Great Outdoors

Every day after picking Amelia up from school, we pass by a local park. Since I pick her up at lunch time, we are both starving by the time we got home. I thought that maybe one day I would pack a picnic and we could eat it at the park on the way home.

Last Thursday was that day! I only told Amelia that I would have a surprise for her when I picked her up. She was so excited when she saw GG in the passenger seat! Not excited enough to think SHE was the surprise though! She immediately got in the car and said, "What's my surprise, mommy?". Before I could answer, she spotted the blanket and the picnic basket and asked, "Are we going on a picnic?".

We had asked a family friend, Linda, to join us. She was babysitting her 3 month old grandson, Donovan, so he joined us too! When we got to the park, Amelia picked a spot and we set up shop.

Amelia loved getting to visit with Baby Donovan (actually, everyone did!). Amelia took it upon herself to snap some pictures while we were finishing up lunch.

Amelia was pretty antsy upon finishing her grub. Luckily I packed a huge bag of bread crumbs so that we could feed the turtles and fish at the pond. (There are no longer ducks there, rumor has it that the turtles were biting their feet and they found a new pond to call home).

I was so proud of Amelia when another little girl walked up. She said, "Hi! What's your name? I'm Amelia. Do you want to throw some bread too?". Sharing has been a very difficult concept for her lately and I was glad to see her approach the little girl in such a socially acceptable way!

The turtles and fish were glad she shared too!

After a few rounds on the 3 play areas, we decided to head out. I had one more surprise up my sleeve. We stopped by Paul's on the way home for some ice cream. Amelia's only requirement was she wanted her ice cream to be PINK!

I promised Amelia that we would do a special surprise like this again. And, so everyday since the picnic, when I have picked her up from school, she immediately asks if we are going on a picnic or if I had a surprise for her!