ACES Summer Bash

On Saturday, we went to the 2nd Annual ACES Summer Bash. This is a party with Kyle's company. The party was held at Karl's house (you'll remember him from the ACES night at the Oriole's game back in May). Karl has a really nice inground pool and a decent backyard, which is why has been chosen to host the party for the past two years. The party started at 2:00, but we didn't get there until a little after 3:00 because we let Peyton take his nap.

It was sunny when we got there. Kyle, Peyton, and I got some food, which was really good. It was catered by the Olive Tree. There was penne pasta with chicken, beef tips, ribs, twice baked potatoes, vegetables, crab balls, Chik-Fil-A nuggets, shrimp, oysters, and a ton more. We ate our food outside and were harrassed by one of Kyle's annoying co-workers and their significant other (but I'm not naming any names). Once we were able to free ourselves from the never-ending-talkers, we walked down by the pool.

We didn't bring our bathing suits because Kyle didn't really feel up to swimming with Peyton, and we thought it was going to be raining anyway. All of the other kids were in the pool though, so Peyton got really jealous that he wasn't swimming. They also had a basketball net set up by the pool and Peyton was also mad that he wasn't playing with that. Evenutally, I just took the basketball net over to the grassy area of Karl's backyard and Kyle's boss found a volleyball for Peyton to play with. He was a happy boy and forgot about the pool.

Peyton played basketball for a little while, but then it started to rain, so the party moved indoors. Karl had a tent set up over his deck, so some people stayed outside, but the covered area was pretty small, so most people went inside. There were lots of kids there, including Karl's three kids, two boys (12 and 8) and a little girl (4). All of the kids were having fun playing with Peyton.

Peyton even convinced one of Kyle's bosses, Coley and his wife, Katie to play ring-around-the-rosie with him.

This is Karl's daughter, Peyton (I'm going to have to refer to her as "girl Peyton"), and my Peyton dancing together. Peyton is a dance machine and girl Peyton just loves my Peyton.

Aren't they cute? Notice how my Peyton is trying to escape, but girl Peyton just won't let him go.

All of the kids, especially girl Peyton, continually picked Peyton up and carried him around. I felt so bad for Peyton though because they were all barely bigger than him, and therefore basically dragging him around the room by his armpits. He had this look of "Please help!" on his face a lot of the time and a few times he escaped and ran over to me looking for safety, I think. Needless to say, it was pretty cute anyway.

The kids played with two giant balls, ran around, danced, and chased each other. Somehow, I got to be the lucky parent that all of the kids wanted to tell stories to. Let me just say that kids can tell some random stories.

Next, the dessert was put out. There were a ton of cookies, cream puffs, pastries, a delicious ice cream cake from Coldstone, and this chocolate fountain. Yum.

It's a shame that it rained so much because we could have more fun if we weren't pent up in the house, but we still had a good time. We headed home around 7:00 when Peyton (and me!) started to get tired. Those kids wore me out and I was pretty much just watching them play.

Chuck E. Cheese

On Friday, Kyle went to play poker right after work, so I decided to take Peyton to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and games. This was his first trip there. We ordered some pizza, and then went to check out Chuck and his friends, who were singing up on stage. Peyton was cool with Chuck as long as he was standing next to me, but when I tried to stand him up on the stage next to Chuck to take a picture, he wasn't having it!

After we ate our dinner, it was time to check out the rides and games. Peyton rode this bike first. He liked the balloons on top of the ride. He enjoyed turning the steering wheel.

After the bike ride, he took a ride in the car with Chuck E. Cheese. I was surprised that he got in the car, since Chuck was right there, but he was excited to ride.

Peyton was a little too small for the big tubes and slides, because he couldn't get up to them and I was too big to help him up. They have a special toddler area that Peyton did a lot of playing in. There was a smaller slide, a few rides, and a few small games. Here's Peyton sliding down the slide. He did that about 20 times before he was ready to do something else.

After sliding, Peyton called Chuck on the phone and they chatted for a minute or two.

