Playtime

We got a grant in our town to develop four new parks - we went to one of them today that was just finished, and we all had such a great time together.

First, we tested the swings. Clara insisted her tiger wanted to ride with her, and said "You hold on Tiger! Hold on careful to your mom!" (He did).

Elena tried helping her sister out with the swing, but per usual, Clara just wanted Mommy to push.

Steve and Elena tested out these twirly things we had never seen before - man, do they spin!

Elena just lay her head back, closed her eyes, and spun in the sunshine to her heart's content. Luckily, she does not seem to have her mom's motion sickness!

Clara preferred to sit on the seat of the swirly thing and gaze off at the other kids/trees/dogs instead of twirling much - but she definitely enjoyed herself, too.

There is this huge, Eiffel-tower-looking-thing in the middle of the park, and the girls had fun trying to get up - it was definitely designed for older kids (or parents, as we saw one dad head right to it and go to the top before any of his kids got near it) but their gymnastic skills definitely gave them a leg up on trying this out. They just seem so confident!

Then there is this contraption - we don't even know what to call it, and had never seen anything like it before this park. It sits at an incline, and although this one older girl was helpfully pushing, we suspect kids are supposed to sit/sprawl on it and push themselves around with their feet, achieving "liftoff" at the apex?

Our girls are are purists at heart, though. They left the fancy new playground to head over to the nearby turtle park across the street - which (when the fountains on top of them are not turned on) is simply four concrete turtles and a big, big concrete circle. They LOVED it, and we spent most of our time here. The girls pretended they were cats, and here Elena is running off to get her runaway kitty.

Having caught up with one another, they switch roles, and now Clara pats her little cat.

Oh, no! Cat on the run!

As usual, the real toy (kitty) brought along got stashed with Steve. We forever have our hands full carrying the girls' stuff!

At one point, we had turtle face-off, where we each claimed a concrete beast for our own.

And still later, the girls played on their own and Steve and Christina got to relax and chat at a picnic bench. Progress! Who are these children?

Then we took a little walk around the neighborhood. We went past a tree with some fallen fruit, and when Clara picked one up Christina said: "Oh, you found a crabapple!" And Clara promptly said "No! Not a crab. Just a little apple." Poor, confused mom.

On the walk, the girls took advantage of some lush yards and plopped themselves down for numerous naps along the way. They thought this was hilarious.

All in all, just a nice day to hang out together as a family.