First Grade Ditch Day

Our little water ballerina.

Hannah riding one of the new kid-friendly, non-wet rides with Thomas and Kiersten.

Toph and friends were "torturing" Hannah in the bounce house. She left in tears. Fun times!

One of the strong, flexible performers for Cirq de la Mer.

A bit of water play for the kids in the afternoon.

"C" is for Cookie Monster.

Kiersten and Hannah with Ernie and Bert.

Our friend, Elmo!

Yes, there is such a thing--we made it up this year. The first grade was going on a swim party field trip, and Toph would have been relegated to the 18-inch toddler pool, since he doesn't swim yet. Sound fun? Not really. That, coupled with the fact that there was the entire first grade going and the water was reportedly COLD, and we decided to do an alternate field trip. Can you blame us? A couple of Toph's friends were going to Sea World for the day, and since we hadn't been yet, we decided to join them. I'm so glad we did! The kids had a blast!

Sea World has a new play area--well, it's the old play area changed around a bit. They have 3 kid-friendly, non-wet rides; a bounce house; a sand area; a water play area, and the climbing/slide stuff they already had. In addition to that, they have Sesame Street characters that come do a short show and then take pictures with the kids. Toph couldn't care LESS about that, but Hannah still does. She was thrilled beyond belief to take a picture with Cookie Monster and Elmo, and she was very bummed that Zoe wasn't out for photos.

It was a great day to go, because it wasn't too hot or too crowded. The only disappointment was the Cirq de la Mer show--I didn't think it was as good as last year's. The kids were also disappointed that we didn't go to more shows. But we have PASSES, so we can go every week! They spent at least an hour in the morning at the new play area, and then we spent at least another hour again in the afternoon.

So, First Grade Ditch Day ROCKED!!!