Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Happy, Happy, Happy

In case I haven't mentioned it previously, it's been a rough summer. The kids are constantly bickering when they're together. Someone wants to use the iPad, someone wants to watch baseball, someone wants to watch Electric Company, someone poked someone, someone hit someone, someone kicked someone, someone said something mean. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it. No one is happy...although I don't really think the kids are all that unhappy while bickering. They live for it, I think.

So, Friday I took the kids back to a place they hadn't been in some time. In my defense, it was closed for over a year for renovations. But that made it fun to go back and see what had changed.First off, the kids' demeanor changed almost immediately. Thank goodness. Even the few hours at home in the morning had been torture. But the sight of a few new rides can work miracles, apparently.There was never a rollercoaster there before. And naturally, that's where the kids headed first, although the wait was long, at least for a little amusement park like this one.Mam loved it and if there had been no wait, I'm sure she would have gone again and again. Smunch seemed to think once was quite enough. So did I, really. I've never liked roller coasters a whole lot.And there were tree swings that both of them enjoyed although they're hardly a thrill ride.Although this looks like one of those free-fall rides, it's been modified for young children, so it just goes up and bounces around.You could dig up the bones of an Allosaurus and they might've done that all day if I hadn't pulled them away.These are funny little playthings for the kids to sit or stand on. Some bounce, some rotate. Some do nothing at all.And there's a magnificent new carousel with endangered animals in place of horses (mostly). Smunch chose a rather magnificent dragon to ride on while Mam had a dolphin.Despite the relative splendor of this carousel, I'll always miss the "Snail-Go-Round" that we took so many pictures of Smunch on (actually named King Neptune's Carousel). It was a casualty of the remodel.

And, of course, no trip to the little zoo is complete without brushing a goat. Right?We barely made it out before closing. Ah, how lovely. One day with both kids. And it was FUN!

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