Parks and bossy girls

We have been to so many parks this summer. 1. Because they are outdoors. 2. Because they cost nothing other than gas. 3. Because the kids are occupied running around and playing. I seriously considered going daily because of how much fun the kids have and mostly because of #2. So I am getting a little sad about summer coming to and end soon and our park days being replaced by school days for Nathan, and work days for me. But that is another post entirely... most likely to come. Today we went to a park and after we played forever we went on a hike through the paths to another park. Here are some pictures from our first park where I had the kids sit away from the swarming bees instead of at the picnic table. They were seriously attacking and I have an irrational fear that one of our children is deathly allergic to bees and we just don't know it.


A little upside down time after eating is always fun




And then onto the other park where there was a tangled web of mean bossy girls that Nathan had no idea what to do with. Here is where they gather. It's like he was a fly tangled into their web of snottiness. It was an interesting interaction. The one girl hissed and growled at him as he tried to enter and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He looked at me dumbfounded. But he kept trying to go in. Then she started to fake claw him. He said he was leaving. I explained that she was just pretending she was dog or something, to which she rudely corrected me that she was in fact a raccoon, not a dog. Whatever, same thing. So she continued to be rude and say that he could not play in there, to which Nathan told her that he could actually and that she was being mean. She hissed again and Nathan replied "I am scared that she might B-I-T-E me mom" She then decided to throw wood chips at him while her cousin (who was a year older than Nathan but not quite as annoying or mean as the first raccoon) acted as an accessory by handing her the woodchips. I just looked at them and said "no." and they dropped them quickly. She sat in that thing almost the whole time we were there just being mean to everyone. It gave us an opportunity on the way back to the other park on the trails to talk about when people are rude and how to reply to it. Makes me anxious about school...but what can you do. I guess just beware of the bossy girl webs.




And he eventually was ruler of the web (because the other girl had to go to time out as her mother finally stepped in and took her out of the web after noticing one of her interactions).



Maddie steered clear of the bossy web and went on the swings and played in the train. I hope she will not become a bossy girl. But you never know. I was once a bossy girl when I was quite young, but I have reformed. Apparently when I was little I used to have a phrase with friends..."you think what you think and I'll think what's right." But look at Maddie's sweet face. That does not look like a bossy face.