A morning at the playground

Oliver has been getting better and better at riding his bike, and he's been asking for a couple of weeks if he could ride his bike to the Wood Glen playground. It's a nice, neighborhood park about 1.5 miles from our house. I knew he could do the total distance with no problem, but wasn't sure if he would have enough energy to ride there, play for 2 hours, and then ride home. We've been talking about it every day, and he decided this week that was ready to do it. And you never know if you can do something until you try, right? So this morning was his morning to try.

And what do you know? He did it! In fact, he did it with no trouble at all. And he zoomed ahead on the sidewalk and screeched to a halt several feet before an intersection to wait for me and Buttercup. I guess that he's been listening to my warnings and instructions, after all. :-)

We left the house before 9:00 and made it to the playground in under 15 minutes, so we had plenty of time to play before lunch and naptime.

Oliver and Buttercup had a short snack break before playing -- between the two of them, they inhaled over half a pint of strawberries and almost a full sleeve of graham crackers. And they had just had breakfast!















Oliver was being a goofball (as usual) in the swing!




































I tried to get a cute picture of Buttercup laughing, but she was too engrossed in the wipes to ham it up for the camera. :-)



















After swinging, we went exploring. "Hey, Mom! I'm swimming in the tall king snake grass!" (Note: we did not see any snakes at all, fortunately!)















Turns out that Buttercup has a very good memory of taking pictures in the bluebonnets last week. She saw the flowers this morning, ran over, plunked herself down, then held out her hand to me and demanded an M&M. What a cutie!! :-)
















I feel the same way about all of the pollen . . .

































Then we chased each other around the basketball court.















"I'm going to get a Buttercup!!"
























































All of that climbing, running, and biking sure makes you tired!



















And the last picture . . . proof that you don't really need to buy toys for your kids. Just give them some rocks, an old plastic pitcher, and a sandwich bag. :-)