINE: Yeah, you're just too big.  You just have to wait... you just have to wait 'til you grow LITTLE!  Yeah, you just have to grow little.
ME: I have to grow little, huh?
MADELEINE: Come on, Mom, come over here!  (running off to the "beds".)  Mom, it's easy.  I'll show you!

While she was confident in showing me how to mount the "beds," she had a little more trouble when dealing with the tunnel slide over on the big super duper fire truck climbing area.  As I waited down at the bottom of the slide, I heard a little pipsqueak voice echoing through the tunnel, "I need a little help here!"  I peeked into the tunnel to see her feet in the tunnel, with the rest of her body splayed on her back on the top step of the climbing structure,.  What can I say?  Balance and poise have always been Madeleine's strong suits.

After an exhilarating afternoon at the playground, we tired the kids out even further by walking to dinner at one of our neighborhood restaurants, where Julia ordered her beloved mac 'n cheese.  I mean, really, why stay home and make box microwave mac 'n cheese when you can PAY to order the exact same thing at a restaurant?  At any rate, it was the perfect end to a perfect spring day, and I can only hope the kids are thoroughly wiped out enough to go straight to sleep...