Memorial Day with the girls

Our niece graduated from Yale this weekend (smart girl, got a full scholarship), so we didn’t have any big plans. On Saturday we all went up to see her. That was partly because the actual graduation was early on Monday morning and there was no way we were going to make a 1 and 5 year old sit through a Yale graduation (strangely, Tony Blair speaking holds no interest for them).

So on Monday my wife took the train up to New Haven (it’s her niece, I’m the in-law) and I had the girls. The day couldn’t have been more beautiful. Cool morning, high around 78, nothing but sun.

So we spent the day in the park. Of course for city folks, “park” means “playground”. There’s something about city parks. I don’t know if this is true across the country, but around here when I drive in the suburbs I see these gorgeous park/playgrounds with wonderful brand new equipment. The only problem is that no one is actually there.

I didn’t grow up in New York, so city parks are a relatively new thing to me. I love them. Sometimes we have pizza delivered right to the park so the kids don’t have to stop playing. And of course the ice cream truck drives right up.

So that was our day. Wake up. Park. Lunch. Different park. Home. Though actually, since it’s Memorial Day weekend most people have left the city. So the parks were actually very quiet. The city is kind of peaceful on holiday weekends.

Before hitting the park I picked up water balloons. Danielle had a field day. (all pictures via phone, my wife had our camera at graduation)

Stocking up.

Getting ready to throw (at me).

If you aren’t a city person, the blue thing behind Danielle is one of the sprinklers. There are four around that blue circle on the ground. When the weather is hot, they will spray throughout that blue circle.

Tori wasn’t exactly sure what to do with a water balloon. She got one with a tiny hole in it and thought it was the best.

Tori wanted to try the big girl swings

And Danielle had fun taking her down the slide

Sidewalk chalk is always fun at the park. Tori is eating cantaloupe and drawing (thankfully not eating the chalk)

I have no idea what Danielle is making…

Of course there was ice cream and Italian ices. Danielle rode her scooter all day and everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. Since my wife wasn’t back yet and we don’t have a grill, Memorial Day dinner was Chinese food. Not exactly traditional, but yummy all the same. And both were asleep by 7:30. A very nice day.