Ken came home and gave me a pep-talk and 3 days of rejuvination (Memorial Day weekend had perfect timing for my world).
We started the new week with a plan to have lots of positive interactions and many sites to see.
This week, we hit the YMCA pool twice, the library twice, the Living History Museum, the Des Moines Museum of Art and The Pappajohn Sculpture Garden. It is good to get out of the house a little bit and we had a great time!
The last time we visited the Living History Museum, Anna was 1/2 her current age. We took the stroller and I had to carry her a bunch. Well not this trip. 1st of all she is 42 lbs. She occationally crouched down to take a rest, but she also ran from place to place with the big kids. All the kids asked "when can we go back?"....so it is good that I bought a year pass, although I was just thinking the pass was less than us paying to go back one more time in the next 13 months! It is great exercise and has beautiful views, so I am happy to go back.
The Des Moines Museum of Art was sort of a bust. We went in for a bit and there was a nice "art guy" who was very helpful, telling us things. We arrived just before lunch, so we went and had our picnic before returning. WELLLL....our 2nd visit was short lived. I wanted to keep Anna attached to me at all times and the others close by. I think that would have been ok, but let's just say that it isn't the most welcoming place in the world to families. This guy came up and said, "first of all there is no touching at all" (that was WAY established by the time we met him, since we had been in the museum earlier and I discussed this with the kids before we left home, on the way to the museum, during our picnic...you get the idea) Then he looked at me and said, "and you don't have any candy or drinks do you?" no - clearly I wasn't schlepping food into a fine arts museum. anyway - we left pretty shortly after that. I told the big kids I would bring them back some day this summer when I had a baby sitter for Anna. She didn't touch anything, I wasn't going to let her touch anything and the kids were all behaving very well, but it just felt.....I can't come up with a good word, let's just leave it at unwelcoming. I also knew the Sculpture garden was less than 3 miles away, and decided that would be a better place for us! I was very right! It is still a "no-touch" kind of place, but you could take pictures and there weren't people everywhere looking at you like you were going to let your children be wild monkeys.
Betsy...I wouldn't worry too much about the first day. There are always big expectations for us and for them and it takes a little bit of adusting for the expectations to meet up to each other. We always seem to have one or two cruddy days at the beginning of any break and it's a blast after that. It just has to settle a bit.
ReplyDeleteI love your photos! Especially the sculpture garden! And people who look at the kids like they might be waiting to turn into wild monkeys -- well, bananas to them! LOL!
I always start summer thinking that the kids are going to have to transition into vacation and being home and less structure and lots of time together and all of that and what I forget is that I, Suzanne, forget to include myself in that equation. I need time to transition. The first days have felt chaotic at times and I can't seem to get the rhythm of anything right now. I do not have ADD but I sure feel like I do. I get any one project or task 10% done before a child's request redirects me. Sigh... All that being said, we have had some great moments and hours and when I break it down into chucks, I can say summer has been great so far.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that stinky museum experience. I'm glad the sculpture museum left a better taste in your mouth.