Fun Times and Friendly Faces

We have been doing quite a few different activities lately with friends. Last week, Brooke and I decided to check out a new toddler park we had heard about so we got the kids ready and away we went. After an accidental drive by and a superb parking job by Brooke, we were ready to play. The park was fenced in so it was a bit tricky finding the gate but we managed. The park was full of cute little toys and play structures, but boy was it busy! There was a train play area that had a tiny little crawlspace for the kids to crawl inside. It was quite icky-full of mud and who knows what else, so we kept the kids out. Other than that, it was a pretty fun park. Kailey and Hannah had a blast playing together and when it came time to leave, the usual mayhem occured when Kailey was not quite ready to go yet. Here are a few pictures of them at the park.






Recently Kailey also had her first experience with a giant piece of watermelon. She has had watermelon in the past of course, but never her own piece to hold and munch off of. I couldn't resist and gave her a huge piece she never would be able to eat, but it sure made for some cute pictures!


On Saturday, the fire department had a huge open house. There were booths, tours of the firehouse and the jail, and many other attractions. I took Natalie and Kailey to see the show and they loved it. We ended up staying for two hours. They were able to climb in a firetruck, were given plastic fire hats and badges, and even played in the bounce gym. Unfortunately I could not get either of them to hold still long enough for many pictures, but we came out with a couple. The highlight for them of course was the bounce pit. With the music loudly blaring and the chaos inside, it was like a mosh pit. Instead of crazy teenagers or adults though, it was made up of little kids, probably not even older than five. I'm surprised that there were no broken arms or legs, it was that crazy. Natalie was a trouper, climbing up the wall and jumping down the other side, then returning back to jump with Kailey. Kailey, our little jumping bean just loved it of course. She jumped and jumped and had a ball until she crashed into another little girl and ended up in tears. Deciding to move on to something else, I dragged the girls out of the bounce pit and restored their shoes to go wait in line for a balloon animal. The guy doing the animals was amazing. Kailey wanted a monkey so he made a huge palm tree (almost as tall as Kailey), put some bananas hanging from the tree, then made a monkey with his arms wrapped around the tree. Natalie got a cute little kitty cat. These were the best balloon animals I'd ever seen! After a tour of the jail, and an introduction to a police officer for the girls, (I wanted to make sure they knew who to go to in case of trouble) we walked back to the car. As we walked up to it, I noticed a car stop to wait for my parking spot. Realizing I couldn't find my keys, I began to frantically search through my pockets and purse. Not just one, but five searches later, I finally found them in an obscure pocket I had never seen before and of course never used. The girls were patiently waiting by the car at the time and so was the driver who wanted my spot. After gathering up the piles of goodies that we had gotten, I went to open my car. At this moment, chaos ensued. Kailey dropped her monkey balloon on the asphault and it exploded causing her to cry immediately. I picked her up to comfort her and put her in the car when Natalie's regular helium-filled balloon came loose from her wrist and floated up into the air. This is when Natalie started crying as well. While trying to comfort both the girls and buckle them into their carseat, I noticed that the other car was STILL waiting for me to leave. At this point it had been at least 15 minutes since we arrived at the car. They probably could have parked down the street a little ways and been to whatever their destination was. Anyways, finally the girls cheered up when I pointed out that they still each had a balloon. After that small moment of craziness, they were back to their happy selves and so was I! Kailey has been attached to her shiny red firehat ever since. She has even showered with it a few times! Its cute how kids get attached to certain things, no matter how strange.
Checking out the fire truck-you don't realize how huge these things are until you are standing next to one!


In the bounce pit. The second picture is brave little Natalie climbing the wall despite other kids flying down it from the other side.