And the green grass grows all around, all around- and the green grass grows all around.

And I will never get that song out of my head, out of my head... The boys and I went to Island park (after a quick Starbucks detour, of course) this morning. When we first unloaded I thought "Oh my god, I should have brought coats! We're going to freeze!" Which is a bit alarming, considering it isn't even September yet. Fortunately Blake was snuggled up in blankets and the boys ran around so much that they warned right up. I walked around and around and around the perimeter of the playground (and around and around) and warmed up pretty quickly myself.




The morning turned into one of those perfect, beautiful, glad-to-be-alive mornings. The boys played beautifully together, and they played beautifully apart. Mason introduced himself to a group of boys who were playing a made-up version of baseball (with a football) and had a wonderful time. He spent some time spying on them and working up the courage to approach them, and after Ash and I gave him some space he marched right up to them. I NEVER would have done that at his age, and I was almost ridiculously proud that he had. There were two older boys, around 13 or 14, and a boy who was 5 and also named Mason. I hope that my boys are as nice as these two older boys were when they are the same age. You can never tell about that age, they can be sullen and uninterested in younger children (almost full-blown teenager attitude) or wonderful and just interested in having a good time outside (still little boys at heart). I didn't want to leave the park, but despite all of my snack-packing, hunger called. We got adjustments before going home for lunch and a rest. The rest of the afternoon has not been quite so idyllic, but focus on the victories, right?