36 weeks and my mind is STILL running on high

This is my self portrait taken yesterday in a state of creativity. I was tired of the same old belly shot so I thought I'd try it from different angles. I dunno...I'm kinda liking this one for some reason.

Anyway, the school year is rapidly coming to a close and my neighborhood group is beginning to wind down. I will continue to be the coordinator for our playgroup and I'm starting to compile a list of activities we can do this summer to keep us all from losing our minds. Here are some of my ideas so far:

** Have a playgroup garage sale.
** Weekly picnics.
** Have a movie night.
** Host an etiquette tea party.
** Splashpark outings.
** First Tuesdays at the Art Museum.
** Pool parties.
** Potluck happy hours for mom's night.
** Day at the horse races.
** Putt-putt golf.
** Minor league baseball family nights.
** Arts/crafts themed playdates.

I realize some of these are lofty ideas, especially with me having a newborn on the way in 27 more days, but don't some of these sound so fun???

Lessons from Laura

This afternoon I was able to watch one of my favorite shows growing up...Little House. That probably dates me, but who cares?? It was, and still is, a great family oriented show that I would look forward to every day after school (following Brady Bunch, of course).

This particular episode featured a pre-teen Laura who has a crush on a boy at school and she is trying to attract his attention in a different way. Since she is such a tomboy she lets out her horrendous braids for a loose mane of hair. Her crush calls it a mop. She "borrows" some of her mother's expensive perfume and the boy asks if she can smell the dead skunk that is certainly around. Poor Laura.

I can remember all too well the unrequited love of a childhood crush. That, coupled with the awkwardness of puberty, is forever etched in my memory bank.

What does that have to do with this post??? Well, seeing this episode made me recall my day at the aquarium with D. We had about 12 moms and kids meet at the Children's Aquarium for a fun morning of fish, food and fun! I checked the list of RSVP's before I left just to see who I would know and one name popped out at me. I met R at a previous event and we hit it off pretty well. We've since been to a couple of events together and have talked a bit here and there.

I was excited to see her and C again. She and I just click as mom's, although we couldn't be more different- she is sorority sister-esque and I'm the jeans and tee kind of gal, she is intelligent and classy and I'm just plain old me. I feel like she's too good to be my friend. Weird, isn't it?

This motherhood connection may very well be the only thing we have in common. Yet I still enjoyed talking with her and even got a bit excited when she chose to sit by D and I at lunch. SO JUNIOR HIGH, no??? Ha!

I don't really know how this "friendship" will go. There's not much to tie us together other than we both have little boys whom we cherish and our parenting style seems to be in synch. Our kids are 2 years apart, we are of different religious beliefs, we live in different cities...nothing else in common. It seems such a waste to not pursue what could be a friendship but for now I'll table the occasion and think on it. If it happens, it happens.

Why couldn't I have been such a logical thinker when I was "in love" with my schoolgirl crush??

My rambling post is now over.

Photos coming soon, I promise.

Another HOT one!

Today was our 12th day above 100 degrees. I'm not talking 100 degrees either, I'm talking 104+ degrees!! HOT!!

We've been pretty good at hunkering down inside and waiting for some semblance of Fall to arrive. However, there's only so much inside activities you can do. We struck a balance on Friday.

We met R and G at 10am for a little museum fun. One of the local, small museums is having a dinosaur exhibit and I just knew the boys would love it. Since R lives out that way it was a perfect invitation for her and G.

On the way over she called to ask if it would be okay to invite S and M, another meetup mother/son duo. Apparently, S texted R while R was driving out to the museum and sounded like she needed to get M out of the house. I certainly empathize with that sentiment. She showed up about ten minutes after R and G.

Admission is just $9 and the boys were free. Not too bad!! We strolled through the exhibit and I snapped some pics of the dinosaur oddities. At the end of the exhibit was a large sand pit with buried bones and brushes. The boys had a blast digging and scooping sand.



R noticed that there was an outside section to the museum that held about 12 animals. Since G is an animal FREAK we had to go check it out. I was sure to keep sun exposure to a minimum. Even though it was 10:30am it was well over 90 degrees already!



We made it through the animal section and ended up at the butterfly houses. We made a quick run through there before heading to the exit.



D was asleep within 5 minutes of pulling out of the parking lot! That's what I call a successful playdate!

Today we went to the IL's for a little water sprinkler fun.



Dad is at the local pool grilling burgers for a back-to-school bash. We decided to sit this one out since it was likely to be jam packed!

Is this the DMA or the Zoo???

So yesterday's outing to the DMA for Free Tuesday Childen's Activities didn't exactly go off without a hitch. There were four of us who met up at the museum.

D and I parked in the wrong parking garage and had to scrounge four quarters out of the ashtray in order to leave the lot. We found another one (that thankfully took plastic) and prayed the rain would hold off as we walked the mile to the museum.

Once inside, it was a zoo! Kids everywhere!!! Free apparently gets folks out of the woodworks.

We slipped inside the theater for a little storytime action and after singing a few songs, the storyteller began a L*O*N*G oration on fishermen and legends of long ago. Obviously, our under 2 kids got bored really quickly and we decided to slip out.

We found sanctuary in a kiddie room off to the side. It was sort of hidden and had a lot of great under 2 toys to occupy the boys.

It was approaching naptime and that signaled time to go. We trekked back out to the car and drove home. All in all, a successful morning adventure.