in the mucky mud

It's like a compulsion with me these days: If the weather is even halfway decent, I have to take the boys outside somewhere. We're so sick of being bottled up inside the house! Yesterday, it was about 45 degrees (heat wave), so Liam hopped on his bike and Max hopped into the stroller, and we set off for the nearest playground (at the elementary school). Unfortunately, when we got there, we found it filled with kids in an after-school program. Big kids. Who wouldn't let Max climb up the slide, and wouldn't let Liam go down the slide (he managed to climb up). We were there for about three minutes, then I made the executive decision to make the trek to the second-closest playground (at a former school that's now a community center). On the plus side, there weren't any other kids there, so the boys got to play freely. On the minus side, it was a giant mud pit. But having gone all that way just to play, the boys were determined to make the most of it. So they slid, and they swung, and they teeter-tottered until they couldn't teeter-totter anymore. And they whooped and hollered.


And Max discovered that disembarking from the bottom of the slide was much more fun if he stood up and jumped off -- splat! -- into the mud every time. By the time we got home, the boys were tired and exhilarated and starving -- they inhaled their dinner in record time! Today, it promises to be even warmer, but unfortunately, Liam picked this morning to throw a huge fit before school, and his consequence is that he doesn't get to go to the park tonight. Luckily for Max, today is his day at home with Mike, so I should be able to take him to the park for a little while by himself before we go pick up Liam. There's always a downside, right?