Do you know the way
April 16, 2010 Leave a comment
to San Jose? No, we did not get enough of the Children's Discovery Museum a few weeks ago, and just had to go back. It was another outing for the outdoor playgroup, and not only did my friend Linda organize, but she also offered to drive. And, do you know what?
She can drive there without a GPS. This town is 40 minutes from here! I am beyond amazed. I had the recent experience of driving around a neighboring town for 30 minutes trying to find a Michael's that I have been to countless times (first time sans GPS). In my case, no GPS, no Michael's. Seriously, almost two years after moving here, and I am still reliant on that darn thing. I'm like Pavlov's dog: the minute I hear myself turn the key in the ignition, my hand is on that dang machine pressing every button I can find. I won't even go into the time (granted, we weren't quite moved into the house yet) that I had to use the GPS on my iPhone to find the girls school…*sigh*.
Linda volunteered to drive us today, and this was heavenly, as not only did I not have to worry about getting lost (yes, even with the GPS), but Nicholas completely and utterly adores her little boy, Cy. He is almost 3, and has acquired almost a god-like status in Nicholas's eyes. Anytime we pass a park or even get out the jog stroller (I heard that snicker), "Cy? Cy? Cy?". Needless to say, when Linda offered the outing, and then said she'd drive so the boys could hang out a little bit longer…we hopped right on that.
If you remember from our last visit, we focused primarily on fire trucks and sand pits. We did visit the fire truck briefly today (it's impossible to walk by it), and pretended to drive the ambulance, but the biggest draw? The garden. Oh, and the water area…we spent a good 30 minutes there throwing balls and enjoying the heck out of ourselves. In the end, though, the garden won hands down though as the place to be today.
The children's garden is an area where kids can run around, shovel, plant seeds, dig holes, dig more holes, shovel, move dirt around in a wheelbarrow, and did I mention, shovel? Today was a bit more special than usual as it is Green Week and the museum partnered with other groups, like Recology, in order to expand the kids ecological horizons.
In addition to shoveling compost (yes, the boy was in heaven), they were able to make small planters (out of rolled newspaper) and sow a few seeds to take home in said planter. Exciting, but the compost still won. The irony is that we did nearly the same thing in our own backyard for hours yesterday. Our compost bin is fully of nearly finished compost and is earthworm heaven. Whether we were in our backyard or the museum's though, Nicholas was ecstatic. I nearly had to drag him out of there (the bubbles were calling) and you can bet planters for him are high on the list of items for the new house. A small backyard, maybe, but plenty of room for a Little Guy-sized garden.
We hit the bubbles for a while, and I even managed to get a halfway decent shot of the boys playing with the bubble sprayers. We finished up with a last run on the fire truck, and headed back to the car for a snack and the ride home. Little Guy fell asleep about halfway home, snoring just a bit (it's very cute when they are two and it doesn't sound like a freight train), and proceeded to sleep for another 3 hours after getting home. A good day, and I am trying not to think about how I explain the lack of Cy after June 6.
Instead we are going to hit every event we can with the walking group and outdoor play dates until we leave.
Then again, it's not like we have our pack-out scheduled or anything…but we'll worry about that another day!
