June 21, 2010

Dad's Day Recap...

What a day it was!

Tyler started his day off even earlier than the rest of us. Since he wanted to do the things he loved to do most and maximize his time with the girls, he set off on a quick 18 mile bike ride to Udall and back before the rest of us were awake.

Once we were up and ready to go, we enjoyed a breakfast per Tyler's request- biscuits and gravy. I just don't know that I will ever love that stuff. Yet another reason to become a vegetarian...

As always, we hemmed and hawed for a few moments about how to spend our day. A planner by nature, I had been nagging asking Tyler nicely for days how he would like to spend his Father's Day... and, to no avail. We finally devised a plan, got the girls dressed and ready, gathered all of the necessary supplies- diaper pod, water, the Flip, my crappy back-up camera that doesn't work... you know.

{Beloved camera is having surgery this week. Sob.}

Our first stop was Exploration Place- we hadn't been since the unveiled the traveling Grossology exhibit. My friend Renee had warned us of the revolting nature of the exhibit, so of course we had to go check it out for ourselves!

In typical SPH fashion, it took us 863 minutes to actually make it back to any exhibits. First, Sassy had to go potty. Then, Tyler realized he forgot his glasses in the car. After deciding he'd actually like to see the exhibits, and not with sunglasses, he made the trek out there. Meanwhile, Sassy, Little A and I perused the gift shop. I almost lost Sassy when she saw these...



I've never seen such a disgusted face on a 4-year-old. Ever. Her lack of acceptance of the bug suckers made me a bit nervous to take her back to the Grossology exhibit. She is, after all, the kid who did this. She also threw up once after stepping in some dog drool on the kitchen floor at Grandma's house. Just sayin'...

Once Tyler returned, we headed towards Grossology. We listened to some scary computerized puppet things give us an introduction and talk about snot. Tyler and the girls fired snot balls into a giant nose, and then took a walking tour of the inside of the nose. I played a game where I had to remove the bad stuff from the blood in the kidneys and transfer it to the urine, making sure to leave behind the good stuff.



After a while, we moved on to the part of the exhibit that sent Renee over the edge. There was a giant play structure that mimicked the digestive tract. You enter the mouth, slide down the esophagus slide, crawl through the stomach, and wind your way through the intestines and finally, the rectum. Yes, you crawl out of the rectum... onto a giant, asymmetrically shaped brown mat on the floor. HA!



My girls did not urge me to make the trip, nor did Tyler feel the need to document it. At all.



{This post is hereby named Foolery, Part II. See what EP does to people?}

Sassy enjoyed playing the life size version of the popular board game Operation:



Once we had stomached enough grossness, we explored the Much More Munsch exhibit, celebrating children's author Robert Munsch. Cute! Sassy was in "letter identification" heaven!



We spent a bit of time in the Tot Spot, and Sassy and Little A naturally made a beeline for the water table. I did not catch Sassy with gross, disintegrating water toys in her mouth. Yeah, you read that right. Sassy. You know, my 4-year-old? Grosser than Grossology.



The girls played some more in the Tot Spot. Little A played "food", her favorite game. Sassy climbed into the bitty acorn cradle, and Little A insisted on a turn. Both girls took several rides down the train track. Fun stuff.



We let the girls play for a brief time in the castle part. Little A was growing hungrier and hungrier, more and more tired. Sassy did manage to find the time to tell me some exhilarating stories about the creatures she met in the castle as I sat on my... ahem... throne. We even squeezed in a self-portrait.



We drove over to Playa Azul in Old Town for lunch... Tyler's pick. Sassy kept assuring Tyler that it was his choice where we went to eat because it was Father's Day. It would have been funny to see her reaction if he chose a sushi bar or something. Yum. She kept asking us when it would be Kid's Day, to which we promptly replied that every day is Kid's Day. Are we right, parents???

And, it wouldn't be a proper meal with the SPH clan without a mess. Little A dropped her Styrofoam cup of water, which broke and spilled everywhere. Ah, kids...

We had packed the girls bathing suits to stop by the Old Town fountains, but we were sad to see that they weren't on. Does anyone know what's up with that? Tyler walked over to them and said that it looked as though they hadn't been on yet this season. Weird.

We took the girls to Lincoln Park instead. We probably only played for 15 or 20 minutes, but the girls had a BLAST!



Little A was unphased by the jets AT ALL. She repeatedly stuck her face right in them... it was pretty funny!



We finally got home in time for a very late rest for Little A. Sassy took quiet time in her bedroom while Tyler and I worked on getting our fruit salad and black bean, feta, and mint salad ready for the BBQ at Tom & Lynzee's. We decided to take Sassy over early and let my parents bring Little A over once my Dad returned home from work...

...And, I am SO thankful we did because Little A thought it a great day to take her diaper off during her nap and finger paint her sheets, blanket, and crib brown. Must have been all that Grossology stuff... I am shocked that my Mom and Dad stripped her bed, cleaned her crib, and bathed her rather than calling me home. Can't say I would have done the same...

The kids played outside in the kiddie pool and the sprinklers. I think this collage is just hilarious...



Then, I had the big girls "strike a pose"- equally entertaining...



To add to the drama for the day, we are about to put the meat on the grill (chicken & sirloin steaks) when Tyler comes to the realization that the huge freezer bag of meat he had thawed wasn't sirloin steaks, but rather a giant brisket. Yeah. Unless we wanted to eat at midnight, that was out of the question. So, burgers and chicken it was... Tyler, Tyler, Tyler.

Lynzee made her FABULOUS summer squash casserole, and we even splurged and had Dairy Queen ice cream cake for dessert. Sassy was able to eat the top, so she was thrilled!

We had a jam-packed father's Day, but fun, nonetheless!

4 sweet tweets:

miranda said...

looks like you guys had a very nice fathers day. love the pics.

Anonymous said...

I don't know...you make the Grossology Exhibit sound worth seeing. I will have to check and see how long it will be there...

Anonymous said...

We thought the grossology exhibit was great. Bubs could have played with the "farting tubes" all day long. It cracked me up that the boys thought everything was so funny. We'd go again!

Kc said...

Heather, have you all been to the Hyatt fountains downtown? We stopped by the other day after going to the Coleman Outlet downtown and it was a blast. People were in swimming suits going up and down the waterfall steps. Perfect for little ones.