The new play structure has a musical theme, with drums and bells for the kids to play in addition to climbing and sliding. 
Eli and I were both thrilled with the new additions, and even though we'd already spent time at the other playground, we opted to explore the new digs. I think we'll be make more frequent visits now that the playground has gotten a great new face lift!
We then moved down to the water for some splashing, but Eli spent most of the time playing in the sand (no surprise there!) with his good friend Hannah. 
After Hannah went home Eli decided to do some splashing after all, only his venue of choice was the fountain instead of the lake. He had a great time running around in the fountain with two little girls we didn't know...that's our little ladies' man! 
Finally we settled onto a park bench to enjoy our picnic lunch. It was a very fun day, and some great mommy-son time! 
Our little family has a new favorite place: Pine Lake Park. 
We've gone several times this summer, including twice by bike. It's only about 10 miles round trip, but still a good workout with several hills along the way. It's a really great park where we've enjoyed everything from playing in the water and on the playground to watching little league games and playing on the swings. 
We've even made friends with the local wildlife, including the very bold ducks and a fascinating garter snake that Eli followed half way across the park! 
We're forming a new Sunday afternoon tradition of packing a picnic and biking to Pine Lake Park. We're really enjoying the fun family time and the wonderful summer weather! On this particular day our trip to the lake was an impromptu one, so we didn't have a change of clothes for Eli. After he played in the water we stripped him down for the ride home (he kept his diaper on, though!). 
Well, it's a good thing we had no aspirations of child modeling for Eli (though we all know he sure is cute enough!) :), since his new m.o. when someone points a camera at him is to cover his face or turn around. What happened to my little ham who was more than happy to smile for the camera? Even all of Emily's tricks that usually work so well (you can just hear Emily and myself mooing in the park!) aren't fool-proof anymore. He's even gone so far as to tell me to turn off the camera! Needless to say, he's got us all concerned about the much-anticipated family photos we have scheduled in two weeks - we're talking extended family, happens once every couple of years, family photos! Please pray that Eli has a change of heart or at least decides to be exceptionally cooperative during the family vacation. :)
They did a great job of getting everyone involved by creating age-appropriate tasks; Eli's age group helped by coloring the boxes in which the food is shipped. It was so neat to engage in this act of service together, both as a congregation and as a family. As you can see, we especially enjoyed our incredibly cool ensembles: hairnets and plastic aprons! I'll talk about Eli's hand-over-the-face photo posture in a later post!
We had such a great day on Tuesday that it earned two seperate posts: pre-nap fun and post-nap fun! You'll have to check back again soon for part 2! We started the day with a super-fun playdate with our good friends Jennifer (my friend), Clara, and Hannah (Eli's friends). :) We headed to Bellevue to try out the new sprinkler park, and boy was it a hit! It took Eli a few minutes to warm up to the idea, but once he got comfortable he had a blast! The park is really well done, with random sprinkler here and there as well as squirting Orca whales (one of which I'm pretty sure is life-size), a half-sunken boat, a spitting frog, a spraying dragon and sea anemones, and a rotating globe fountain. There's so much to explore, and it's all really neat!
Happy 4th everyone! We hope you all had a safe and fun Independence Day. We had a busy but fun-filled day. In the morning we hit the Kirkland 4th of July parade. The event starts with a kids' parade, but I don't think Eli really understood that he was in the parade - he was too busy eating his snack! :) He enjoyed watching the real parade though, especially the fire trucks and police motorcycles. After nap we headed back to Kirkland for a barbecue with some good friends. Eli, Clara, and Hannah had a good time playing together, and Eli enjoyed snacking on (and sneaking) marshmallows while we made s'mores in the backyard. We headed home just before the fireworks began, and the noise was a little much for our tired little man. Fortunately he was so tired that he went right to sleep despite over an hour of "loud banging." Though he was wary of the noise last night, he asked several times today "where's the fireworks?" Maybe next year he'll decide he wants to see them. We'll see!
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