Stories, Songs, Sillies, Sights, and Sonshine!

By Wednesday, Joshua was back to his normal, playful self. We went to the gym in the morning and met our friends Lisa, Isabella and baby Aiden at the Manheim Township Public Library for the children's story time just after lunch time. This week's 'Boogie Woogie Books' was about Independence Day, and our favorite library lady told the kids about America's birthday. They also sang their songs (with the "Boom Chicka Boom" to scarves, the scarf "parade," and the "Shake, Shake, Shake Your Sillies Out" with egg noise makers). The kids had fun and then did their flag crafts thereafter. When they were finished, we checked out a couple books and I signed them up for the summer reading program. :)

Later that afternoon, we played outside in the sun. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! That evening, I told Shawn that we needed to enjoy some family time in the sunshine now that everyone seemed back to normal, and he agreed. After thinking about it, we decided to head up to Mack's in York rather than a typical park for something different. There, the kids first bounced in the bounce house that was shaped like a Dalmatian dog.

 After the bounce house, we went around to the various animals - from the big bear to the baby peacocks and all the llamas, chickens, and various other animals in between. I didn't get any pictures of the kids with the animals, except this one where Joshua is scowling at something (who knows what?).

Then the kids took turn riding on the different cars, which ranged in price from .25 to .50 cents. For other parents who decide to go there, we thought the .25 rides were actually better than the more expensive ones!




Then we saw the basketball court with all the balls and hoops that were free to shoot. Caleb was actually the one who made a majority of the shots this time.

 Joshua hit a bunch off the net, a few of which hit him in the head (scaring me to death after his surgery!) and a few of which hit others (but not hard). He was frustrated at times but made plenty of shots at other times.

I took a couple shots and so did Daddy. We would have played a game of H-O-R-S-E if we would have been without kiddos.

But, it was starting to fill up in there, so we decided to keep moving just in case Ryan would get hit with a ball accidentally.

We debated on playing mini-golf, which just happened to be cheapest on Wednesdays (and we had no idea!) but we decided to come back another night since it was already 8 pm by that point.

And while I'm talking about the mini golf, I had to crack up at them spending lots of money on expensive signs and not have someone proofread for misspellings and bad grammar first. You may not be able to see it but they said "no coupons excepted" instead of "accepted" in several places. I'll take this in as an example to my classes. I ask students to look for such things in my business communications classes - they are everywhere!

Here's the part of the night where I looked like an idiot, though. Shawn saw this ride that said "up to two people" and the weight limit couldn't exceed 200 lbs. He said "You can go on with Joshua then." Sure, I'll go with my buddy since he wanted me to. After spinning around, we saw another sign on the other side that said "no adults." WHOOPS! No one said anything, but I felt stupid since I hadn't seen the sign. Caleb said he'd like a turn but then told us the rest of the night that he thought that alien was super scary and he didn't like him, etc. He said "that guy is scary."

So, on the way out we let them ride a couple more little things.

Then our plan was to get ice cream before leaving for the night. But, when we saw the line had just gotten a mile long (okay, I exaggerate, but you get the idea!) we decided against it based on it being past everyone's bed time. Instead we got back in the car - much to the boys' disappointment, and stopped by Wendy's on the way home for Frosty's. It had been a really fun night after a really stressful week. I am SO glad Joshua's feeling better!!!