Oops, I Did it Again

I took the boys back to the park. 

Despite the fact that I shared my park woes just yesterday, that event took place last week and just enough time has passed for the worst of it to leave my subconscious.  The boys wanted to play in our backyard so badly, but the lawn having been mowed a mere hour before meant that my yard had been transformed from a grass carpet into a swampy soup of water, grass clippings and swarming mosquitoes.

(My apologies for these horrendous photos taken on my iPhone.  Who would have thought that taking a dunk in the toilet would have rendered my camera incapable of balancing light?)

So I took the boys back to the park.  I deliberately chose the school playground this time for its chipped tire landscaping, thinking that the bugs would not flock to it as they would a grassy environment.

WRONG.

Although there were many other kids there (which would normally encourage me to choose another park) I noticed that the other children present were mostly older, and I assumed they would not interact or behave negatively toward my kids. 

WRONG.

I even thought that visiting the park a little later in the day would save us from the worst of the heat and sweat and that I could maybe, possibly, avoid having to give the kids a bath immediately upon arriving home on what already promised to be a late night. 

WRONG.

But as I stood and chatted with a friend, and my boys ran off with her son to navigate the slides and ladders and climbing wall with smiles, I criticized myself again for even considering taking this opportunity away from them.  Graham has made great strides physically through climbing and jumping, and Cael clearly needs a zone in which he can yell and squirm and burn off his excess energy.  This is good for them.

And then a bird crapped in my hair.

So much for the park.