The Day We Learned About Peace in Play Land

Since our spring break weather continued to be more wintry than springy, we had to amend our activity plans for Tuesday afternoon so that we wouldn’t freeze.  The kids remembered how cold our adventure at the park had been, so when I suggested milkshakes and an indoor play land, they were all in favor of the plan.

So we headed to Carl’s Jr. along with half of our town – apparently this was not an original idea, given the weather situation.  The milkshakes were great and the play land was crazy, crowded and had an odor that cannot be adequately describes with words alone. 

In true play land form, Carl’s Jr. had a few bullies there that day that did not want anyone to play in peace, so they kept trying to cause problems.  Alli and I had hoped to read our Harry Potter books that we brought along but had to keep rescuing the kids from the aforementioned bully(s).  So we finally got creative and decided that if we were IN the play structure, that might help the bully(s) learn to play nice.  We were right.  Apparently when the “Play Land Police” are on-site, kids magically remember what their mama’s taught them.  As is usually the case, the bully(s) just wanted to play but didn’t know how to interact in a socially appropriate way.  Once we were there, they figured it out quickly and the once teary and emotional group of strangers became one group of very happy albeit sweaty kids running around and having a blast. 

There were so many funny moments, here are some of the highlights that Alli and I deemed our favorites:

• While the kids played tag, one of their new play land friends yelled "Hey!  The girl in the matching outfit is IT!”  She was referring to Katelyn
• Our careful and equitable division of the chocolate and mint Oreo milkshakes so that everyone would be happy
• Watching the crazy weather outside that included hail, snow, rain, thunder, lightning and then sunshine all in a two and a half hour period of time
• The creepy weird guy who was also the parent/guardian of the bully) who was too aware of everything we were doing and seemed he too wanted to make some new friends
• As we talked on our cell phones, disclosing our location as "the disco room in the Carl’s Jr. play land”
• Watching Brooke thoroughly enjoy her alone time in the play land driving capsule while making calls on Alli’s phone