Lakeside Amusement Park

Ready for the 4th of July with her red, white & blue tutu and star sandals! What to do, what to do? How about Lakeside? Bonus:  a coupon to come back with unlimited rides in August! Besides, we can see it from our house and that lighted tower teases us nightly.

On her first amusement park ride, the cars.... They were also B-Bee's first amusement park ride. She is my serious child. Don't let the unsure face fool you, she was having fun. She had a small fit when I took her out at the end of the ride. When I put her back in to go again, she started rocking it and saying "Vrrooom, vroom."

After awhile, we moved up to bigger little kid rides like the mini-whip. Nellie's trying to hold herself up away from B-Bee and B's just laughing hysterically. I'm sure next year she'll be purposefully crushing him.

You can't skip the train ride around the lake...it's the best part according to Daddy & B-Bee. This is one of the oldest amusement parks in the US.

I can't take credit for this cool shot. Daddy-O played with the camera up on the bridge, while I found a bench & nursed Nellie, and B-Bee & Zaza waited in line for the airplane ride. This was the longest line of the night, so we had plenty of time. Can't wait to come back in August!

A Not-So-Bad Day At the Z-O-O

Nellie has found a new hobby, tearing down B-Bee's coins & prizes. Sometimes she tries to eat them, sometimes she shares, most of the time she throws them on the floor - which of course upsets B-Bee when he finds them on the floor.

....but they're still buds..... until she spills his milk.



Get ready, Nellie, and put your shoes on. We're going to the Z-O-O! On the way to the zoo, the entire way to the zoo, B-Bee informed me that Z-O-O spells zoo. He's so smart, so I tried to get him to spell boo and moo... He got "moo" down, but it turned funny and went back to "zoo".



B-Bee wanted to see the elephants first. So we headed off to the Pachyderm building to watch the elephants have breakfast. These guys are always eating whenever we come see them. Suppose they need a continuous flow of hay and other elephant food to keep up with their metabolism.

Stinky as it may be, the pachyderm is my favorite because of the rhinos & hippos. This one was having his dental exam. There's something cute about these big, stinky, slightly pink creatures. I wonder if they get daily brushings.

The train was closed for repairs. The carousel just isn't the same. B-Bee freaked out about the animals and wouldn't ride on them. Instead we sat on the bench. Nellie wanted up and rode on an animal though. Both of them were fascinated by the lights, music & mirrors.

We never did find our mommy group. Just as well... we stopped for an early picnic lunch and Nellie decided that she'd had enough of the wagon. B-Bee got tired of listening and it was very hot. We quickly saw the camels, checked out the North Shore River play area - no water running that day - and headed home for naps. As you can see Nellie was a little crabby. She's teething a million teeth (just had 2 come pop through and is working another 6 or so up still). It wasn't our best day at the zoo, but it could have been a whole lot worse. I'm just thankful that they behaved and were pleasant for most of it.

Flag Day Fun

Didn't take many pictures today, since Daddy had the camera today. He's going to traffic court tomorrow morning (stupid, petty PMSing ticket) and started his day off taking pictures of the intersection where he was apparantly off-roading to make a right turn. However, looking at the pictures he took, I don't see how he ever fit all 4 wheels of our SUV between the white line and stop sign.

The kids and I had planned on going to the train museum this morning, but I thought the playdate was at 10am or 10:30am. Just as I was going to log on to confirm the time we had to be there, my friend texted me asking if I was still going.... "Yeah." Then I saw that we were supposed to be there at 9am and it was already 9:20am by then.

So we went to the mall instead. I gave B-Bee the choice between the mall with the train & horse rides or the mall with the dinosauers & sandbox. It was a different answer each time I asked. So I chose the dinosauers & sandbox - Old Navy there is right by the food court, dinosauers & sandbox. It just made sense. To boot, they had a train running there as well - as we found out when we were walking in. A Polar Express Train, as B-Bee put it.

Called my friend that works up that way to see if she could meet us for lunch and what great timing! She had taken the day off work to bring her daughter, Bre to an appointment. ...meaning we got to see her AND her 2 y/o sweetie. All the kids were pretty well behaved, right up to the end when B-Bee trainwrecked we started heading out.

After shopping returning stuff, our picnic lunch, and running around on the dinosauers...we went out side for Sand Castles 101. I can't believe it has taken me nearly 4 years to show B-Bee for the first time how to make a sand castle. Not that we have a lot of beaches around here to do it at - the mall has a sand pit / area stocked with trucks and sand toys. First step was to create some mud. Mommy had to go wading in the "pool" fountain that you're not supposed to swim or wade in to throw buckets of water onto the sand. I know, bad Mommy. Nellie was quite concerned with this rebellious behavior. Second step was to sit down and get muddy digging. Next fill bucket, pack down, flip upside down on the ground....and wah-lah! Last step, Bre had down: crash the tower!

We had to take a ride on the train before we left, since I had promised and promised B-Bee trains today. It was actually roomy enough for me to sit comfortably with both kids (and possibly another adult?) in a coach car. Believe me, this isn't always quite a simple task. Getting out a barrel train is down right comical, but this one was no problem. We ventured over the road and past more stores, another playground AND an outdoor rollerskating rink! Nextime we are SO bringing B-Bee's skates! This may just be my very favorite mall. Being that I used to live within 30 minutes of the Mall of America, I've seen some cool mallage.

I must thank my Facebook friends for reminding me that today was Flag Day! Some days I'm lucky to remember what day of the week it is, nonetheless what holiday. To think I just about bought a flag & pole to hang on our front porch the other day - product placement almost worked this impulsive shopper. We do need to get a flag though, not only would it look great on our front porch, but what veteran doesn't fly a flag? Eek, this one. Don't get me wrong, I have several American flags. But they're special flags that we flew over Iraq during our aeromed missions. Anyways, I'm proud of our nation and proud to have served and will be a proud flag-displaying American very soon.

In the spirit, I worked on Nellie's 4th of July tutu tonight. It's almost done; ran out of tulle. Her 1 year old photoshoot will be in a couple weeks and I'm planning to have her wear her her birthday tutu for some shots and then the 4th of July one for the rest - including a 4th of July themed family picture.

Near Perfect Day.

Between the 3 mommies at our playdate today, we had a total of 11 kids! What fun! What chaos! ...no, really it wasn't too bad as lond as we weren't in pedestrial transit from one part of the park to another. Here are about half of the kids waiting for the train to go and come back. Kudos to you if you recognize where we are! You've found an awesome place to spend a summer day.

Who's the ring leader of trouble? Pick a side. The Thomas fanatic in the middle goes with the flow. For most of the train ride, they were "choo-choo" - ing.

 We're serious about some watermelon; it's quickly beome a favorite - a messy favorite.

Wading & playing in the creek.

Watching the train go by one last time before we head home for naps. B-Bee & Nellie fell asleep so hard on the way home that they did the car-to-bed transfer. Ahhhh....

During this blissful nap - until B-Bee woke up crying because he wanted Annie's chocolate bunnies - I got some plants put in the garden, the pool set up and filled, and a few flowers (for headbands) pinned together. So after nap, while waiting for Daddy to get home, we played in the pool. It was a little too cold for Nellie and she freaked out whenever I put her in. So she was content to watch from the side, eating chocolate bunnies and feeding the dogs. At one point I put each of the dogs in for a short swim. Neither one would come back over after that. *sigh* Landlubber dogs.

A near perfect day.