Outings and Aboutings Part 2

When I started writing the first Outings and Aboutings post, I quickly realized I had too many to include in one entry, so I split it in half.  These activities all occurred closer to home...

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A couple weeks after Thane's birthday, we finally had weather warm enough to pull out his new water table.

Since we had the water going, we figured we might as well set up the sprinkler.

Since the sprinkler was going, we decided we might as well invite some of the neighborhood kids to play.

Even Graham jumped crawled in on the action.

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Every semi-sunny afternoon we head outside to ride bikes and trikes and hang out with neighbor friends.  I still have a small pile of dirt leftover from setting up our backyard garden.  No surprise to learn that dirt attracts boys like a magnet.

Extra baths around here these days.

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We've visited a few new parks...

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It was our turn to host pre-activity days again last Friday.  I taught the girls how to make friendship bracelets, something I loved doing when I was a girl.  Isn't nostalgia great?  It was especially nice that the girls all seemed to enjoy it too and they caught on very quickly.

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Last Saturday our Stake hosted a Fun Run.  Aubree, Bryce, and Thane participated in the 1K Primary race.  Next year we should do a better job preparing ahead of time for it, but regardless they all did great.  Aubree and Bryce took off and ran with their friends.  I "ran" with Thane. A few steps into it, he declared, "No, me not want to run."

I convinced him to keep trying (the promise of Gatorade at the end was a big motivator for all three), and he managed to run almost all of it.  Granted, he did take a short break at the middle to tell the volunteer at the turn-around spot all about what he was doing and to try to convince the man that, "he could run too."

Mark ran the 5K and insisted that he push Bryce and Thane in the stroller.  (Well, to be fair, he wanted to push Thane and Graham, but Graham was sick, so I wouldn't let him go.)  What can I say, Mark is a glutton for punishment!  Despite the heavy load on a gravel trail, he still rocked it!

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After the run, we raced home to change, then headed out for our community's annual parade.  This was our first year experiencing said parade, so we weren't sure what to expect.  Turns out it's a lot like the small town parades I loved as a kid growing up.

Highlights included the school bands, antique tractors, gymnasts & dancers, and racing tractors (told you it was small town!).

Oh, and of course the candy that was handed out.

Poor, sick Graham was a trooper.  By late that night he was really sick (103 degrees fever, wheezing, whimpering, scary), but thankfully he's better now.