Just stopping in to wish everyone a happy new year. We decided to spend the day at a park that we haven't been to in a couple of years. I had totally forgotten about this park! Moira brought it up while we were thinking out loud as to where we should head for the day.
It was so much fun to see the older two boys running ALL over the park. The last time we went Jonah was a baby, and Jed was still on a feeding tube. Wow! They were both big enough to really, REALLY have fun. They plain tuckered themselves out with all the running they did today.
Aubrey walked around with a big smile plastered on his face the whole time. Although he had to take things much more slowly (the park has a *massive* wooden play structure that has a ton of steps and platforms), he had no less fun then the big boys.
The girls, as big as they are getting, had a ton of fun as well. Jeremiah remarked how wonderful it was that our 13 and 10 year olds still loved being pushed on the tire swing by Dad. When I related this statement to Moira (13 yro), she said, "Well, yeah!!! Of course it's fun when you have DAD pushing you!!" When Jeremiah pushes them on the tire swing it is more like being on an amusement park ride than just a plain ol' tire swing. I'm pretty sure there are many parents there that get a bit freaked out when they see Jeremiah pushing our kids on the tire swing. I'm not kidding. I'm also pretty sure no other children there scream like mine do while on the tire swing. Come to think of it, I've never heard any other children *screaming* while on the tire swing....unless of course they got on the tire swing with my children :-)
We ate some bagels and cream cheese for lunch at the park. Totally GAPS legal. JOKING! Hmmmm, let's say an intro stage re-do is in order! That's ok, because I have NO regrets of our little sneaks here and there. But it is time to get serious. The sugar, as infrequent as it's been around here, is indeed wreaking havoc with some of us. A new year, a new day, a fresh start. Looking forward to it.
After some more playing we headed down to the small pond to see the three ducks, that we saw from afar, up close. From far away we could see that one duck was sporting a red head! I've never seen this type of duck before, not in person, nor in any of the many nature books we have had come through our home. The ducks were not interested in the left over bagels that we had, but the small little minnows and polliwogs were! Our children were totally enthralled with watching the little fish nibble on the pieces of bread. ALL of the children. Even the big, teenage ones :-) I say this with thankfulness after we had just witnessed the ill behavior of a few teen boys at the park just minutes before. Can we say......Hmmm, trying to search for a decent word to use.....nope, can't find a suitable, all ages approved word..... These boys were using inappropriate words, to the point that Jeremiah asked them to stop using such language. He told them that they were an influence on the younger children at the park. At that point the boys jumped up on the back of one of the park benches and jumped up on TOP of the picnic shelter's roof. Oh, why yes, that is totally appropriate behavior at a public park. Let's get 4 or 5 teen boys on top of thin metal roofing and see what happens. Insert rolling eyes.
We drove home, but had to stop at a few stores along the way. We arrived home all tuckered out! Poor Aubrey wailed all the way home from our last stop. That's 15 minutes of non stop wailing. ugh. I promptly put him to bed. He was begging to go to bed. He couldn't get his shoes off fast enough to get into bed! Seriously, I don't ever remember him being so eager to go to bed. That was one seriously tired little boy. Bless his heart.
Dinner was ice cream. Well, yes and no. We put chicken on to cook, but that takes one and half hours to cook. So everyone decided to eat their dessert first. Funny thing...we had a bunch of left over chicken :-)
This year we made sure to get the live stream of the NYC new year's celebration up and running way in advanced. Last year we actually 'missed' new years by 5 or 10 minutes due to a delayed stream time issue on our computer! We shook our coins, clinked our glasses of sparkling grape juice and then ran outside with our pots and pans. On the count of three we shouted as loud as we could and banged as hard as we could on our pots. Lot's of fun. This year Jedidiah joined us. He was a little bewildered by all this wacky celebrating :-)
Each new year brings the sound of guns going off by our neighbors. I have to seriously say I've never, NEVER heard soooooo many guns going off before in the six years we've lived here. It almost sounded like the grand finale of a fire works show. But it wasn't. Just our whole 'neighborhood' celebrating loudly!
Tomorrow, er, actually....today, we will put our Christmas decorations and tree back in the attic. We will also sit down to write our goals for 2013. We will help Saoirse with her list. Then we will share our lists, encourage each other in their goals by lending any ideas we may have to help them reach their goals. We'll help them prioritize their lists, letting them know which items may need to wait (until proper funding is available). Everyone is looking forward to this exercise. I started mine today while driving to the park. I figured I needed a head start, since I will likely be helping others to make their lists.
We took some pictures at the park, but I will have to share those later. They are on Isabella's camera, and I currently do not know where her camera is. Isabella promptly went to bed after our pot banging, so pictures will have to wait until later today :-) I'll try to share some of our goals for the new year as well.
Praying for a blessed new year for each of you!
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