Busy, Busy

This weekend, our GS troop had an overnight at an Aquarium. Mary wasn't there but fifteen minutes before she exclaimed to me, "This is the best GS trip EVER!" Her excitement never waned. She loved all the exhibits (especially the penguins and sharks), she loved the craft (a fish made out of cast off A O L disks), and the touch tank (horseshoe crabs are COOL!), and especially the sea lion show the next day. I was surprised at how much sleep I got--once the lights went out, there was hardly a whisper to be heard--and all the girls in our troop were out cold. I'd always heard from other leaders that it was a good program...and now I will recommend it also.

The trip did cause Mary and me to miss the opening day parade for Little League Saturday morning. After last year's debacle , I wasn't too upset about it. But John took Keith who marched proud and with no tears what-so-ever. Mary and I were only home from our Aquarium adventure for about an hour before we did have to leave for her first game of the season. She was a bit tired and cranky from the overnight, but she basically kept a good attitude and played well. She got two hits from her two times at bat (both from the first pitches off the pitching machine!), and she even made a few good attempts at getting outs on defense. (If she'd been paying a little bit more attention for one particular play when she was in the outfield, she probably WOULD have caught the ball. Ah well.)

Keith doesn't have his first game for yet another week, but his league is mainly an instructional league, so they don't have as many games. The league let younger kids in it this year, too, so he's playing with several kids younger than he is. John has been helping out at practices and it has just been reestablishing his firm conviction that he does NOT have the patience to teach preschoolers. Keith is holding his own, and we're eager to see how well he does in the more-competitive tee-ball league next year.

I bought the kids a sandbox, and it's probably the best toy I've ever bought. There was a particular kind I wanted, but when I didn't find it after going to two stores, I decided I wasn't in the mood to drive all over the city looking for it. So I bought the standard "turtle" one (Mary liked it...) and some buckets and shovels--and the kids are in HEAVEN. Now when they are outside, they spend almost the whole time in the sandbox. Of course, now I'm remembering the few reasons why I've never bought a sandbox before. The sand sneaking onto the kids' clothes and then "depositing" itself on my clean floors, the sand "mysteriously" taking refuse in Izzy's hair in HUGE amounts, the million WORMS and bugs that somehow sneaked their way into the covered box (Seriously? How did they do that?), the sand being tossed into other kids' eyes and the sand dust getting inhaled, the pound of sand that hitches a ride in each kids' sneaker.... I'm learning to look past it all and try to enjoy the ZEN of the moment--that my kids are having fun, and I can sit next to them in the sun reading and perhaps getting a bit of sun on my legs. Yes, it's going to be a nice, sandy summer, indeed.