On Saturday I took the kids to the Urban Ecology Center’s Plant Sale. We looked at the plants and flowers for a quick bit, then headed inside to check things out.
We stopped at the Native Wisconsin Animal Room, and checked out the reptiles.
The nice guy working even took out a snake for us to touch.
Baby S needed to eat, so we parked it in the lobby and the big kids (yes, the twins are now officially “big”) played with toys and the table with magnets. AND THEN…..
We spent a solid 20 minutes on the “secret slide”. Because I couldn’t slide down with a baby on my person, I trusted the kids to stay together and go out the building to the exterior slide entrance. Luckily Little T was the only one strong enough to open the doors, so her little siblings couldn’t leave without her.
The volunteer working reception, Laura, was so helpful and ok with us hanging out in the building for most of the morning.
Next we headed up the observation tower for a view.
Little A faced her fear of the see-through stairs, and we all went steadily up the tower.
And they were thrilled about getting our photo taken once we got to the top.
But the view! The view, kids! We talked about downtown, and the tall buildings. And the blue sky and the construction, of course. After we headed back down, we went to the small pond to look at lily pads and tadpoles.
The sun was hot, so we walked under the observation tower to look at the bike path.
And then spent another 20 minutes yelling “HI BICYCLES! HI WALKERS! HI RUNNERS!!!” to the folks using the Oak Leaf Trail.
And then we stuffed our faces with bananas and headed to the car.
I had plans to make this new pork recipe for dinner, and thought it would taste delicious in a tortilla with something crunchy and pickled on top. And the only place I could think of to get such crunchy and pickled items was Love Handle. I’ve never been, but seen the menu, so we went.
Jim was super nice and helpful, and suggested a few things. I ended up saying yes to all because there’s pretty much nothing I like better than sour and pickled foods.
Little T was my helper and carried our bag.
The twins were no help at all but kept themselves entertained by tickling each other.
And Baby S helped by carrying (eating) my keys.
I had the kids solo because my husband works really hard, and a lot. So weekends aren’t the typical everyone-is-home-and-just-hanging-out weekends in our house. But our Saturday without Papa was totally successful. And there were no prolonged meltdowns, I ran into an old friend, the kids burned up some energy, we helped support a great organization, and we got outside. Life’s alright, people.
Oh, and the pickled onions and carrot/jalepeño business was amazing on the make-shift tacos. I highly recommend it all.
Happy summer, everyone!
A. Storm
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