Saturday, June 2, 2012

State Farm Play Day

If you were to ask the kids, THIS is the reason we moved back to Bloomington, Illinois.
90 years ago this month, State Farm was founded.  The first Saturday of every June, the company hosts a special carnival for its employees called Play Day.  And it really is quite an event.  We spent 6 hours here, yet the kids didn't get to do and see everything they wanted to.  
The pony ride was extra fun because Luke was riding a pony named Luke.  
There were inflatables for big kids and little kids.  So each group had their own fun.  
After some energy was expended jumping around, the kids got their faces painted for the first time.  Eliza was very content sitting in the chair while the woman created this little masterpiece.  How cute is she?!?
Eliza was a party girl, Peter was a lizard, Anya chose the butterfly, and Mark showed his man-side and went with bricks.  
Mark is attending a rock climbing camp this summer...so this was good practice for him.  He scaled the entire 25-foot wall.  Not bad.
Dad took the 3 little ones down the Fun Slide.  The lizard boy got a head start...but super man was close behind.  I think Eliza had just as much fun going down the slide as she did climbing the stairs.  She is easily amused these days.
There's just something really cute about a little boy accompanying his littler sister.  They enjoyed the little Ferris wheel.
Dad would have much rather preferred the little Ferris wheel over the "big kid" one.  I had never been on a Ferris wheel before.  While we were waiting in line, someone I had worked with before stopped by for a little chat.  She mentioned how she doesn't ride Ferris wheels...and I thought to myself, "what's the big deal?"  Well, the look on my face in the picture below is the point in which I realized I was not comfortable with heights when I'm not in an enclosed building.  And this was only half-way up while we were slowly ascending so everyone could get on.  It was a whole new experience once the Ferris wheel actually starting spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning.  Good thing I had two brave boys next to me.  Thanks Peter and Luke! :)
After the Ferris wheel adventure, the little kids and bigger kids split up.  The little kids did Mommy-approved rides.  Eliza could have stayed in this train all afternoon.
The bigger kids tackled rides Mommy could not watch.  And Dad doesn't do spinning rides, so I did my best to warn them before they went through the gate of...
Scat 2.  It's the kind of ride that spins while it spins.  I did these rides when I was a teenager and could barely handle them then.  When these three are together, they have no fear.
So they went through the gate.  And when they got off the ride, they said it was the coolest thing EVER.
They went on more and more spinning rides.  Each time I warned them.  But they would not be deterred.  There was another Ferris wheel-type ride.  Only this one had enclosed cages around the seats.  Because as the Ferris wheel went around and around, the cage also went around and around.  The kids were upside-down half the time trying to get it to spin as much as they could.

Then the big kids and little kids regrouped for one more ride together.  It was fun to see Anya helping Luke get strapped in.  And we're glad she did.  Luke was having so much fun once the swing got faster and higher that he needed the extra security only a big sister can provide.
And we have to give a shout out to James here.  As they all ran in to get a seat, Luke quickly fell behind the bigger kids and was going to have to sit by himself apart from his siblings on the other side of the ride.  Plus...he wanted a red chair.  So James gave his seat to Luke.  Those are the seemingly little moments that really make a parent proud of their kids.

Peter enjoyed the ride as well.  I love this picture of him.
Remember how I warned them each time they got onto another spinning ride?  Well, here's a classic, "I told you so."  Mark was done after the swings.  And he knew it.  I've never seen him voluntarily lay down in his life!  He was on the ground for a while.  Poor guy!  But Anya and James thought nothing of it.  They quickly abandoned him and went off to a few more spinning rides before we left for the day!
On the bus ride back to the car, we captured this face.  It's the face that says, "Thanks...I'm happy...life is good..." all in one expression.  We work hard to get these faces on our kids.  And sometimes, a family play day is just the way to get it!

3 comments:

Carolyn said...

Fun!! I can relate with Mark on the spinning rides. It reminds me of my first trip to Six Flags with Janet and Logan. "The Mr. Freeze will be fun" Logan said. Right. :) Glad you guys had a fun day.

tall dad said...

Actually, you moved back so grandparents could have fun with your kids and your kids could have their fun at State Farm park. It works for us.

Laurel said...

everything about this post makes me happy...
how much the kids love each other.
Mark wanting to throw up.
Your face on a ferris wheel (seriously, Dave...the spiders and this make you look pretty woosy)
what good parents you guys are.

I just really like your life.
thanks for sharing.

xoxo