Then Peyton played this little version of whack-a-mole. He got bored of it half way through though. He threw down the mallet, said "all done", and walked away.

Next, we checked out the bigger kids games. There wasn't much on that side that Peyton was big enough to play, but he did drive the cars. He liked anything with a steering wheel.

We attempted to play skeeball (or "roll" as Peyton called it) but he was too little and didn't have enough strength to get the ball over the hump at the end of the lane. So, I ended up playing the game.

I bought like a million tokens because I had coupons and we still have a ton of them left, so I saved all of our tickets and decided that we'll cash them in once we spend all of the tokens. I'm sure we'll have lots of trips back to Chuck E. Cheese in the future. Peyton had a good time.

When we got home, Peyton wanted a snack, so he ate some Oreos. What a mess!

A Birthday Party, Board Games, and Pizza Hut

My cousin Dougie's birthday was yesterday. He had his birthday party on Saturday. He decided to have a pool party at his aunt's house. We arrived at the party a little after 3:00 because Peyton didn't wake up from his nap until after 2:30. We told Peyton that we were going to Dougie's birthday party and so he repeatedly sang "Happy Birthday Dougie" throughout the day.

As soon as we got to the party, Peyton spotted some blow up toys shaped liked a football, baseball, basketball, and soccer ball. He was just dying to get his hands on the balls. Someone finally gave him the football to play with. There was also a trampoline in the backyard. Peyton wanted to "Jump! Jump!" on it. Dougie got in there with him. (Of course Peyton wouldn't put the ball down though!)

After we had all eaten, Kyle got into the pool with Peyton. He is such a little water bug! Peyton had fun playing with balls, sitting in the boat, "swimming", and splashing. It was really hot that day too, so I'm sure he and Kyle both enjoyed cooling off a bit.

A little later, Kim was inside getting Dougie's cake ready to go. She gave Peyton a spoon and let him go at the icing on the cake. He took a nice chunk of icing off the corner of the cake. While I felt really bad that he messed up Dougie's cake before we even sang "Happy Birthday", Kim didn't seem to mind, so I guess it was ok.

We sang to Dougie and he blew out his candles.

And then he opened his gifts. He got a lot of cool stuff, especially the gift card and Nintendo DS game that we gave him. Haha.

I took way more pictures, but here are just two more that I liked.

Funny Cutie

We left the birthday party around 7:30. Jeremy and Jill came over to our house after that to play board games. The four of us were going to go out somewhere, but since we stayed at the party so late, we just decided that they should come over so that we could get Peyton to bed. We played Outburst (Kyle and I won), The Newlywed Game (Kyle and I won), and Cranium Pop 5 (Kyle and I won). Sense a theme? We are awesome at games! We stayed up playing until midnight and then we all went to bed.

Sunday morning, Jeremy and Jill woke up first and Peyton slept until 10:00 for the second day in a row. (I could really get used to him sleeping in like that!) Even though it was my sleep-in day, I got up with Kyle when Peyton woke up. Jeremy and Jill hung out for a few minutes more, and then they headed home.

Sunday evening we met up with my friend Joe, his wife, and two daughters. We decided earlier in the week to meet at Pizza Hut. Well, when we got to the Pizza Hut, we discovered that it was closed - like out-of-business closed. We had only eaten there once, way back when we first moved into our house last year, so we had no idea it was shut down. So we went to a different Pizza Hut instead. We enjoyed some pizza and conversation with Joe and Michelle. Peyton, Julie, and Emily played well together. We like meeting up with them because it gives Peyton a chance to play with different people than he's used to. I also like chatting with Joe and Michelle. (Thanks for dinner guys!)

It was another busy weekend, but super fun as well. We're busy pretty much every weekend between now and November, so I'll have tons to post about in the upcoming months.

Sesame Place, Part 2

When lunch was over, we walked outside and it was raining. It really wasn't a big deal though because we were all wearing our bathing suits. The "Rock Around the Block" parade was due to start in 30 minutes, so we headed over to the parade route to get a prime spot to watch the parade. Here's Kyle and Peyton waiting for the parade to start.

