On Wednesday, we get our bathing suits and towels because we are on our way to the Water Park at Lake Compounce. The GPS unit leads me to a dead end so the short cut I thought I was taking turned out to be the long way. Once at the park, we end up in a long line to get to the parking area. I find I'm in the lane with the booth on the right side of the car. I have to park the car to pay the fee and get out entirely to get the receipt. This is going to be a long day.
We end up standing in a long line to get our bags checked at security. Then we stand in a long line to get a locker key. Zach fools around and bumps into a lady. She says "that hurts!" Like, no way did that little bump hurt.
The park is really crowded with lots of kids and fat parents. Maggie and Zach start playing in the playscape. Some little girl is crying. Once in a while, the big bucket spills and everyone gets wet, including me. Next, the kids splash in the wave machine while being sprayed by plumes from a pirate ship. While the kids are having fun, I am getting a sunburn.
Maggie and Zach wait 45 minutes to go down a scary slide that frightens them. In the meantime, I commandeer someone's chaise lounge and read an Economist article on the changing news industry.
When we are ready to go home, we decide to stay in our bathing suits because the line to the dressing room is very long. We discover that we don't have Zach's cool shirt. We have to go back to the Water Park to find it. After fifteen minutes, Maggie discovers that someone had moved it to the other side of the wall.
As we're leaving, Zach asks why we haven't gone on any of the regular rides. I tell him that we have to get home to let out the dogs. We don't want them peeing on the rugs or anything.
We get home but Cousin Judy has alread let the dogs out. We relax a bit and then watch another exciting episode of Dr. Who.
When Judy and I go to the gym, Uncle Larry takes out the kids to A.C. Peterson for ice cream. He gets back and tells me a cute story about Zach. It seems Zach wants to move to Connecticut so he can sit in the front seat of the car all the time. I said, Larry, don't tell me you let him sit in the front seat of the car.
Even though it's late, I make the kids take a bath. I haven't brushed Maggie's hair since she got here. Zach points out that she looks like she had dreadlocks. Maggie doesn't flinch when I spend the next half hour combing it out. She tells me she's had worse.
Thursday, Zach asks me if we're going to the other water park today, the one in Waterbury called Cocoa Key. I tell him that if we go to another water park I might have to shoot myself with a pop gun. Something just powerful enough to remind me that I might just be the world's biggest masochist.
Instead of the water park, we go to Stew Leonard's with Cousin Judy. She makes me take off my cool Pink Panther pajama pants before going. She says they are embarassing.
Once at Stew Leonard's, Judy complains that there is no room in our cart on account of my having put three big mum plants there on the way in. I happen to want to plant those mums. I love those mums.
Zach and Maggie each get a stuffed Angry Bird. It's hard to resist their roundness. I get hit many times before getting to the check out. Judy complains that I'm spoiling them. Boy, she complains a lot.
After we get home, Judy hides in her room. That's where she's been spending a lot of her time lately. The kids chase each other on the golf course for a while and then we sit down to watch more Dr. Who.
Friday morning, we dodge golf balls in order to walk the dogs on the golf course. Whenever he needs to poo, he refuses to walk unless we take him off his leash. This morning, he forgets to follow us home. He has to brave through the flying golf balls on his own. He makes it home safely, to our great relief.
I take the kids to see the movie "Spy Kids 4D" Zach asks the lady selling tickets what 4D meant. She doesn't know. We find out fifteen minutes into the movie when a Latino guy hands us a scratch and sniff card we're supposed to use with the movie. He has to explain what this is to the Spanish speaking group in the back of the theater. He goes to me for help. I tell him to say that the card is so we can all smell the movie, which wasn't quite true because the card didn't really work so good. We liked the movie despite the stupid useless card that we couldn't read because the theater was too dark. What genius thought up this gimmick?
After the movie, we have lunch at AC Peterson's. The waitress gets Maggie's order all wrong. Dessert for the kids is tie died ice cream covered with nerds for Zach and no nerds for Maggie. This REALLY confused the waitress. Both kids had gummy bear toppings. The gummy bears came in little plastic cups. I think of it as a mid-day sugar infusion, just what's needed to get the kids pumped for the next outing on today's schedule, the West Hartford Children's Museum.
Maggie and Zach head right for the miniature golf course with the big stegasaurus when we get to the museum. After visiting the snakes, the turtles and the chinchillas, the kids end up spending most of their time playing with the legos. What is it with these legos?
At my house, Maggie and Zach had constructed a two story lego building with an elevator on the pool table, with a huge roadway. The entire floor is covered with legos. By the time these two kids grow up, they will be lego experts.
Goth Scouts
