Central Park, Mommy & Ollie

Oliver wanted to go to the zoo soooo baaad.
Jim was home with a sore throat, and T was off to school... so we took the bus into the city.
Above, Ollie poses with some dude. Too cool with those sunglasses on. Below, Central Park horses!

Snow leopards

Ahh, the polar bear!

Ducks, geese, and turtles

"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"

Most adorable kid on a turtle, ever.

The last time we were here, I posted a picture of the boys in this same egg shell.

The Children's Zoo section was Oliver's favorite. Especially feeding the goats.

And back to the park. We met up with Jennifer, Brayden, Barron, & Benjamin and did a little sight-seeing walk and a trip to the playground.

Frog Pond.
Did you know there is a castle in CP?

Ice cream!
And a bus ride home :)

Oliver's First Day of School... Trenton's, too ;)

 Look at that kid.
He's not supposed to go to school! He's the little one! Who sticks with Momma all day! And naps!
But nooo. He's now off to school!

 He couldn't be happier.
I guess two mornings a week is a good way to start.

 Now, this other kid here...
He's finally going for the full day, five days a week.
"That's six and a half hours, Mom."
I got a bit sad when I had to pack him a lunch. I'm going to miss lunching, just the three of us, every day.
He picked out his own clothes. He didn't know many kids in his class. But he was excited to wait at the bus stop with the rest of the neighbors.

 After dropping T off at the bus, Ollie and I came home and played a bit, just the two of us. Above, Oliver puts together the Kinder City game that used to be his Grandma Konopack's toy!

 And then we were off to preschool. Where, apparently, you need to strike a superhero pose each time mom asks to take your picture. (Marleigh, above, is probably thinking "What the heck is he doing?")

 "Momma, if I miss you, can I tell the teachers and they'll come and get you? Like at the gym?"
Sure buddy.
But that wasn't necessary. He made a friend and played Legos. And had animal crackers. And was laughing and hanging out when I came to pick him up.

 These boys deserved cake.

 So we sang "Happy First Day of School to You" and ate cake with as  many sprinkles as we wanted.

It's going to be a great year.

Holmdel Farm

Trying to squeeze out every last bit of these long summer days, I took the kids to Holmdel Park to visit the Historic Longstreet Farm. 

 The farm itself is a living history museum... there were people dressed in authentic 1890s clothing, doing 'typical' farming work. I remembered how much I loved vising places like this, especially when we spent some time gazing at one of the wall-sized historic US maps in the visitors center (sadly, no picture). The boys spent time running around looking for the farm cats; they were fascinated that the cats had jobs at the farm, too!

 Stables for horses and cows. There was a cow- milking demonstration, as well.

 Awesome tree-swing. Below, the boys feed the chickens some hay. They look a lot like the ones that we buy our eggs from ;)

 Oooo baby, and then there was THIS. Take a look at that Cubano panini above. It was HUGE and totally worth it. I'm a sucker for great Cuban sandwiches... The boys split a fish and chips (which was also delicious). As you can see from the bag, we lunched locally at Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck. This will NOT be the last time they see us!

 When they saw this sign, they begged me to go berry picking. So we tried to. Only the berries aren't ready yet. So-- green beans!

 And after ALL THAT, we went to the movies!
I'd met the brains behind this new movie "The Ooogiloves" and was totally sold on their G-rated, get-up-and-move idea for this movie. Each kid got a glow stick with a butterfly on it, and was encouraged to dance and sing numerous times during the movie. Although we thought it was a bit goofy (Anna and Alex came with us), all three boys seemed to LOVE it. So that's good. Because they're planning sequels...

Finally, look at this amazing web that a spider chose to make outside our front door. And look at the size of the freakin' spider!!!

This does it no justice, although it is a good attempt. The spider was-- no lie-- about 3 inches in length.