First we started with bell choir practice. The kids get to perform tomorrow, so they spent a little while practicing today before they have to get up in front of the church and show off their skills. Livie has one single note to play and is beyond thrilled to play that note! I hope she's able to do it tomorrow with as much excitement as she has been doing these past couple practices!
After that was over, we headed down the block to Washington Park. This park is in the center of town and is such a beautiful park. The United Way had a "Rootin' Tootin' Roundup" for all the kids in the area. They had tables set up all around the park where the kids could do a variety of activities - all for free! We went with our friend Lee Ann and her two sweet kids. I've posted about them before, so you might recognize them. Here we started our adventure by getting what else, but TATTOOS! Gotta have tattoos before their big bell performance, right?!
Then they got to make and decorate their own bandannas. They have to be authentic cowboys and girls, so they took their time and made really cute bandannas. Ella and Bodee were already decked out in their finest cowboy/girl gear, so they just kept adding to it to make it really special.
There was lassoing of the cows. Livie LOVED this part! She really got into it and tried lassoing that wooden calf with all her might!
We had a special storytime as well, where they got a free book about horses at the end. We ran into several friends while we were there. My girlfriend Katie, her girls, and her parents were there, so we got to hang out with them for a little while. That's what I love most about small towns. You can run into friends nearly everywhere you go!
Here are Noah, Livie, Madie, Ella, and Bodee as they got ready for the storytime. :-)
And, we had to take a fountain picture! This park is the spot where Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had their very first debate, so this beautiful fountain has a big statue of the two of them on it. Now, we actually have another park in town called "Lincoln-Douglas" park, but this one is called "Washington" park. Make sense of that!
They had a smoke house too, which if you've never heard of it, is a mock-up of a house where the firefighters show you how to exit safely when there's a fire. A fire alarm will go off and smoke with come out and they teach the kids about fire safety. Livie was too scared, but the other kids loved it! They even got stickers and fire helmets. :-)
And, they even got to sit in a real firetruck!!! The fireman was so nice to offer to take our picture for us. I didn't even have to ask! :-)
They had sand you could play in, playdough to mold, but nothing was quite as exciting as FLUBBER! They've made the longest Flubber Worm ever in this picture! They also had lots of crafts to do, so they took advantage of making a few of those as well. To say our arms were loaded with stuff is an understatement. Pete made 2 trips back to the van to drop stuff off. Thankfully we parked at the church and were only a block away, so it was a quick trip!
They had this sweet horse there. Why? I'm not sure, but who doesn't love petting a horse? The kids all got in on that action. We ran into our friend Jen and her two kids and that's her daughter Kate petting the horse with them. Again, so fun to run into people we know!
They did a couple other things, like a dance party with a guy performing, who sometimes performs at our church, and a snack trail, where they followed the signs and got different snacks along the way, but we wanted to head to the local bookstore, again, just a block away, and visit their Creepy Crawler event. They were just beginning to take the animals and load them up when we got there. Thankfully the first thing they packed up was all the bugs!! Did get a good look at their scorpian though. Ugh. But they had a bunny and a turtle and a lizard (just like yours, Trev!) and a few other fun animals to look at. They even had a craft they could do in there and they passed out dirt pudding with gummy worms to eat! Too bad none of my crazy kids like it. Weirdos!
Oh, here are the rat babies!! Fun, huh? ;-)
We went out to eat with Pete to one of our favorite places in the downtown area, Jardines, then headed to the Thomas Store, so they kids could play a bit longer, before heading home. We had a fabulous, fun-filled day and am so glad our great friend Lee Ann told us about it! I now have a link to the Ottawa events, so we don't miss out on something that fun again!
There was lassoing of the cows. Livie LOVED this part! She really got into it and tried lassoing that wooden calf with all her might!
We had a special storytime as well, where they got a free book about horses at the end. We ran into several friends while we were there. My girlfriend Katie, her girls, and her parents were there, so we got to hang out with them for a little while. That's what I love most about small towns. You can run into friends nearly everywhere you go!
Here are Noah, Livie, Madie, Ella, and Bodee as they got ready for the storytime. :-)
And, we had to take a fountain picture! This park is the spot where Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had their very first debate, so this beautiful fountain has a big statue of the two of them on it. Now, we actually have another park in town called "Lincoln-Douglas" park, but this one is called "Washington" park. Make sense of that!
They had a smoke house too, which if you've never heard of it, is a mock-up of a house where the firefighters show you how to exit safely when there's a fire. A fire alarm will go off and smoke with come out and they teach the kids about fire safety. Livie was too scared, but the other kids loved it! They even got stickers and fire helmets. :-)
And, they even got to sit in a real firetruck!!! The fireman was so nice to offer to take our picture for us. I didn't even have to ask! :-)
They had sand you could play in, playdough to mold, but nothing was quite as exciting as FLUBBER! They've made the longest Flubber Worm ever in this picture! They also had lots of crafts to do, so they took advantage of making a few of those as well. To say our arms were loaded with stuff is an understatement. Pete made 2 trips back to the van to drop stuff off. Thankfully we parked at the church and were only a block away, so it was a quick trip!
They had this sweet horse there. Why? I'm not sure, but who doesn't love petting a horse? The kids all got in on that action. We ran into our friend Jen and her two kids and that's her daughter Kate petting the horse with them. Again, so fun to run into people we know!
They did a couple other things, like a dance party with a guy performing, who sometimes performs at our church, and a snack trail, where they followed the signs and got different snacks along the way, but we wanted to head to the local bookstore, again, just a block away, and visit their Creepy Crawler event. They were just beginning to take the animals and load them up when we got there. Thankfully the first thing they packed up was all the bugs!! Did get a good look at their scorpian though. Ugh. But they had a bunny and a turtle and a lizard (just like yours, Trev!) and a few other fun animals to look at. They even had a craft they could do in there and they passed out dirt pudding with gummy worms to eat! Too bad none of my crazy kids like it. Weirdos!
Oh, here are the rat babies!! Fun, huh? ;-)
We went out to eat with Pete to one of our favorite places in the downtown area, Jardines, then headed to the Thomas Store, so they kids could play a bit longer, before heading home. We had a fabulous, fun-filled day and am so glad our great friend Lee Ann told us about it! I now have a link to the Ottawa events, so we don't miss out on something that fun again!
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