Horsie Parties and the like....

A couple of days ago Alyssa's friend Mercy came over to play again. This time we went to the Park and had so much fun. We had snacks and a picnic lunch while we were there too. It was a day full of friends and fun.

There was no school this last Friday and I was trying to decide, do I stay at home with the kids and try to get stuff done or do we take Heath to work and then hang out over in that neighborhood at the park? I knew that if we stayed at home, the kids would get bored and I would end up referee fights all day. We decided that we would have a day of fun in daddy's work neighborhood. Alyssa was so excited! She kept saying "horsie party, horsie party, horsie party!" We didn't know what that meant but thought maybe she was talking about the park.

We started out in Woodstock, IL. This is the town where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed. If you watch the movie trailer you will see that Puxatawney, PA is really Woodstock, IL. It is a beautiful little town square with the park in the center and a large Gazebo like stage in the center of the park. The streets are brick and the buildings are old and have tons of history to them.

We had lunch in the old Courthouse/Jail. We asked to be seated in one of the old cells and the kids loved it when the waitress told them that a ghost usually hangs out in that room. It was really great food, but mostly a good experience the kids won't soon forget. Heath had to go to the bank there in the town square so we hung out in the park and at the large Gazebo for a while. It was so much fun, but when it was time to go Alyssa said "Yay, horsie party!" Apparently that was not the horsie party she had been looking forward to.


We then went to Cary, IL to drop Heath at the bank. Heath needed me to come in and sign some papers about my account so we all went in and hung out for a moment. It was time to go to the park and Alyssa said "Yay, horsie Party!"

We went to a park we had been to before. The playground is at the Cary Park district which means that there is more than just a playground. There was the playground, and baseball fields, and a skate park, and soccer fields and other fields and a large bandshell type stage. We played on the playground for almost an hour before the boys got their bicycles out and decided to ride around the fields. I put Alyssa in the wagon and pulled her around hoping she would sleep. We then went down to the Soccer fields and kicked the ball around for a little while. We got very hot and very tired and I knew that neither I nor the kids would make it for another two hours. We had to find something to cool us off and give us a change of scenery. So I yelled out "Let's go get Ice Cream everybody!" Alyssa then yelled "Yay, Guys(Josiah)... Cream... Karty(Karston)... Cream!" The boys wanted to check out the bandshell so I told them to go and look at and then meet me at the car. When we got in the car Alyssa said "Yay, horsie party!" I bet you thought she forgot didn't you?

We then went to Dairy Queen and we all had ice cream sundaes and Root Beer. They loved it! It was just what we needed. We couldn't leave daddy out of all the fun so we bought one more Ice Cream Sundae and took it to the bank to him. We got in the car and yes, Alyssa said "Yay, horsie Party." I thought, when is this child ever going to take a nap?

We dropped of the ice cream and then went back to the park. The kids played for another 20 min before we had to go and pick up Heath from the bank. We got in the car and Alyssa said "Mommy, horsie party?" I wasn't sure how to answer that question. I thought for sure we had been to the horsie party at some point during our day, but apparently not. I told her that we had to go get daddy and then we would see about a party.

On the way home the boys were telling their daddy about thier eventful day. Karston then told his dad that when they walked around the bandshell stage that there was a couple of teenagers behind it kissing. Josiah then said "Yeah, they were making out!" How did my little 6yr old know what "Making out" is? What happened to innocence?

We stopped at the store to get dinner and movies! Alyssa got to ride in the race car grocery cart (one of her favorite things to do) and had so much fun. When we got in the car to go home she said "Horsie Party?"

We came home and the kids got bathed while I made dinner and cookies. When all were clean and the food was cooked we started the movie, Leatherheads. The boys decided that he movie was boring and went down to the basement to watch SpeedRacer. Alyssa said "don't like movie" and fell asleep on the couch. Heath and I would have snuggled up and enjoyed having no kids around, but we were stuffed from dinner and I had a major headache so we got through the movie and then went straight to bed.

The horsie party is still a mystery but I think that she may have been referring to the day before when we went to the park with Mercy and played. Below is a picture of the "horsie party?" that we had that day.