I think I left you with lunch (om, nom, nom...) and super, super exciting after that, JJ fell completely, totally asleep on the couch. He began to get cranky when I kept waking him up asking to go to the beach so I finally took the boys outside and played in the secret garden for an hour. When the hour was up I began bugging the daylights out of JJ again and low and behold, he arose from the couch and took us over to the playground. 
We are currently borrowing a car from the most generous of families (until hopefully this Saturday when with everyone's prayers we will find our dream car costing no more than $3500 -- this would make it the most expensive car I have ever paid for) so we had to be taken over in groups. I took the two bigger AJs while JJ dropped us off and went back for Ma-maw and the little AJ. I find that this situation just adds more quirk and since we didn't have far to go, it was fantastic!
The playground was INTENSE. Auckland playgrounds seem to have the sole purpose of freaking out the mamma in the family from what I could tell. There was this crazy rope thing that you could climb up to a two story "ship", swings that you could bash (as AJ1 says) into other swing riders in a circle, some sort of merry go round with tires that really reminded me more of a ride at a small town festival and the two story, no safety strap having disk, hanging from a second story zip line that my three year old just HAD TO GO DOWN. He stood in line looking antsy so I was hoping he was chickening out but JJ informed me that "No, he just didn't want to wait!". I am so in for it with three boys born within three years!
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| That's my boy |
We decided to leave the playground and walk to the beach. Actually, we just kind of followed JJ as if he were the Pied Piper and all walked at least two miles in the wind pushing umbrella strollers down to Mission Bay (I was a little worried about Ma-Maw but as usual she was a trooper). I loved it!
Once we were in Mission Bay we had ice cream at Movenpick and played on the playground. When the time came for JJ to take the first batch of us all home he hoofed it back to the car and came back to pick up Ma-maw and the two smallest AJs. It was a great opportunity for AJ1 and I to have a few minutes together on the beach. It was cold by this time and the wind was blowing but we had fun digging in the sand, talking about gravity and finding seashells. AJ1 even did a few song and dance numbers for me while people looked at us like crazy Americans!
Finally, we came home, happily exhausted!
I know what you mean about the playgrounds. A fellow ex-pat mum worded it along the lines of Americans being too safety-conscious to the point where kids aren't able to really play and explore, whereas Kiwis are safety-conscious but also expect that bumps and bruises are part of growing up and learning. But yeah, those flying foxes (zip lines) freak me out!
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