Washington DC Weekend

I may have mentioned previously that I tend to get a little overly ambitious about what I can accomplish in a day. If not, well - I tend to get a little overly ambitious about what I can accomplish in a day. There, I said it.

So when we decided that we were going to take the kids to Washington DC, with the primary intention of going to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, I couldn't resist getting a guidebook and making a list of places we should try to see.

Mike thought it was too much - but I was sure we could do it. And sometimes it is just easier to wait for me to fail that to try to talk me out of things - so we gave it a whirl.

We drove down on Friday evening after school. After stopping in Aberdeen MD to drop off the dog at his grandparents, and grab some dinner - we ended up pulling into DC around 9. The kids were excited to arrive and see some of the wonders that the DC area has to offer - "They have a Wendy's!!!"

My cousin works for Hyatt at the Regency Capitol Hill and hooked us up with a room there. It is an great location withing spitting distance (not that we tried) to the Capitol building.

We woke up in the morning and after a quick breakfast, picked up tickets for the Old Town Trolley. The trolley was great, the drivers are knowledgeable about the city, and they let you get on and off at a number of key locations. And no worries about parking!

Our destinations for the day:
The Capitol Building
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art
Lincoln Memorial
White House Visitor Center
National Museum of American History

Ambitious? Maybe - but I figured some would be sort of drive-by visits.

The trolley wasn't coming to the hotel for about 25 minutes, so we started out walking. We walking right over to the Capitol Building, and took pictures on the steps. Those pictures would be on Mike's camera, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Then we kept walking over to the Air and Space Museum. We got there just as the doors were opening at 10 AM. The kids enjoyed seeing the airplanes and space capsules and things. Tater especially enjoyed the Franklin Institute-like hands-on exhibits. He told me he enjoys museums where you do things, not the "looking kind". Uh oh.

There were a lot of interesting displays including information about the solar system, images of earth from different perspectives, planes, rockets, etc. Definitely a cool museum.

It was getting close to lunch time when we were finished there, so we went to the Smithsonian Castle for lunch. Not sure I would recommend that venue - but it was close and it was food.

My cousin, Kathy, joined us for lunch and then for a brief visit to the Hirshhorn Museum. Sprout had just studied Matisse in art class and wanted to see a Matisse. Since the Hirshhorn seemed like a small-ish modern art museum and claimed to have a Matisse, it seemed like the place to go.

And yet - not so much. I forgot how dark and demented a lot of modern art is - and much of the art at the Hirshhorn is of that variety. When we got to the hugenormous canvas of a, um...let's say "underdressed fella", we decided that was enough art for the day. Not a particularly kid friendly place. Oops.

At that point, the kids needed ice cream so we visited one of the vending trucks conveniently parked just outside the museum. Tater chose a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles Popsicle while Sprout picked a Pink Panther. Big fans of licensed characters. And artificial color.

Once the treats were history everyone was feeling a little more energized, so we grabbed a ride with Kathy over to the WWII Memorial. This wasn't on our itinerary, but should have been. The kids loved all of the fountains and really wanted to wade around in them. Of course, I didn't let them. Meanest. Mother. Ever.

From the WWII Memorial we had an excellent view of the Washington Monument and were then able to walk along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial.

It was pretty warm out and the kids were beginning to melt by the time we started to climb the steps to see Lincoln. Of course I cracked my big whip (figuratively) and told them they had to go to the top and see the statue. You seriously can't be standing on the steps and not go up. Seriously.

Look how happy they were when we got there...those are some kids who are thinking their Mom can do no wrong...

After basking in the glow of this beautiful moment, we made our way back outside and finally boarded the trolley to get a ride to the National Museum of American History.

I had never heard of this museum before - or maybe I had, but I didn't remember. I have to say, this was my favorite and I wish everyone hadn't been so completely exhausted by the time we got there. The museum houses collections of things related to all aspects of American History including the original Star Spangled Banner (which is 32' tall and displayed in a dramatic black-lighted room), Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch, Fonzie's jacket (although we never found it), Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat, and a display about the First Ladies (with an enormous line that we couldn't even begin to think about standing in).

When we go back, I think this will be one of our stops when everyone is nice and fresh and ready to look around. As it was, we were there for about an hour and then the kids needed to be taken to a gift shop - stat - or else the Earth would cease to rotate on its axis. Could have been ugly.

Somehow they still had enough energy to explore all of the gift options in great detail. Gotta love that.

We finally hopped back on the trolley with the intention of doing a quick stop at the White House Visitor's Center (which would have been a pale substitute for an actual tour, which wasn't an option). Unfortunately (although actually probably fortunately) the Visitor Center closed at 4, so we were too late. So we just took the trolley back to Union Station (which has a mall...but we didn't go) and then walked back to the hotel.

We headed back out for dinner at the Capitol City Brewing Company, which was really good and more kid-friendly than you might expect. After dinner we went back the hotel and crashed. Long day...but we (almost) saw everything on our list. Yay, us!

On Sunday morning, after a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel, we checked out and drove out to Dulles to see the second part of the National Air and Space Museum - the Udvar-Hazy Center.

This one doesn't have the same kind of interactive displays as the museum downtown, so isn't quite as kid-friendly - but the massive collection of flying machines makes up for it - at least for the adults. Mike was quite enthralled.

There is an actual Space Shuttle, the Enola Gay, lots and lots and lots of other planes, and the Concord, and a Blackbird. This all sort of means nothing to me as a non-warplane-buff, but it was pretty cool to see all that flying stuff in one place.

