Garden

The trip to Busch Gardens was a success! Penny was a little whiny and not-wanting-to-try-new-things-can't-we-just-go-home for a bit, but then Matt hustled her onto her first-ever roller coaster, and she never looked back.

She rode the kiddie coaster at least twice, and the Big Bad Wolf once (she wanted to go again, but the line was apparently very long) and the swings and lots of other rides. They saw the "4-D" show, and the wolf show, and lots of animals. Penny got her face painted, and she picked out a little toy wolf in remembrance of the Big Bad Wolf.



There aren't any more pictures I can show you, alas. Jill had forgotten her camera at our house the night before, and then Matt forgot (in the bustle of gathering all the other stuff) to pick it up before they went to get her from the hotel. Matt had planned to buy the photo the park took of her on the kiddie coaster, but it turned out bad, and even sentimentality gets trumped at $20 for a bad photo. But Jill bought a picture of the three of them that was taken at the park entrance, and she even bought two copies of it so we could have one. So that and my pictures of Penny's face paint will have to serve for the scrapbook.

But Penny was still ecstatic about the roller coasters this morning. Matt and I are thinking of getting season's passes for him and her for next summer, so they can go on weekends or for a couple of hours, even, on weekday evenings. (I do not like roller coasters, so I expect it will be just the two of them for a few more years, until Alex is big enough to want to go, at which point we may cave and get the family pack just for the sake of convenience. Of course, by the time Alex is six, Penny will be old enough and -- I hope -- responsible enough to be turned loose on her own. I think I was twelve, the first year I had a season's pass.)

After we were all home, Penny got to open her birthday presents from Grandma. New clothes, new pyjamas, some princess gear, and a very cute little princess board game where you try to be the first to collect (and wear!) a full set of jewelry. (She played one game with Jill, and one game with Jill and I both, and she won both games. Pure serendipity, but I'm sure it cemented her enjoyment of the game.) And a pair of foam swords that I'm sure will be a huge hit (yes, pun intended; I have no shame) when Ray gets back from visiting his grandparents next week.


And the gift my parents had arrived, as well -- a T-Rex dinosaur as tall as Alex. Penny went crazy over it and insisted on sleeping with it last night, so that's a success. I tried to take pictures of her with it, but she was so excited and the room so dim that they all turned out horribly blurry.

Jill also gave Alex a present, which turned out to be some shorts (which he's forever in need of -- how one kid can run through so many clothes so fast, I have no idea) and an utterly adorable froggy shirt.

Tonight, Matt's going with Braz and another friend from work to the Dave Matthews Band concert down in VA Beach -- they're even leaving early, straight from work, to avoid traffic, so I'm picking the kids up from school tonight.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a couple of old high school friends for lunch, which should be fantastic fun.

And then I need to start getting my stuff in order for Penny's birthday celebrations next week!