Dutch Wonderland Day

The kids all read like little bookworms over the summer, so they wound up with "FREE" tickets to Dutch Wonderland for the end of September. This sounds fantastic doesn't it? Yeah, we sure thought so, till we got to this "children's paradise of amusement parks" and found that mom & dad have to pay full price to take said bookworms into the park even though we could only attempt 2, maybe 3, of the rides if we dared. After serious discussions off to the side, Daddy came to the kids rescue & purchased the tickets, dragging penny pinching mom with the 5 of them into the park. I know, I know...but seriously 75.00 for two adults to take the kids to a "special readers day" put on by the park & the library??? Do you know what I could BUY that we NEED with $75.00???? Ok, so I shut up, Len gave me a hug and said "just keep looking at how excited they are" and I did what I was told & "let it go"



The kids had a blast. We had taken them there twice before, many many many moons before, and it was WAY too overwhelming. This time, they were all of a decent age, the older 3 almost TOO old. Being the nut cases Len & I are, we joined in the fun & rode on the rollar coaster (just as frightening this go round as the last time when we thought we would loose someone out the side of the car it jerks around so fast!), we did the log float & got drenched, and we did the space ship (that one WAS fun). We also took them on an "old paddle boat" ride and everyone enjoyed that as well.



Oh, and one that didn't go over so well with "the girls" was the bumper cars. I know, typically those would be a lot of fun, I mean how often do you get told as an adult to drive fast, and HIT as many cars as you can?? On a serious note, they allowed our twins to go solo because of their height, however, our daughter didn't understand how to work things and got turned around and head on hit many times, went wildly fast and out of control (to her) when she did get it turned back around, and just overall, freaked out. We didn't even get to the end of the building upon exciting before she burst into tears and sobbed for the next 5 minutes into my shoulder as I held her. I must admit, I wasn't a fan either, the "mom" in me must be a lot stronger then the "fun" anymore and I felt panicked at the speed as I tried to drive, NOT hit anyone, yet know that we would go faster & faster if we didn't hit someone, and keep my arm around Jazmine, keeping her from getting slammed into the side of the car when we did hit or get hit. I just kept screaming in my head "you can't HIT them, everyone will get hurt" like I was actually driving the truck! Ugh...you know you are old when...



All in all, the kids enjoyed the rides as a whole, all 4 went on everything and it was a great perk to having read so much all summer long. One really nice perk to those tickets was the "free kids meal at Applebees" just up the street for after we were done. Normally, we HATE Applebees...BUT we would HIGHLY recommend the Applebees just up the street from DW on Rt. 30. The manager that was in was gracious & understanding of having 4 kids and told our waiter to take all 4 stubs & let the kids eat free. Apparently, they will normally not take more then the number of adults purchasing meals. I made up for it with a fabulous sangria...apparently Len felt my nerves had been disturbed enough to warrent a little "calming" Like I would argue?!