Letters from the Evans: WonderWild Playdate

Today Clara and I had a rough morning. It was probably 50% her and 50% me. I'm feeling really yucky (sinus infection & throbbing headache) so a crabby toddler probably seemed worse than it was. Either way, I knew after nap time we needed to get out of the house to do something fun. Our friends Michelle and Zachariah were game for trying out this place neither of us have taken our kids to called WonderWild, per Kristin's great suggestion. It's probably a little over priced, but it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it for days like today. Plus, adults are free so that's nice compared to the Children's Museum or places where they charge the adults for a kid's play place ... weird right?

Anyway, Bryan and Logan ended up joining us which is great! Michelle and I are both in the almost-third-trimester range and I'm technically supposed to be on "modified bed rest" so it was really nice to have our husbands there helping keep up with some active toddlers! Although I'm not in a single picture, I swear I was there! But I had the camera put away for the most part so I could just have fun with Clara, and Bryan doesn't usually think to take any pictures even when Clara is being extra cute or fun (which is pretty much always, I know.)

Okay, enough of my rambling. Here are some picture and videos! Many of them are blurry, but like I said, I didn't have my camera out much so it was pretty much a snap and run to catch up!

The first thing she saw after we removed shoes was a dinosaur! You may remember how much she enjoys "riding" them :) Bryan got a kick out of seeing it for himself.

Then it was just in and out of the ball pit.

Ready to climb up and check out the slides!!

I couldn't resist taking a video of this, because she loved it so much! We went up and down and up and down and up down, you get the idea. Thankfully after a little while Bryan and I traded places and I waited at the bottom while he climbed up to the top.

"weeeeeeeee!!"

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Then we checked out a little area underneath the big playscape that had all sorts of different foamy type pieces for the kids to climb all over and build with. There was also a little hanging swing thingy (not sure exactly) that Clara really wanted to play with but was neither tall enough nor quite strong enough to pull off.

Don't worry, she wasn't too upset. She comforted herself with the slide :)

By this time our friends joined us! Zachariah ran over to slide with Clara for a little while.

There was another giant foam thingy with holes and all sorts of stuff to climb on.

This place is like an active toddler Heaven!

Michelle and Logan were about to take Zachariah up the Crocodile slide when Clara came running up so she could go too!

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Up on the second level of the playscape

With Daddy! Love these two!

One of the ways down the playscape is to come down this really big twisty slide. Clara panicked a bit so Bryan had to go with her. Unfortunately it's really meant for kids, not adults, and he got a little bit stuck a few times on the curvy parts :)

Such a good sport! (Better him than me, haha)

Sweet girl loved riding all of the tricycles and ride-on toys. She really, really, REALLY wanted to ride in the Cozy Coupe but there was an older (ill mannered) child who kept running away with it whenever she saw Clara or another small child want to play on it. (Apparently it was a hot commodity?) She couldn't fit inside, and didn't want to push it. She just wanted to keep it away. This child was a sibling to another little boy who liked to push smaller children over and take toys from them. Runs in the family I guess? Everyone else there was really nice or their parents would intervene. Bryan and I quick to remove Clara from situations where she is misbehaving, or demonstrate how to behave properly. It's not that hard to do! End rant. Sorry.

Anyway, she had to fight hard for an opportunity to play in the Cozy Coupe, so she kept an eagle eye on it, and when the girl walked a few steps away and wasn't looking, Clara made a mad dash and hopped in before the girl could push it away again. Clara never pushed, whined, or anything. Just waited patiently for her chance, and then nabbed it. I can't fault her for that! So when the girl tried to take it back, I told her sternly that it was Clara's turn. And then some of the other little kids would probably appreciate a turn. She sulked over to her parents and they shot dagger looks at me the rest of the time we were there. Sigh. Geez I'm long winded tonight. Maybe the aspirin is kicking in?

Bunnis family slide!

(Note the little boy of that same family crashing into Zachariah as he slides down.)

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Up the rolling steps:

So fun!!

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Play kitchen - Clara liked it but Zachariah REALLY liked it

Bouncing pillow/trampoline thing

(you can see the giant inflatable crocodile slide in the background)

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Pushing a toy around the little kid area.

Having fun!

Randomly doing the obstacle course with Daddy with limited success :)

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Clara & Zachariah on the jumping pillow thingy

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Riding along

After all that play time, we were all very hungry. Fudruckers was about a 2 minute drive away, so we reconvened there.

Brag moment: This is the best behaved Clara has been at a restaurant in MONTHS!!

It's not that she's usually badly behaved, but tonight she sat in her high chair the entire time (almost an hour) while eating her food, and checking things out. It was amazing. The amount of food both of our toddlers put away was pretty amazing too actually. I guess they worked up an appetite with all of that playing!