It’s the Memorial Day weekend, and a lot of people have left the city on mini vacations. We are having ours here, just the way we like it.
Today the plan was for me to sew up the flags and sashes the kids intend to use while playing Capture the Flag on Maya’s birthday (different colored flags and coordinated sashes for each team.) I did finish the flags, but an unexpected call from our friends the Manns meant I’ll be finishing the sashes tomorrow. But it was worth it. We headed over to the River Walk at 72nd St, meeting them there to take advantage of the free kayaking. So. Much. Fun.!! Maya and I were in one kayak, Kim and her daughter Kaitlyn in another. We spent about 20 minutes on the water (the time limit is so that the wait time in line doesn’t get too long). The best moment came after a huge barge went by, and we rode its’ waves, which was like catching a wave at the beach. The water felt great, since temperatures hit the high 80’s today.
Maya and I are in the foreground in this shot
Maya and I are in the red kayak, Kim and Kaitlyn in the yellow
After kayaking, Ben (who took the photos) and I came home, and Maya went with Kim and Kaitlyn back to their house. We met up with them again later on in Central Park – Joshua came with us and we spent about two hours hanging out with their entire family and both their Wheaton Terriers. Central Park really is an amazing feat of design that can easily make you forget you are in the middle of 8 million people (maybe only 4 million this weekend, but still…) We hung out by the lake for most of the time. The dogs got into the water (Joshua was so hot in jeans and a black t-shirt he threatened to go in with them) we watched red-eared sliders fight the ducks for the pieces of bread tossed into the water by the likes of us, and we saw a guy with a 3 year old Mexican python wrapped around his neck!
I touched it and the skin was moist and super soft! Not what I expected...
After all the watching of snakes, turtles, fish and ducks got old, the kids began a game of “Murderer”, which, with only 3 people, isn’t very difficult. Still, it must have gone on for a good 20-30 minutes. One person is the detective and the of the other two, one is designated (without the detective’s knowledge) as the murderer. The detective then comes over to question the suspects about what they were doing the night of the murder. Each one answers, and then the detective asks them the same question. The one that changes their answer is the murderer. The trick is to make the change so that the detective doesn’t catch it. Needless to say this is much easier to do in a large group. “I was eating pasta with red sauce” becomes “I was eating red pasta with sauce”, for example. With only two suspects, it’s hard to make a change that won’t be noticed, but the kids gave it a go.
Ben is the detective in this one.
Listening to Maya's alibi...
Maya conducting her interrogation.
Maya and Ben agreeing on who the murderer will be
Detective Kaitlyn on the case.
That was our day. It was great to have Joshua with us after two weeks of almost constant work that kept him away and at the store a lot. Things have settled and he’ll be home so much we might have to find stuff for him to do!
One final thing, just because. Between kayaking and Central Park, Ben & I were home for a bit. I worked on cutting out the sashes for Maya’s party and Ben played Lego. I had my iPod playing, as I usually do when we are home and the TV isn’t on, and at one point John Lennon’s “Power to the People” came on. After a minute I realized Ben was singing along. Somehow hearing him sing, “Power to the people, right on” kind of made my day.