Mommy Weekend

This past weekend was my girl's weekend in Portland with Jennifer from Buffalo and Tessa from Dedham. A co-worker very specifically informed me that a girl's weekend must actually be for the girls and include no children, so I've re-named it.

Tessa & I began the trip headed south in her mom's minivan (thanks!) with Lucy and Drew, her oldest. She left behind a 5-month-old in the interest of some quality time with Drew, something that apparently doesn't just happen when you have 2 kids. Who knew? The kids are almost a full year apart but Lucy's got Drew by a couple of pounds. They spent a good portion of the trip sleeping, and the rest sizing each other up and sharing back and forth over the rims of their car seats.

Jennifer and Holden flew in later than expected so Friday was a long day but the kids were up and ready to go on Saturday morning.

Our five (three) little monkeys jumping on the bed. Lucy worked diligently on jump jump sit with the boys with little success. Trampoline incentive is only good if you're promised the trampoline, I guess.

Holden (3), Lucy (1), and Drew (2). About a year's difference between each. Ever tried to pose kids? I think this is a very good shot.

Our Saturday morning fun included a trip to the Children's Museum in Portland. For Lucy, the $8 admission was well worth the trip to the toddler-land enclosed playground with lots of foam and stuff for the little people to explore. I think she would have been perfectly happy there and nowhere else. Here she is checking out the "tree house."

Holden had a bit of a melt-down at one point, so Jennifer and I traded kids.

Holden and I got to do some fun bigger-kid stuff like driving the fire truck and playing in the stream. He's definitely got energy and enthusiasm and is very hard to keep up with!

At this point in the trip Lucy broke my camera. I'm hoping I can get it fixed; it gives me a lens error message and is stuck open. (I swear I haven't let her play with it in ages, she just grabbed it out of my hand and dropped it!) The rest of these photos were stolen shamelessly from Jennifer's blog at bateslifeisgood.blogspot.com

After some Saturday night pool time (no, Lucy would NOT go into the water) and a pizza picnic in the hotel lobby, our last day Sunday we took a trip to Maine's Narrow Gauge Railroad where we got to take explore trains and take a real train ride. The boys were very excited about the conductor calling out "All Aboard!" and taking our tickets. Lucy didn't know quite what to make of the situation, but played along very well and willingly gave up her ticket when asked.

Our weekend was filled with hugs and kisses, and learning to share.

We capped the trip off with another pizza picnic in the van as we waited to drop Jennifer and Holden off at the airport. We parked right next to the runway and the kids got to watch several planes take off from close up. Excellent.

Lucy and I had a great time, so thanks girls for the mommy weekend.