Tater liked the space food and space toys on display. At this point he said he couldn't stand to look at any more interesting things and was completely focused on the point where he would be able to use the "penny squishing machine." Ah, the priorities of a 6-year-old.


He did think this thing was kind of cool. I think it went to Venus. But that could be completely wrong.

After we finished up (and squished some pennies) we went to Kathy's house (my awesome cousin) for a nice lunch. The kids were so happy to see they had a Wii. Apparently a kid can only handle so much history and culture before some virtual play is required.

We got home around 9:30PM - after driving across several states to collect our dog. It is good to have everyone back at home and be allowed to sit down and do nothing for a while.

DC was really an awesome place to spend the weekend. And although I might have been a tad bit over-ambitious, the FREE (as in no admission charges at ANY of those places!) access to so much coolness is hard to resist. We are already planning a return trip (someday...) to go see the National Gallery of Modern Art (the real one), and the National Archives, and maybe the White House...and the Jefferson Memorial...and maybe Mount Vernon...and the....

The Whirlwind is coming to a halt...

We just got home from our weekend trip to Washington DC.

I promise I will tell you all about it...tomorrow...when I can keep my head up long enough to type the words before my face crashes into the keyboard...

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ooops...

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Puppies and Pinball

Well, no actual pinball - but Skee Ball, and video games!

Today we went to Dave & Buster's at the Plymouth Meeting Mall to meet Mike for lunch and play some games.

You are probably familiar with D&Bs, but the PM location is slightly smaller and more kid-friendly than the larger clubs I have been to in Philly and Chicago.

They have a good meal-deal, you can pick one of a selected group of meals and add on a $10 or $20 "play card" for the arcade. Mike had a double-cheeseburger (with very excellent fries) and got the $20 card for a total of $23.99. Not bad.

All told, I think we probably went through $40 in credits in the arcade (including some spent by Mike topping his personal best in Galaga) and ended up with about 300 prize tickets per child.

This, of course, resulted in the traditionally painful "cashing in of the tickets". Let me tell you, 300 tickets essentially gets NOTHING but some candy. And yet, my generally intelligent children felt the need to bring me every single item in the shop to see if they could afford it.

Can I get this huge stuffed animal?

Um, no...just candy.

Can I get this cheap radio?

Nope, candy.

How about this shirt?

Candy.

How about...?

CANDY...ONLY CANDY!!!

It is not in my nature to encourage the aquisition of candy, but about 15 minutes in I was picking candy up and shoving it into their hands. Please...Just. Take. The. Candy.

We left D&Bs and made our way to the other end of the mall to ride on the double-decker carousel. On our way we saw the Easter Bunny going up one of the escalators - which was sort of surreal.

Tater has been anticipating the carousel for many months, ever since he expressed a desire to return to Italy (we went on vacation a couple of summers ago) so that he could ride the double-decker carousel. When I told him there was one, not only in America, but within driving distance of home, he was ready to GO!!

He enjoyed it, riding on a horse on the top, as did I. Sprout, ever the rebel, sat on a bench. Woo Hoo!

Post carousel, we visited the Dairy Queen for some treats. Gotta love DQ.

So, to get to the point here - the Plymouth Meeting Mall has turned into the boardwalk, but less sandy. Very fun. And we didn't set foot in a single store!

There is also a place called Krazy City, which looked like a knock-off of D&Bs, right next to the carousel. It isn't open yet (according to their website), but looks like it could be fun.

We left the mall around 2:30 and had to make a trip over to the Frazer Zoo to visit the puppies. Tater and I went there on Tuesday and met the sweetest little pug/shih-tzu mix puppy and Sprout was quite desperate to check it out.

If you are unfamiliar with the "Zoo" it is a pet shop on Rt 30 in Frazer, right near the DMV. They have a selection of puppies and bunnies and a huge assortment of fish and lizards and things.

It isn't the classiest place, but the kids LOVE to go there to see the puppies.

I know we aren't supposed to encourage the puppy trade, but they are so sweet and love to have visitors (if the tail wagging is any indication).

We have to go in there with pinky-swears and promises that everyone is aware that we are not leaving with any pets. Otherwise things just get ugly.

So, we are keeping busy as Spring Break starts to wind down. We have tickets to the Hannah Montana movie for tomorrow and plans for our annual Easter Egg Eggstravaganza with our friends. Egg Hunt Saturday, another one Sunday.

It was a good week. I think we might survive the summer!

There was a plan?

So, I was all set to sit down here and tell you about how fun it was to go on a tour of the Herr's Potato Chip Factory in Nottingham, PA.

I was going to tell you about the free samples.

And the smell of cheese curls in the air (although I do believe the appropriate spelling in this context would be "Cheez").

And how Tater was brave and not at all freaked out by Chipper, the Herr's mascot (maybe that part was wishful thinking).

How we got up early-ish on our first day of Spring Break, and drove down there and had so much fun. Really, I was going to tell you all about it.

But, I didn't realize you have to make a reservation. And apparently you do. And I didn't.

So we didn't go.

No cheesy aroma. No free snacks.

Boo.

We went here. But that is old news. Still fun...but nothing new to report.

Boo.

But, if you are person capable of making a plan. And you like snacks. And live in Southeastern Pennsylvania. You should totally do the Herr's Tour. It really is fun.

A Tale of Two Field Trips

Two weeks ago (sorry, I am getting behind here!) we went with my Mom to check out the Hopewell Furnace Historical Site.

Last week we went with some friends to see Playhouse Disney Live in Reading.

Guess which one the kids liked better?

Hopewell Furnace! Wow!

And get this - we didn't even get anything in the gift shop (!)

Playhouse Disney Live was OK - but I think basically my kids are just too big for it. There was no plot to speak of. One hour total running time. And the "actors" were lip-synching along to a soundtrack of cartoon character voices.

Very pre-packaged. Very Disney-ish. Kind of blah.

The littler kids in the audience were very excited to see Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger. And Mickey of course. Gotta say I have never been a huge fan of the mouse (please don't throw things at me - just being honest!)

Anyhoo...it cost a truckload of money to go, we were in mediocre seats, and I think my kids were most excited that they got to eat cotton candy ($10 each with a "free" hat (!))

In contrast, Hopewell Furnace was a far different experience. It is just up the road from home here. We have been driving past signs for it for years, but had no idea what it was.

It turns out it is an a historic iron producing site. The Furnace itself is a huge stone structure and "back in the day" they put iron ore (rocks) and charcoal into the furnace to melt the iron out and make things out of it.

I know that doesn't sound all that fun. But it is actually like a mini-Williamsburg. The Furnace was like a small town. There are houses where the workers lived, the "big house" where the owners lived, a barn, and the actual production facilities.

It is all completely beautiful (look at that picture!) and I bet in the Spring and Summer even better. It seems that they have live demonstrations in the summer, so we'll have to check that out.

The tour starts with a quick movie that talks about the history of the site and the iron industry. I know that sounds horrifically boring, but it really wasn't.

The kids got a scavenger hunt page of things to find during the tour. If they found everything they would get a "Ranger Badge". My kids are pretty competitive so they were totally into that.

They have a nice map and information so you can do a self-guided tour. There are audio recordings at many of the landmarks - the kids were very excited to find the buttons. Not so interested in hearing what they had to say - but finding the buttons was like a bonus part of the scavenger hunt.

There is a lot of outside space, so the kids enjoyed running around. We were basically the only people there, so I was OK with them doing that. No lost-in-the-crowd fears here!

We were there for probably about 2 hours. And the kids were into the scavenger hunt right till the end and completely thrilled with their badges. A hint for anyone who does go - look in the little museum in the gift shop - it is part of the scavenger hunt.

There was no admission charge for kids under 16 and adults were only $4. AND the kids were happy enough with the badges that I was able to drag them out of the tiny gift shop with no money spent. Whew!

So, somehow the lower cost, more convenient, interesting even for grown-ups, educational expedition was the big winner here. I can't tell you how much I LOVE that!

Great Wolf Lodge

On Friday night we drove about 2 hours up to the Poconos to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge, and then on Saturday spent the day playing in their indoor water park. Lots of our friends have gone and we thought that a day of swimming would be an excellent way to celebrate Mike's birthday (which is actually today, but we have been celebrating in various guises for days...and will continue through at least this weekend!)

The room we stayed in was called a "Wolf Den" suite. The kids had bunk beds in a little "log cabin" and were set up with their own TV and game system (which unfortunately didn't work...but that was OK...)

We arrived right around 6PM and after unloading our stuff, we checked out the arcade for a bit. The kids love arcades. I am more of a return-on-investment person - I want to have a lot of fun for my money and feeding tokens into games that last 10 seconds doesn't do it for me. Sort of like slot machines - which to me are like broken vending machines - money goes in, nothing comes out.

But we enjoyed several rounds of Skee Ball, and the kids had a lot of fun. They each accrued about 200 prize tickets, which wasn't enough for any substantial prize, but respectable.

After the playing, we went in search of dinner. After the sticker shock of the buffet, which was the only on-site dinner choice, we loaded back into the car and drove about 2 miles down the road to Friendly's.

We returned to the hotel in time for Sprout and Mike to attend "The Great Clocktower Show" in the lobby. Tater opted out, since he isn't a big fan of animatronic creatures, so we went back to the room and read books. Sprout's first response when we asked how the show was was "Awesome" - but later, she said it was really creepy and weird, so apparently we made the right call in boycotting.

Then it was bedtime. Tater, as the most mobile sleeper in all the land, was put on the lower bunk for his own safety. Sprout quite triumphantly claimed the top. They had a hard time getting to sleep due to the combination of a) excitement b) away from home-ness and c) children running screaming through the halls until 11PM. Rude.

In the morning we passed on the in-house cuisine again in favor of a Dunkin' Donuts run. And around 10 we packed up our stuff and put it out in the car and went to the water park.

We had watched the action through the window the night before, and it was impressive from afar. But wow...it is quite the set-up!

There are 6 huge water slides (some of which snake their way outside the building), a wave pool, a hot tub, and a bunch of other stuff!

The kids liked the wave pool the best, but eventually warmed up to the slides and really enjoyed them. Over the course of the day, things got more crowded and there were some fairly significant lines for the slides. But they moved pretty quickly so there wasn't too much wait time.

All of the big slides ended in shallow pools - the deepest was 3 1/2 feet. And since riders go in big rafts and inner-tubes, strong swimming skills were not required to ride. Lots of inner tubes were available in the wave pool as well, so the kids always felt safe. There are also lots of lifeguards on duty and safety does seem to be a big priority (as it should be!)

The picture up there is of the area called Fort Mackenzie, which is a huge complex of sprinklers and buckets and hoses spraying water all over. The highlight is a HUGE bucket that holds 1000 gallons of water (!) and dumps over everything every few minutes. We were standing right under it when it dumped and oh my...that's a lot of water!

