it's Wednesday...

On my side of the world, it's a Wednesday.

That means my house helper is off work. When we returned from Hong Kong, she asked me if she could have wednesdays off to take care of her husband who [abbreviated version] fell down the stairs and messed up his leg.

This morning was another deliciously beautiful day - nice breeze, sunshiney, just begging us to be outdoors. For today's outing, I chose a little park we haven't been to in a while - it's a secluded place off a main road, where lots of play toys are shaded by nice big trees.

Unfortunately for me, I did not factor in the masses of people that would be there today. We played in the shade for a while and then finally gave up and took off for a walk.

Our walk scored some major points. We came across a newly built building that said it had a "children's playpark" inside. I took a look inside. The first floor playspot was covered (intentionally) in sand and had tons of dump trucks, a big boat, shovels and buckets. Very enticing, except I had Abby with me and she would have ingested 65% of their sand had we chosen to stay there.

The lady manning the sand station pointed me downstairs. As we all headed down the stairs, I could feel the breeze from the air-conditioner seeping through the cracks in the doors, and that's when I knew - it had to be something good.

I was totally right.

It was the best, newest, cleanest, and coolest indoor playpark in our whole city. Amazing how these discoveries are made!

It was a bit more expensive than the other playparks (today's visit cost us about $10, and Abby was let in for free), but if I buy a card, then a visit for my family will only cost me $6. I can handle six bucks.

While the big girls played and ran and jumped and screamed, there were plenty of toys to keep Abby safely occupied. I loved watching her climb and jump and play.

This little doo-dad here was a coconut here tree, with veerrry low-hanging coconuts, meant for swinging and spinning. It was one of the highlights of the place.
Abby spent a lot of time in the ball pits - there were three different ones, of various shapes and sizes, to choose from.
The zip-line is always one of Emma's favorite things. I've conditioned myself not to jerk in fear when she crashes into the wall at the end. She's pretty used to it by now. You can see she had an admirer in the background...
After a while, they discovered the ball shooters. Emma actually did really well aiming and successfully shooting at targets on the other side of the room.
Lots of concentration was involved:
Abby saw the need her big sister had for balls, and tried to do her part to replenish the supply. She discovered the reality that climbing is difficult to do when you have balls in your hands.
Samantha joined in on the ball-shooter activities, and commissioned Emma to resupply her ammunition:

This picture makes me happy, and here's why. There's this little cartoon here - about a little white lamb - that I totally hate. It bugs me to no end, and they always seem to show it in my kids' preschool, which bugs me even more. I think the characters in the cartoon speak meanly to each other, have disrespectful attitudes, and I just don't like my girls to watch it. I LOVED that Samantha's ball-shooter was positioned right in front of the little lamb. There was actually no way to shoot the gun without hitting the lamb. Sweet justice!
They eventually got a bag from some kid's father and set up a battle station.
The big, four-lane slide was a hit. The four of us had many rounds together!

Back to the coconut tree...
There was also an flower version of a rock-climbing wall:
After we had played long past my intended cut-off time, I sent everyone over to the door to put shoes on....but I couldn't find Abby. I glanced quickly around the room, and still didn't see her. I walked over to the ball pit and I found a little hand sticking out of the pile. She was totally hiding from me! I called the older girls over to come see how silly abby was being, and they ended up with a few more minutes of play out of the deal.
It's like a "Where's Waldo" picture, right? They're all in there...

Finally, we headed home: exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. We had leftover pizza, pb&j, and oreo pudding for lunch. They're all sleeping, I'm blogging, and everyone had a happy morning.