A day at the beach

Well it turns out that Cheshire has a beach. I'd only heard of Mixville Recreation Area until today; lots of arguing in the editorial pages of the newspaper because there are no lifeguards anymore. Also concerns of overcrowding since there is no longer any fee to get in. Seems that all the town's energy is going to our nightmare of a pool.

R suggested we check out the park today. When we arrived there were two busloads of kids about his age there playing in the park. He actually started to get really upset and didn't want to get out of the car. He couldn't say what was wrong. I asked him if he wished he were one of those kids and he said yes. We talked about how most of those kids would wish they were him if they knew what we were about. He still hesitated getting out of the car so I asked him if he was embarrassed to be with his family, and again he said yes. We talked about whether caring what people think is a good idea, and finally, he got out of the car.

Once we found a spot on the beach, which we pretty much had to ourselves, he relaxed and had a great time. As did we all. The pond is nice and small, and despite reading about times when it has had to close because of goose poop, it was clean. The boys played in the sand and swam for three hours.

We did have the company of three kids under five at a couple of points, but as long as they steered clear of R's roads and castles he was fine including them. They all played nicely together for the 1/2 hour they were around.

We all really enjoyed ourselves and are going to suggest that playgroup meet there next week. The art class I was teaching is finally over and we have our Tuesdays back to ourselves again.