While Daddy's Away the Boys will Play!

Knowing that Doug would be in Philly for 4 days, I booked our schedule in the AM hours to keep the boys and I entertained with friends and fun rather than sticking around the house and possibly getting into trouble in the familiar atmosphere of home (seems to be a breeding ground for silliness that ends up spilling over into disobedience if we hang out here too long too often!).


On Thursday morning we went to my friend Allison's house, her sons Josiah and Samuel are just about a year ahead of each of my boys and they all get along quite well.  They have a great yard and it was a beautiful day, so we spent the two hours there basically just enjoying the outdoors.  Here's a sampling of what the boys did to keep busy...


Of course Tavin had to "mow grass" for awhile.

Koen and Josiah went down the slide basically every which way.  This was a funny one they came up with.  Poor Josiah got crushed the first few times when they would land at the bottom, but they eventually figured out how to spring up so that didn't happen.  

The water toys kept them busy for awhile.  Koen is totally into swords and things like that even though we don't really ever talk about it or show him stuff about it.  Boys will just be boys I guess!  So they filled up the squirters with water and had fun shooting at things.

Tav tried to get involved too, but he liked using his stick to make mud.

Do you see someone peeking out from the hunting tent?  I just happened to get this in the right moment.  Tav was so proud of himself for hiding in the tent and surprising me.  

Here he is waving out the door of the tent.  So cute!

We had a great time with our friends.  Thanks so much, Allison, Josiah and Samuel for hosting us!


The boys were exhausted and took great naps.  Then that evening we headed over to a friend's house for dinner too, which was a great break for me so I didn't have to worry about cooking just for the boys and I that night.  Thanks, Hilary!  Sorry I didn't take any pictures of our little ones running around.  It was too much fun just hanging out to bother picking up the camera.


Yesterday, Friday, was a very rainy day.  We have had so few really rainy days, so it was actually kind of fun to have a day where we just did things inside.  We already had plans to hang out with my friend, Deborah, and her kids, Miles, Claire and Hazel, so we met up at the Science Center.  It was absolutely packed with field trips since it is the end of the school year, but thankfully because of the young kids space, it still worked out very nicely and our kids all enjoyed the visit and the change of scenery.  Here are some photos (of course)...


On the way up to our favorite floor, the boys took a break to watch a train across the river and see the view of the USS Requiem submarine.  Tav is just so cute trying to keep up with the big boys.

Tavin spent a lot of time at the water table (and his clothes got pretty wet because of it).  He mostly concentrated on the watering can as seen here.

Miles and Koen played together so well during this visit.  They are of an age now too where they can pretty much keep themselves busy and occupied in this enclosed younger child area that we enjoy so much on the 4th floor.  Here they are working in the ball factory.

I didn't get many pictures of these active older ones, but I did catch them being still as Deborah got them fitted into some costumes that displayed the organs of the body.  Koen thought it was great.

Here are the science experiments themselves...

During a bathroom break, the boys waited patiently while making a laser light show.

Before heading down to lunch we stopped on the 2nd floor to visit the train display.  We stayed in the display for longer than ever as Koen and Miles were entertaining themselves well watching all the activity in the display and Tavin was so enamored with all the trains and especially Thomas, I couldn't rush him.  Look at his excited expression the first time he saw Thomas come around the bend.  He yelled, "Hi Thota!" and waved.

Here he is keeping an eye  on Thomas' branch line.  His lips are pursed because he's saying, "choo, choo."  Seriously, precious.

You can tell Tavin is used to hanging out with big brother and his buddies.  He didn't budge when crowded by a field trip group.  He wasn't willing to give up his good view of Thomas.

After the trains, we headed down to lunch and found that there were some tables open outdoors and the rain had stopped for the time being, so we enjoyed a little fresh air and definitely less noise outside the cafe area.  After lunch we all packed up and headed home for naptimes.  Deborah, Miles, Claire and Hazel, thanks for meeting us.  It was a great morning out doing something we haven't done in awhile with some of our favorite buds.


Stay tuned to how we stay busy on Saturday!