Makutu's Island

This morning we all went to Makutu's Island. Its a 20,000 sq ft indoor playground. Its a huge climbing structure. There was a pirate's den, two different tree houses and a bunch of other climbing tunnels. We all were able to partake in the fun and while my lower back and knees were hurting after a while it was a lot of fun. We will definitely have to take the kids back. We tried to snap a few pictures. However, it was a huge area and hard to snap any really good pictures. We did get a few though at the end of Phedora and Nana.

Phedora climbed up in this little build in and then proceeded to "close the window" she is way too cute. She wouldn't look at the camera. Dan had to trick her into looking for this picture.

All tuckered out!

After lunch we all split up to go do some shopping. The girls in one car and the boys in another, as Phedora put it. We headed over to Trader Joes and Phedora fell asleep right before we got there. She was dead to the world. Lucky for us she doesn't mind being woke up. She loves going to Trader Joes because they have little carts for the kids to push around. Both of the kids love it. All in all we had a good day. I am looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow.

Nana and Grampee Are Here!

This morning the kids were up bright and early to see Nana and Grampee. Nana got up with the kids at 5:30! It was way too early. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6:00 so I could take pics of the kids with their new presents. Phedora came in to show me her new wings and antenna. Which was the main reason I got up. I really wanted a picture of it. So here is the picture. She makes a cute little butterfly. And you have to love the new "Groovy Chick" shirt as well" Too bad she has her arms covering the shirt :(
Hayden was sporting his cool new helicopter watch. While I tried to get him to smile helicopter watches are no smiling matter and we must remain very straight faced about it.Hayden also got this really cool frog shirt. It talks about frogs and then it has three frog toys that snap onto the shirt. Unfortunately, I couldn't get him to put the shirt on to take a picture of it. I will post one when I get one though.

Nana also brought the kids a really cool talking puzzle map. When you put the pieces on it tells you the state and the capitol. She also brought them a picture that has little foam stickers that makes the picture complete. I'm really not sure how to describe it so here are the pictures.And the finished product....

Freestone Park

Friday morning we tried to meet up with a small playgroup that we joined awhile back. I say small because they rarely do anything and there are only two or three moms and their kids that go to play dates. So we thought we would head out and meet them at the park. I was a little skeptical since the weather here seems to rise with the hour. For example at 7 am its in the 70's, 8 am in the 80's, 9 am in the 90's and so forth. We were going to a park, not a spray park like we like to frequent and we were meeting at 9:30. So it was in the 90's. We are supposed to meet two other families there. We go find the place we are there right at 9:30 and there's no one else around. So we head over toward the little lake. Where there are a lot of ducks. Knowing there would be ducks we brought some bread along. The kids had a great time feeding the ducks. Phedora even scared me by trying to have the duck take the bread out of her hand.

After we were done feeding the ducks we went over to the playground. It was way too hot to play on though. Phedora tried to go on the tire swing but got too hot not to mention she was paced on in such a way that she wouldn't touch the tire. Phedora went down the slide and Hayden jumped off. The we decided that we had had enough and headed back to the car. We learned a valuable lesson though. Don't go to playgrounds that aren't covered like at Chuparosa Park and definitely go to parks that have a spray pad to cool off in. Oh yeah we never did meet anyone from this playgroup. So we will just stick with the Chandler mommies group. We have met up with them twice now and we have had a great time. We are going to go out to TGI Fridays with them Tuesday for lunch. We are definitely looking forward to some good food and company.

San Tan Village Kids Club

This morning we took a little road trip over to the San Tan Village in Gilbert. According to the map, it was supposed to take us 20 minutes to get there. We were there in less than 10 and that was a good thing. While you would think that it would be easy to find a food court in a mall, its not. The malls down here are laid out in such a way that they consist of several blocks on all sides of the road.
So we get there and we go the way wrong way ending up on the wrong side of the mall entirely. After driving around though we learned the locations of a bunch of stores. Yeah for us, not so much for Dan though. Anyway, we finally found the food court and headed inside. Its a good sized food court and they had moved all of the tables and chairs off to the sides. In the center there was 3 big rugs laid out to for a T-shape with a isle going down the middle. They also had a big red house with a mail box in the front. The kids were fascinated with the mailbox and kept taking the letters out. In our welcome kit there was a paper that we could use to write a letter to Persephone (the master of ceremonies) and/or Webster the Warthog (the mascot).
Once the party so to speak started with sang some songs and then the mail was read. We then sang the songs that were requested by the kids. We sang the wheels on the bus, head and shoulders, jingle bells and a few others. Then it was time for the guest speaker. Today we learned about Tuscon. They had a guy bring in a tortoise and also a python's skin. That was pretty if I do say so myself.
It was hard to hear over noise of all the kids and the microphone wasn't very good at all. It sounded like a bunch of mumbling for an hour. But it was fun seeing all the little kids up and dancing and singing. Hayden and Phedora didn't seem all that into it. But they said they had a good time and want to go back. We will give it another try on the 25th. When we will be travelling to the ranches of Wickenburg. I snapped a couple of pics today at the mall. So here ya go!

