Touch A Truck

Saturday morning Glenn and a few friends decided to go golfing. So that left me and the boys to search for something to do. As I was wandering around the Mamapalooza message board I noticed that one of the members wrote that there was an event called "Touch A Truck" being held at the Rutenburg Park. I called up Leah and she met me there with her kids.
I knew for sure that the boys would love this. Any object that has wheels on it is among my boys' favorites. When I was driving there both Aidan and Rylan fell asleep in the car. But as soon as I put the car in park, I heard Aidan wake up and yell, "Mom, a BIIIG TRUUUUCK"!! When we walked up the lady said that it cost $5 per kid and $6 if they wanted to ride the Swamp Buggy. I have never been on a swamp buggy before, so of course we were getting on that thing! I asked what the money was going towards and she said the "Cypress Lake Hornets Pop Warner Football League". ABSOLUTELY! Anything that benefits children's programs is fantastic.

As we walked through the park they had all sorts of large heavy machinery. There was a Semi-Truck, Digger, Loader, bounce house, and a huge swamp buggy. Then an ambulance and a fire truck showed up. My kids were in heavey machinery heaven! Aidan at first refused to get on the loader. I could tell that he really wanted to, but was afraid of it for some reason. After talking him into getting on it, he finally crawled up on the loader with me. They really loved the fire truck and ambulance. Our fire departments in this area have some really great programs for children. I was very unaware that they do all kinds of fun stuff to help teach the kids about fire safety.
It was so hot outside but we kept the boys hydrated and they had a really great time!

Jason and Carly on the loader

Mommy and Rylan on the loader

Aidan, Jason and Carly holding hands

Aidan in front of the digger

The swamp buggy was so cool, the boys really enjoyed it, even though you can't tell from their blank expressions on their face!

Outdoor Adventures

I'm in love with our new bike trailer thingy. It's so nice to take a bike ride with the kids while they just sit and relax. Glenn and I decided to take the boys to my favorite park, Lakes Park for a bike ride. Unfortunately we only had one bike so he went out in the morning to buy himself one.
It seems like we've been purchasing a lot of sporting equipment lately, which can get a little pricey, but in the grand scheme of things really isn't such a bad investment. I mean, the bikes and such will last us a long time. My running parafinalia might be a completely different story. I made the comment to my friend the other day "man, it's expensive to be healthy"! Between buying fresh fruits and vegetables, equipment, gym memberships, cute gym clothes (totally not needed but definitely wanted) I think it was cheaper to be overweight. However, I'll have to say that living a healthier lifestyle makes everything else just a little bit happier and more fun!

I digress...After getting all of our stuff together, we decided to take the boys to Lakes Park for a bike ride and then head over to the splash park to cool off. It was insanely hot outside. This summer heat is nothing to mess with. We got the boys all geared up in their helmets that Rylan of course refused to put on. I remembered to bring lollipops, so he sat in the trailer licking lollipops the whole time. Aidan loves to ride in the bike trailer, he climbs in and waits patiently to take off. Thank goodness at least one of my kids cooperates.

We rode around the park for a total of 2 and a half miles and burned a little over 100 calories (I love my Garmin running watch). The park is under construction and when we were riding around on the trails we noticed that the little kid train that they have has tracks that go all over the park. Seriously, my boys are going to flip when the train is up and running and they get to ride it. They were already pointing and saying "mommy, look a train!)





After our bike ride we gave the boys some lunch and got them dressed to go in the splash park. Aidan had a great time while Rylan didn't go in at all because he was more interested in eating cheetos. He's our little chunky baby. Although he really isn't that chunky at all and barely has any baby-fat rolls. But man can he consume some food.

Friday Fun at Chuck E. Cheese's

I'm still shocked that Ft. Myers, Florida has a Chuck E. Cheese's. I swear I live in Dinosaur Land with just about enough kid activities that I can count on my hands, so for us to actually have a Chuck E. Cheese's is so cool.

Some friends and I have decided that on Fridays we are going to have Fun Fridays where we do something super fun with all our kids. Last week it was the beach and this week it was Chuck E. Cheese's. They are having their grand opening on Monday, but Leah went in and asked if they are letting kids in before then. They said yes so it was decided that we would all bring our rascals to enjoy some super good fun playing because like the slogan says, it's "where a kid can be a kid"!

Everyone met up at around 11:00-11:30, purchased our tokens and headed out in the crowd for all the fun. We had a pretty large group consisting of Shannon, Aimee, Leah, Terra, Karan and myself and all of our kids, 14 total. The place was so cool and very kid friendly. I love it when new places open up because even the employees are excited to be there. Everyone had a blast, and although we didn't get to hang out that much with our friends because our kids were all in different areas, we still had a really great time.

The boys at first were not too thrilled about Chuck E Cheese's as I was. They were acting a little shy and were almost frightened with all the loud, flashing, moving games. Aidan who I was sure would love the Huge monster truck was yelling for me to take him off and Rylan wasn't sure what to think of everything. After wondering around for a little bit just kind of checking out the place, we decided to get some lunch. I ordered a small personal size pizza for the boys to share along with a cool Chuck E. Cheese's souvenir cup, and I ordered myself a trip to the salad bar. It was great! I love any place that has a salad bar. The pizza I'll admit was not the greatest but my boys gobbled it right up. After we were done eating we headed back out into the madness. This time they were a little more lively and started playing and riding all the rides. Rylan loved the carousel and the train that went around and around in circles. I think he just loved inserting all his tokens into the slots. Aidan took a liking to the air hockey game and even found a little boy to play with. He was having so much fun playing with this little boy, it was the cutest. But the one place that they spent the most time in was the jungle gym that was suspended in the air and then had a slide. The best part was watching them climb up into this thing. Aidan was having a pretty tough time at first because the platform was a little too high. But he found a way to wedge his foot in the netting in the corner and prop himself up. It's really cool to stand back and watch their minds work and do problem solving. I probably look like a jerk mom who is just sitting there watching her kids struggle trying to get up on this platform and not offering a helping hand, but it's not that I don't want to help, I just want to see if he can figure it out himself. If he yells for me to help I usually will explain to him how to get up, but I don't really like just going up and pushing his butt up there. I feel like he isn't learning that way. Anyways, it only took Rylan about 3 minutes to watch what Aidan was doing and then go over and try it too. That kid cracks me up. He always wants to do everything his brother does no matter how dangerous it might be. He amazes me! The things that he's doing at his age is incredible, it's just really interesting to see how much he learns from Aidan.
















After spending lots of time up in those tubes I put them both on this simulator called "Jet Rider". They both were staring at the screen with their mouths open and I could tell that they really thought it was cool and that they also were running out of steam, Fast! So I gathered them up we headed home for naps. They both fell asleep in the car. We'll definitely be going back, I still have a whole cup full of tokens. Maybe daddy can join us next time!