The After Party at the Park

After a wonderful, cake-filled birthday party for Finley's buddy, Henry (hooray for being 2!), we walked to one of our favorite parks which Henry is lucky enough to live just a block from. With Finley's grandparents in tow, we showed them the great park and playground. Finley was surprisingly independent and basically left us in the dirt. He was all over the place and it was hard to get a photo, but thankfully he kept coming back to the wooden car so Grandpa hopped in.

It was hot in the sun, so the grown ups retired to a shaded bench while Finley trekked around on his own. Very cool stuff to watch. I later convinced him (picked him up) to show his grandparents how much he LOVES the rolly slide and it certainly did not disappoint.

He was soon spotted by his buddy, Aliza, who also came over to the park post-party. They both sat in the wooden car and both moms rushed to get cameras out, but Finley was only there for about five seconds (funny, we couldn't pull him away earlier). Not a great photo, but both kiddos were stomping their feet and smiling away.

They parted ways and Finley took off to climb one of the structures for a while before coming back to his beloved sandbox. Much to my surprise, he pointed to the swings and requested to be plopped in. Odd, since it's been a while for such a request. He lasted quite a while and even let his grandparents push him...is this a new leaf we are witnessing being turned over??

(oh and that's Aliza's dad and her new(ish) baby brother Levi behind the swing!) Finley seemed to like the little guy and identified him correctly as "baby."

He was having a ball, but got even gigglier when his GG started tickling him while he was swinging.

Sadly, we had to go home for dinner and a bath so we said Bye Bye to Aliza, Levi and their parents who were headed back to Connecticut. All of us were pretty wiped after a fun party and then some time in the sun at the playground, well, almost all of us--Finley was chatting and laughing all the way home with his Grandpa in the backseat. Gotta love that Energizer bunny aspect of toddlerhood! He inhaled his dinner, did some good splashing in the tub, and then passed out by 7pm. Life is good.