We played from 10 until about 3, going back and forth between the different pools and activities. Mike took a break to have an adult beverage and watch some basketball at the bar, and the kids and I had a snack break with little corn dogs and fries (such the healthy weekend!) We passed (again) on the "real" food. (I swear I am not completely cheap, but $9 for a sandwich that a kid will probably not eat seems wrong...)

When we were good and shriveled, we changed in the locker rooms (well, actually in the bathroom, since the locker rooms were monopolized by people doing a full-on makeover or something) and got ready to hit the road for home.

The kids went back to the arcade to cash in their prize tickets - mostly on candy. Then we made a stop in the gift shop, which was not as horrific as those stops usually are. I think all of the waterplay exhausted the kids to the point where they were incapable of begging for every single item in the shop. They each chose a huge lollipop with an itty bitty stuffed wolf. I got a fridge magnet. Big splurge.

The kids had hoped we would be able to partake of the MagiQuest game while we were there. This is a scavenger-hunt-like game where participants have electronic wands and a list of clues. The clues lead to items in the hotel and waving the wand in front of those items registers that they have been found. Apparently this is very fun. But we were out of time, so we'll have to save it for next time!

We made a stop at a Perkins on the way back and had our lunch (of breakfast food) around 4...so we were quite starving. Yum...pancakes!

I am sure we'll go back again. Sprout kept saying "This is the best day of my entire life" and Tater declared it to be "Awesome". I think next time we would go earlier on the first day, so that there would be time for the MagiQuest game. Guests are allowed to participate in activities on-site for the entire day of check-in and check-out - so a one-night stay could get you two solid days of playing.

Great Wolf Lodge, to me, had the aura of a kid-appropriate casino. Everything is big and dramatic, you have no idea what time it is, and you rarely run out of things to do. Not cheap, but definitely worth the drive and the investment!

Totally Tubular - Winter Sports Version

Sometime back in January while watching the kids sled down our back hill, narrowly missing the deck supports and wiping out bushes along the way, I thought that maybe there could be a better venue for sledding. Something less heart-attack inducing, perhaps.

While a quick shift across the street to the walking path (which is free of obstacles, yet sends the children hurtling into the street) was sort of an upgrade, I began to research options.

Finally we settled on a trip to Blue Mountain Ski Area for tubing. We originally thought we would go over our extended President's Day weekend. However, there were some scheduling issues (mostly that they weren't open until it would have been getting dark) and we had to bump the trip to this past Sunday.

We went with our neighbors, who have kids about the same age as ours, plus a 3 year old. When we woke up in the morning, things were looking pretty gray. The weather people were promising that it wouldn't last, so we set off on our adventure.

The trip was shorter than we anticipated, about 90 minutes from our place. We managed to miss all of the McDonald's options on the way there and decided lunch in the lodge was the easiest (although surely not most economical) option. I think the kids were too excited to eat, though. They were ready to GO!

Tickets for Sunday were $25 per person for a 4 1/2 hour mid-day window of time. Rates vary for different time periods. I figured we were unlikely to make it more than 2 or 3 hours, as it was still drizzling a little bit when we started out.

There are two types of tubes. Big, family-style ones that hold up to 4 adults (we managed to get 4 kids and 2 adults in and sneak past), and single-person tubes.

The lift for the family tubes is easier to negotiate, since you sit in the tube and a big hook drags you up the hill. The lift for the individual tubers is like a huge conveyor belt where you stand on the belt and drag your tube behind. Very tricky to stand on a conveyor belt going up a hill with nothing to hold onto! Entertaining (in a wrong-ish sort of way) to watch the kids stumbling around the first few times.

The most dramatic moment was Tater falling out of the tube on the way up the family lift....dragging along behind the tube and laughing. I had to haul him back in while my friend held my feet so I wouldn't also fall out. Very exciting!

We split our time between the two types. The kids and Dads seemed more into the single tubes, which can go quite a bit faster and can be strapped together to make 2 or 3 person "pods". There are starters at the top of each run that make sure no one gets run over, and they can give you a good spin at the start, which the kids LOVED.

I personally preferred the family-style. A little less kamikaze-ish, yet still exciting enough for me!

About 45 minutes into the tubing, the sun came out and things warmed up a bit and it was absolutely beautiful out (and yet, still quite cold!) We took a break after about 2 1/2 hours for snacks and thawing and then went back and continued to ride until the end of the session. So we did the full 4 1/2 hours!! Outside! In the cold! And it was SO FUN!!

The kids are asking if next time we can try skiing. And in theory, I suppose that is do-able. Yet I have flashbacks to skiing with my post-college friends and actually falling off of the trail. Into the woods. Like, hanging from a branch...skis dangling.

And while part of me wishes I was cool enough to snowboard - I know I totally am not. And my poor old-lady back wouldn't make it through an attempt.

So maybe I will just stick with the tubing. Low-injury potential. Nearly impossible to go off-course. No falling. Just fun.

Sold!

Greatest Deal on Earth!

How do you feel about the circus?

We haven't been in years. We took Sprout when she was about 3. She loved it...even touched an elephant! She lovingly carried the program around for months and months!

But given Tater's well-documented fear of dressed-up things and (god forbid) clowns...the circus just didn't seem like the place to take him.

However, since the Christmas breakthrough, where he was able to be in a place with a tattered collection of dressed-up creatures without losing his mind, perhaps the circus is back on the radar! Yay!

I would love it if it was, because my friends at Moms Central have hooked me (and you!) up with a great deal for circus tickets! Here's the scoop:

Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 (that's $11 per ticket!!!) by entering the code "MOM" at select ticketing channels (including Ticketmaster). The offer is good on all performances, with a minimum purchase of 4 tickets required. Additional tickets can also be purchased at $11 each!
Offer not valid on Circus Celebrity Seating, Front Row and VIP seating or combinable with other offers. Other Restrictions May Apply.

Offer #2: Ringling's Baby's First Circus program allows babies under 12 months of age to receive a free ticket voucher that can be exchange for a free ticket to any Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily performance. Anytime, anywhere, no expiration date!
Upcoming performances include:

Newark/East Rutherford/Uniondale/NYC
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
March 5 - April 13 Offer not valid on performances from April 10 - 13
at Madison Square Garden

Washington D.C./ Fairfax, VA/ Baltimore, MD
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
March 18-April 19

Philadelphia
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
May 13-May 25

Phoenix
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
June 24-June 28

Houston
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
July 15-July 26

Anaheim/LA/Ontario
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
July 8-August 2

San Francisco
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
August 12-August 23

Dallas/Ft Worth
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
July 29-August 16

Sacramento
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
August 27-August 30

Kansas City
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
September 16-September 20

To see which Ringling Bros. tour is coming to a town near you, visit www.Ringling.com. And visit www.ticketmaster.com to use the 4 tickets for $44 code, MOM.

Maybe this could be a step in Sprout's quest to have Tater Disney-ready at some point in their shared childhood. Sounds like a great deal...we might even have money left over for therapy afterwards.

Krazy Village/Jungle Wonder

On Saturday afternoon, all fired up from many weeks of Wii Bowling, Tater asked if we could go "real" bowling.

So I called the famous Downingtown Bowling Palace and, not all that surprisingly, all of their lanes were booked until 8PM. Too late for kid bowling.

So I used the handy-dandy Google search feature and put in "Bowling 19425" to find nearby bowling venues. There were a few lanes on there, but more interestingly, the search turned up a place called Jungle Wonder.

And when you see Jungle Wonder on the search results, you have to check that out, right?

So I clicked through and saw that Jungle Wonder, in Limerick, PA boasts and impressive 25,000 square feet of fun things like Black Light Mini Golf, Laser Tag, and "Mini Bowling".

Clicking through on their site there is a related place called Krazy Village, at the same address, offering exactly the same things. Odd.

Of course Saturday passed by in a blur. We had a new DVD of the Muppet Show that had to be watched, and then there was some reading and some playing with the dog. So we decided that Sunday would be the day to check out Jungle Wonder/Krazy Village.

It took just about 40 minutes to get there from our place - if you have an concept of where the new Philadelphia Premium Outlets are (and you should find them if you don't!) KV/JW is a few miles down the other direction on Ridge Pike (if you take a Left from 422 to go to the outlets, turn Right to go to KV/JW).

After a fruitless attempt to find a McDonald's for lunch (is there seriously not one right in Collegeville?) we had a quick introduction to Sonic before heading in to play.

It is a little confusing because there is a big sign on the upstairs of the one side of the building that says "Krazy Village", but no indication of where to go in. On the opposite side of the building is a smaller sign for the entrance to "Jungle Wonder". They are really pretty much the same facility - I am not sure why they don't just pick a name and go with it. Free marketing tip there.

Not knowing how long everything would take we decided to do the Black Light Mini Golf and the Mini Bowling.

Black Light Mini Golf was very cool. The room that the course is in is dark, and the edges of the "greens" and the scenery are all painted in neon so they glow in the black light.

It is very hard to judge distance in black light, but the kids enjoyed it and we didn't actually keep score. That little white stripe on the left side of the picture is Sprout's shirt...hard to take pictures with a camera phone in the dark...

There are only 9 holes on the course, so - cool as it was, Black Light Mini Golf took about 10 minutes to complete. I think we could have easily held onto our balls for another round, but that probably wouldn't be sending the right message to the kids...right?

So we moved on to Mini Bowling. It is essentially arcade bowling. The balls are smallish - kind of like Ski Ball balls. The pins are also smallish, and hanging on strings. The dynamics are quite different from regular bowling and WAY different from the Wii Bowling that we have all gotten used to. So we kind of sucked at this. But it was still fun.

And that took about another 20 minutes.

So we went back and signed up for the Balladium and Laser Tag. If I had realized ahead of time that we were going to be burning through activities I would have gotten the "Fun Pack" which essentially lets the kids do everything for $19.95. Our total tab was right around there and they didn't get to climb on the big "Jungle Gym". Live and learn.

Anyway - Balladium. This was a room full of air-shooter things. There were balls all over the floor and the kids had to gather up the balls, put them in the shooters and shoot at targets on the other side of the room. They loved this.


It would have been more fun with a bigger crowd of kids so they could have teams and compete. But my two guys just were right next to each other shooting away. Still fun though.

There were safety glasses in there, but we didn't see them until they were almost done. Safety glasses would have been good.

Finally, the kids went and played Laser Tag, which they say was fun, but I have to take their word for it because there was no way to observe. They went in happy and came out happy, so I have to assume they had a good time.

Krazy Village/Jungle Wonder seems to be quite the birthday party destination and in addition to the attractions that we enjoyed, they also have an extensive arcade, a big climber/Jungle Gym and pool tables. There are about 10 party rooms and they have only one entrance/exit so it is fairly easy to make sure no children escape (and yet again, I would have to ask, why 2 names and only one entrance? Confusing!)

