Alice loves Pullen Park and Alice loves birthday parties, so when she found out we would be attending Anna's birthday party at Pullen Park, she was over the moon. She spent some time making cards for Anna, and then made lots of plans about riding on the tire swing with the birthday girl. The only problem for us is that when parties are at Pullen, it's really hard to keep track of the kids because they always run off together and don't pay the least bit of attention to see if their parents are following. At any rate, we survived the morning, and the kids had tons of fun.
Alice gives her homemade cards to Anna
Anna, Izzie, Oscar & Alice watch the train come in to the tunnel
Felix, Ellie Rose, Anna, Alice and Oscar wait for the train to start
Alice and Oscar smile for a selfie
Ellie Rose, Anna, and Alice smile for a selfie
Simon also loves selfies!
Anna gets shy and balls up while everyone sings happy birthday
I entertain Simon and Alice with selfies while they wait for their cupcakes to arrive
Cupcakes at last!
Izzie, Alice and Anna play with sprinkles and flowers in a party hat
Simon is excited to go on the carousel
Selfies on the carousel are even better!
Look Dad, no hands!
Izzie and Alice play on the stone turtle
Looking at ducks
The tire swing
There is only one tire swing at Pullen Park and it's a hot item, so it's hard to get a turn. We'd gone by a few times already and it was always full. Alice was determined to ride it before we left though. So when Zac went to get the van, I took Alice past the tire swing for one more chance at having a turn. She saw this girl on the swing, and, knowing it was her last chance, she quickly articulated a plan: "Mom, I'm going to make friends with that girl!" Sure enough, Alice walked over, asked if she could ride the tire swing with the girl, the girl said yes, and tire swing joy ensued. The best part was the random girl's dad pushed them (I wasn't quite sure how I was going to manage that while holding Simon at the same time).
The disappointing part was that when the dad said he was too tired to push anymore, Alice kept asking for more pushes, rather than saying "Thank you" as I was prompting her to do. She got a big lecture in the van about that.
On our way out of the park, there was someone handing out free carbonated beverages, as a promotion. Alice was so excited to try hers, but we made her wait until we got home. Here's how it went:
