A day in the neighborhood with the kids

Mark 10:14

 (Jesus) said to them,

 "Let the little children come to me, 

and do not hinder them, 

for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Today was a beautiful day, so I decided that I'd take the kids first over to Starbucks and then to the park. So this is about what it's like to go moseying through my neighborhood.




We headed out at about 9:30, going north on the street in front of our house. Emily grabbed her hat before heading out, which then reminded me to get my hat. We also took the stroller with the baby bag and my camera bag. And Christian took his skate board.

Emily was really charming in her hat and new 70's dress. She found the hat at Goodwill, one of her favorite places to shop at.



















It took quite a while just to get to the end of our block, as there were so many things to be checked out, especially with all the balls that the neighborhood kids had left out.






Christian waited patiently at the end of the block seated on his skateboard. When Emily finally got there we turned left.










Emily decided that she would like to take over the duty of pushing the stroller. She can push it a quite a clip, but she is poor at steering.

By the next block Emily was done pushing the stroller and decided that she would like to visit the one authentic Georgian house in the city. It really is a lovely house. It's actually a bed & breakfast.

But we moved on and at the next intersection Emily let her brother Christian help her across the street.





Now that she had walked three blocks, Emily decided that she would like to have her juice. It's carrot juice,one of her favorites.



A block and a half later Emily was still drinking her juice, but she was walking along at a good pace, maybe because she wasn't distracted.









Christian, of course, made it to the corner before Emily. So he sat on his skateboard to wait for her. When she got there she sat down on the board next to him, while they waited for me.

Eventually we made it to Starbucks, where we sat for a while, and Annie soon joined us.

At 10:30 we gathered our stuff up and headed on down the street, in the direction of Irving park. We passed many quaint little shops and such on the way.

We passed a very unusual house on the way, but I couldn't get really good pictures of it without changing my lens. I had my zoom zoom lens on the camera.

We finally arrived at the park. It's a beautiful neighborhood park that actually serves two neighborhoods, one that is sort of upper middle class, and the other that is a rather run down neighborhood. If you go east on Fremont street you come to a school with a very high percentage of kids in the tag program, but if you go west you soon come to the school with about the worst academic record in the city. The park serves both groups and has always been a lovely park.


We made our way up the hill into the park, past the area of the baseball diamonds, to the far side, where the children's play area is. It has swings and slides and climbing things, a surrealistic pretending play area, and best of all a spray fountain area.

We began by getting Emily's shoes back on her. She is always removing them when they are not necessary. Christian is very good about putting them on her.





They then headed off to find something to climb and slide on.






Emily can handle the climbing all by herself.




But Annie was soon very nervous about Emily's climbing and she was hot on her tail, for which I was very thankful. Christian zoomed off much too fast to worry about Emily for long.



Annie was a great help in keeping Emily under control, but still letting Emily have fun. This particular slide was quite a challenge, even though Annie is only 5 feet tall. But they made it.



It was a bit of a rough go,
but here they go.










Down they come!










Kerplunk!












Then - after about twenty minutes of climbing and sliding, Emily turned her attention to the fountain.

Christian, at this time, was busy climbing whatever high thing he could find.

Emily and I both think that this fountain is terrific. From my standpoint there is no need to panic as she plays in water. It's very easy to watch her at the spray fountain, and there is seating for the watchers.




The water was fun, but making new friends was also quite fun. This is Emily's first attempt at getting to know someone at the fountain. Unfortunately she was entirely too shy. So she went off to see who else she could make friends with.

After meeting another new friend, Emily introduces her to me.

Unfortunately her new friend had to leave shortly after they met. It's not easy finding friends to play with these days. 

So Emily went off to see what else she could do.




Shortly after 11:30 we headed home, this time with Emily in the stroller. She didn't protest too much, as she was getting tired.

At one point during our stay in the park Emily suddenly ran behind Christian, who was on the swing trying to see how high he could go. I yelled at Christian to stop as I rushed towards Emily. He knew he could just stop, so he leaped from the swing, landing on his back in the bark dust. He was noticeably in a bit of pain, and then went over to sit down by the spray fountain. I told him that as a reward for his heroism I would take him out for pizza. So after we got home we went to Olde Towne Pizza, where a good time was had by all.

"My books take place in a very specific neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. 

It must be the most stable neighborhood in the United States."

Beverly Cleary