NBTS Picnic

Yesterday was the Not-Back-To-School Picnic. The weather was pretty perfect (it had been rained out the week before) and it ended up working right into our day. After the lego outing, the kids and I dropped Cap off at the Y, went to Whole Foods to pick up lunch (sushi, chips, apple, smoothie and coconut water), and drove up to the park.

Shannon and her kids were there, alone for an hour, and it was nice to ease in with friends. Soon, Tiina arrived with her three, and then Lisette, with her three. Tiina and I had met three years ago, randomly, at a playground. We were there with our families and we started talking. She, like my kids, is a mix of Japanese and Finnish ancestry. She and her husband are Finnish. At the time, her school aged kids were in school, but they are now new homeschoolers.

Lisette was completely new to me and was very nice. I was really glad she had an older daughter, someone Bridget could play with.

I also met Linda, who had driven out from Jersey City. We talked for a bit. Angela came a bit later, we really only got to hug and say "hi" as I was being dragged home by the kids. I also met Stacy who could relate completely to the kids wanting to get home to start building their lego sets because her son is the same way.

It was a smaller gathering than the one we attended when we first moved here. Other than Shannon, our usual "crowd" was not in attendance. But, there was warmth and camaraderie. It was really mellow and nice. I used up my extrovert quota for the month, but not in a stressful way :-)

And the kids, they enjoyed hanging out. Sag got his knee stuck in the bars on the playground structure and thankfully Tiina was there to help him as Owen came running to get me. Once I was trying to get his knee out, I was wondering if I would have to get some of the leftover salmon from the sushi to grease up his knee, but it came out. Phew. (He was fine and resumed playing after a few hugs.)

I wish I had some pictures, but it was one of those times where I was very actively interacting with what was happening around me.