Nana Visit - No School

Zachary had no school today, and we had kicked around a few different ideas of what to do with his time off.  Originally we thought we would go to the beach in Santa Cruz, but checking the weather showed that it was going to be chilly there.  So we decided to try out a playground that sounded cool. It was said to be a polynesian theme with a boat replica on an island.  Sounds cooler than it was.  I will definitely go back in the summer, because its water feature looks very cool, with fountains, a little stream, and even a rock slide.  So that might be a fun alternative to going to the pool.  There was a little island in the middle of a large area that looked like a wading pool, but with signs everywhere saying "no wading".  huh?  ok.  The entire island was covered in sand.  not a huge sand fan, but the kids had fun digging.  Note to self, take the garden spades out of the sand bucket - they are pretty dangerous when wielded by little ones.

Here is the bridge to the island.  The palm trees are a nice touch.  

Zachary seemed to be in a bit of a funk, not able to maintain a good attitude, or have fun except in spurts.  He started playing a game with the soccer ball that he made up, so that was cool for awhile.  We had brought a picnic lunch with us, and started out at a picnic table, but the boys got too chilly in the shade, so they ate in the grass in the sun.  Wyatt was enthralled with some shoes that were thrown over a branch high in the trees.  Zachary contemplated trying to climb a tree to get them, but buzz kill mom would not allow it.

We ate lunch pretty early, and the boys were complaining a bit, and Zachary wanted to go home to play with his toys, so we finally left.

However, brilliant Nana, on the way home, we stopped at a 7-11 to get Icees.  I had Z come in with me to help carry everything, because I was also buying 2 gallons of milk (why they are cheapest at 7-11, I don't know).  I started to get smalls for everyone, until a nice lady pointed out that the medium size was on sale for $0.49 (instead of $1.50), so of course I had to get those.  Nana got an iced coffee.  This was the first Icee for each of the boys.

Uh oh, I think they may have liked them too much!  It had the added bonus of keeping Yannick awake. I did not want him falling asleep in the car so i could bathe them all when we got home.  All that nasty sand = bath.

We made it home with all awake, and they got clean and into bed.  I also went to bed.  Shockingly, all 3 boys fell asleep.  Zachary was to have a playdate with Jeffrey (his mom coming to pick him up), and I was not thrilled that I would have to wake him up.  But she ended up being about an hour later than she thought (on her way home from work), so Z got a serious nap.  I woke him up, and he was excited to go to Jeffrey's.  Sadly, it was a very short playdate - less than an hour - because his tennis instruction time got moved up.  He got home a little after 5pm, and the two other boys had only just been up for a short time.  They were exhausted!  Helps explain Z's bad mood at the playground.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Sequence for Kids with Nana.

And of course the evening was spent playing Sequence. :)