parkapalooza

 
 
geographically we live in a place of extremes. tempatures, that is. for 9.5 months of each year we are shunned indoors for 88% of the day.  driven there by either blistering heat, or knock-you-down winds. so the other 2.5 months REALLY have to count. enter parkapalozza.

 
these are my cohorts, minus heidi.  who somehow managed to not be in ONE of the 247 pictures we took that day. i made a list of an ambitious 8 parks, packed an ice chest of sandwiches, drinks and snacks, and pawned pickles off on my dad.

i told the kids that we would spend 10 minutes at each park, so they better play-it-out good and hard upon arriving, listen for the parkapalooza train whistle to blow, and boogie back to the "train" before it pulled out of the station.

they each had a list taped to the window by their seat of 10 tasks they needed to accomplish somewhere in the 8 parks in order to win their prize, so they better budget their time well.

heidi and i started off so optimistic. i put piper to sleep and told my dad that she usually sleeps 3 hours, so we should be back by the time she got up, or shortly after.  i even wondered if i had enough parks.  yeah, i did. because parkapalooza lasted a sweet SIX HOURS!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

some of my favorite parts of the day are:
1. all of the kids were too shy to ask a new kid their name....except gracie. so they all took her with them to complete that task. made her do the dirty work. dirty work being saying, 'hi, what's your name?'

2. logan wondering what kind of park was going to have a wheelbarrow so he could complete the task of "have a wheelbarrow race".

3. the actual wheelbarrow race.

4. levi & gracie trying to give eachother a "high-5" on the swings

5. levi's shirt going mysteriously missing around hour 3 and spending the last 3 hours with him shirtless around town.

6. listening to kenady and logan in the very back plotting out the next park.

7. humiliating myself in front of other adults by blowing a train whistle after 10minutes and yelling, "ALL ABOOOAARRRD!!" in my best conductor voice.

8. around hour 4 heidi turning to me and saying, "hey, remember when we got up at 5am to have a yard sale and then spent the rest of the day working out at the park?"

9. around hour 4.5 me saying, "i wish so bad kenady and logan couldn't read....they know how many stops we're still supposed to do...."

10. pulling up to park #7 and the kids have been worrying since park #3 that there aren't any dogs for them to pet, so i point to the grassy area and yell, "there's a dog!", run to the grass and bust out my best dog imitation. apparently the "dog" side of my personality is a little hyper and somewhat bi-polar. happy and agressive. maybe i'm a pit bull.

...also apparently, lots of embarrassing myself that day, but hey, my "how to raise an extraordinary man" book says that if i want to REALLY know what my son wants/needs, i have to let go of my adult ego and act like a child. ***chick-chik*** sound of me crossing that off my "to-do" list...."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 at the end of 8 parks not only had everyone completed all their tasks, but everyone could barely walk. our "prize" was supposed to be going to dairy queen, but....we had found out that piper had actually taken a 1 hour nap, and that grandma had taken over the babysitting gig somewhere around hour 4, so...we opted for the $1 store. quicker and closer. and...most importanly, they let 3 year olds without shirts shop there.

logan chose a horse painting kit, kenady a bag of candycorn (you're welcome robyn), levi a skelton lantern that he thought was darth vadar, and gracie a pumpkin lantern. levi was asleep 5minutes after we dropped everyone off...at 6:30pm. call us crazy, but i bet we'll do it again.

 

Comments

[Brooke Gardner]

I have been on a blog hiatus. Didn't know you've been posting so much! Parkpalooza was brilliant. You are way ambitious doing something like that. Mothers of the year for sure. Adison doesn't really like babies either. Just animals. Used to be just dogs. She also puts them in her stroller instead of babies. I also really don't like Halloween...! Glad to see your face.

[Camie]

Mothers of the year I say

[heidi]

I loved that day! Next year I'm running through the water too.

[Amanda XOX]

Brilliant! Or maybe totally crazy, but it looks and sounds like a ton of fun!