Fun with Friends

My dear friend S needing a sitter for a bit turned into a great photo op! We are fully in the middle of fall, and their back yard has a few large, and beautiful maple trees (my mom is scoffing somewhere at hearing that! She hates to rake their leaves!) that are shedding their leaves in glorious living color! Zachary and her boy, J, had a wonderful time playing together!

They have several kids, and an enormous fenced in yard, so they have accumulated a ton of outdoor toys, including TWO playsets, for a total of THREE slides! A three year old's paradise!

Her boy is just a few months younger than Z, but there's a big difference! J's favorite word is "Mine!" He does it in the nicest possible way, but it helped to be at their house this time, because having him point to something and announce, "That's mine!" didn't faze Zachary a bit (like it does when they are together at our house)!

We did have a wee bit of trouble, you see, they have a door from the house to the backyard, and also a gate from the driveway. We wanted to grab a sweater from my car for Z, and didn't want to go in for fear that Mommy would be suspiciously absent! So I tried the gate, and found the sliding latch a bit rusty. I went to the door against my better judgement, and found that someone upon our going out had hit the lock, and we were STUCK!

I thought fast though, and realized the little piece of rope J had been playing with might just do the trick! I wrapped it around the slider, and with that bit of grip and leverage we were out!

Note to self: always check those door knobs! Especially at other people's houses where you don't know the tricks to get in or out!!

J was catching some serious air as he bounced!!

The good thing about J is that he has no problem sharing or taking turns, just so long as you know the item is his as you use it!!

They even were sized well to share the swing, they were so cute!

I have to throw in here a picture from that afternoon, we sure got our outside time! We were going from Melissa's to the park, and in the neighborhoods there you can actually walk places, unlike here. Well I was afraid my "no nap today" toddler wouldn't make the walk back after the playground, so I drove along slowly to allow the kids to walk to the park! Dono did well, but didn't think twice when Brian offered him a ride!

Fall is my favorite season!!