Wolves & Polo

On Friday night I had dinner with friends at Katie's and when I came home C was not quite asleep. "Mommy!" she said as I tiptoed up the stairs. Eventually she wheedled her way into my room which I protest against but secretly love the snuggles.

Saturday: Weights and an 85 minute yoga class. We stopped home briefly and then set out for the picnit that C had been requesting for days. I was going to drive by Faust Park until I found a drive-through nearby but I spotted food trucks there. We spread out the blanket, the girls surveyed the numerous birfday parties nearby (can we go? They got ballooms! [balloons]), and we shared sliders. (Josie and I shared sliders. Clem ate a bun or two.)

Carousel rides.

Knowing C would be hungry and having a little time to spare, we went through the McDonald's drive-through for a 10 piece nugget meal. (Meal doesn't really feel like the right word). I asked for a extra container and divided the nuggets before presenting them to the backseat dwellers for whom parity is everything.

These were the only sunglasses I had in the car; wore them all day.

The big event! I saw that Get Gorgeous was going to be at a polo event benefitting the Endangered Wolf Center and the event description included several kid activities and an entry fee of only $25. Horses! Botox! Facepainting! The name of the event: Wolves & Polo. To the point.

Having never been to a polo event before or having any idea what the venue was like, I opted to put the girls in the stroller which is leviathan but useful. It was so hot - so hot - and nice to stash my mom bag full of mom stuff in the bottom of it. Also, restraining the girls is always a plus.

This kind gentleman picked up us in a golf cart.

The view from the golf cart.

I made a beeline for the Get Gorgeous van because once the girls caught sight of the petting zoo and bounce house time was ticking. Botox at the polo match - fancy!

Facepainting.

Meeting the Endangered Wolf Center mascot. I was worried that C would be terrified of all the wolf pictures everywhere (thanks, Beauty and the Beast) but as you can see I'm taking this photo as she is sprinting toward the mascot. Who, she told me later, was "just a costume."

We will definitely have to check out the EWC, especially the Wine and Cheese Howl in which participants howl to get the wolves to howl back. (I think Luke will be really good at this - he's a very talented mimic.)

Petting zoo.

Bounce house eclipsed everything. The polo horses were passingly interesting to them but it could have been elephant ballet and they wouldn't have cared -- they love a bounce house.

Italian ices. It was blazingly hot and I had a lemon one and I don't think anything has ever tasted as good.

After another round in the bounce house it was time to go - everyone was hot and tired. I pushed the double stroller across the bumpy (non-playing) field, past the horse trailers (there were so many horses there), to the van, buckled each weary-whiny girl into her car seat, collapsed the stroller and heaved it into the van. Call me Sisyphus. I bathed the girls as soon as we got home to remove the layers of sunscreen and dust and llama-dander and they zonked out in their pajamas watching Aladdin.

Sunday: gym time, brunch with friends sans kids (eggs en cocotte with spinach and lardons of bacon larger than Jolly Ranchers - delicious!), a stop by the library to pick up a couple more Jim Harrison books (I'm enjoying the novellas of Legends of the Fall so much), getting ready for the week, Sleeping Beauty ballet on YouTube. (We've been watching ballets for a long time; I was searching the blog for posts about it and I can't believe all this was not quite 18 months ago!)

I saw the first wave of pumpkin paraphernalia in the grocery store today - this summer is drawing to a close. I have a few more summer things I want to do before these warm weeks pass... have a great one everybody!