Fun Friday–2012 Edition

My Mom’s Fridays off in the summer have flown by! We’ve gotten to spend a few of them together, but haven’t really gotten to take the girls off to do something fun…and Grammy & I do LOVE to go off somewhere. :)

I’d heard about Busch Gardens & Sea World’s new preschool areas in the parks, and we decided to check it out a couple Fridays ago.

We got tickets that are good for both parks, but decided to try Busch Gardens first.

the only picture we took of all four of us..

The park has an entire smaller park inside of it, all for preschool aged kids.

The theme is Sesame Street Safari of Fun, so all of the favorite Sesame Street Characters are there! I so wish we’d known about it when AB turned two and was SO INTO Elmo! She still watches Sesame Street, though, so she loved it!

We got to the park around 10, and while the main part was a little crowded, there was NO ONE in the preschool part!

We walked right up to the tent where Big Bird was hanging out and had our picture taken with him.

There are little rides for the kids, including a junior roller coaster.

Yes, Little Sister and I rode her first roller coaster! We even sat right in the front.She was BARELY tall enough, but wanted to do it, so we gave it a try. She was so cute when we got off – she said, “that was a little bit scary, I don’t want to do that again.” :)

When we got off the roller coaster, we saw that Elmo had joined Big Bird, so we waited in line to see him, too. (And by wait I mean like no more than 5 minutes…)

We rode all the other little rides:

While Mamie watched from the sidelines:

and then took a break at the Sunny Day Theater to wait for the show to start. We got great seats up front and on the isle, and we were so excited when the music started and the characters came down the isle to go on stage!

The show was packed, and afterward they had a photo op with the characters… this was the longest we waited all day and it was still less than 10 minutes!

AB’s favorite SS song is “C is for Cookie”, (which by the way she is ADORABLE singing. :)  - so she was so excited to see Cookie Monster! So much so, that she wanted to share a couple of her cookies with him! (Mini Vanilla wafers)

 

After all that playing, we’d worked up an appetite. We decided to do the character lunch. It was a buffet under a tent in the Sesame Street area, so we didn’t have to go far, and it gave AB the chance to meet the characters that weren’t in the show. Plus, we were with Grammy and Grammy believes if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it all. :)

The characters were all so cute, and did such a good job making the rounds and making sure they saw each child.

Even Mamie got in on the meet and greet…

To top off such a fun lunch, dessert was cupcakes – AB’s love language.

After lunch, it was time to change the girls into their bathing suits and let them cool off in the splash parks. There are TWO to play in!

There’s water splashing everywhere! And even a cave the kids can go in with another little splash fountain inside.

The other part of the splash park, is more open and was less crowded that day.

Both the girls loved it and I realized I’ve come a long way in motherhood. I fought back the heebie jeebies for the sake of their good time and let them get in the water and play…I was even so good as to not have an asthmatic fit when AB took off her crocs and played in it barefoot. I figured there was nothing in that water a little chlorine wouldn’t cure and hoped for the best.

After about an hour of splashing and cooling off, we changed them into dry clothes, took a ride on the train to see the animals and headed out!

One of the best things we did, was valet park that morning. When we got to the gate, we just handed them our ticket and they brought my car up within seconds! No waiting in line to catch the tram and then having to ride it back to the car. When you have little ones, those things are incomparable. Plus, like I said, we were with Grammy, and she believes some things are just worth it. Lunch with characters, valet parking and a day together at Busch Gardens were all definitely some of those things.

We can’t wait to check out Sea World next!

~amw~