Boys Weekend

Some weekend in August that seems like a lifetime ago (since so much has happened since), Mike had a well deserved few days away from family and responsibility. He took some guy friends up to our place in NH and had a fun weekend. Well, while Daddy was away, the boys and I played! I came up with some special activities for me and the boys to do to make it a special weekend for us...which also means it was an especially busy weekend for Mom. But it was fun! Here's some of what we did:

Got Some Good Snuggle Time

We started Saturday with a walking adventure. First stop was Dunkin' Donuts. When I asked Dylan what special things he wanted to do while Daddy was gone for the weekend, he said "Dunkin' Donuts, the bagel store and sleep in your room." Pretty reasonable requests so he got his wishes! While on our donut shop run I decided to grab a box o' Joe and take it across the street to the local fire station. It's always a good idea to do little nice things for the brave men and women that work to take care of us and keep us safe. It was a slow day so the nice fireman who accepted our gift also offered to show the boys the fire truck. Pretty cool!

As you can see, this was an unexpected photo op. The boys were still in their pj's\play costume.

Cade and Meow

Dylan would only agree to getting in the truck when I said I'd get in with him.

Cade tried on a hat!

The donut\coffee stop was the first mission of our morning walk. After we left the station, we continued on to Dudley Pond to see if we could spot the swan that lives there. We saw lots of ducks, beautiful still water and then....finally...the swan.

See the white blur in the middle?

I got in a good 4 mile walk (including hills and pushing 100 pound of kid\stroller), the boys enjoyed munchkins, got a good lesson in good deeds, saw animals and sat in a firetruck. Pretty awesome start.

Our afternoon activity was of the artistic type. We have some big boxes that we keep in the unfinished part of the basement and pull out every once in a while for the boys to play in. They set it up as a house and it entertains them for a while. I pulled out those big boxes into the driveway and had them "decorate" their house\buildings. We also spent some time just playing outside.

For dinner, they had skull and bones ice in their drinks.

Day 2 Started with more snuggles

We satisfied Dylan's last wish on day 2. We went by the bagel store and picked up breakfast for us and our friends. Play date at the Young's house!

Cade, Dylan, Mackenzie and Arden

We had a fun morning having breakfast, playing inside with toys and burning off some energy in their fun backyard. We only left when lunch and nap time was approaching. And since they live only a little over a mile away, I got to get in another little walk!

That afternoon\evening we had another special "project" to do - making lollipops! We picked out groups of 3 jolly ranchers, heated them up until melted and then put in our lollipop sticks. And after only a very short wait (less than 5 minutes), they were ready to enjoy!

Watching Them Melt

Yum! Lollipops!

Mike was back with us Monday morning. It's funny, the boys are getting so much older and independent that having them solo for a whole weekend isn't nearly as exhausting as it used to be. What was exhausting was having to plan\shop\set up\clean up the "special projects" I did with the boys in addition to the usual (all meals, clean up, mediate, entertain, wiping bottoms, bedtime, etc.). Made me a pretty busy lady. But it was so great to have a special weekend with just me and the little boys.

However, there was one project I had set up but did not have time to get done with the boys that weekend (my lists are always longer than real time allows). So, a couple of weekends later they finally got to do the last one - surprises in ice!

The trick to the activity is to talk to the boys about how to get the toys out and what methods to use....good problem solving. After trying a few different methods, we tried dropping them on a hard surface to release the surprises. It worked and pretty soon they had a couple of treats that I grabbed at the dollar spot at Target - dinosaurs, bouncy balls and fun bracelets.

Dinosaurs - Rawr!!