Playland

We will be going here tomorrow for a birthday party.  Obviously we’ve been here and taken pictures at least twice, but for a variety of reasons I haven’t shown them to you until now.

Behold Xystus Kids Land.

There is a wise old tree that invites people into the cafe area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are small swings . . .

 

 

 

 

 

seesaw ride-ons . . .

 
ball pits with wonderful fast slides that drop into them . . .

trampolines with more balls . . .

  
and all manner of tubes, tunnels, slides, bridges, obstacles, hideouts and other fun things!

See?


There are some less active entertainments like music . . .

and origami.

There is a well-equipped infant/toddler area, not that I could actually keep my toddler in it.  Or my preschooler out of it, go figure!


And in case the parents want to get active as well they have exercise mats and a reflexology station.  For the not-so-active parents they have massage chairs.

They even have super-cool (and super-clean) bathrooms that include child-size toilets and sinks!  Yes, I’m showing you a picture of the bathroom.  It’s okay; you can laugh at me!

But you have to agree that this is genius—a little fold-down seat to pop your toddler into so that you can use the toilet without the child escaping underneath the door.

Are American places this well-equipped?  We’ll find out!

Collecting the Pieces

Orders came and I immediately flipped into full-scale, clean-out-the-closets, burn-all-the-candles, get-ready-to-go mode.  This post definitely reflects my mood: it’s full of odds and ends that I just want to get out there so that it’s done.  Pardon the randomness!

One thing we still need to do before we are ready to go is find a new home for Henry.  Sniff.

Ooh, glow stick bath!  The wands (one star, one cherry blossom) come from the 100 Yen store.  Going to miss that place!

Jake explains his shiny new medal to Logan.   Joint Service Achievement Medal for his work with Tomodachi (the earthquake/tsunami recovery), in case you were wondering.

  Pretty flowers from the farmer's market.  I did find out there’s a once-a-week farmer’s market in San Clemente, but I doubt they’ll stock tofu, passion fruit or sushi-grade tuna.  -sigh-

More reading and some crazy bedhead on Naomi.

New toes.  The detail is incredible.  Something else to miss.

Cute kids.  At least I get to bring them with us when we move :)

I’m excited to take them to California and show them all the fun things there!  The San Diego Zoo!  Legoland!  Sequoia trees!

They are such good friends (most of the time).

 
The last of the Christmas presents (as far as I know) finally arrived!  No, I’m not joking.  The shipping craziness is something I definitely won’t miss!

We Get There Eventually

We’ve been to the playground before but it took us more than a few attempts to get to the castle ruins on site. 

 
These are from one of the earlier playground-but-not-castle sessions.

On our way to the castle site finally and the view of the Keramas on the horizon is spectacular!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few other sights along the way.

 

 

 

In comparison with some of the other things we’ve seen, the ruins themselves weren’t particularly noteworthy BUT it definitely had some other features going for it.  The view was amazing.

And the altars were unusually well-tended and active.  Note the lit candle at the base; there was incense too although you can’t see it.
 
Looking inside this little grotto . . .

we found this shrine, again obviously recently visited, at the back of a small cave.
   Plus there was lots of natural beauty and room to run/roam.

On the way down, we discovered that they’ve made considerably more progress in restoring the nearby tomb of the castle lord.

   
Not seeing much of the castle ruins, it’s hard to tell how well these people lived but they certainly died in style!

The tomb was carved right into the side of the (solid-rock) hill.

And it had a nice, roomy courtyard in front of it.

The stonework was impressive.

And then, of course, we did have to go back to the playground again.  Not that I blame the kids at all, it’s one of the best and has Mommy’s favorite roller slide on island.

Really, look at this thing!  Does that not look like one heck of a fun ride? 

 

Somebody has to do everything big brother does, and she usually can!

Which is why she was all tuckered out by the time we left the playground.

Au revoir!

Rainbow Fun for Rainy Days

You remember the oatmeal box, right?  Well, it was getting played with A LOT and the oatmeal was turning to dust.  It needed to be refreshed.

A little searching online provided the inspiration for some rainbow-colored fun.  Ingredients: rice, food coloring, rubbing alcohol and one handy assistant.

We had to let it dry in batches, so the red/orange/yellow was ready to go first. 

The full color palette.

Color swirling fun.

Wheee!!!  So much fun!

 

The final product.

 

Naomi didn’t get in on the action until a bit later, after she finished her nap and had a snack.

Have you come up with any cool projects lately?

Read Me A Story

Lately I feel like Scheherazade—she of the 1,001 tales.  Aided by a slew of new books showing up for “Christmas” (over the last month) and another round from the library, we’ve been in total book-mania! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current favorites: Moo (by Matthew Van Fleet)—thanks Aunt Rach!
                           See Inside-How Things Work (an Usborne book)
                           Little Blue Truck (by Alice Schertle)—thanks Mom!
                           Watch Me Throw the Ball! (Piggie & Gerald book
                                   by Mo Willems)

What’s the current favorite for you and/or your little one?