There are some weekends when I'm happy to see Monday. As a friend of mine once commented: When you're a parent, it becomes TGIM - assuming your children are in daycare and/or school. But I'm sad to see the week beginning because we really had a good weekend. Saturday we took the girls to Wild Water Kingdom in Brampton. Adam used to go as a kid and had fond memories of the place, so when we saw a deal on tickets to use in June through WagJag, we jumped on it.
The best thing about this place is that it has stuff to appeal to ALL ages. There are mega water slides for older kids, a wave pool, and dry and wet playgrounds that are great even for toddlers. There is mini golf, a drive-in movie theatre, and often special events. They have this thing called the Lazy River, where you float on an inner tube and drift down a fabricated river. All four of us loved it, and we went down it several times.
The worst thing about it is that it's a total cash-grab place. You pay for parking, you pay to rent a locker, and if you don't want to have to wait for an available inner tube during busy periods, you've got to pay to rent one. What I found most deplorable, however, is their no-food rule. You cannot enter the park with ANY food or drink at all, which means if you are staying over a meal-time or long enough for your kids to get hungry, you pretty much have to buy your food. Of course, it is almost all junk and extremely expensive. There is ice cream, sno cones, shaved ice, pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fish & chips, Subway, candy, etc. We got the kids smoothies from Booster Juice, which I suppose isn't terrible, and pizza from Pizza Pizza. Unfortunately, they don't offer their whole-wheat crust here. Adam got a sub from Subway (on their whole-wheat which is really mostly white flour) and I got a salad (which was sub toppings and a grilled chicken breast). My treat was some cold lager to enjoy with our lunch on the shaded patio. If alcohol wasn't so bad, I would drink cold beer every day of the summer! I try to limit myself to several drinks/month now. On our way out of the park, the girls were handed handfuls of free candy. Little A wasn't a big fan, as she found the fluorescent green 'taffy' hurt her teeth, but Big A was happy to gobble down as much as we would let her. Sigh!
They do actually have a picnic area where you can bring your own food, but it's reserved for parties of 10 or more, and you have to, of course, reserve ahead of time and PAY extra.
I realized afterwards, however, that you could leave a cooler in your car, and leave the park to eat in your car and then return (they stamp your hand so you can leave and re-enter the park if you want).
This irks me as usual, but probably even moreso now that I'm reading Outside the Box by Jeannie Marshall. Marshall talks about the dangers of always linking fun with junk food for kids. I wish junk and fast food could be banned from the friggin' planet!
But beside the food issue, it was amazing. We were there from 10:30am to 3:30pm and we had to drag the girls out. If your kids like the water, it's a great outing for a hot day!
Sunday Little A shocked us by refusing to put on a pull-up and insisting on wearing just underwear. She did amazing all morning, but at the birthday party we went to, she kept getting distracted because of all the fun and had a pee in her underwear and then a massive poo in the one pull-up I brought. She ended up going commando for the rest of the party with me nervously following her around to make sure there were no more accidents. Nevertheless, we're thrilled that she's finally showing interest in toilet training. Perhaps she won't be in pull-ups at her prom after all!
The best thing about this place is that it has stuff to appeal to ALL ages. There are mega water slides for older kids, a wave pool, and dry and wet playgrounds that are great even for toddlers. There is mini golf, a drive-in movie theatre, and often special events. They have this thing called the Lazy River, where you float on an inner tube and drift down a fabricated river. All four of us loved it, and we went down it several times.
The worst thing about it is that it's a total cash-grab place. You pay for parking, you pay to rent a locker, and if you don't want to have to wait for an available inner tube during busy periods, you've got to pay to rent one. What I found most deplorable, however, is their no-food rule. You cannot enter the park with ANY food or drink at all, which means if you are staying over a meal-time or long enough for your kids to get hungry, you pretty much have to buy your food. Of course, it is almost all junk and extremely expensive. There is ice cream, sno cones, shaved ice, pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fish & chips, Subway, candy, etc. We got the kids smoothies from Booster Juice, which I suppose isn't terrible, and pizza from Pizza Pizza. Unfortunately, they don't offer their whole-wheat crust here. Adam got a sub from Subway (on their whole-wheat which is really mostly white flour) and I got a salad (which was sub toppings and a grilled chicken breast). My treat was some cold lager to enjoy with our lunch on the shaded patio. If alcohol wasn't so bad, I would drink cold beer every day of the summer! I try to limit myself to several drinks/month now. On our way out of the park, the girls were handed handfuls of free candy. Little A wasn't a big fan, as she found the fluorescent green 'taffy' hurt her teeth, but Big A was happy to gobble down as much as we would let her. Sigh!
They do actually have a picnic area where you can bring your own food, but it's reserved for parties of 10 or more, and you have to, of course, reserve ahead of time and PAY extra.
I realized afterwards, however, that you could leave a cooler in your car, and leave the park to eat in your car and then return (they stamp your hand so you can leave and re-enter the park if you want).
This irks me as usual, but probably even moreso now that I'm reading Outside the Box by Jeannie Marshall. Marshall talks about the dangers of always linking fun with junk food for kids. I wish junk and fast food could be banned from the friggin' planet!
But beside the food issue, it was amazing. We were there from 10:30am to 3:30pm and we had to drag the girls out. If your kids like the water, it's a great outing for a hot day!
Sunday Little A shocked us by refusing to put on a pull-up and insisting on wearing just underwear. She did amazing all morning, but at the birthday party we went to, she kept getting distracted because of all the fun and had a pee in her underwear and then a massive poo in the one pull-up I brought. She ended up going commando for the rest of the party with me nervously following her around to make sure there were no more accidents. Nevertheless, we're thrilled that she's finally showing interest in toilet training. Perhaps she won't be in pull-ups at her prom after all!
Thanks for letting know that you cannot enter the park with ANY food or drink at all of water kingdom which means if you are staying over a meal-time or long enough for your kids to get hungry, you pretty much have to buy your food.
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