Kiddieland

We took the girls to Kiddieland Saturday which is an amusement park for 2-6yr olds. Kind of like a poor man's Disneyworld. Well, maybe more like a poor man's Six Flags although that's still giving it way too much credit. It's been in the family fun business for 80 years and most of the rides look like they've been there for at least that long.




We told the girls Friday that if it was nice out we'd go to Kiddieland the next day. None of us had been before and Saturday morning Ella was very excited:

"Mama, I'm going to be very gentle and not touch their faces or eyes!"

"OK. I have no idea who you're talking about but that sounds like a great plan."

"The KITTYS!"

"It's KIDDIEland Ella, not KITTYland."

I can't imagine what she was picturing Kittyland to be like.

The kids had a blast. Even Katie and Ceci went on a bunch of rides. I definitely wouldn't say that safety is a priority at Kiddieland however. There were a number of rides that Ella shared a "car, spaceship, helicopter, flying elephant" with one of the twins that went pretty high in the air and the seat belt was literally a rope that went into a hook on the other side. Probably an eighty year old rope. Like the kind that Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies wore as a belt. It was honestly like they let 1 year olds on Dumbo with a 2yr old guardian and no restraint whatsoever. Seriously.

Here's a good shot of the rope belt:

I was worried either Katie or Ceci would try to jump out or Ella would push one of them out for kicks. I don't have any pictures of the flying saucers up in the air, but they went up pretty high. At one point Katie kept trying to stand up and get out while they were waiting for everyone to load and Rick was yelling "Sophia hold her down!" He said to the 14yr old ride operator "Don't worry, once it gets moving she'll be fine." This seemed to work for her. I was really shocked that there were no restrictions on who went up in these rides. I guess they rely on the judgment of the parents. However, that judment is seriously clouded for me and Rick since spinning rides cause us both to vomit. It seemed sensible to us at the time to let Ella ride with Ceci.

Rick did a great job of crushing the competition (Sophia and Ella) in the ball toss. Look at that concentration. He did share his stuffed dinosaur with them though. Ceci kept calling it a bear.

Here's another ride that Ella would not have been able to ride at an amusement park that emphasized safety. Yippee!:

Katie and Ceci wanted to get on too, but we had to draw the line somewhere: