Expectation Vs Reality - Picnic in the Park

It's no secret that I don't leave the house much. I make excuses like not having the car, the bus isn't big enough to get my double pram on and everywhere is too far Ethan to walk. Today I had no excuses it is sunny, I have the car so I was leaving the house today.

My plan a picnic in the park, I imagined me and the three kids sat nicely on our picnic blanket, eating cow cheese (what my kids call cheese spread due to the cow on the packet) sandwiches. No paddy's, no running away. Just a nice afternoon.

Alice ready to go


The reality, I decided to visit a park we have never been to before which was a rookie error. If your going to check out somewhere new with kids especially small ones who can escape very well you need a second pair of hands

So we all get in the car I felt brave only taking the single pram for Alice even though I had no idea how far away the playground would be from the car park. Luckily they were right next to each other so no trying to carry Oscar for ages before even getting to play. The playground was amazing but it was very busy, there was a mini bus full of nursery children and with it being polling day loads of bigger kids who were off school for the day were busy playing.

I asked the boys if we should sit down and have our picnic. No they wanted to play. On everything while I maneuvered the pram round the playground making sure I could still see them. Eventually they made it to the biggest slide on the park. If I'm honest they were both a little too young for it. It is huge. Before I could get to him Oscar was up there and back down again. That kid has no fear. Ethan was still busy trying to brave it up the steps.

Ethan


As they were happy it seemed like a good place to sit down. Blanket out, Alice out of the pram only to look up and Oscar has ran off and managed to climb up something he can't get down from. Quickly shouted of Ethan to sit with Alice while I rescued Oscar. Tried to get Oscar to sit and eat but only one of my children was actually interested in eating and the was Alice. She grabbed herself a sandwich while Oscar bolted again. After catching him a 3rd time I gave up on the idea the expected nice family picnic, packed up and just continued to feed Alice snacks while she was sat back in the pram.

Alice happily watching from the pram.
We then went back to the younger children part of the playground which was much more suited to the boys size. Lots of sand and lots of slides. All was going well until Ethan decided he wanted to go back and give the BIG slide another go. I tried to round up Oscar and eventually got him so leave the sand and follow Ethan.

Oscar 

After Ethan had gone on the big slide we decided to go back to the sand pit and the smaller slides. That is when Oscar decided to have the mother of all paddy's. Screaming and trying to headbutt the floor. To stop him from hurting himself I scooped him up in one arm while pushing the pram with the remaining free hand. While this was going on Ethan had spotted one of his friends from nursery and had gone over to play only to be devastated by the fact I told him we were going back to the car because of Oscar's tantrum.







By the time we got back to the car I had two unhappy children. The aim of today's trip was to tire them out so they would go to bed early as I have a meeting tonight at the primary school Ethan is starting at in September. Instead Oscar had a sleep in the car and Ethan has fallen asleep on the sofa. #mummyfail




#mummyfail

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