Spring is in the air!

As you may remember it was snowing here on Monday and the temperature was around 29 degrees. Well, the snow is all gone and today was a beautiful day to go to the park. The high today was 53 degrees, but with the sun shining it feels more like 70 degrees. That's Colorado for ya! I love it up here! Anyway, as I was saying it was a great park day. I loaded up the kids after lunch and after Andy's very important morning nap, and headed to the park. The girls were so excited to check out our newly renovated park at "Mainstreet" in Parker. There are parks all over the place up here so we try to go to different ones each time. The one at "Mainstreet" is the biggest and the best! The girls immediately take off in separate directions as soon as I let them loose, only to hear me call them back for a quick lecture on staying together and where I can see them. "Yes, maam", is all I hear as they are in mid-run again. Oh, to be young again. Not a care in the world. They both head for the slides as Andy and I go find a quiet spot to eat our snacks. I could tell Andy was loving watching all the kids run from one side of the park to the other. After his snack I put him in one of the baby swings to see if he would like it, and boy did he ever! He had so much fun swinging, he cried when I took him out. Peyton found the monkey bars and decided it was her mission to get across all six bars without falling. It took her a while, but she finally did it all by herself. She was so proud! Emily would try and could only manage to make it across the first two or three. Everytime she fell, she would hang her head and stick out that bottom lip (her signature face). She would say, "Mom, Peyton can do it, but I can't!" I took her aside and explained to her that Peyton is only doing it because she never gave up, and she kept trying. I told her the more you try the easier it will get. Well, the next thing I know, while I was helping Andy slide down the slide right by the monkey bars, I could hear Emily talking to herself. She was holding on to the first rung of the monkey bars saying, "I'm not gonna give up. I'm gonna keep trying." I have to say, it made me tear up a little. I'm such a softy. I was so proud of her. She never did get all the way across but that was ok, because she knew she tried her best.
After almost two hours at the park I put Andy back in the stroller and we headed back to the car. I have to say, I hate having to load up all three kids in the car. It takes forever to get them all buckled in and settled. Now that the girls are a little bigger they are both in booster seats. The thing about the booster is, it is easier to get in and out of the car but it is a nightmare to have to buckle the kids in. When Peyton was in her old seat she knew how to buckle herself in. I had Emily and Andy on the sides so I could easily just go to each side of the car and strap them in. Well, now that the girls have boosters it is a whole different ballgame. I still have Peyton in the middle because it is easier to get Andy in and out if he is on the side. Because all their carseats are all crammed in the backseat of the car it is almost impossible to strap them in, let alone find the stupid buckles! It makes me want to scream! I'm doing a bible study on the "Fruit of the Spirit", by Beth Moore and Jimmy thinks it's funny to say things like, "Mel, what would Beth Moore do?", right when I'm about to hurl one of Andy's toys across the car. Too bad he's not always there to make me laugh. Anyway, I say all this to lead you into my next story. As I was getting all the kids packed up and in their seats I managed to somehow forget that I had left the stroller sitting on the sidewalk in front of my car. You would think I would have seen it as I was driving off, but no, I was oblivious! I noticed when putting the girls in that we still had library books lying on the floor of the backseat. So...off we went to the library. After dropping the books off, I took the girls by McDonald's to get a milkshake. It wasn't until we got all the way home and I was about to unbuckle (thank God I didn't) the kids when I realized I forgot to put the stroller in the car. I could have kicked myself! To make a long story short, my stroller was still sitting right where I left it! Whew!