Now that The Redhead has been in school almost two full weeks, perhaps it's time to get a bit nostalgic and reminisce. Maybe I should finally share all those things we did that I never blogged about. Or maybe you don't care. Either way, I'm going to do it anyway.
We saw a lot of movies. A lot. Regal Cinema and Cinemark both have $1 movies during the summer and we frequented both theaters when we had the opportunity. They showed mostly slightly older films, even some from this past year, like Mr. Peabody and Sherman and The Lego Movie. We loved that they started at 10am so we could always get home by lunch time.
As previously mentioned in another post, she spent three weeks in a drama workshop. We still did some things once I picked her up, but not always.
We finally made it to the local Golfland Sunsplash water park. First off, they need more parking. I spent over twenty minutes finding a parking place and was understandably irritated by this. Also, they could use more signs. Other than that, we had a splashing good time. It is a bit costly, but we used a coupon from our ZBest book, taking $6 off my admission fee. The Redhead and I did this by ourselves and we enjoyed the lazy river, their wave pool, and did some water slides, including one that has you get into this portal of sorts, then the floor drops underneath you and sends you flying in the water. It was named Double Dare, and three things went through this particular mother's mind. "I hope I don't drop my glasses. I can't believe any second now the floor is going to drop from below me and shoot me down some spiraling slide. OH MY GOSH THE FLOOR IS GOING DROP BELOW THE REDHEAD AND SEND HER SHOOTING DOWN A SPIRALING SLIDE." And then the floor dropped during the last of this series of thoughts and quite quickly, it was over. We both survived.
However, what I barely survived, was when she decided to ride two slides on her own and I waited at the exit of the slides. The wait times were longer than anticipated and I waited for her for over twenty minutes the first time, trying not to panic from fear she had switched to another slide. Then the second time, just as I thought I couldn't go through it again- OVER AN HOUR. I WAITED FOR MY CHILD FOR OVER AN HOUR. If I told you I didn't have tears well up a couple times, I would be lying to you. I would be lying to myself. Mister Man didn't envy me one bit; in fact, he was glad it had been me and not him. I kept reminding myself to be calm and stay where I was, but there were several times I thought the anxiety would consume me. We had a good day though and luckily our sunscreen did a fine job protecting us from those harsh rays.
We had a lot of play dates. Sometimes, they came here. Sometimes, she went to her friend M's house. Twice, we went roller skating and brought a friend. I didn't discover the site, Kids Skate Free until late into summer, but it was nice having The Redhead get in free for skating. We only had to pay for her skate rental and her friends' entrance and rental. A couple times, we took a friend elsewhere. We had a lot of fun hanging out with several friends this summer. Aside from her friends attending her party, and the neighbors, we ended up having play dates with six different children this summer, which I find absolutely surprising. I don't know if it's the age or the location, but saying you will make plans and actually making them has been much more likely out here.
We went to our favorite pizza place, John's Incredible Pizza, A LOT. It's a buffet place with an arcade, indoor rides, fun stuff like that. Almost like a Chuck E. Cheese on Red Bull. They had a summer special where you could spend $34.99 a person and that was good for five visits. During each visit for that price, it covered your buffet, a $5 Fun Card, and one hour of rides. These sorts of specials are the only time you get hours of free rides. They usually cost multiple credits per ride. The Redhead somehow kept earning even more plush critters she didn't need. And twice, we brought her friend M with us. We actually ended up going seven times. Five times as part of our summer deal, once using our free birthday buffets for being VIP members, and another time for this Frozen themed party they had.
Other things she wanted to do this summer included Monster mini golfing, which we actually did as a family the first weekend of Seussical performances. We also made it to Build a Bear to use part of a gift card she received for her birthday. She had fro-yo, we watched the new Ninja Turtle movie (not part of the discounted movies) and she played in the pool in the backyard (just a box kit pool). I'm sure we did other fun things as well, but these are the things that stand out in my mind. And they certainly kept us busy enough. If you remember, we set out to do at least one fun thing a day, and we succeeded. I kind of miss my partner in crime and our adventures already.
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