Baseball, Books, Buffets, and Nerf Bullets

Some of our Saturday's are filled with rest, especially when certain MS symptoms show themselves. Some Saturdays are filled with family fun. Still others are productive days where we get things done around the house.

It's a rare Saturday when we are able to have family fun AND be productive.

Saturday, April 10, 2010, was fortunately one of those Saturdays where we had some fun family time in the morning, and still had some productive time in the afternoon. It was a wonderful day, and the boys enjoyed it a lot.

We started the day with a first--we went to Lowe's for a kids building workshop. They provide kits and aprons for each child, and let them use tools. After the kit is built the children get patches to sew on their aprons and a certificate. Tyler now wants to go back every time there is a clinic, and I think it's as much for the patches as the building projects!

April 10 was a perfect kit for our boys--they built a miniature baseball game, complete with ball, that they could then play after it was built! Both boys were very excited to get started.

They opened the kit and sorted out the pieces, then started going over the directions. This is Tyler's special area--following directions--and Shawn loves to follow his brother.

With some help from Daddy and the Lowe's workshop leader, the boys built their baseball games.


Lowe's Kids Workshop 4/10/10: Baseball Game from DigiLaura on Vimeo.

Once the games were built, it was time to play with them!

After our baseball building fun, we headed for some books. We needed new stories for bedtime, so we went to the Fayetteville library. The boys and I renewed our cards (and paid some fines), while HoneyBear got a new card. Tyler went for the digital card catalog to find books for a research project, while Shawn was drawn to the computers, from which we had to drag him away when it was time to leave.

After much deliberation, HoneyBear chose 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for our next family read. I'm not sure if our current musical about diving under the sea had any influence, but it was a good choice.

After leaving the library, it was time for lunch. The cafe I was hoping for had closed since the last time we were there, which was admittedly a while ago, but we were able to drive by the Razorback baseball stadium in our lunch quest. Since we had spent the morning building a miniature baseball game, seeing the actual baseball stadium seemed appropriate. With my lunch choice no longer available, we decided upon a favorite of the boys, especially the big boy--Chinese! Somehow this has become a common theme, though HoneyBear would say we don't go there enough. We do go enough, apparently, that the owners and several of the wait staff know us, making the boys happy.

After a full morning, we made it home. With pretty weather and a desperate need to get some cleaning done, we opened up the garage and became productive in the afternoon. The boys enjoyed this process, since we found several stored toys that hadn't yet been used, as well as some that had gotten buried. The favorite of the afternoon was a Nerf tag set, though Shawn struggled a bit playing by the rules!


Nerf Tag from DigiLaura on Vimeo.

Our fun and productive day was a great mix, and created memories for the boys and us. Hopefully we'll be able to repeat the formula soon!