On Saturday my Mom and I took the girls to Storybook Land. Kayla has been asking to go since our last trip back in August. She was so excited to go she did not fall asleep until after 10pm Friday night. She spent well over a half hour on Friday looking through the pictures from last summer. Last summer it was a long time before she would go near the horses on the carousel, so I wanted her to see the pictures of her finally on them to hopefully bypass any anxiety from this year. She had NONE. The horses were the first ride she wanted to go on. Actually she’s been asking a lot to go on a real horse. Alysa stayed on the bench until the end of the day when she decided to go on a horse. There was only one ride this year that Kayla would not go on and in the end Alysa went on almost all of them also, although she did not like the balloon ride. It scared her. I broke down this year and allowed Kayla to go on the roller coaster. It’s pretty fast and whips around pretty good. But she’s been asking to go on since last summer. I’m not sure when she’ll go on again because she really didn’t know what she was getting into. She was pretty shocked by it. Later that night she told me she was scared of it. So who knows. But I’m proud of her for trying it.

This is the first year that the girls were really into all of the fairy tale displays. They have Humpty Dumpty, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Old Woman and her shoe and many more. They spent a lot of time going in the little houses and peaking through windows.

I love this place because aside from it being a bargain at $20 a person (I am comparing this to Great Adventure and Sesame Place at close to $50 per person), it is seriously the cleanest public place I’ve ever been. The employees are very nice and friendly, the bathrooms (they have a family bathroom and all are child-friendly) are super clean. They have a place to purchase food, but they do not discourage you from bringing your own food and have a huge picnic area for just that purpose. I will admit to one complaint (although it is not against the park). They sell popcorn- and I am not really begrudging the park from doing this. I remember being a kid and part of the appeal of going to these types of places is getting to eat nothing but junk. I actually have to say I miss being able to eat, horribly delicious, greasy, artery clogging heart-attack-on-a-plate food. But…MUST the popcorn and food be brought ON the rides? Yes, ON the rides. There was a girl who brought TWO boxes of popcorn onto the carousel and sat on the bench for three rides chomping away. I wish they had a “no food on rides” rule. But if that is my only complaint, I think we had a good day.

And in case you’re wondering, the girls closed the place down. We got there when they opened at 11 and stayed until they closed at 5. My Mom and I were dragging quite a bit, but the girls would have stayed all night! And Kayla – she was up again that night until after 10:30. She kept coming out to talk about the day and at 9:45 when I went in to check on her, she went on and on about the roller coaster and the horses. She was quite excited to go to school today tell everyone about her adventure.

I had some hopes that this would be the first year that I could take them either by myself or with friends without relying on my parents or having J or I take a vacation day. But since there are rides that one will go on and the other will not, that does not look like it will be an option this year. (*sigh*)

Here are some photos so you can see for yourselves just how much fun they had…