We traditionally spent the 4th of July visiting our friends and family in Philadelphia. It was a convenient point in the summer to visit, and we enjoyed spending the BBQ and fireworks holiday in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Of course, the pandemic paused that tradition last year, and this year it’s simply not safe to travel yet with the kids remaining unvaccinated. I still wanted the long weekend to be special though, so in addition to some matching USA-themed clothes for the boys, we had a fun weekend of activities.
The weekend began with kiddie pool day! I got Aaron a little floating tube so I don’t need to hold him the whole time we’re in the pool, and it was a big hit. Our kiddie pool has a “roof” to shade the kids from the sun, but it kept deflating and it ended up being quite useless. So I ended up buying an 10 foot by 10 foot canopy that can keep the sun off of us. Bonus: When we don’t use it for the pool, we can put it up over the picnic table and get some shade that way. It’s been life-changing for our time outside, and it’s relatively easy to put up and take down, I can even do it myself in a pinch. When we do the back yard remodel we’ll definitely want to make sure we build in some more permanent shade areas.
On the morning of the 4th of July, I decided to take the boys out for a 5k honoring Yellowstone National Park! We would have gone on a walk anyway, but as silly as it may be, it’s more fun to turn our walk into an event with a theme, race bib, and medal. We also stopped at little playground by the library for a few minutes.
That evening we didn’t go see any fireworks, but we did get to see a bunch going off just by looking out the windows while we were eating dinner upstairs.
The REAL playground adventure came on Monday! The library playground is really just a place to run around and jump on things, it doesn’t have slides or swings or anything. I recently discovered a playground that’s a little over a mile from home, so on Monday morning I loaded the kids into the car and took them over. I was a bit apprehensive about this adventure, juggling both a toddler and a baby on an outing on my own is still a challenge, and I’m still nervous about the potty training situation with Adam. Thankfully, it all went really well. Adam got to go on a slide for the first time! He was a little scared when a bunch of other kids showed up and started playing, but it wasn’t enough to fully stop him from playing. The pandemic really threw a wrench in his socialization. I’m not worried though, I’m sure he’ll get back on track once we can keep spending more time around other kids.
We also watched a bunch of baseball. Having the TV set up in the family room was a good move, it’s so nice to be able to keep up with the A’s, the Giants, and sometimes the Phillies while we’re just doing our thing with the kids. As I may have mentioned before, watching baseball at home is kind of a new thing for me. Traditionally, we would go out to bars and restaurants to see the games, or go to the park itself! Having kids limited this some, and the pandemic paused it completely. We still plan on going to games when we can do it safely, but I think we may end up settling in to baseball-at-home now that we have a family and are enjoying it together.
In all, a very nice weekend, but a tiring one. Aaron is now 7 months old, but he’s still waking up at least twice a night most nights. Plus, caring for a super energetic toddler who wants activities and a baby who needs a lot of hands-on time is tough. They have lots of great toys in the family room, but making sure they get outside and have activities every day is really important to me, especially as we have limitations imposed by the pandemic.