Last of the Warm Weather

A few weeks ago, the weather forecast called for a beautiful day-60 degrees and sunny.  Knowing this information and the fact that winter is looming over our heads, we headed to the park to enjoy one last romp before the cruddy weather comes our way.  While keeping all this in mind, I incidentally forgot that the warm weather for the day comes in the afternoon, and that the playground area of the park is in the shade in the morning.  So arriving at the park at 10 a.m., while efficient, also determined that our time would be cut a little short.  My first mistake for the day.

Here's Avery braving through the cold!

Rylan-always a trooper.  He can't smile without wiggling his whole body.

After playing for a while, we headed over to the other side of the park to feed the geese and swans.  Our second mistake.  Apparently no one else in town had done this for a while because as soon as I unloaded the kids from the van with our one little bag of expired hot dog buns, a swarm of geese led by about 4 or 5 white swans started our way.  And by swarm I mean at least 30.  Avery started laughing; Mommy started freaking out.  I started chucking big chunks of bread at them to ward them off: my third BIG mistake.  Unfortunately this only encouraged them to come toward us even faster.  They were literally only 2 or 3 feet from us at one point.  Avery was yelling at me that she wanted to help feed them; I ended up picking her up kicking and screaming and hauled tail down Lakeside Drive with the stroller.  Might I add, this is the only time that the stroller has been pushed at jogging speed. 

When I felt we had enough distance between us and the ravenous birds, I took a moment to digest what had just happened.  Yes, we had just tried to feed the ducks; yes, the ducks had just tried to attack us (in my eyes at least); and yes, we are a long way from our car that the geese and swans were still in the close vicinity of.  Taking our time and inching our way back, we were eventually able to get close enough to the van to open the doors and I threw the kids in.  And of course buckled and harnessed them in as well.  After getting the stroller put back in as well, I decided our time at the park was over.  Avery had not gotten her fill of outside time yet though, so we headed to the very quiet (and birdless) church playground to finish out the morning.  Jeesh.