Don't forget playtime!

The bridge we have to cross to get to the park.

A view of the bridge from the park.

We are standing on the island at the park taking a photo of St. Aignan.

-By Grace

St. Aignan has a park on the other side of the river Cher.  It is on an island in the middle of the river.  We get there by driving or walking across the bridge.  It is a pretty park, but let me give you some advice.  Go to the bathroom before you get to the park, because you will not want to use the “squat pots” that are there.  That’s okay if you are Anthon or George, you just pull your pants down and go where ever you want.  (That’s what they have done the whole trip.  It’s hilarious!)

Emme did not take my advice and just came out of the squat pot.

The spinning pole was my favorite thing at the park!  You could go really fast and spin around in circles and while you spin around really fast, you bump into someone and grab on to them with your feet and take a free ride, saying La, La, La, La, La, La, La!”

It was Mr. Erik's turn to swing with us.  I think he wiped out a kid or two!

The park was not busy, except when there were school fieldtrips.  We just got to play with my brothers and sister and our friends Maggie, Jake, Tom, Rich and Audrey and take a break from touring castles.

I loved going down to the river.  The water was really warm and the mud was squishy.  We loved to walk in the mud without shoes so the mud would squish between our toes.  I caught a water skier insect.  It was tickly in my hands and it gave me the chills.  We would play in the moss.  We would roll up our pants and wade in the water and splash.  I like to go extra far out until the water touches my pants…..a little…or actually a lot.

Rich a top of the pirates ship.  Arrrgg, there Captain!

Audrey and Anthon try to balance out Maggie and me.

We played lots of games at the park.  We played kickball, soccer, X, cops and robbers and freeze tag.  The X game was my favorite.  You play X when someone is it and you all hide and the person who is it says, “I see you Emmeline!” and if it is not Emmeline then they stay there.  If it is Emmeline then she has to go to jail and if someone, who is not it, shows her an X with their arms then Emmeline can get out of jail.

Playing soccer was not very exciting to me, because I don’t think I’m very good at soccer.  I preferred kickball.  I like playing kickball because I am a fast runner and we got to take our shoes off.  It was very fun when the parents played kickball with us!

There I am, stinking at soccer.

Instead of woodchips or rubber things, there is sand in this park.  We spent hours playing together in the sand.  I even made a ginormous sand turtle with little sand turtle babies.  George and Emmeline built a big fort.  Anthon mainly ruined lots of our creations and threw sand….he is still learning.

My mom is distracting Anthon, so he will not come and ruin our sand creations.

If anyone ever comes to St. Aignan I think your favorite place to play would be the park.  So, take some time away from seeing all those castles and just relax at the park!