Playground fun

Ben got home early today. So I decided to make it a "mommy date" and pick Brooke up from school and run some errands with her. After school she asked if we could stay and play on the first graders playground. We sat down on the wood boundaries and she finished her snack. Then she started climbing on the jungle gym. And she turned around and said "Come on, Mom." So, instead of reading through her papers in her backpack. I climbed up to the top and swung around jumped off, and just plain-played with Brooke. It was so fun! I realized, i haven't done that stuff in so long. We played tic-tac-toe, we played hopscotch, we climbed some more. And then, just before we were going to leave, Brooke wanted to go on the monkey bars. So we headed to the other side of the playground. There were two boys sitting on top. Before we even got there the one boy (Olesis) said to me-"Look at me. I bet you can't get up here." I kind of ignored him at first, because I didn't think he would be talking to me...then he said it a few more times. And said in a very haughty (but playful) voice, "Look at how I can get up here." Brooke just looked at me and then started climbing up on top of the bars. After about the fourth time he said it, I thought-Come on, Ashley. You better be that cool mom. So I said, "Watch this." (And i could see brooke starting to smile) and i pulled myself on top of the monkey bars, without using the steps, and sat on top. He chuckled a bit and then said, "Wow." Then the other little boy said, "oh, yeah, watch this." And he hung upside down. So i hung upside down and stayed there for a bit, then I put my hands on the ground and went into a handstand (they were short monkey bars for 1st graders.) and got off that way. The boys and brooke were very impressed. I told brooke we had to go and I said goodbye to the boys. Brooke and I went over and did hopscotch one more time. Then we started walking toward the other playground to get out the gate. THe second little boy (i never got his name) walks up next to me and says, "Wanna race." I smiled and looked at Brooke and she smiled. Then i said back to the boy, "Sure. Ready set go." I ran side by side with him, then sped up at teh end (he was pretty fast for a first grader.) I touched the fence first. And said "Beat ya" And he said, "Wow. You are fast!" Brooke and I waived goodbye. And I held brooke's hand out the gate and to the car. I could tell that she thought i was a "cool" mom at that moment.

We then went to Michael's and she picked out a craft. I think she thought it was a pretty good mommy date. I thought it was awesome! It was so fun to climb and swing on a playground again. I definitely need to do it more often with her! It was also fun to show up some little boys!