We were happy with our little discovery and will have to go back again sometime soon. But I already promised Tater, next weekend we will do REAL bowling!

Monkeying Around

Hope everyone had an awesome holiday and has recovered (at least partially) from the madness of it all. We are decidedly in the post-celebration phase of winter vacation and looking for fun!

I have completely not been following my own advice this week and we have been completely winging it. After approximately 47,000 hours of MarioCart on the new Wii, we (I) decided it was time to get out of the house.

The need to get out, combined with Tater jumping around the house like a lunatic, led me to believe that a place with moonbounce-type entertainment would be the way to go.

After considering several local alternatives, we chose Monkey Joe's in Pottstown. Strangely, their website is www.monkeyjoesphilly.com - although they are seriously REALLY far from Philly.

Located in the "Suburbia Shopping Center" on Route 100, essentially an oasis of commercialism in the middle of nowhere, Monkey Joe's, unlike many similar establishments, is brightly lit, with huge windows in the "parent lounge" area (with massage chairs and free WIFI!!) The facility is relatively new - they have probably been there about a year - so everything is nice and clean and new.

There are referees who monitor the kids (although I still can't quite allow myself to plop in front of the big screen TV (!) and watch Judge Joe while the kids are playing). Everyone seemed to be playing nicely with no major catastrophes looming on the horizon.

I really liked that they had a wristband system where kids and parents are tagged upon entry with matching numbers and no one can leave with a kid unless the numbers match. I am frantic that way :) Something about Chuck E. Cheese makes me think child predators are lurking in every corner, this felt very safe to me.

The kids bounced and slid for 2 hours, only taking a break to recharge with some scary Spongebob popsicles. Ahhh...the joys of artificial color and flavor molded into the shape of a cartoon character!

There was a moment when Mr. Monkey Joe himself (creepy - see picture above) made an appearance and I thought Tater might lose it. But he held himself together surprisingly well and even waved from afar. I think we have turned a corner in the realm of dressed-up things. Not quite Disney ready, but possibly less likely to run screaming from Chik-Fil-A if the cow makes an appearance. Good stuff!

Monkey Joe's is offering 1/2 price admission on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day - and they have lots of special things going on during the week - magic shows, story times, etc. I would highly recommend checking out Monkey Joe's if the kids need to get out and let off some steam while it is cold outside!

A great place to get your bounce on!

It Takes a Village

Koziar's Christmas Village in Bernville, PA to be more specific. I found this place by Googling "Christmas Festival" and my zip code. So if you aren't anywhere near The Middle of Nowhere, PA - you can try that technique to find something good wherever you are.

Apparently other people around here already knew about the Christmas Village, my neighbors were going tonight with a church group and my friend in Pottsville had been there before, but I was in the dark - which isn't all that surprising.

Bernville is outside of Reading, near the airport. It took about an hour to get there from our place. I had been told that it is quite a dramatic sight to come over a hill and see the lights. So, of course, for about 5 miles, we proceeded over every hill with bated breath. And then, there it was...and quite dramatic indeed.

Of course, I had forgotten to explicitly check the hours of operation for Fridays (we had originally planned to go Wednesday, but were rained out). So we were there about 15 minutes before they opened at 6 (M-F 6-9 and S-S 5-9:30). Oops.

Luckily this gave us extra time to go back to the car for the hats and gloves that everyone thought they didn't need, but really did. The line moved quickly once the gates were opened and admission was pretty reasonable - $7 for adults and $5 for kids under 12.

The vast majority of the displays are outdoors, so tonight, when the temps were around freezing, it was pretty nippy out there. Luckily there are a few places to duck into, get some hot chocolate or hot apple cider, and warm up before you go back for more.

It is difficult to fully convey what there is to see. Lots and lots of lights. Lots and lots of characters - from the Peanuts, to the Flintstones, to Sesame Street - the whole gang is there on what look to be hand-painted displays. There is a path to follow that meanders through all of the displays. Music is playing.

There are little tableaus (I think that is the appropriate word) of toy shops and candy shops and other Christmas Scenes. Some were mildly disturbing, but most were cute. There is a dancing thing that sort of made my skin crawl and Sprout proclaimed a number of things - especially those with moving dolls - to be "creeeeepy".

Rudolf and Frosty were hanging around for pictures, resulting in a historic moment when my little Tater decided it would be OK to have his picture taken with BOTH Frosty and Rudolf (this is the boy who has been terrified of dressed-up things for his entire life).

There are also two impressive train set-ups, one outdoors and one indoors. The indoor one was huge and, you know, indoors - which was a plus at the point where I could no longer feel my toes.

Named one of the top ten attractions in PA as well as the Best Outdoor Christmas Display in the World (!), the kids proclaimed it to be "Awesome" - even Sprout, who I was told might be too old to appreciate the kitchy nature of the whole scene.

Tater said we should go back next year and the next year and the next year. So that is pretty much the best endorsement you are going to get.

Please Touch

After waiting in line for almost 90 minutes to vote today (go Obama!), we hopped in the car, picked up some McDonald's to go and high-tailed it to the new Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.

Traveling on the weirdly traffic-free Schuylkill Expressway, we arrived there in just about 30 minutes, a feat I can not imagine we could ever replicate.

The new home of the Please Touch Museum is Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park. A really impressive building and a great improvement over the old, cramped location in downtown Philly.

We were greeted by an enthusiastic man in a Mad Hatter outfit. I found him sort of creepy/irritating, but the kids were amused. I clearly have a different sense of humor than a child.

