Picnic at the Park Times 2

If you know me at all, you know I just adore being outside when the weather is out.  I actually feel guilty when I'm inside too long on a gorgeous day.  In the Burgh we've been having outstanding weather which means that the boys and I have been outside as much as possible.  I think 1/2 of the meals we ate last week we did so outside just because it is so pleasant (even though that means packing everything into the stroller or picnic basket to do so).  It's worth the extra effort to soak up as much of this amazing weather as possible before we really head into the cooler months.  On Friday night we had a special picnic at Mellon Park (where "A Fair in the Park" was happening) with Alex, Hilary and their kids, Huck and D.  The older kids were awesome playing on their own. Tav and Huck played endlessly with sticks they had found and Koen and D were taking care of a baby doll D had brought with such care, it was really sweet.  

Huck romped towards me on his "horse."  Little boys can be so cute!

The big kids even ate dinner on their own.  THey were pretty hungry, so not all of them would take their eyes off their plates.  Notice that baby doll ("Butterfly Sweetheart" as D has named her) is joining them.

We adults (and our little picnic blanket pal, Penn) had a nice time chatting and watching our big kids do their thing.  

I would be happy to enjoy dinner like that with the lovely backdrop, gorgeous weather and dear friends every evening.

On Saturday, Doug had to leave around 10am for his preaching day, so after Penn's nap I loaded the kids into the stroller/scooters (seriously we must be a comical mess walking around our neighborhood) and we headed out for some errands and then to the playground for a lunchtime picnic this time.  Here are my 3 beautiful boys.

Let's just take a closer look of the really good shot that is of Koen and Penn posing on the blanket together.

Penn stayed on the blanket with me eating lunch for most of the hour (that kid can really eat!).  I snapped about 10 pics of his sweet face, but he moves too much these days, so this is the only one worth sharing.

Koen and Tavin were super happy the whole time riding their scooters.  They were pretending to spy on the man who was mowing the grass on a big riding lawn mower.  (At one point I discovered part of the game was trying to throw grass at him which I promptly stopped...Oh My Goodness, cut me a break boys!)  It was great though to see them really enjoying one another's company and working together at a fun game.  Tavin just lights up when Koen treats him as a peer and wants to spend time like that with him.  Here are the scooter boys rushing back to report that the lawn mower man is indeed on his way back through the grass yet again.  

Doesn't Koen look like he's waterskiing in this picture?  Look at that concentration as he tries to coast up the embankment.  He's quite the scooterer (I just made up that word).  I also love Tav in the background working his hardest to get over to big bro lickety-split.

That's it for now.  No other picnic pics to share in this post, but you can be sure we will be picnicking for as long as this great late Summer/early Fall weather lasts.  I love it!