Time to Play!

We spent some time in the city to play with kids and then eat some tasty food! Could have been a great day. Unfortunately, it was over 100 degrees outside, which made all us adults wish we were naked. The kids just ignored the heat and played with red faces. At least they enjoyed it!

We took the kids to Smith Memorial Playground/house. It is a free play place for kids (with optional donations). It was huge! First we went down a giant slide at the playground. Sorry so many pictures are blurry, we were speedy slide go-ers! And Lila and I took a spill at the bottom. It was great fun.

Then we spent some time on the actual playground, avoiding the sun as much as possible.

Finally, after an excruciating long time (it seemed), we went into the playhouse. Unfortunately, there was no AC. I don't think it was actually hotter inside, but there was no rare breeze to help cool you off. I suppose we should have been grateful that they didn't let the heat swelter in the house like it does in a car, at least the windows were open. But instead of being grateful we sweated our brains out and occasionally passed out on a bench. I think the other parents were better sports about it than Todd and I were. It was just so hot!

I do have to say that it was a WONDERFUL place for the kids to play. I did very much enjoy watching them all have so much fun, and would certainly go again on a more temperate day. When we were finished, we had some time to kill while waiting for Dan and Kelsey to meet us in the city. So we decided to stop by the Philadelphia Art Museum to get some classic Rocky shots. The parking was outrageous so Stephanie and I drove the cars around and let the kids sleep while Todd, Scott, and Lisa went to see the statue.

We then headed over to Reading Terminal Market, one of the places Dan and Kelsey had been wanting to go. We were going to meet them there. We drove into a parking garage, and we all read the prices-

Up to 1/2 hour $6.00

Each additional 1/2 hour $6.00 each

1 1/2-12 hours $29.00

Yup. Once we hit 90 minutes it would cost us a whopping 29 bucks per car. Of course once we had driven part way in there was no way to get out without going through the garage, and once you took a ticket it was an automatic $6.00. So we all jumped out of the car, decided we would run into the market, get lunch as fast as we could, and try to make it back before our 1/2 hour was up. We would just have to miss out on going with Dan and Kelsey. Luckily, I read a sign in the elevator. If I hadn't done that we would have had a much worse experience. I read that if you were going to the market and spent $10 at any one place, you could get your parking ticket validated and then 2 hours would only cost you $4. Whooh! We were all relieved. We still didn't get to spend quite as long as we wanted there, and Dan and Kelsey got stiffed because they got there about 40 minutes later but we all had to leave at the same time due to car shuffling we had to do. But!!! We did eat the most delicious roast pork sandwich there. They were large (as all the sandwiches around here tend to be) and I easily ate my entire thing it was so good. We did walk around just a little and now at least I can say i've been there.

Proof

Remember how I said Lila loves Jensen and loves to kiss and hug him?

Jersey Shore

Too bad I didn't have huge poofy hair and loads of makeup for this trip. Instead, just frizzy hair and mostly al naturale. I was worried about having up to 19 people (including babies) in a 3-bed 1-bath beach house, but the largest number of people we ever had overnight was only 16 (wohoo!) and it was way fun anyway. We basically spent every day at the beach, came home and ate dinner with the families upstairs (Todd's parent's friends that are kind enough to let us come with them and take over the entire downstairs apartment), and then play a game or 2. Then usually chat a bit when the kids finally went down. Not too bad. 

Maybe later if I feel like it I will post more pictures or some of our videos. All in all, a great week!

Brian's Dance Moves

The first week I came out to Philly Todd's Parents were out of town. So we were lucky enough to take care of my brother-in-law, Brian who is down syndrome. He goes to this great school for adults with disabilities and he lovingly refers to it as his "college" since all his brothers graduated high school and went to college. Todd's mom wrote everything out that I needed to know and went over it with me, and also wrote important events on their calendar to help as well. On Tuesday night Brian's school was putting on a dinner event where all the classes had put together a program of singing and dancing. He was way excited to go, and had been talking about it for weeks. We got out the door a little late, I was a little frazzled about getting there, and of course hit monumental traffic on the way. When we finally pulled into his school a few minutes late, there was a whole car in the parking lot. Yup. Just one. I was so confused. It hadn't even crossed my mind that this event would be anywhere besides the school. So I poked around, and finally found someone who worked there-I think a janitor. But he didn't know anything about it. He called his supervisor, and he also had heard nothing about it, and mentioned that if it was to be held at the school he probably would have been notified to help out with it.

So I am beyond confused and frustrated and scared. I don't want to ruin Brian's special night. Not knowing what else to do, I offer to take Brian out to eat as consolation. He says he would like to go out to eat, and we just need to go back to his school at night instead of morning. That the program is at 10:00 at night. He says it over and over, that we have to go back at night, at 10:00. I feel so bad. So we get him chicken nuggets and and a JBC at Wendy's (he loves both bacon and chicken nuggets), and I pick him up a chocolate donut on the way home. Still feeling awful.

When we get back, I look at the paper Margie had written for me, and see there, plain as day "Tuesday night, CADES program 6:00 p.m. at Springfield Country Club." HELLO. I realize that instead of trying to make it up to Brian by taking him out to eat, maybe I should have come home and actually CHECKED THE PAPER. That is how confused I was. I literally had not considered that this could have been anywhere else and must have just missed that when Margie mentioned it as she went over the paper with me. Later I realized she had also written Springfield Country Club on the calendar as well. I never checked to see where this was because I had assumed! A lady had left a message on the phone to remind us of the time the day before, so I knew I had the date and time- I didn't think I needed to check the paper for anything. Yeah well I learned my lesson!

It is almost 8:00. It has to be over, right? I called Todd and asked if he thought I should try to make it there for the end. He didn't seem to think there would be much to catch. So I looked up the phone number for the country club and asked if they were still there. The lady said it looked like they had just literally finished up the singing/dancing program. So I crammed Lila back into her carseat, chased Brian into the car, and manically drove to the club.

Well, Brian of course had missed the dancing, but we hung around for a good 45 minutes of visiting with the people he knows from his school. And he got a free shirt! But he kept saying that he "missed it." Yes, now I am feeling even worse. So I asked one of the program directors if they were going to do their dances for anything else, maybe at school? And she said that she thought that would be a great idea, and she would talk to some other people about maybe putting the program on for the actual school they have for disabled children still school-aged. I think she knew that I was upset and Brian was disappointed.

So, yesterday we went to Brian's school at 10 a.m. They were having a talent show. And Brian got a solo. Instead of doing the whole program, Brian got to do the dance all by himself for the other kids in the adult program as part of the talent show. I promised him that I would video record it for him so he could see it, and he got excited about the idea of having it posted on the internet too. How could I say no after all the stupidness I had done? Of course I can do that for him. Love ya Brian! I'm sorry! Hope you like your video!