Rainy Places Should Have Something Like This

This is a very purposeful blog post. At the north end of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (our current park) is the town of Milford, PA. There's a place there called Have a Hoot Family Fun Center and the times we've taken Darcy there, I am always overwhelmed by how much a place like Crescent City needs one of these. So I took a lot of pictures to show this point.

There are many elements at Have a Hoot. I spent one visit searching out manufacturers tags on some of them because, well, they're awesome. Most come from a company called Prime Play and, in fact, Have a Hoot is the featured photo on their Family Fun Center page. It's a better picture than any of mine for showing the overall set-up and a raised view of the high ropes course. But here's Darcy on the ropes course, too:

And a picture showing a few more of the high ropes elements from the ground:

There's a climbing wall in one corner that can be seen clearly in the linked picture, and then, on three walls of the building, is a multi-story human habitrail of fun. (If you don't know what a habitrail is, check one out here.) It's hard to show how completely amazing this is (I don't even have a picture of the trampoline part, for example), but here are some images:

Fun!! There's also a laser tag area (seen in the last picture; the top of it has more habitrail (or Ballocity, as it's properly called, I believe) and lots of arcade games, although they're definitely secondary attractions. Overall, it's an amazing, active, indoor play space that is even affordable! I think it's six dollars for a two hour session. This place also has a concession stand and a party area, so a lot of people have kids' birthdays here. For a place as rainy as the North Coast, it would make a world of difference!

Darcy's Party

Happy birthday, Darcy! Fairy-party style:

Darcy's birthday party was heavy on fairies and squealing. All her guests showed up with wings, they decorated wands, and colored fairy posters. But the two biggest hits of the day were Dylan-the-balloon-guy, who is always a hit, and Michael, who had them running and squealing as if a hawk, a rat, AND a rainy cat (the three biggest threats to fairies after humans, according to Disney) were all after them at one time. Here are the pictures -- I'd do video, but your hearing would never be the same:

Dylan's balloon skills are always impressive, but he might have outdone himself in fulfilling Michael's request. I think for a while, they were the only men in the room and they took refuge in a corner and spoke of music, ending up here:

He's pretty good. Elvis is now enjoying Patty Jo's chair by the fire. From past experience, he could easily hold his air for two or three weeks without changing a bit.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

In honor of Mother's Day, here's the earliest picture I have of me and my mom, Kathy. And in honor of the great weekend I had with the small beast who brings me mother-status, I'll add some pictures of Darcy at play in Fort Humboldt.

Fort Humboldt is in Eureka and was the site of, you guessed it, a fort! Not-yet President Grant served as quartermaster, which gives it an extra claim to fame. For the second year in a row, Michael spent three days at the fort playing "town ball", an old-timey version of baseball. It requires you to hit a player with the ball to get them out. Michael got Darcy out a couple times.


The surgeon gave a demonstration of field medical techniques.

Surprise! They wanted a very small patient to carry around in the stretcher and Darcy was perfectly happy to play the part. For long after they put her down.

Ah, town ball! Two batters, one pitcher, and a very short pitching distance. Maybe not always, but that's how our girl plays it -- and she got a hit! You can just barely see the ball coming off the bat.

Darcy played in the grass and rolled down hills after her last round of town ball while we were waiting for Michael to change back into modern clothes. She was a very happy and smile-filled girl.

The Belated Birthday Post

Oh life...it gets in the way of blogging sometimes. In this case, I've been neglecting putting up some birthday and weekend photos in favor of creating an index for a dendrochronology textbook a friend of mine wrote. But that deadline has recently become flexible due to some potential page changes, so I'm on hold. Before I recount the splendors of Darcy's birthday, I will warn you that I forgot to take pictures of her tea party and cake. Sorry!

The great day started with Darcy coming downstairs to find this lovely pink tricycle waiting for her in the living room. It was a very rainy day, so good think trikes will roll nicely on laminate floors, huh? She still has a little trouble reaching the pedals, but she likes riding it around the neighborhood. Her steering is getting better, too! Thanks, Granny Mimi and Pop-pop!

The (amazing, wonderful, almost unbelievable) Family Resource Center happened to have a special event on Darcy's birthday: a visit by Buddy, the T-rex from PBS's Dinosaur Train. Buddy requires a human helper measuring no more than 5' 2", and it took a little while to find such a person, so the anxious kids listened to a story about dinosaurs and, here, pretended to be triceratops(es?). Sitting behind Darcy is one of her favored play mates at the play sessions here. She and M sit on top of a tunnel outside and take the train to the Motorcycle Zoo and the Crocodile Zoo, among many other zoos.

After Buddy finally came out to visit, Darcy would not get anywhere close by herself. You can see the doors to the kitchen behind the crowd in the photo below and she kept running in there, then out to the hall, and back into the conference room. Michael left work for an hour to join us and he tried to get her to touch Buddy, but had no luck. Buddy and ALL of the kids, however, sang Happy Birthday to Darcy. We had brought a birthday card for Buddy to give to her, so the staff knew it was her birthday. She was tickled.

Just as we were leaving, Buddy came back out for another visit and Darcy finally got up the courage to touch the very tip of his tail before we went back out into the rain.

