From school, we headed out to the strawberry patch. The boys were so excited. We had a picnic under the tent beforehand to get some energy for the big pick.
This is what I get for asking them to make funny faces. Check out the pouty lips. I think they're practicing out to be models.
And, never to be left out of any big boy fun, this is what I get when Bennett realizes what's going on.We headed out with our buckets. I must say, this year it was so much more pleasant because Bennett could walk.
It was also much dirtier, but I quickly learned there was no way to keep them clean, so I let them go to town. R and H were great strawberry pickers. There were very few that they shouldn't have picked, and once they learned that they could cross rows without destroying the plants, a whole new world opened up to them. 
They got to the point where they could spot the good ones from a couple of rows away. I do need to apologize to all the pickers who have come in the days after us, because, as good as the big boys were at crossing rows, Bennett was equally terrible at it. There were a few destroyed plants left in his wake, but I'm just trying to convince myself that they were already past their prime and he was merely putting them out of their misery.
Reeves doesn't quite grasp the concept of "showing off" his prize strawberry, but at least he was amenable to having his picture taken, which on some days is a rare treat for me. After rest time, we met Bryant over at David and Jenny's for dinner. The boys enjoyed their hotdogs and then headed out back to play. 
(And yes, that is Benny sitting in a big chair all by himself and staying in it throughout the meal. I love second children. Reeves NEVER would have done that!) I have to admit here that as good a baseball player as I bragged about Reeves being on Easter, Henry blows him out of the water. He hit two over the fence - way over the fence. He is REALLY good. Unfortunately, I was pitching, so I didn't get any pictures of it. David cooked our burgers on his Big Green Egg. I have never thought that the cooking device really made that much difference, but these were the best burgers we have ever had - EVER! Even better than any we've had in a restaurant. It might be time to seriously look into investing in one of these things. And if you happen to have one, feel free to invite us over for dinner any time.
Oh yeah, and it's super sweet to see The Daddy cuddling with and reading to The Boys. But mostly it's just The Me, sitting silently and watching, and if I feel up to it, snapping a couple of pictures.
The whole scene made Benny's hair stand on end. 
The older children, the ones who are supposed to protect our growing brood, they were content to make dinosaur nests and toss the youngsters to the maddening crowd. 
You just can't get good help anymore. I suppose we have to continue keeping our eyes out for them still.
Not wanting to do anything too involved before I had to leave to handle my part of hostess duties for the big hunt, Bryant and I decided to take the boys down to the park on the Old Navy Base. The boys absolutely adore this place, and unfortunately, Bryant hasn't had too many opportunities to join us there, so this was a special day. 
Of course, R and B were ecstatic to have their daddy joining us on an "adventure", and we made the most of our limited time there. First we visited The Big Blue Playground. (I capitalize it because it is THAT important around our house.) The boys showed Daddy all the wonderful things about one of their favorite playgrounds. 
Bennett even took a twirl in the spinning seat, and Reeves climbed higher than he ever has on the rope structure. 
I think they were both showing off.
Before we knew it, Bennett was soaked too. Once he's halfway there, why not let him go all the way. He would be warmer running around in it than with me holding him.
Oh well. At least we had brought a blanket so we could wrap them up. They loved it! And stayed in it, running back and forth, batting at the streams of water, and covering up the jets with their crocs much longer than Bryant or I would have guessed. 
Reeves did eventually admit that he was getting cold, so we headed back to the golf cart, stripped them both down and wrapped them up in the blanket - and Daddy's undershirt which he removed to at least partially clothe a naked Benny Boy. It was a pretty classy scene.
I can't wait till the weather warms up for good (although I definitely will miss a few cool days here and there). In this coastal town, it opens up a whole new wealth of fun possibilities when your plans for the day can include, "Bring bathing suit."
Of course, we worked our way through the ball room to the water room, still my least favorite room in the place, but other than Bennett and Pinckney dumping a couple of boatfuls of water on themselves, the boys and their clothes all remained happily unsoaked. 
In natural progression, we moved on to the shrimp boat, my favorite room. It is incredibly fun for the children and requires the least amount of parental supervision. Love it! 
B and P gave it the old college try and then decided they would rather grocery shop. So CFS stayed with the older ones, and I followed the littles into the Publix. And herein lies the key to having a truly enjoyable experience at the CML. You MUST go with another adult if you are bringing a number of children who fall into different age ranges. 
Inevitably, your four year old is not going to want to do the same things your 18 month old is, and unless you have the freedom to leave one or the other with someone else, you are certainly going to make at least one, if not both, of your children extremely unhappy.
Although, you could have a day like Bennett where you pretty much just wanted to sample each room for six minutes before either moving on or going back. Needless to say, while P was shopping, I was playing Pong with B and his shopping carts. At one point, being now fully discouraged that he could not simply bowl me over with his miniature cart laden with plastic fruit and loaves of bread, my brilliant child decided to crawl under my legs and try to drag his cart through. One of these days, Alice! Anyway, the Toddler Room thankfully solved pretty much all his problems. Caroline shortly arrived to tend to Soup, while the oldest two continued to man the shrimp ship. This is where I am so proud of the way we have all raised and trained our children thus far in their short little lives. 
At this point, Bennett was DUN. When I went to check on R and F, I could hear him crying. They still wanted to play on the boat (I think the wellies they put on really drew them in), and they had done so well all day and have proved themselves worthy of relatively unsupervised play in the past, that I left them to play while I dealt with Bennett. I was so proud of both of them. There was not one scuffle, not one cross word. 
