Splash Pad and Spiderweb Climby Thing

In Lehigh not too far from where Chance takes his swimming lessons there is a park we had not taken the time to investigate until recently. It was a serious find, they have a splash pad, tons of green space to run around and a pretty neat playground as well.




There was water bubbling up from the ground and showering down from above in lots of fun and interesting ways. Chance had tons of fun getting totally soaked.
Then he tried to give me a heart attack:




See that kid all the way at the top of this spiderweb climby thing? That's Chance. He had a good time and didn't get hurt at all of course but still there were times I had to look away so he could go be a boy just like he is supposed to.

Pumpkin Patch

Chance as a pirate, rrrrrrrr.
This year we went to the same pumpkin patch at Lakes Park as we did last year. We met one of the playgroups at the park to let the little guys play together. Chance made friends with one of the little girls right away they are the same age and got along famously. We didn't actually buy our pumpkins there because we already had our pumpkins but we had a good time walking through all the scarecrow displays and of course Chance had a great time on the slide and in the bounce house.


Chance and Grace (playdate friend) in front of the Waterman Broadcasting Display
I wasn't able to get any good pictures of him on the slide because the sun was not favorable and in each picture his shadow gets enveloped in the shadow of the slide. My friend Becky met us at the park, it was nice for us to be able to catch up while Chance played. It's great being so close to really good friends, puts a smile on my face.


We were trying to get a group picture but this is the only one where Chance had a good smile.

Playing cars in the Morning

The arrangement we have worked out is if Chacne does his workbook pages today (usually 5 pages) then tomorrow morning he will be able to watch cartoons in the morning, if not then he doesn't. Well, last week Chance decided he didn't need to do his workbook pages so there was no TV. This wasn't a problem for him and really not a problem for me either since I am always eager to cut back on screen time. On the first morning he was upset even though he knew it was coming but after a few minutes he went to get his legos and set up a whole town on my bathroom counter. He played in there for nearly two hours building and rebuilding his town and driving cars all over the place. And he did the same thing for the next three days even though one of the days he did his workbook pages he chose to come back and play legos and cars. It worked out great for me because I got to stay in bed resting while he played and he was using his imagination and building skills rather than sitting in front of a screen. This is just a little mosaic I made of him being silly playing with his cars.

Rediscovering Shady Oaks

Chance swinging high.
My parents used to take me and my sister to Shady Oaks Park when we were little. Like the name implies there is plenty of shade so we set out to rediscover this great little park. The park is exactly as I remember it, almost all the same playground equipment we used to play on is still there. All in the shade of beautiful oak trees. There were a few little boys at the park just Chance's age, they had a great time playing together. It was fun watching Chance play in the same park I played in when I was his age.
While we were there Chance really started working on his swinging skills. The other little boys knew how to pump their legs to swing so they tried to teach him and for the first time Chance really worked to make his swing go all by himself. Since then he has continued to work on his leg pumping skills. Yay!

Chance's Halloween Costume

This year when we asked Chance what he wanted to be for Halloween he thought for just a second and said "a soldier". That was about a week before we actually went costume shopping. When we went to actually pick out his costume he went straight for the soldier outfit. We picked up a helmet to go with it and off we went. In the first picture Chance is sporting his helmet in the car leaving Party City and the pictures below are after we got back to the house Chance trying out his new costume.

Safety Day in Swimming Class

Evidently for one class every session al the kids learn about safety in open water as if they fell overboard. They watched a video then each practiced the things they saw in the video. First they put on life jackets then all jumped in the water and learned how to huddle together for safety and warmth while in the water and how to coordinate yelling for help. Then how to float in a life jacket and not panic. Afterward they all lined up, the first person in line jumped in while the next person threw in the life preserver, the first person grabbed on and was pulled in by the next guy in line. I didn't get a picture of Chance rescuing the kid in front of him but here he is being pulled to safety.

Florida Aquarium

Chance in front of the sign at the entrance to the Aquarium
Tampa has a lot of family friendly attractions of which I am sure we will end up exploring all, very soon. First of the big attractions for us was the Florida Aquarium. The Aquarium is right on the streetcar line (yeah there is a streetcar here did I forget to mention that?) and it's downtown so that means walking distance from the Aquarium to the Children's Museum, Riverfront park and the Center for the Arts and plenty of cool little places to grab a bite to eat. Anyway, I think I am getting off track...we got a year pass to the Aquarium with which we get into the Aquarium of course and also free parking, on top of that though we also get 50% off admission to other Zoo's, And Aquariums around the country including the zoo here (the children's museum here too) and the zoo in Portland (for the next visit to Nana and Grandpa Von).


Scott and Chance looking at the Alligators
The Florida Aquarium has a cool Florida wetland area that is humid and muggy with real mangroves growing over the walkways. There are Alligators and turtles and lots of other fish swimming all about as well as birds all through this habitat. The wetland area is also the aviary so there are florida birds flying all around too.


Chance looking at that HUGE fish.
We saw, eels and sharks, seahorses and lots of beautifully colored fish too. As well as this huge fish that looked like he could barely move he was so big even though he was floating right along. They had a really neat interactive exhibit where each of six fish get to plead their case then at the end you vote for your favorite.


Chance pointing out fish in the Reef Tunnel
We were thinking the Aquarium was worth the year membership and then we went outside and realized that it was DEFINITELY worth the year membership price. There is a pirate ship themed water play area with a restaurant and a bar. We didn't know they had that area so we didn't have Chance's swimming trunks so he couldn't play in the big water area. He played for a long time on the playground where there are just a few misters while Scott and I had a drink at the bar. Next time we will bring his trunks so he can really play.



Chance checking out a seahorse

Frozen yogurt at Ikea

"Has an Ikea" is definitely on the list of things I like about Tampa for so many reasons. As if the shopping wasn't enough they also have a child play area where I can check Chance in to play for 45 minutes (every day if I wanted to) while I shop and they give me a free coffee every time I go as well. It's like a small slice of heaven.
When we signed up for their free loyalty program we got a free frozen yogurt which as you can see Chance greatly enjoyed.

Games in the Park

Downtown Tampa there is a big park right on the river. It has a lot of lovely green grass, two fountains made specifically for kids to play in and a really neat playground with this electronic game that Chance and I are playing in these pictures. There are a few different versions you can pick from but the basics of each game are the same. Pick a color (red or green) then push the button that corresponds with your color light faster than the other guy. It's a pretty fun game and Chance is better than you would think.

Riding the Carousel

Here they come...

A very short distance from the apartment in Brandon is a mall and in that mall is a double decker carousel. That's right it's inside the mall and it has two floors.
Needless to say really Chance has wanted to go on this every time he has seen it, which is only stice but the first time we did not have any cash so we couldn't go for a ride. The next time though we were prepared with our $2 and so Chance and Scott went for a ride. It looked like a lot of fun, next time I might just have to go for a ride myself.




Here they are...big wave.

Just Hanging Out

Chance hanging on the monkey bars, he made it across two bars before letting go.

We found a park with a lot of shade not too far from the house here in Fort Myers. It's nice because so many of the other parks here have no shade at all and this one is fenced in too so it's harder for him to get too far away. The playground is nice and there is also space for him to run around.
When we went there was a preschool class there playing games and they were very nice to let Chance join in, he played kickball and tug-of-war before we had to go. But he had been playing for nearly two hours so I didn't really feel bad for pulling him away.