The next day was Saturday and we had a small tea party for Darcy. Those of you who were at our wedding will perhaps remember the multiple cake trays and stands. We had tea sandwiches on one of the triple-decker ones, so it felt very proper. We had several neighbors/NPS coworkers join us. The cake was three layers of almond cake filled and frosted with a chocolate/cream cheese frosting. We were worried that the lack of kids would disappoint Darcy, but she proclaimed that "this is a good birthday".

The fun continues, of course, as she rides her trike and plays with her new doll house (thanks, Grandma and Granddad!) and enjoys all her gifts from near and far. We set up our two-foot-tall Christmas tree yesterday and she insisted that it go right next to her doll house so her newly-arrived dolls can enjoy and even climb it. (And hey! Two Feet Tall is also the name of Dan Bern's new KIDS' album!! It will start shipping in about a week, but you can pre-order it on his web site now, as we did a few days ago. This is an unpaid and unsolicited promotion.)

Thanks to all to who helped make Darcy's birthday special through calls, cards, videos, gifts, and just generally being part of her life.

Introducing Darcy To The Wonderful World Of Disney

So we had agreed that we would take Darcy to Disneyland for her third birthday. Michael grew up going to Disney and may have had a small Disney obsession for a few years. Then he went and got himself a new job and we will no longer be in southern California in November, so we decided to take her before we left. That translated into yesterday. And what a day it was!

Yesterday, Disneyland was open from 10 am until 8 pm. Our plan was to get there at opening bell, so to speak, and to stay until Darcy was approaching a walking coma, which we assumed would be around 4 or 5. We walked through the gates at 9:50 (they do a ceremonial opening on Main Street, USA at 10) and walked back out around 7:20 after indulging her request for one more ride on the submarines! Who knew that the wonderful world of Disney would manage to keep Darcy entertained for almost ten hours with no nap and only one very minor meltdown at lunch? Considering that she knows almost none of the Disney characters or the stories behind most of the rides, it was a small miracle.

There were the rides. We were taking our Jungle Cruise by about 10:05, followed by the carousel, the Alice in Wonderland ride (Darcy did NOT like it -- too loud and too many sudden changes), the spinning teacups, and It's A Small World. That one, Darcy liked. A lot. She was singing along with the song by the end of the ride and we ended up riding it twice more later in the day. We took the steam train around most of the park after that, both for a rest and because Darcy loves trains. She loved the Grand Canyon and dinosaurs the train passes, too.

We climbed the tree house and rode with the Pirates of the Caribbean, which she loved even with the steep drops and darkness. Then we went to explore a Winnie-the-Pooh themed ride that was new to Michael. It was mostly Pooh dreaming of rivers of honey and was well-received. And when we got out? There was Tigger! And within a few minutes, Pooh and Eyeore joined him. Darcy got pictures with all three, but was not completely convinced that being near these giant characters was a good thing.

She was very sure -- even while we were trying to take a picture with Pooh -- that Pooh's overflowing collection of honey pots was a very, very good thing. After posing with Tigger, we went around to the back of the honey pile and she got to see it up close and personal. You can see Pooh just behind her, but unfortunately, can't see the personification of the Heffalump which looks like a bee crossed with an elephant. Quite cute!


There were, of course, more rides. The Nemo-themed submarine ride (twice), the rockets, more train rides. We had a nice, quiet interlude petting goats at the ranch. As she did the only other time she's had the opportunity (maybe at the Portland Zoo?), Darcy made sure to pet each and every goat. Very briefly.


We were able to get away without buying anything except food and Michael's indulgence of a silhouette of Darcy. It was pretty impressive watching it made. The woman who cut it just sat and looked at Darcy sitting on Michael's lap and took her folded piece of paper and very small, sharp scissors, and a minute later -- it was done! She told us she'd been cutting the silhouettes at Disney for 35 years! She did a great job with the crazy-curls. Michael is planning on scanning it and (maybe?) actually writing his first post for this blog. Darcy was very restrained in the gift stores. We went in planning to get her something small, but just didn't see anything we wanted for her and nothing she begged to have.

When we got back to the car, we got Darcy into PJs for the ride home, and ten minutes later? She was sound asleep. She slept the whole ride home and even transferred from the car to her bed without waking up, something she has done only a handful of times. All in all, I think we got our money's worth from our day at Disney. We have a happy girl and fond memories.

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

The winds of Cima House have been mighty this year and yesterday was no exception. Thomas the Kite took off with virtually no effort to instant thrills. Of course, last night, we got the flip side of the wind, with the house shaking and loud bangs from something loose outside. But for the kite flying (and the drying of two loads of laundry), the morning winds were most welcome.

Darcy loved holding onto the string while Thomas was flying high.

Unfortunately, she wasn't all that attentive to actually holding on.

But Michael always managed to rescue the runaway kite, so Darcy had more opportunities to fly Thomas. She definitely enjoyed the experience and luckily, we have a pretty tree-free section of yard and reliable winds.

Train Play, Darcy Style

Trains belong in high places, apparently. When Darcy plays with her trains, she plays on top of this bookshelf or on my dresser 90% of the time. On the dresser, the trains often go to the piggery (she learned the term from a book), which means that they all cluster around her piggy bank at the far right of the picture. She will play like this for long periods of time, chatting to herself and the trains non-stop.

There was supposed to be more to this story, but Darcy got interested in the process. Gotta go!