They were blissfully lost in their world of make believe adventures on the high seas, catching shrimp and taking care of sick turtles. Even when Caroline and I came out and gave them the five minute warning, they happily obliged and made the most of those last moments of play, a marked improvement to falling on the floor and crying that it is almost time to go home, wasting what little time they had left. 
And as the final cap to a great playdate, when I returned to my car, there was not a ticket on it, even though my meter had expired. Thank you, Jodie, for convincing me to get this membership, and thank you, Caroline, for joining me and mine today. 
When you finally did make it up to the door, it was only to put your name on a list. (That should have been the first clue.) But we did, and given the fact that it would probably be at least an hour before we were allowed, by the fire marshall to go in (another clue - maximum capacity - never a good idea to enter, even if it is legal), we headed to Juanita Greenberg's for some supper. The children were really quite well behaved. Bennett sat a the head of the table and flirted with the college girls behind him. William served as his wingman. 
Leeze and Reeves spent most of the time coloring, taking a break only to ingest the five bites of supper they would totally consume for the night. And we enjoyed our adult beverages. Gammy even remembered how much she likes coloring!
Bennett got so soaking wet in the water room that we had to take off his shirt because, since it was about 23 degrees outside, he would be warmer with just his jacket. Outdoor survivalists are we. Seriously, couldn't they look into changing the water room into something else for the winter? 
Reeves looked like Oliver Twist on the shrimp boat. He was politely holding onto his one blue fish, waiting for the basket as the aforementioned giant elementary schoolers ran amuck around him. "Mommy, is it my turn now?" Sometimes I curse these good manners we are trying to imbed in him. I wanted to scream, "Just knock them down and take it!!"
Nope, but you wouldn't have guessed it based on the playground we visited the other day. This is the one on the old navy base. Caroline and hers met us and Lolly there Monday afternoon. (Where CFS promptly stole my "on retainer" babysitter for Friday night!) 
It was sometimes hard to find the children because their blue clothing camoflauged them on the blue slide and the blue mat-thingy that the playground is on and the blue whirlygig. 
Honestly, I think this is my all time favorite playground safety floor. It is so much better than any natural mulch or sand. It is cleaner than the fake mulch made of old tires. It stays cool to the touch in the summer, and falling on it doesn't hurt anymore than falling anywhere else. This playground is great, but it is a little lacking for the under three year olds. There are no swings, and the only slide is super high, but as long as you position one adult in the crow's nest to facilitate the little ones sliding and not falling off the shear cliff, it's pretty good. Reeves and Fordham havealways loved putting acorns into this spinner. 
There's a little hole in the bottom, and I think they like watching the acorns fly out as they spin them around. This day is was not acorns but shells that were their main ingredient. I didn't think much of it until I later found Bennett with three said shells stuffed in his mouth. Seriously. I don't understand the appeal.
Lol became favorite grown up of the day when she pulled out the candy. 
R and F relished in their Tootsie Rolls, and were very protective of their "hammock" on which they were eating them.
They climb up. They roll down. They climb up. They run down. They climb up. They slide down. Repeat as necessary until bedtime is a breeze. And if it ever snows in our fair city, we're making a beeline to this place!
He calls it his "yight-haber", due to the fact that his l's are y's and his s's are h's. He prances around the house making "shwing, shwing" noises and fighting bad guys. Bennett got a green one and immediately beat it against the floor as soon as we got in the house. A shard of hard plastic popped off, so now both of their lightsabers are wrapped in clear shipping tape. (I'm pretty sure this makes them safe for 15 month olds now! They're kind of like tempered glass now. If he breaks it, it breaks as one piece, and unless he's going to be a sword swallower when he grows up, we're OK.) It was actually a fortuitous breaking because now they are both a lot stronger than they were before their clear casts were applied. Bennett has already learned how to push the button to make the light go on and off, and remarkably, neither of them has left theirs on for extended periods of time, so the lights still work. Seriously, three or four days of solid fun use out of a dollar store toy is A-OK in my book. 
Luckily, Campbell didn't try to bolt too many times, so other than making sure we knew where his stroller was, watching him didn't require too much work. He was a dream and slept the whole time.
we headed in. The boys loved it! Since we bit the bullet last year and bought the membership, I am always pleased to see that no matter how many times we go to the aquarium, the boys are always fascinated and amazed on each visit. How lucky. It is such a great place to go on days that are too hot or too cold or too rainy. Money well spent.
The touch tank was the first hit of the day, but it was really only the appetizer for Camp Carolina, which was where we spent most of our time. 
The boys LOVED it! They made scary faces with the scarecrow out front. It had been a little more done up for Halloween, so it was a little different than usual. There was a tree trunk with buttons they could push to scare themselves. 
(Who knew? It worked everytime!) The campsite was the location of choice. I think the big boys liked how spooky it was, and of course, the little ones just wanted to be where the big boys were. I like this tendency of younger siblings. It makes the group a lot easier to watch.
Hello!! There is a huge shark a few small feet from your heads! Anyway, now that Bennett is a certified walker, he can have his run of the shrimp boat. 
He does pretty well holding his own, even against big kids he doesn't know. 
I think he and Pinckney kind of kicked this one girl out of the wheelhouse. It wasn't that they pushed her or anything, they just sort of came in and took over. I'm pretty sure she was just being nice to these "babies" by leaving.
I tried to point out to him that it wasn't actually a beaver but an otter. We'll see if this distinction sticks for the next visit.