These next few pictures are from the parade. The other Sesame Street characters that weren't at lunch (and the ones that were) were all in the parade. Some were the actual characters and some were big balloons.The only characters we didn't see all day were Oscar and Abby Cadabby.

Grover, Peyton's recent favorite

Snuffy
Hoots

The Count

Rosita

Big Bird and Elmo

After the parade was over, we decided to do some of the water rides, since we were already wet from the rain. First, we headed over to a little pool which had two playground-sized water slides in it. Only a few people could get in at one time, so Peyton and I had to wait in line for our turn. Once it was our turn, Peyton loved splashing around in the pool and going down the water slides. Most of the pools there were one-and-a-half feet deep, so Peyton was big enough to walk around in them on his own.

Next, all three of us went on Big Bird's Rambling River which was a lazy river ride. This attraction was three feet deep, so Peyton had to wear a life vest. They were out of the smallest sized life vests, so he had to wear one that was a little large on him. I laid him in the inner tube on his back and walked behind him, while Kyle rode in his own inner tube. I felt so bad for Peyton in that big life vest, because the only way he could see anything was by looking sideways out of the arm hole. I think he liked being able to relax for a few minutes though.

After the lazy river, we got into the Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave pool, another pool that was one-and-a-half feet deep. Peyton liked splashing Kyle and I. He could have stayed in this pool for hours, but we finally were able to convince him to move onto something else.

Next, the three of us went on the Sky Splash, which was a huge water slide that was over six stories high. Six people sat in a huge raft and went down the slide. The ride ended with a huge drop. Peyton sat between my legs in the raft and Kyle and three other random people sat next to us. Peyton had a really good time on the water slide.

Around this time, Peyton was getting a little worn out so we checked out a show so that he could get refreshed. We watched the Big Bird's Beach Party show. It stared Telly, Zoe, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, and Big Bird. There was lots of singing and dancing.

After the show we went to the Count's Splash Castle. This was a huge structure, with several water slides and lots of ways to get wet. There were fountains spraying everywhere, buckets that would drop water on your head, and water guns to shoot. There was also a huge bucket on the top of the castle that would dump 1,000 gallons of water out every few minutes.

We played in there for a little while, but Peyton was beginning to shiver, so after we were finished, we changed into our dry clothes. Then we hit the Elmo's World Live show.

The set was just like Elmo's World on Sesame Street, as was the plot. Elmo was thinking about fish that day. There was even Mr. Noodle's nephew, Mr. Noodle. A real live Dorothy was there too. Peyton was really into the show.

When the show was over, it was almost 6:00 and Peyton was toast. Since he didn't get a nap all day, he was getting pretty tired. We decided to head to the front of the park, stop at a shop, and then go get some dinner. As we were walking toward the front of the park, we walked by the carousel. Peyton said that he wanted to ride it. We really didn't believe him because he's been afraid of every carousel that we've ever encountered before. But he insisted, so Kyle got on with him and he loved it!

After the carousel Peyton was definitely spent, so we checked out a souvenir shop, bought some t-shirts and left the park. We ate dinner just outside the gate at Uno's. Then we got on the road around 7:30 and got home around 9:30. Peyton didn't even wake up when I carried him inside.

We had a really good time at Sesame Place. I'd recommend it to anyone with little kids that love Sesame Street.

Sesame Place, Part 1

On Wednesday, Kyle and I took Peyton to an amusement park called Sesame Place. It's based on Sesame Street (duh!) and is located in Langhorne, PA, which is about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia. Peyton is really into Sesame Street right now, so we thought that he would enjoy going to this park. Plus, the park is geared towards kids 2-7 years old, so he was at the perfect age. The park is half rides and half water park.

