The Long Awaited...

Sorry for the blog silence around here this week.  It's been a busy time with our normal teaching and school activities, not to mention the plumber coming back to finish the work he started as we were finally able to get our water shut off.  But I don't want to talk about that right now.

Another part of our busy week was getting ready for a weekend away...

... at STORYLAND!!!

N and L (but especially N) have been begging to go to Storyland since the beginning of the summer, when we really got into reading Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Book Ever, and watching the video version.  N got the idea into her head that she wanted to meet Mother Goose, and M and I knew that Storyland would be the perfect place for her to do that, and experience the rest of her fairy tale favorites.

But then we spent our entire summer looking for a house, buying that house, and moving in.

So, as we are starting to feel just a little more settled and (mostly) unpacked, we finally booked the trip on the last weekend that the park is open for the year.

We spent the day there today, and it was wonderful.  The girls LOVED it.  We even got lucky and the rain held off until the last hour of our day, despite a forecast of 80% precipitation potential.

I'll just share the pictures with a few of my comments, because there's lots of them, and they really speak for themselves.

We arrived at our kid-friendly resort Friday night and the girls immediately shook off the long car ride by playing on the playground there for a long time.

(You can sort of see our little cottage in the background.)

The morning arrives!!  C was happy to empty half the contents of our snack bag while we were all getting ready.

We arrive!  L tries out Mama Bear's chair in the Three Bears' cottage.

L tries the slide by the Old Woman's Shoe.

Leprechaun N!

Leprechaun L!

More sliding!

Photo op with Timmy Tree.

The spider frightened Daddy Miss Muffet away!

I had a reeeeally hard time getting L to leave the ball pit.  However, when I mentioned we were going to meet Cinderella next, she was out of there in a flash.

Love that shot.  Love it.

The teacups made Daddy slightly nauseated, but surprisingly, the girls loved them!

On our way to the castle where dreams come true...

Pie in the sky.  Every girl's dream.  Wish fulfilled.

... and a pumpkin coach ride back down the hill to boot!

We rode the carousel twice (what a pretty fall day it was)!

C rode on the bench, in the Ergo carrier, with Mommy (and smothered me with the granola bar she was eating).  Truth be told, she rode around in the Ergo carrier or the stroller most of the day, and despite only one nap that lasted all of 30 minutes, she was completely cheerful-- even laughing-- the entire day.  Perhaps she got caught up in her sisters' excitement.  And perhaps she is just the most awesome baby that ever lived.

(A short side note of product endorsement here... I had C in my Ergo carrier for four hours straight and felt no back pain or tension-- almost no sensation of carrying a baby at all, really.  I have no idea how the designers of these carriers managed to distribute the weight of baby so comfortably.  And C is getting on 16 or 17 pounds.  Mommies-- get one if you don't have one.  They're great.)

The animatronic children on the arch pictured above sang to us as we entered this section of the park.  M and I, being the musicians that we are, consulted the song that was notated on either side of the arch and attempted to sing along with them.

We were quite dismayed to discover that the music is not notated correctly.  Our children, of course, shared our disdain.

Sad faces in jail.

N's funniest quote of the day (over lunch): "What strange hot dogs they have in this land.  They're not red, they're white!"  (Above is her strange hot dog face.)

Hot air balloon ferris wheel with Daddy.

The only roller coaster in the park is a kiddie one called the Polar Coaster.  Yes it's rinky dink by adult standards, but it's still a roller coaster.  Both girls begged to ride it.  We made them watch the coaster going around the track a few times before they decided.  After watching... yes, they were sure they wanted to ride it.  L's funniest quote of the day: (clapping her hands) "I want to ride the roller SKATE!!"  And so, Mama (thrill seeker that I am) went with them!

Here I am consoling a slightly dazed L after it was all over.  She took a few deep breaths... and then said, "Let's do it again!!"

Riding the dutch shoes with Daddy.  Poor Daddy got more than his share of nauseating rides today!

I think this was L's favorite ride of the day (second to the ball pit, of course): The Whirling Whales!

And then......... WE MET MOTHER GOOSE!!!

And we didn't get a picture.  Because precisely 5 minutes before that, it had begun pouring rain.  We just barely caught the poor lady as she was running for cover and made her stand out in the rain while our daughters introduced themselves and told her how much they had been looking forward to meeting her.

But, Mother Goose was so enchanted by these sweet girls that she gave them a FREE popcorn bucket as a souvenir.

So at least we have that memory, if we don't have a picture.

Just moments after we met Mother Goose, we also met Winnie the Pooh.  You can sort of see in the Pooh pictures how the girls are still glowing from their recent exchange with Mother Goose.

Just before we snapped the picture above, L was saying, "I love Winnie the Pooh.  He's so comfortable."

This day will go down in the family memory books, that's for sure!

Tomorrow, we'll take a scenic drive to Polly's and celebrate Daddy's birthday.  The fun continues!!