The exhibits are, for the most part, the same as those at the old facility. However, most are expanded to take advantage of the additional space.

There is a large boating/water exhibit that I do not remember from the old museum. The kids loved this. However, the floor is woefully inappropriate for a water feature and kids were slipping and falling all over the place. They need to put down more appropriate flooring or someone is going to get seriously hurt.

Other features included a human-sized hamster wheel, an extensive Alice-in-Wonderland section with a maze and tea party, and a huge play supermarket. The last time we went the kids LOVED the supermarket. This time, possibly because it was a ridiculous mess, they weren't so into it.

There was also a play McDonald's, a food cart in the "park", a hospital, a shoe store, and a construction site.
My kids enjoyed the "garage" and driving the bus, and car. There were also "real" backhoes that the kids could dig colored balls with.

Lots of the activities would probably be more appropriate for the under 6 crowd. I think Tater enjoyed it more than Sprout, although there were moments when she was very into it.

I am not great at doing the "standing around watching kids play" thing. And I am a nut-case when kids are running in different directions and I can't keep track of them. (Yes, that's me yelling "WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT STAY TOGETHER???"). I would have enjoyed the day more with another grown-up for coverage and company. But it was a good day anyway.

The kids were very compliant with their $5 budget in the gift shop. Each picked a yo-yo. Sprout picked a strange tube thing that makes a weird noise. Tater picked 4 small plastic cats, which he named Snow White, Fluffy, Princess and Mustard. For some reason I find that very amusing.

So, in short...if you have kids under 6 and a co-pilot, you will probably really enjoy the Please Touch Museum. And don't run around the water feature or you'll crack your head open.

Oh, also - if you have AAA you can get a slight discount ($1.50 per ticket).

Pumpkinland

Once upon a time, when I was a newly minted working girl, my friend and I were somehow placed in charge of planning parties for our work group. Remember when people used to have parties at work?

Anyway, we were working in downtown Wilmington, and the Halloween party was approaching. So, we did what any reasonable people would do when faced with the need for pumpkins and Halloween cheer - we drove to Media, PA and went to Linvilla Orchards! Pumpkinland!

I grew up just around the corner from there...and it was THE place to get pumpkins. At least in my mind.

And I wasn't the most committed corporate drone...

Anyway...flash forward more years than I'd like to admit (um...20??? Ouch). The kids had the day off from school, and Esther and I were looking for a place to take the whole crowd of them for some fall fun. So...off we went to Linvilla Orchards!

It is still a somewhat unreasonable drive from where we live, although meeting for brunch at the Happy Days Finer Diner in Frazier broke up the trip. After we fueled up on Mickey Mouse pancakes, off we went.

Despite the Yom Kippur holiday, there were many bus loads of children at Linvilla. It is a mecca for fall class trips to pick apples and go on hayrides (neither of which we participated in, but both of which are available.)

First we went and visited the animals. There is a wide assortment of beleaguered looking chickens that can be fed, a new duck pond, a couple of horses, some pigs, goats, ostriches, sheep and a few deer. The kids love to visit the animals. Usually my kids go with their Nana and she has a big bag of bread to share with the animals...this time we had a handful of dried corn from the vending machine. Bread is better.

Next stop was the train ride. $3 per person to go "around 3 times", which the driver said was "about 9 minutes". Apparently she is a bit of an over-estimator. We thought that "around" was through the fields or something...but the train went around in a big circle...and probably took under 5 minutes. But the kids enjoyed it very much, so that was good.

We passed on the playground this time. They do have a really nice one with lots of interesting things to climb on, but we had other things to see, so we moved on.

Our next stop was the Apple Flinger...I don't actually remember what they were calling it - but we got 20 apples for $5 and the kids flung them down a hill with huge slingshots. They liked that a LOT.

Tater hit one of the targets in the field and was somewhat disappointed that there wasn't a prize, but he got over it quickly!

The big event was the hay-bale maze. Esther and I decided to sit it out and sent the four kids into the maze, with strict instructions not to skewer one another with the flags they were holding (so they wouldn't get lost since they are all shorter than a bale of hay). We watched the 4 flags go back and forth for a while...and then there they all came...back out of the entrance. We turned them back around and sent them back in...back and forth for a while...back out the entrance. Back in they went for a third try...and finally Esther decided she would go in the exit and figure out how to coach them out. And then SHE got stuck in there...

Eventually she got them all to climb over one of the walls (shhh...you aren't supposed to do that...) and everyone made their triumphant way to the exit!

Finally we were ready to go into PUMPKINLAND!! The kids were so excited to pick out their pumpkins! I usually make them wait until closer to Halloween...so my guys were terribly excited that they were getting to SHOP for pumpkins!

After carefully investigating nearly EVERY pumpkin in the place (and trying hard to convince me that we really needed a 100 pound pumpkin "for Daddy!") they finally picked the winners. Tater's is round-ish, Sprout's is tall-ish. They each also picked a Jack-be-little and we got a few little decorations as well.


THEN (long day) we went into the shop to look for some Cider Donuts (for Daddy!) And a big bushel of apples to make a pie! And, since it was an insanely hot day, lots of water!

After all that, we pushed our shopping cart full of about 60 pounds of pumpkins and apples and donuts, up the unpaved hill (ouch) to the car.

Obviously, given my propensity to drive long distances to visit, I recommend checking out Linvilla Orchards. It has become significantly more commercialized since I was a kid (lo those many years ago) so all of the additional activities cost something. Even the playground charges $1 per person (which I personally find offensive). But there is lots to do, the kids love it, and it just feels like a fun, wholesome sort of place to be.