A Rocket Ship

Last Saturday Phedora and I left Dan and Hayden to build a rocket ship. Phedora and I decided we would go check out the goodwill and see if we could find anything good. We were specifically looking for a pretty shelf we could repaint and a electric hot plate for Dan. While we were unsuccessful the boys did a great job with the rocket.

Our New Playgroup

We have been trying to find a good, active playgroup since before we even got here. We have joined and left at least 3 playgroups. For whatever reason all the ones we found never did anything. We were looking for a playgroup that regularly gets together. You would think that would be easy to find, but alas it wasn't. Well Monday I decided to take a look yet again. I went over to meetup and looked there. I found a group called Chandler Mommies. They have a yearly fee, I have always disliked meetup because you have to pay to use their site. This group is a mere $8 a year so I decide OK lets take a look at it. To look you have to join so I join. I go look at their calendar and its filled with things to do. At least 3 days a week of activities and people are actually going to be at the events. On meetup you RSVP and I do like that about the group. So yesterday, we went to our first meet up. It was at Chuparosa Park.

Chuparosa Park is about 10 minutes south of us and is a good sized park. They have a huge playground that is covered. Making it the playground we will go to for our fun in the summer. There is at least 10 swings a sand area and a little spray pad. Now when I say little I mean little. This is of course compared to Espee which is a good sized spray pad.

We got to the park a few minutes early and headed over. The kids were immediately in the water playing. At 10 in the morning its already 90 degrees out so the water was the clear choice. There was a few other moms there but only one was from the Chandler mommies group. I have to say I was proud of myself as I went over and asked them if they were from the group. The only person who was from the group was Liz. Liz has a 4 1/2 year old son named Nathan and almost 2 year old son named Joeseph. Nathan and Hayden had a great time playing and Hayden even invited him over for a sleep over last night. It was cute, but he really needs to learn to ask me first.

The other moms and dad showed up a bit later and they were all very welcoming and friendly. I have never felt as comfortable at a playdate on the first visit as I did yesterday. I am so glad that I decided to give them a chance and go. I think that we have found our new playgroup! Here's a few pics from the park. The kids had a great time.

The water pools up since theres only one drain. So its like a wading pool as well.

You cant catch me.... Of course we have to swing as high as we can!
You cant really see but they are both climbing the ladder.

Hayden with his new friends. Nathan is the one next to him and I can't remember the other little boys name. Nathan trying to wipe wet sand on Hayden.

Encanto Park

Last week Dan came home and said he was taking us out for a family day on Saturday. He said we need to be ready to leave by 10 and to dress for outside. He had planned a special surprise outing. I spent all week trying to figure out what we were doing and where we were going.

He took us to this neat park up in Phoenix. Its a huge park which has a golf course, a river you can fish in or rent a canoe or paddle boat, a playground and a little amusement park. We were going for the amusement park. There was a train that took you on a trip around the amusement park. We of course took a train ride first. It was a lot of fun and we got to see what rides there were.

After the train, which the kids wanted to go on again we headed over to the airplanes. Hayden and Phedora both ran for the helicopters. After the helicopters, we were off to do the bumper boats. We had to wait a bit since there was kids out having their turn. But it was worth the wait. Waiting in line. They were so good and so patient!
Hayden really wanted the blue boat. Phedora wanted a red boat, but she settled for blue as well.
Next we were off to ride the dragon roller coaster. The first couple of times they rode they were in the second seat. The last time they were able to try out the front seat. They went around quite a few times. Which was surprising to us. Usually you go around just a few. Phedora was loving the roller coaster. She does after all have a need for speed, and it got going pretty fast for a kiddie ride. Holding on for dear life. Its a whole new experience in the front seat.

Next we were off to go drive the cars. For this ride they chose to be in the same car. Which for the sake of pictures is always nice.

Next we went to the merry-go-round. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the flash back on. So no good pics of the kids. Phedora decided that she would scare me and go hands free. She almost fell off and I was not a happy mommy.

After the merry-go-round we went for a airplane ride. The kids chose to ride in the same plane. Which was again very nice. Now we just need to teach them to both look at the camera at the same time. Then we were off for a spinningly fun time on the tea cups. Dan can really get us going. I feel feeling pretty sick when we got off. So afterwards Hayden and I headed back to the boats and Dan and Phedora took a few more turns on the tea cups.

Afterwards, we took a leisurely train ride and got some ice cream.
After ice cream the kids went on a few more rides again and then it was time to go. By 12:30 it was just too hot to be outside anymore. All in all it was a great day at the park.

On our way to the car we came across this plant which I had to take a picture of.

I had to have this picture of the plant because of this one. We went to this great little hamburger place for lunch that was right down the road. We almost didn't go but we were so glad we did. It was basically a indoor BBQ. They cooked the burgers on a charcoal grill and they were so good. I have to say it was the best I have ever had. And the fries don't even get me started on the fries. Lets just say we will go back!