Cheap Entertainment

Keaton's school had a field trip planned yesterday. Parents must attend all preschool field trips, so I didn't sign the permission slip for Keats. I asked his teacher if the field trip meant that there would be no school that day and she told me that it was still a school day. So. Yesterday I was sick (still am today) and I dressed my snotty body, brushed my hair, packed a lunch for Keaton, and we headed to school. Which was closed. Sign on the door said no class, meeting at the field trip destination instead. Grrrr. Keats was pretty disappointed. We headed back home and Keats ate his lunch at the table, all alone, a little mopey. I decided I was going to lie down since I felt so cruddy...but then the Mommy Guilt Trip Express rolled into town. (well, that and Sullivan chose not to nap...) I got up, made a better attempt at looking like I had, well, looked in a mirror at all that day, and took the boys downtown.

I needed to sign Keats up for soccer, which we did at the City Hall. As an adult, this place seems like nothing special, actually is sort of a pain to drive around...narrow parking garage, dark. But wow did the boys think we'd gone somewhere special! Police cars everywhere, police officers walking around...and a little man-made pond! Oh, joy of joys! ;o)

We did the sign up (he starts soccer for the City of Salem on April 11th) and then I told the boys we could go troll for cops. Lol. We walked down to the police station and tried to spot one. Nothing was going on so we headed down to the water. On the way, we saw three or four police officers get into their cruisers and drive off. Sullivan actually started to run across the "road" in the garage, without looking, so I pulled him back to the curb, even though there weren't any cars. Just then, a police cruiser pulled up and I think the cop knew what I was doing, pointing out to Sully that he needed to look for cars, so he motioned for us to cross. Sully thought that was fantastic: walking right in front of a police car! Wow!!

I wish I were that easy to entertain. Oh wait...I am.

So, we walked around the water for a while. Sully gave me heart failure a few times. Keaton is very trustworthy but Sullivan is still such a flight risk! Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Here, the boys are lying on a cement "bridge" and splashing their hands in the water.

Keats is running across the same bridge-thingy.

Sulky Sully: Mean Mama wouldn't let him jump in the water so he decided to sit down and have a little pout.

I don't know why I assumed this little viewpoint was safe. Maybe because kids actually do live in Salem. And behind me is a little playground for some sort of daycare. So, I didn't think the bars on the fence would be soooo far apart...until I snapped this picture and realized Sully was able to fall right through! Below is a very rapid-moving and swollen Mill Creek. Yikes. I was so mad! I saw a City employee walk by and I wanted to lay into them regarding the lack of safety...but I knew I'd be wasting my breath. So now I just want to write a letter! I suppose in this time of economic difficulties I will just be told to keep a better eye on my kids next time. Lol.

After our thrilling adventure at City Hall, we headed to a used bookstore downtown to swap some books. While the book-buyer looked through our books, they boys and I headed to the childrens section. They had lots of Scholastic books for anywhere from fifty cents to two bucks, so we got about six books. I told Keats he could choose one book and he very excitedly chose a book on the ancient pyramids of Egypt. He told me several times that he couldn't wait to get home and show Daddy his new book! So funny. I think the only pyramid exposure he's had is from a cartoon called the Backyardigans. ;o)

I know these two pics are really blurry but I like them anyway! These were from a couple of days ago when I took Sullivan to the park while Daddy and Keats had some time together. Keats & Sully are together so much now, they definitely need these little breaks from each other.