Play heaven

***warning...lots of boring playground pics ahead***

A friend of mine suggested that we go down into Fairmont Park (in Philly) to visit Smith's Kids' Play Place. I had never heard of it, but it was something to do, and the weather looked nice, and it is free. Sounded good to me.

My only regret in visiting this amazing place is that I just now discovered it.

When you drive up and park in the completely free parking lot, you see this monstrous stone house. In case you don't want to link to the website, I'll tell you about this place. In 1899, the Smith's wanted a safe place for children to play in Philadelphia. So they made a giant play place. They built this building just for kids to play in. Unfortunately for me, only children 5 and under are allowed in it. There's just no way of passing Andrew off as a 5 year old. Most people don't even believe that he's only 6. So we'll have to go back and discover the indoor part without him. Again, with the not knowing about this place.

When I walked through the gate, I saw 6 acres of playgrounds and shady open spaces. Heaven! And also...kind of felt the whole time like I was doing something wrong. Shouldn't I have PAID to get in here? I kept waiting to get caught.

The first playground you come to has some non-traditional play equipment...including fake rocks to climb on. Everything is on top of that cushy, recycled tire material. Also around here was a stone "labrynth" under a nearby tree...the kids just wandered the path of rocks choo-chooing like trains. I sat on a bench in the shade. Heaven!

Just down the red path is one of the original features of the Smith's playgrounds. This is a wooden slide built in 1905. I didn't quite know what that meant...sounded like splinters in the butt to me. But the wood was polished like a roller rink and beautiful and old...and it made me wish I was a kid in the early 1900s.

Andrew coming down the slide...Lily, Michael, and I also went down about 5 times...but I couldn't exactly help them and take pictures, now could I?

Down the hill from the wooden slide was another few play areas. Lots and lots of swings...which were mostly dominated by others. Disc swings, tire swings, baby swings, regular swings. There also was this cool spiderweb climbing thing...with a trampoline in the middle.

A little ways from that, there was a rocking boat...Lily is playing pirate and pointing out treasure for me.

Next to the boat is this cool teepee kind of a merry go round. You can spin, climb inside and spin, or climb on top and spin. Here's Andrew climbing on the outside while spinning.

There also was a kind of teeter-totter nearby that the kids got a big kick out of.

Mike got brave enough to go inside the spinning teepee. Andrew protected him. Melt melt melt.

Then Lily wanted in on the act. Andrew protected her too...melt melt melt...Andrew could ask for a pony right now and get it...

We ate lunch on a picnic blanket under a beautiful old birch tree and then moved on to the little kid playground. This is also supposed to be for 5 and under...but no one was around to stop Andrew...and he was told to give way to the little kids and be careful.

There was even this cool little crawler's playground. Seriously...why didn't I know about this place sooner??? I don't even have a crawler.

Another fabulous day in this fabulous city! I love Philadelphia!

Not looking good...

I hosted Girls Night In last night...to visit with friends, drink wine, and show off my new kitchen.

They left at 11. I finally went to bed at midnight.

Mike was up at 12:40.

Mike was up hysterical at 3:30.

Mike was up hysterical again at 4:30.

Lily was up to go to the bathroom at 5:30.

Jeff left for a 2 day business trip at 6:00.


Looks to be a long day...

5 things to do

We've been having a good few weeks, here at the summer camp HQ. I've found a few things have made the last few weeks more bearable...so I present...

5 things to keep from going insane with 3 kids, nowhere to drop them off, and unbearable heat...


1) Rotate toys. Rather than buy new, I keep a huge bin in the basement full of little toys. Then every few months I bring it upstairs, unload it, and refill it with the toys they have been playing with. For the first few days the new toys are out, it is like living in heaven...old toys made new! And gives me time to clean and cook (I mean blog and read, of course).

Mike rediscovers his Home Depot building set.

Needs to watch somebody actually use these tools...drilling own head not recommended.

Older kids get into the "new" toys as well:

2) Do projects you wouldn't normally do.

Some will work great (smelly painting)

Some will be disappointing (puddle painting)

Always advisable to give alternate activities to the 2 year old.

3) Go to Sesame Place with Grandma and Grandpa. Good times to be had by all.

Eat cupcakes...I swear it is not laced with Vodka...he was just whipped by this point

Watch parades

4) Enjoy the dog that you have been missing:

Hand feed her...

...or be inspired and become a dog yourself

5) And of course computer games. Lots and lots of computer games...

Randoms...

1) Smelly painting was...AWESOME. Mostly because we did it while Michael was napping, but also because it was so easy, it smelled so good, the kids had a blast, and I managed to enjoy it as well. At one point I even turned on some classical music and they painted what they heard in the music. Hello? Cool? Biggest disappointment was that I had not managed to find lime or lemon or blue raspberry Kool-Aid, so our colors were orange, red-strawberry, red-cherry, and purple. Kind of boring.

2) Do cars have a hidden self-destruct button built into them? Jeff and I were so excited to finally pay off our Honda Accord. Oh! How we would use that money each month to help pay off the kitchen...it would work out swell. We have had almost zero issues with this car. Oil changes and a burnt out headlight are the only expenses that come to mind in the 5 years we've owned it. But once we were sent title in May? New battery, new brake pads, and new tires. Um...excuse me? This is actually MORE EXPENSIVE than our car payment was. I think that once they mail you the title, the car dealers hit some button that activates the self-destruction of the car. So that you'll throw your hands up in the air in frustration and trade it in for a brand new car payment. Seriously.