And they make REALLY good donuts!

The Zoo

Yesterday, while our friends from Florida were in town, we went to the Philadelphia Zoo for the day. We met other friends there, so we had a group of 5 grown-ups and 6 kids. The kids (an almost 9 year-old, 2 six-year olds, and 3 three-year olds) had a good time, as would be expected.

I mean, the Philadelphia Zoo. Fun. Not a lot to add to that.

The only drama was that I, mean and terrible mother that I am, denied my children the joy of having their faces painted. And while you may gasp in horror at how very, very deprived my children are, let me clarify.

1) $6 PER CHILD...seriously.

2) Face painting, in my personal experience has a life-span of approximately 10 minutes, before either:

a) It starts to itch...and the child wants it removed.
b) The child decides to hug someone (usually someone wearing something
white and dry-clean-only), leaving half of their face on the huggee.
c) The child begins to cry (either because of the itchy face, or for some
unrelated reason) and the paint begins to run.
OR
d) The child eats or drinks something and rubs the lower half of the paint
off and ingests it.

So, no face-painting. And that's final. And if you say the words "face painting" to me one more time, we are going to the car.

I don't know what else to say about the zoo. The elephants are back (for those who don't know, they took the elephants somewhere to rebuild their habitat). The habitat looks exactly like it did before, as far as I can tell. But wow - elephants are BIG.

Giant river otters are very fun to watch. So are polar bears - if they will get in the water. We watched the polar bear think about going in the water for about 10 minutes...he kept inching toward the edge...but no, nothing. The polar bear psych-out.

Monkeys are cute. Even gorillas look cuddly, until you remember that they would utterly shred you if you got anywhere near them.

Bears - ditto.

Hmmm...I have nothing witty to add here.
Giraffes, tall. Zebras, stripy. Turtles, slow. Snakes, gross. Lizards, gross.

Anyway - if you are around Philadelphia, willing to deal with traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway (and no, don't fool yourself that it is better on a Sunday afternoon, it's not), and haven't already been to the zoo a kajillion times. You should go. Kids love it.

If you don't want to deal with the traffic, and can live without the elephants, try the Elmwood Park Zoo.

I mean, who doesn't like a zoo?

Ahoy there, Real Pirates!

We visited the Real Pirate exhibit today at The Franklin (Institute...I know they changed the name, but I can't just say "The Franklin" - the Franklin what??)

I find the pirate thing to be sort of entertaining. The eye patch, the flag, the parrot, the funny way of talking. However, the reality of the situation is that pirates were hard-core criminals. "Plundering the booty" sounds silly, but honestly, they were killing a bunch of people for the booty, which isn't so fun.

The display is centered around the story of Captain Sam Bellamy, who left New England to find a way to convince his girlfriend's Dad that he wasn't a penniless, deadbeat sailor. He decided that the best way to do this was the hijack 50 ships and steal all of their valuables. Quite the role model.

The ship that he used was called the Whydah (Wih-dah) and was a slave ship until he and his "mateys" took it over. So the first few exhibits have a lot of information about slavery, including manacles and a branding iron that was used on the slaves. All very interesting and compelling to a grown-up, but somewhat difficult to explain to a 6-year-old (or a almost 9-year-old, really). This is surely information that they should understand, the horrors of slavery, the progress that has been made - but I wasn't quite prepared to have that conversation today.

The coolest thing was the BIG OLD trunk of pirate treasure. Many many coins. There was a table with little holes in it, where you could touch some of the coins - although I don't think it was all that satisfying...just poking the coins through a little hole...not as fun as it could be.

The second coolest thing was the bell from the ship in a water tank that is backlit...very dramatic.

The third coolest thing was more water tanks with pieces of ship wreckage in them - although it was very hard to tell what you were looking at.

We passed on the audio tour, which was actually free for kids under 11, which might have helped fill in the blanks. But there was sufficient signage to figure out what was what for the most part.

The sort of horrifying, and yet sort of cool things were:

1) The leg bone and shoe of a 9-year-old pirate who went down with the ship (because, yuck, but a kid pirate, kind of cool).

2) The "gibbet" - a cage in which the townspeople would display the dead body of a tarred, feathered, and hung pirate's dead body to discourage others from entering the pirating profession. This was another one of those conversations I wasn't ready for - "What does it mean, hung?"

The exhibits weren't as interactive as I generally expect at The Franklin (Institute). There was a knot-tying station, and a place where the kids could raise a pirate flag. Besides that, there weren't a lot of "doing" things for the kids. The opening film was well done, the displays were set up nicely, but I think the kids expected to be able to get more involved in things.

However, this, along with my lack of preparation for serious conversations doesn't negate the overall coolness and interestingness (is that a word?) of the exhibit. The kids said that they thought it was great. And I guess that is what matters most!

The gift shop was less painful than most. Both kids settled right away on a replica of a pirate coin and a small bag of polished rocks. In and out in under 10 minutes. Whew.

So, if you like pirates, and are ready for a heavy dose of reality about them, you would enjoy this exhibit. It is at The Franklin (Institute) until early November. Check into getting tickets ahead of time, makes it all a lot easier!

Your admission to the Real Pirates also includes a full admission ticket to The Franklin (Institute). We also visited the Sports Challenge, which the kids really like, especially doing a simulated wheelchair race. We made a quick stop to look at the big pendulum. The kids wanted to tour the huge heart, but we didn't have time. Traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway ate into our visiting time...so plan for extra travel time!

Have fun!!