Our Play Group

This summer, Mandy and a few of her girlfriends had made plans to join a play group. The play group never became a reality. But she and her friends are trying to make their own, albeit disorganized, activities. They've been swimming a few times, at our friend Katie's pool, which has been great for Brendan. His first time he was rather frightened. After pulling out the kiddie pool in the backyard, and a few trips face-first down the slide, he is starting to get over his fear of water in the face. And the second trip to Katie's pool, was much less dramatic.

This week we decided at the spur of the moment to go to the Butterfly house in Faust Park with our friends Jessica and Josie. Both Josie and Brendan were a little temperamental but everyone survived the day. The Butterfly House was pretty cool, if you've never been. OK, maybe cool isn't the word as it's rediculously humid inside the butterfly house, but you get the point. Mandy was worried going into it that Brendan would have a hard time finding the butterflies. But there were so many that this was definitely not an issue. Even little Josie was able to spot them. They really are beautiful to watch.



It was very hard to catch the butterflies in mid-flight on camera, but I swear they are there. This is Josie and Brendan taking a moment to check them out.





Brendan is in a bit of a "I want to run off and do exactly what you ask me not to do"phase. So one of the few things we could do to keep him with us was to allow him to push Josie. Sometime you gotta do whatever works.






Mommy and Brendan at the end of our visit to the Butterfly House.





After the Butterfly House we decided to cool off from the humidity with some fun in the play room. There we played with some puppets and a little dress-up. Here is Brendan the bee.






Josie the butterfly.






After the Butterfly house we ate a picnic lunch and rode on the indoor carousel. This is the second time that Brendan has been to this carousel, but the first was much more of a fiasco. Once the carousel started the last time he screamed until it came to a stop. This time, he had a lot more fun. Before the ride started he was making his "horsee sound" and wanted to show Mommy the horse's nose, eyes, and ears. Once on his horse, he enjoyed petting it's mane and saying, "Nice, nice." Once the ride began, he seemed to enjoy it, with a few smiles here and there and no screaming this year.

Can't wait for more of our play group activities!



Josie and Jessica enjoy the Carousel.





Brendan on the Carousel. No screaming this time.