Going Ape!

Last week we were blessed to receive 5 complimentary passes to Cedar Point. Although we had never planned on taking the kids to "The Point" at these ages (from a purely logistical standpoint), the Hubs and I decided to brave the waters on Sunday and take the whole herd! Yes, you read correctly...all of us. For those who need a reminder or are new to my little corner of the blogosphere, that includes a 6 y.o., almost 5 y.o., almost 3 y.o., and a 17 month old...crazy, right?

Fortunately, we all had a blast! First off, our choice of day couldn't have been better (aside from the 90 degree temps). Note to self, choosing a Sunday just after the return-to-school rush is a goooood thing! Secondly, as it turns out, all of our little munchkins are thrill seekers in their own right. No one had a fear of the rides, no one got queasy in the tummy, and everyone got their fill of fun, thrills, food, and good times. Even Little Miss Bean got to ride on some rides...usually accompanied by mama, but there was one ride that she could do alone (and boy was she mad when we finally pulled her off of that one!).

Having lived in Ohio all of my tween/teen life, I've had my fair share of Cedar Point adventures, but it's a totally different perspective to see it through a young child's eyes. It was very refreshing to slow down and ride the "little" rides just for the fun of it. To not spend the entire day waiting in ridiculously long lines only to finally conquer 4 or 5 of the "big boys" in a 9 hour day! That's not to say we didn't hit any roller coasters. As it turns out, Punkin' is quite the little thrill seeker and a bit of an adrenaline junky :) And it just so happens that he is already tall enough at 6 years to ride all but 3 of the big ones! My little Sweet Face would have been right there with him if it weren't for the 2 inches in height he is still lacking :(

However, this brings me to the point of this post. After 8 hours of fun at the park (and yes, they kept pushing us to do more!), the kiddos wanted to wind the day down by playing some games...and by that, I mean having mommy and daddy pay ridiculous amounts of money to win cheap, ugly stuffed animals! We started out ok. Punkin' decided he wanted to have the lady at the big wheel guess his birthday...$5 spent for 1 guess and bingo, she was way off. He snapped up a cute little red sea turtle that looks a lot like Crush's son, Squirt, from the movie Nemo. Then it was Micah's turn. He decided to bop the pirates on the head with the big squishy mallet as they popped out of the holes in the game board. Another $9 (because his big brothers wanted a shot at the pirates too)...bingo, he grabs a pretty bugly frog with ridiculously long arms and legs (be he loves him regardless..bless his heart!).

Then came my Sweet Face....ooohhhh, Sweet Face. First, he wanted to climb the tippy ladder (the kind that flips over and spins around at the drop of a hat) to win a huge wolf. We were already walking toward the front of the park where the majority of the games are and the ladder was back at Camp Snoopy (too cute, huh?), so we convinced him to choose something else. In retrospect, we should have gone back to the ladder! The moment he spotted the big ugly gorilla, he had to have it. When I say this bad boy is huge, I mean up to my collarbone (I'm 5'4") 3 of me wide huge. And the game was hard...you had to throw a wiffle ball high into the air and barely graze this backboard to get it to fall just so into this little box at the bottom. And no hitting the bars at the top and bottom of the backboard. But Daddy had promised our little guy he would win it for him...and $40 later, he did!

Granted, we have a large SUV for hauling the herd around (3 rows is a must with 4 car seats), but you should've seen us trying to cram this sucker into the truck with the kiddos and our Bumbleride Indie Twin double stroller! Not a pretty sight. And pleased as we are that we conquered the challenge, I now have this huge, hideous gorilla invading my house with no real place to put him...Ahhh, the things we do for the love of a child!