3) Vacation took the wind out of my running sails. I've been going out once maybe twice a week. Pathetic. This morning I was really struggling, and I was so frustrated that I'm still not up to 20-30 minutes of running at time. Um...duh? You kind of need to build up to it, and by going once a week, you are wasting away from it. I've got to get back into gear...

4) All of a sudden Jeff's job includes a lot of travel. We knew this when he took the job last August, but he just didn't travel for the first 6 months. But April brought his trip to Argentina and Brazil, then came a last minute trip to Knoxville. This week he goes to Charlotte for a few days, then next week to Ohio, then the week after that to California, and possibly somewhere in there he has to fit in going to go to Mexico and Brazil again...although maybe in two separate trips. It just makes me...ugh. Wish I were closer to family? check!

5) I am reading like a crazy person. In the month of July (aided by a vacation), I've read Barefoot, Best Friends Forever, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and A Reliable Wife. Yesterday, I turned on a long movie for the kids just so I could finish my book. Bad. Bad mommy. I just finished A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. I really really enjoyed it. I can't even describe why...I just really like the characters and the writing and the description of farm life. Turns out it is a new telling of King Lear by Shakespeare. I went online to read the synopsis of King Lear (it's been a looooooong time)...turns out it was very very similar. And as I searched for the link in Amazon, I discover that it was made into a movie in 1997, starring Michelle Pfiefer and Jessica Lange. Go figure.

Okay...must go pay attention to the children...

SSC Week 6

Monday- Smelly painting...mix a package of colored drink mix to 2 Tbsp of water to make a smelly watercolor paint. Paint...when dry it should still smell.

Tuesday- Take a trip...the weather has cooled down, so either we'll try out the zoo (uh...yikes), go to the main library and explore the area around it, or finally go to Jeff's office...since that hasn't seemed to work out lately.

Wednesday- Sugar crystal necklaces...exploring solutions and evaporation...mix sugar into water until it cannot dissolve anymore. Pour a little bit into the bottom of a pie pan. Drape string across the pie plate allowing the middle to dip into the sugar water. Cover with wax paper. When the water has evaporated, it will leave sugar crystals on the string...Yummo!

Thursday- Ice cream in a bag...I have this science experiments for kids book that has a little project for making ice cream in ziploc baggies. We'll see... Also, we never went on our ABC scavenger hunt last week, so I'm going to fit that in again on this day.

Friday- Fruit S'mores...graham crackers, marshmallow fluff, chocolate icing, and apple slices=no fire needed s'mores. Since Jeff will be gone, I'm thinking of making it a mock-cookout/camping trip. Maybe have lunch or dinner outside, etc. We'll see.


Also on the plate for this week...lots of park visits since the weather seems to have broken out of the 100s for a change, a visit to a friend's pool for afternoon cool-off and ordering pizza to the pool (Jeff will be out of town), trying out the slip-n-slide that Grandma brought during her visit this past weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to finagle a playdate or two. ;)

They make me laugh everyday

Andrew, Jeff, and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking. Andrew was describing, in detail, the characteristics of his made-up Pokemon. I don't buy the cards for him, but he has been making his own out of paper-covered cardboard. Anyhoo, he's sitting there describing how Plad (his Pokemon) can shoot hurricanes out of his nostrils, and I suddenly remembered something he'd told me earlier in the day. When there was a pause in the description, I interjected, "Hey, Andrew, did you tell me that you have another loose tooth? Which tooth is it?"

He points in his mouth and answers, "Yes, I think this tooth is starting to get loose." A brief pause. "Wow, Mom. That was really off topic."

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I took the 3 kids to a friend's neighborhood pool yesterday...by myself. I KNOW. And no one drowned. :) Anyway, Lily and Michael were taking turns playing on the steps of the pool while I would take them one by one out into the water. I was getting tired, so I asked Lily if she would like to go play in the little pool (baby pool) for a while.

She stood up on the step, put her hands on her hips and said, "No way. It is really warm in there. And the boys are acting Cr-aaaaaaa-zy." Insert waving hands over head with the crazy.

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Andrew jumped off the diving board about 25 times. The second time, he did a huge belly flop. When he climbed out of the water he rubbed his tummy and said, "Man! I think I jumped on a rock in there."

Easy decorating...poor photography

My house is rather void of decorations. Just not my thing, honestly. I appreciate it in other people's houses, but I lack the ability to envision what I want and to spend money on it.

However, I have always envisioned decorating Lily's room with frogs. Do you know how hard it is to find girl room decorations with frogs? Especially for someone not really looking very hard for it?

So imagine my delight when I was at Target looking at kitchen cabinet hardware...and there was a cheap-o package of wall stickers for a girl...with frogs. My favorite kind of shopping...the "I happened upon it" find. ;)

And since I was shopping with all 3 children, I had to get some for Michael and Andrew also. Michael has been so excited about his wall decorations, that I feel horribly guilty for just leaving up the guest room pictures for so long instead of putting up nursery or little boy decorations. Loser mom.

Andrew's room was already covered in sports posters, NFL pendants, etc. But he picked out more sports stickers and added them to his crowded walls. At least he's consistent.