We woke up at our normal time Wednesday morning and got on the road around 8:30. Peyton was singing and talking during the entire trip. I'm not joking - he really didn't shut up! He was singing "Elmo's World" and "Wheels on the Bus" over and over and over. We stopped twice on the way and got stuck in some traffic around Philly, because three lanes of I-95 needed to merge into one due to some road work. Other than that though, it was smooth sailing and we arrived at the park around 11:00.


I thought that we were walking down Sesame Street!

Earlier in the week, I made reservations for us to eat lunch with the characters. Lunch was at 12:30, so we decided to hold off on the water rides until after lunch. The first ride that we saw was the Flyin' Fish. Kyle decided to ride with Peyton. They had to wait in line for a good 15 minutes, and Peyton was scared the entire time. He didn't want to ride the ride at all. Once it was his turn though and he was seated in his Elmo fish, he loved it! As soon as it was over, he asked to ride it again, but we moved onto another ride.

Peyton saw these big slides next. I walked him up the stairs because there were a lot of them. I couldn't go down the slide, so I got Peyton into line and then went back down the stairs to meet him at the bottom. Kyle was waiting at the end of the slide to take pictures.

Of course, when he was finished, Peyton wanted to slide again. This time Kyle walked him up and I waited for him at the bottom. He could have just done that slide all day, but we told him that he could slide at home and that we should go ride a different ride.

Peyton and I rode the Peek-A-Bug, which is difficult to describe. It rocked back and forth and spun around in circles. Kyle said Peyton looked scared the entire time, but he didn't cry and I think he ended up liking it.

We had a few minutes left before lunch, so we decided to check out one more ride. All three of us rode Grover's World Twirl, which was a teacup-like ride. There were several rows of turn styles to corral the line, but the line was short, so people were only lined up in the first row. We (like good park patrons should) walked through all of the rows of the line, only to have a mother jump over the bars and tell her son to do the same to cut in front of us. I, of course, had to say something to her. I asked her if that was really what she wanted to teach her son - that cutting in line is ok. I was just so furious because it is a children's amusement park and she is teaching her child that doing things like that are ok. She got an attitude and told us that we could go ahead of her. I told her that we were going to do just that. I don't care if she was angry, she should follow the rules and teach her child to do the same! Once we finally got on the ride, we really enjoyed it.

Next, we rushed over to where lunch was being held, because the teacups took longer than we expected. There were about 50 four-person tables in the dining hall. Six characters - Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Elmo, and Zoe - were stationed around the room for pictures. We came upon Bert first. Kyle was hold Peyton, who was terrified of Bert. I gave Bert a hug and then he started playing with Peyton, who eventually came around and gave Bert a high five. After Bert, Peyton was fine with all of the characters.

Bert - Still a little unsure

Big Bird (was huge!)

Cookie Monster

Elmo

The lunch was a buffet, with Cesar salad, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, penne with alfredo sauce, penne with marinara sauce, sliced turkey, teriyaki chicken, chicken tenders, hot dogs, steamed vegetables, and more. We fixed our plates and sat down. Everyone else had drinks, which were brought to you by a waiter, however no one came to take our order. Finally we flagged a waitress down and asked her to bring our drinks. She took our order and went to get the drinks. Meanwhile our real waiter (who looked about 12 years old) finally came over to take our drink order. When we told him someone else was getting the drinks for us, he looked incredibly confused, stood there for another 30 seconds and then said, "Ok," and walked away. That kid was dopey.

While we were eating, the characters walked around to the tables. Peyton was cool with them and got excited each time one approached him.

Zoe

Kisses for Ernie

Each of the characters also sang a song and did a dance while we were eating lunch. It was quite entertaining, so much so that Peyton wasn't very interested in eating! They had cookies, cupcakes, and ice cream for dessert. Peyton enjoyed some ice cream. (He is my son...)

It was definitely worth the high cost of the lunch to have the time with the characters. In the park, the characters would only come out for a few minutes at a time and there would be a line of 20 kids waiting to meet them. We didn't have to wait in any lines to see the characters and were able to spend lots of one-on-one time with them.

I'll post about the rest of our day another time. I wanted to break it up into two posts because there are so many pictures!