A Family "Picnic"

Last Friday, Olin's school held a family picnic to celebrate the start of the new school year.  Actually, they use the term "picnic" loosely because the school didn't provide anything for the gathering, but rather asked that each family bring their own food and entertainment.  So perhaps I should say that the school coordinated a picnic for the families.

Anyway, because our family's social representative, Josh, couldn't join us, I figured that Olin and I would make a 15 minute appearance and then head home.  So rather than pack a proper picnic, I stopped at the health food store downstairs on my way to the school and picked up a coconut water and oatmeal cookies for Olin and an iced tea and Kind bar for me.  Well, as soon as I left the store, I remembered the school's strict "no nuts" policy - the main ingredient in my Kind bar, so I frantically ate it on my five block walk to the school for fear that Olin would be asked to leave the school if I were to bring a nut even remotely close to one of the children. 

Also, the school interestingly scheduled the picnic for 4pm although school ends at 3:30pm and the picnic site was a 2 minute walk away.  It's not easy to occupy a toddler for a half hour on the residential streets of NYC, so we walked very slow to the picnic, but still arrived at 3:40pm, which meant my plan to stay for 15 minutes would have us departing before the picnic even began so already my plan was doomed.

So there we are, Olin with his little cookies and drink and me with just my drink while the other parents start to unpack loads of cut up fruit and vegetables, platters of cheese and crackers, hummus, baked goods...  one mom even brought wine.  Luckily for me, Olin didn't seem to mind.   In fact, he was not remotely interested in food.  If it appears from the pictures that all he did was run around, it's because he did.  While all the other children sat nicely with their parents on their picnic blankets, Olin made laps around the park - with me in tow or with one of his teachers, he really didn't care - he just had to be in motion at all times. 

The picnic actually ended up to be a good time - it was nice to have conversations with the other parents rather than just our usual exchange of 'hello's' at drop-off and pick-up.  We had such a nice time that we ended up staying nearly an hour and a half and only left when Olin started to melt down (I later learned that he did not nap at all during the day).  The melt down surprised us all... it surprised his teachers because up to this point they had never seen him cry, which surprised me that he hadn't cried once yet in his class because he sure doesn't have a problem shedding tears at home, in stores, in restaurants, in the car or pretty much anywhere!

Hopefully next year, Josh will be able to join us because we very much missed his presence and now that I know the drill, I vow that the Burgher family will have the BEST picnic spread next year!

P.S. That large grate that Olin is sitting on in the picture above is actually over underground train tracks.  When the train goes by, the children go crazy with excitement - it's very cute!