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Throughout the year we'll hear from eight bloggers as they share about their family's time in the Riley Children's Health Sports Legends Experience® and how it inspires them to explore these sports back at home.
This post was written by Children's Museum Blog Ambassador Kate Amos. Follow her posts on the blog or follow her at @indywithkids on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter.
This summer is going to be epic.
I’ll tell you why. This summer I’m going to read a book while my children play independently. I’m going to play with my children instead of watching from the sidelines while nursing a baby. I’m going to stay in bed while they make their own cereal (and worry about the oat disaster later). This is the stuff of parenting fantasies.
Why? You might ask. What have I done to deserve this Mom-tastic arrangement? Well, since you asked, let me tell you: I am currently reaping the rewards of having children who are too close together. Close enough in age that people occasionally ask me if I have triplets, or “Which ones are twins.” You see, every summer my children are back-to-back ages. One, two, and three was just ridiculous. Two, three, and four was high maintenance. But this year, this year they are Three. Four. And Five. Everyone can walk, talk, run, and climb. No one needs a nap (or will give in to one when they do). And everyone can swim-ish. This, my friends, is what I have been waiting for.
So what does this have to do with The Children’s Museum? Well, everything, as it turns out. This year the Amos family is planning on an old-fashioned, sunshine-filled, days-turn-to-nights-and-we-are-still-playing summer. (And by ‘summer’ I mean June through October. Because, Indiana.) Soooo we plan to spend long days exploring the Riley Children's Health Sports Legends Experience®. We plan on playing baseball, football, and golf, and then heading to Victory Field or Lucas Oil to take in a live game, all in the same day if we darn well want to! We plan on hours at the library, diving into books about real Colts football players or how to build a treehouse before heading back to the museum to try out some of the football plays ourselves, or making our way towards that giant tree to get a closer look. We plan on playing, playing, playing. Playing sports. Playing pretend. Playing, climbing, exploring.
Who are we and why do we get to enjoy such a ridiculously awesome summer? Well, in truth, ‘no one’ and ‘I don’t know’, respectively. Here’s what I can tell you: The Amos Family is made up mostly of three crazy siblings - Bubba Lu, age 5, smart guy, math wiz, thinker, creator, rule-follower. Jack-Attack, age 4, the lover, the master of all things ride-on, expert middle child, Riley kid (more on that later), the persistent one. And The Sis, age 3, lover of dresses and monster trucks, companion to brothers but needs no entertainment, independent, strong-willed, and free spirited. Daddy Amos is a web developer by day and a Mr. Fixit/gamer/family man by night. And me? Well, I’m the mama. A teacher by trade I now work (very) part-time with IndyWithKids.com and spend most of my day adventuring with my crew.
We are all looking forward to sharing some of our TCM adventures with all of you this season. We have big plans. Let’s chat more soon...right now it’s time for us to PLAY!
