Back to the park!

Today the kids and I headed back to the park for more kite flying and a picnic.  Nick packed up his new lunchbox with some snacks and we took one of our new sheets to use as a blanket (it's yellow and I don't care for it much anyway).  The kids thought we should bring both kites but after the issues we had yesterday with four adults to help the two kids, I thought the chances of me having to climb up a tree to retrieve a kite would be dimished significantly if we only took one. 

We ventured out and managed to avoid the playgrounds in the apartment complex to make it to the park.  Well, technically we were still in Eastern Venice but were outside the fenced area.  To actually be on park soil we would have had to cross the road and there was no reason to do that - I didn't want to have to drag everything any farther than necessary.  I was really tired as it was so just getting out of the complex was a big job for today.  I think the past four weeks have finally caught up with me and my body is exhausted.  Most nights I'm not getting enough good quality sleep and I may be fighting of a bug of some sort.  I'm achy and my stomach has been upset a lot.  But, enough complaining.

When we got to the park we set up our little picnic which lasted about four minutes, maybe.  Nick wanted to fly his kite so we got it together and up into the air with little trouble.  That lasted about three minutes then he wanted to play hide and seek with Ryan.  So, I took over the kite flying while the kids ran around having fun.  Now I must say, I have never really flown a kite but it can be very relaxing.  It's a lot like fishing except that you don't have to kill or injure anything.  I was enjoying it so much that I found myself ignoring not paying as much attention to the children as I should have been.  They were fine of course but I decided I had better reel the thing in and put it away.  Being as tired as I was if I had relaxed anymore I likely would have fallen asleep standing up.

After the kids burned off some energy and had their pictures taken by some locals, we moved on to the adult playground areas.  The kids love these places!  Eventually we made our way around Eastern Venice and into a gate near the new playground we found last week.  We played there for quite a while and I spoke a fair bit to an adorable eight-year-old girl.  I used my Chinese-English dictionary and some of the words I already knew and it was very pleasant. 

We headed back to the apartment and had some lunch then Ryan went for a nap and I crashed on the chaise.  Nick was really good and just played a computer game while I dozed.  When everyone got up we went back outside to play again and this time there were a lot of kids around.  It was cool out so of course everyone had to tell me that my kids were cold and that I should put sweaters on them.  We go through this everytime we go outside and it's a bit chilly.  I always keep somthing handy but as long as it's not snowing, Nicholas only wants to wear a t-shirt.  He runs a lot and gets way too hot if he wears anymore.  The day we were at the carnival a woman argued with me (in Chinese, so it was a rather one sided arguement) then stood and watched us because she felt it was too cold for just t-shirts.  Finally we got up and left because she was just making us uncomfortable.

Anyway, we played again for a long time until Tim got home from work then we came in for supper.  Now it's 9:30pm and I'm sitting here on Nick's bed typing while he watches me and Tim is trying to get Ryan to go to sleep.  Apparently, after all that playing today, they still are not tired.  I think I'm going to have to hire a nanny to run these two in between the times when I am too tired or have other stuff to do.  Hopefully our shipment will show up soon - we packed a bouncy house that they can use inside.  That should help to tire them out!

Here are some pictures of our day and below that a few videos from the weekend.  Enjoy!

Nick's new lunchbox and kite



Picture of people taking pictures of the kids





Treadmill



Eliptical Machine



Sign on someone's little patch of garden