Spring Break-ish

It's been a while...sorry.  I guess not much has been going on, at least not in comparison to all that I knew would be happening later this week into the weekend.  I'd been spending weeks waiting to get to mid-April, and it finally got here!  Last weekend was my cousin's baby shower.  It was on the Niagara River, and the sunset as we sat there was gorgeous!

The next morning I captured this shot of a blue jay outside my parents' house...

The boys were on spring break this week and Craig and I split the week.  He was off with them on Monday and Wednesday, and I was off Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The weather early in the week was pretty awful, so it meant a lot of time in the house.  On Tuesday the boys and I did our annual egg dyeing.

Ignore Carter's face...he was doing it on purpose.  Grrrr.

Jacob made Toronto Raptors' themed ones, and we experimented with rubber bands and white crayons.

His old school purple and red Raptors one was pretty cool :)

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon working on the reorganization of our office.  I dismantled our desk, moved the old dresser/changing table into its spot, and moving Jacob's old bookshelf in.  It definitely opens up the room a bit!

On Wednesday we decided to do frozen yogurt for dinner to use up coupons the boys had that were expiring.  Why not, right?
 

The weather had improved by Wednesday, so the boys went out to a playground in the city so Jacob could play on a nice basketball court.  Craig took this picture of Carter, who was apparently channeling Star Wars as he played.

Our big plans were Thursday, when I wanted to take the kids to the Buffalo Museum of Science, where I hadn't been since I was probably just a little older than Jacob.  But before heading there, we did a detour to the Broadway Market, which is an Easter tradition in Buffalo, especially if you're Polish.  We only make it every other year or so, and even though the boys weren't thrilled, we made it work.

Butter lambs!

Admittedly, with a gluten-free kid it's a bit more of a minefield, but he did enjoy sampling flavored popcorn and both boys ended up with a little bag of flavored nuts, which made the trip much more tolerable for them.  I got a couple new Polish eggs to add to my collection.

I'll skip the museum for now to give it a post of its own!  After the museum we headed back to my parents' house for the evening.  It was a pleasant 70+ degree day, and even though it was mostly cloudy by that point, it was still a good night to hang out outside.  I went out for a run shortly after dinner, and then I made good on my promise to get Jacob to a basketball court.  Unfortunately, the really nice one was occupied so we ended up back in my old neighborhood at a different one.  The kids at that one were closer to his age, so he was able to play for a little while, as Carter and I went over to the playground.  

This playground was the site of my main childhood playground.  It's completely different now, but as Carter played I was picturing exactly where each and every piece of equipment was.  I bet I could guess it within a few feet!  I was trying to explain one piece of equipment, a spinning ride, to Carter, and ended up using my Google Photos app to bring up a picture from my scans of my parents' pictures:

That's my brother at about five years old.

On the site of the main playset now was once a giant tornado slide!  It was so big and clearly wouldn't be up to safety standards now.  Between the height and the metal surface that could burn you on a hot day, it was a force to be reckoned with!

There used to be a public pool on the site, as well, and the swings backed up to it.  Here's me on a baby swing...

This picture is a sweet one--if only our whole relationship was that sweet!  Ha!  These swings lined the back of the park.  When I saw this picture, I marveled a bit...

...because if you look in this picture (toward the basketball court Jacob was playing on), the green house to the left of center and the tudor to the left of that are both visible in the picture above.

I would have loved to raise my kids in a neighborhood like this, with tons of kids and easily accessible play areas like this.  And that I can see that the area surrounding it hasn't changed much definitely made me marvel a bit at how it's been so many years since these were my stomping grounds!

That field beyond is where the pool used to be, and just beyond that walkway I found what I think was a footer for the swings.

Carter loved spinning on this thing!

My crazy little climber!

There's still a pretty big slide, but not quite what it once was!  He even managed to climb back up this one!

It was a fun little stop for Carter, and a little dose of nostalgia for me.  Unfortunately, the kids Jacob played with weren't the best, but I think it was important for him to get in some basketball on that pleasant day.  We had a fun one, and were all pretty beat that night!

We had a church and family day on Friday, and today is just a chill kind of day with a couple plans before we head back to Rochester for the night.  Craig is working a game, and then tomorrow we'll be back to spend Easter with his family.  Easter weekend is always a good one.  But first...our trip to the museum!