preston's h.o.p.e.

preston's h.o.p.e.
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

there were also some things for the bigger kids to play on, and henry enjoyed those after wandering through the village.

fire truck at preston's h.o.p.e.

fire truck at preston's h.o.p.e.
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

the main reason that we went down to cleveland this time was to see my cousin kate get married. it was a nice wedding and the boys had a pretty good time dancing the night away. (sammy's a pretty good dancer.)

the day after the wedding, we went to mark & mariella's house for lunch, then grabbed a letterbox and then went back to mom's. i met up with a high school friend of mine and her two kids at preston's h.o.p.e.. it had a fantastic playground. besides the "village" portion of it, there was also a big sandbox with fake fossils, zip lines (the kinds that you find on playgrounds that are completely horizontal), dinosaurs to climb, and swings. sammy liked the train that they had. it was like this fire truck, but when you entered it, a voice said, "all aboard!" upon entering the fire truck area, firehouse noises came over the speaker. henry liked the machine where you would turn the crank and it would record your voice and play it back slowly.

last day of school

last day of school
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

never had a chance to upload a picture of our 2nd grader on his last day of first grade.

Seabreeze

Seabreeze
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

henry & sammy in the little cars at seabreeze. i took them to the park while mike worked, so i was a little worried about being able to handle both of them. it worked out well, though. there were other cub scout families there, so there was at least one set of eyes on each kid at all times. the boys were great about taking turns picking rides, too, and henry was perfectly willing to go with sammy on the kiddie rides. their favorite thing, though, was the wave pool. every now & again, the lifeguard would press the button that created waves -- henry went into the water that was 3 feet deep and tried to "catch some waves" while sammy preferred water that was knee deep (even so, some of the waves came up to his chin). they were both smiling and giggling the whole time, and with life jackets on, they were practically fearless. i had never heard sammy have such a temper tantrum as when it was time for us to leave the water so we could get some drinks.

mike met up with us at the park after work, and both boys loved being able to take him along on some of their favorite rides (yep, more time in the wave pool).

all in all, it was possibly the most fun we've had at that park. it was very tempting to sign up for season passes, but i'm thinking the summer's going to be pretty busy as it is.

Manhattan Square Park

Manhattan Square Park
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

here's sammy enjoying the climbing structure at manhattan square park. he's a great climber! (and, yes, the hill the kids climb to get to the top of the slides (in the background) was missing quite a few pads. didn't stop the boys from enjoying it.)

while researching fun playgrounds in cleveland, i came across the GovDeals website. cities auction off their surplus equipment. if you've ever wanted a bargain on police lights for your vehicle, this might be the place to go. they even have fire trucks available, should you need one.

sadly, stoppy the t-rex is already missing from its spot. :( we'll just have to do another stamp to hide.

the first day of break was busy -- we got henry's wolf cub scout book, then went to an organic co-op in the city (abundance), then to manhattan square park near the strong museum. i really enjoyed the park. most of the playgrounds around here were purchased from the same company. while they're nice enough, it's nice to have something that's a little different for a change. manhattan square park reminded me of some of the playgrounds that we saw in central park. (maybe that's the reason for the name.) the ground surface was a foam pad and they had a big rope climbing structure that both boys liked. henry liked being able to run through the things that sprayed water.

from there, we went to kohl's to pick out clothes for henry for my cousin's wedding. when i got home, i discovered that the size of the pants didn't match the size printed on the hanger. (i thought they looked too big, but i'm always surprised at how much my boys grow, so i didn't think too much of it.) i guess we need to add a trip to kohl's to the long list of things we need to accomplish this week.

sammy's birthday party with his class (and a few extra friends) was on saturday. somehow, sammy gets rain for most of his birthdays. at least this time i thought to look at the weather report earlier in the week so i had a little more time to prepare. we originally were going to play minigolf, but the prospect of thunderstorms prevented that. fortunately, we came through the day with nothing being broken in the barn of the minigolf place. (most of the kids were crazy and running around, so i was a bit worried at times.) and they gave us coupons so we could go back and play minigolf and jump on their bouncing pillow later on.

sammy decided that he wanted a dinosaur-themed party this year. it was amazingly difficult to find dinosaur favors in the party stores around here -- i guess it's not a current trend. sammy's a big fan of the "dinosaur king" show, so we stuck with it. we made dinosaur paper bag puppets (i was busy for a couple days cutting out eyes and arms that the kids could glue on their bags) and cut the length of the party from two hours to one hour and things seemed to work well that way.

on sunday, my in-laws came over and we had a nice low-key visit with them. we planted a letterbox (which leaves me with just one left to do in the wegmans passport-inspired series) and played at the park, then grilled dinner at home.

stoppy

stoppy
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

not to be outdone by henry's buttercup stamp, sammy drew stoppy the t-rex. instead of becoming extinct, the dinosaurs went to space. this one is in charge of telling the spaceships when they can go and in which direction. (sammy has never fully accepted any of the theories explaining why dinosaurs are not around anymore.) at one point, stoppy had a "nasa" label on his spacesuit, but that didn't last through carving this stamp. (and so there continues to be no proof of the secret nasa "dinosaurs in space" project.)

buttercup

buttercup
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

another letterbox stamp in the series. this one is buttercup the spacecow. aliens abduct cows because they make excellent pilots for their spaceships. (this might be my favorite stamp in the series.)

spaceshuttle

spaceshuttle
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

this is from a picture that sammy drew. (all part of the same series of letterboxes.)

spaceman bob

spacemanbob
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

another stamp based on a design drawn by henry.

gps satellite

gps satellite
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

here's another one from the series that henry designed. (i think i cleaned up the lines a bit before actually planting it.)

flagboobah

flagboobah
Originally uploaded by zedthezonk

since joan is very sad that we don't have time to post daily...

we've been planting letterboxes around town to go along with the "passport to family wellness" program offered by the perinton wegmans.

this is the "flagboobah the alien" stamp carved from a picture that henry drew.