In our "backyard"

There is a closed pool in our 'backyard.' It is open from about Memorial Day to Labor Day. To the east of the pool is a little BBQ area and a small grassy area for play. The kids like to ride and push strollers (with Violet's blankie as a passenger) around the sidewalks. Violet also likes to pick up rocks and throw them or eat them. She also likes to throw woodchips down the drains. Here she is pointing out an airplane to me. Oh, she LOVES airplanes! Its so cute how she looks around desperately to find it. Cliffton would not pedal his bike around before we moved to NY. He would just "Flinstone" it. Now he's one groovy lil' biker.

I have never seen this before...

Can you read it? It says FALLOUT SHELTER. I had to get a picture. Its on the town hall.

*Some history: This town officially became Freeport in the mid 1800s (it was called Raynortown or something like that before) but there's been a community here since about 1660 or so. 350 years! Yikes! I was born in Reno and I'm pretty sure it wasn't 'settled' 'till about 1860. Orlando, my home from 1992-2004, was sparsely populated by native Americans until Europeans came around 1836. Not so up here! A lot of cities have roots going back to mid 1600s.

Haircut pix and family pix

A picture each of Cliffton and Violet on our last trip to a Hempstead park (now that we're officially Freeport residents we belong to the southside gangs, not central ;) This park was close to the Chirinos' home). This is also Cliffie before his haircut. They had the COOLEST lil' fire engine chair for kiddos at the salon! Cliffton hated getting his hair cut at first but I think the fire truck really helped take his mind off of the supposed torture. The last two were taken at our branch's hispanic cultural celebration. There were tables set up and/or presenters for Columbia, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Ecuador. Sis. Chirinos' is a wonderful translator and was a big help to us English speakers that night! She is the one with short hair in the second to last picture and she also translates for ASL speakers as well.

This is one of the cutest parks!

This is one of the closest parks and its pretty cool. There are some 3 playgrounds, an exercise area, a huge field and a smaller one, tennis courts, trails, boat ramps, water area, picnic tables, grills, beach, etc. We haven't checked where the shoreline is yet but I know its near the picnic areas (there are a lot of bushes and trees that separate the park area from the beach).

Kids and their toys

The Stacey and Chirinos 4 and under crowd really like the blow up car. Its the party mobile! My kids really like getting out to the parks - thank goodness, we've done alot of it lately and its been fun for me to explore the area with them. One thing I've noticed about all the parks around here - they are specifically designed for age groups and will often fence off certain areas. As an example, the 5-12 yr. olds have their playground on one side of the fence or, as in the pic with Cliffie and Vi, its across a grassy field from the 2-5 yr. old playground. The swings are typically separated by fences too. Violet loves to play in the swings and she's started to go after the big kid swings now too. She can swing gently on them for a few seconds.

Caution: Stay away from the Cliff!

Cliff meets his match! He was a little bit scared because once up there, he was stuck. I think these fake rocks/cliffs are really neat looking. Side note: this park is one of maybe 2 parks that I've been to where us white folks were the majority. Its cool - I love the diversity of NY.

we love strollers from all walks of life.

Violet loves to push strollers, with our without people or purses or backpacks in it. I recently bought a little pink stroller just for her and she loves it! She loves to push boxes and baskets around the house and I was pretty excited to get this for her 'cause I was 99% sure she'd love it. And she does! Cliffie likes 'em too but not quite as much as baby princess. (We've referred to Violet so much as 'baby princess' that little Rebecca likes to refer to Violet that way as well!)