They had a few musical shows with some of the characters and frequently called for the kids to come up and join them. Of course, I don't know that they were really asking for the kids to really come up on stage, like Karina did. I thought it was funny each time they finished a song and sent all the kids back - they usually had to single Karina out quietly and tell her to go back to her seat.
The carousel was a hit - one of the few rides that both of the girls thought was sufficiently tame to ride, so we of course went on it multiple times.
The first time we came, Karina liked a log ride with a hill that we "sped" down and splashed at the end - we went on it twice last time we went to Dutch Wonderland. This time, it was deemed "too scary" and she wanted nothing to do with it. This calm log ride was much safer, and therefore, more enticing.
One of the places we missed out on (for the most part) the last time was the new dinosaur island. They had a bunch of animatronic (life-like robotic) dinosaurs moving around. The dinosaur geek in me was secretly upset that the different dinosaurs weren't done to the same scale (the brontosaurus should have been towering over us and would have taken up a large portion of the island), but it was kind of fun anyway.
Here's Karina pretending to be a baby dinosaur breaking out of her egg. "RAWR!"
Next to the dinosaur area was a large "dig site", basically a series of sandboxes with plastic dinosaur bones, footprints, and other fossils. The girls both spent a lot of time there digging, throwing sand in the air and into their hair, etc. I admit I was disappointed that the girls seemed more interested in playing in a sandbox than they were to go on all the fun amusement park rides, but I guess the park wasn't designed with me in mind as the primary customer.
Both girls also liked these hand-pedaled trains. This time, they let me be the one to go around pushing Lydia around the track instead of one of the workers doing it. Karina didn't need anyone to push her.
We have reached another milestone. Karina has started Pre-K at the local elementary school. She is at class for two and a half hours every afternoon. Tanja has been excited for some peace and quiet by having Lydia take her daily nap while Karina is at school. We spent a long time debating what kind of backpack to get Karina. Ultimately, instead of getting a cheap one that would be lucky to last the year, we went with a higher quality one that she can hopefully keep all through elementary school. Hope she still likes red when she gets older. It's also comical watching her go off to school with a backpack that is bigger than her back behind her.
She was very excited for her first day of school and so far, she has kept that excitement every day she goes in. According to her, the hardest part about school is raising your hand before you talk.
Lydia has taken advantage of the time without Karina competing for the same toys and she has built some very tall Lego towers. This one was quite a bit taller than her.
Lydia is even a good sport when her Lego creations break - she just laughs and reassembles.
Lydia likes making stairs with Legos as well. She has surprised us with her skill making them, since she is so young. Karina is of course an expert:
Karina's fashion sense is developing in new and interesting ways.
The girls both came down with a deep cough last week. It's not much fun having sick kids at home, but part of growing up I guess.
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