Girls day out!

The girls and I had so much fun today! Originally we had planned on going to Hoppin Hippo, a local indoor bounce playground then to a friends for an afternoon swim and lunch but miss Miriam has a horrible rash on her bottom so swimming was a no go. Instead Tom carpooled leaving us the car and we decided to go out for breakfast, do a longer run at the hippo, do some shopping (the girls got 10 bucks each to buy themselves something @ big lots) and head for some ice cream before picking daddy up from work. We spent about 3 hours at Hoppin Hippo. The girls had a BLAST bouncing, climbing the tree house, playing dress up and having fun with the other kids. I love seeing the girls have fun at places like this but I hate that other parents give their kids free run of the place never looking up from their books, phones, computers or friends long enough to notice their little hellions torturing other kids. All 3 of our girls got into it at some point with other children. Of course I had to situate myself between the 3 always staying with Sophia and walking back and forth to Georgia and Miriam. I wasn't away from either of the other two for more than 2 minutes or the time it took me to walk from one side of the room to the other. I had a friend with me (who wasn't watching her kids either) who caught a little boy dragging Miriam through a bounce house by her feet. Nobody had the slightest clue who this boys parents were, needless to say after "I" parented him he backed off and never went near my kid again. Actually I think the kid might have been alone because I am pretty sure he left. (sad, I know!)



Then Georgia who was playing with Miriam while I was pushing Sophia on the baby swing came to me saying a group of little girls who I had to get onto twice for shoving and pushing SOPHIA punched her in the eye. But after investigation I found my little princess fought back because two of the other girls were crying to their mommies. I have no doubt they started it the way they were treating all the other kids. They would run in shove the little kids off the tree house, steal their costumes, shove the kids down the slides so they could have their turn, shove other kids into bounce house walls, etc.... They ran over Sophia trying to climb in the little bounce house time after time it was infuriating.

Then Miss Sophia who had been wanting to swing on the baby swing all day decided to escape the baby room and take over the swing on her own. I had turned my back for half a second to buy the girls some snacks and found her in the baby swing. There was an older child about 8 years old who decided all day long it was her swing so Sophia had no chance of swinging on it. I went up to Sophia who was on the swing and had this little girl pushing her how she got on the swing. A lady who was standing there laughed her butt off and said Sophia came up to the little girl, asked to swing and when she wouldn't let her she just TOOK IT. Pushed the little girl out and took the swing. I was in SHOCK. My sweet little Sophia who is so shy stood up to an 8 year old girl! The mom was pissed her daughter was kicked out, but she told her to let Sophia swing. The mom did however ask Sophia about 5 times in 5 minutes if she was done yet. Finally I just told her "Look lady, this is one of the only things for babies to do here and since I paid my 5.00 bucks a kid as well your kid can certainly share one of the TWO baby activities here". After that the kid seemed more than happy to share. It seems to me this kid is a victim of a mommy who never hears the word no and she liked it..lol If you look at the pictures you can see her playing happily and sharing with Georgia the rest of the time there.




I think I would go to these places more often if parents were more responsible for their kids. These places are not babysitters, they are a fun place for families to go to have fun WITH their kids. Not just to let the kids lose. There is a reason why kids AND parents need to wear socks. Because parents are expected to watch and play with their children. However, we did have fun and that is all that counts. This day in age I expect there to be conflict amongst kids. We have yet to go to a park or even the McDonald's playground without there being some bully. The sad thing is, some parents think it is "cute" for their kids to pick on other kids. I am not one of those parents. I speak up to other parents and will kick my kids butts if they act like that..lol


Anyway, after we went to Hoppin Hippo we headed to big lots. Georgia hit bank with her ten bucks because the place was packed with Yo Gabba Gabba toys. The smaller girls had money left over so I let Georgia use it to make up the difference and she got two toys. Our kids have to share their toys, no toy belongs to one kid in our house so it really didn't matter much. Miriam got herself some squish and spike balls and Sophia got her an Elmo Flashlight which sings songs. She still has not let go of that thing..lol

By the time we got finished shopping we were almost out of time but there is always time for ice cream so we headed to Baskin Robbins for a tasty scoop of coconut ice cream.






Once we finished the girls got a real treat because Daddy gave them all a tour of the shop where he works. Let me tell you that I don't think Georgia will ever mistake daddy working for McDonalds ever again..lol The story is every few weeks Tom surprises the girls with Happy Meals. He brings them home after work so Georgia put two and two together and determined Daddy must work at McDonalds since he has such easy access to Happy Meals. She is so funny! lol