Our Visit to Idlewild Park

A few weeks ago, I posted information about Idlewild Park & Soak Zone and told you how you can get $7 off the regular admission price. Idlewild Park is located in western Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of a neat town called Ligonier.  My family and I had never been there – we’d actually never even heard of that park – but we thought we’d plan a visit while my oldest daughter’s friend was visiting us from out of state. 

So, on July 24th, we set out on a “3 hour tour” (road trip) to check it out . . .

The park entrance takes you back this “winding dirt road” and you feel like you have to be entering someplace secluded and special.  I was impressed with the payment process – you drive through gates (much like getting on the  turnpike) and pay your fee at the gate.  Then, you simply go find a parking space and head off on your adventure in the parks.  Very simple and streamlined process – I wish more parks would use this method.  (Trust me when I say we’ve stood in some pretty long lines to get park tickets!)

There was plenty of parking and we had no trouble finding a spot close to the entrance.  The older girls set off on their own, while Brian, Gracie, Ian and I decided to explore the Storybook Forest. This was probably our first mistake. 

This section of the park is based on nursery rhymes.  You enter through the giant storybook (in the above picture, you see my kids standing at the entrance). 

Our fascination with all-things Disney was pretty obvious here because, well . . . I guess I’ve been remiss in telling my kids the traditional nursery rhymes.  Ian wasn’t familiar with the stories, and Gracie (12) was bored.  We wrapped our way through most of it (it’s a bit of a maze and there isn’t any shortcuts). 

This part of the park seems very old.  The paths are dirt and, because it had recently rained, dirt and small stones filled our shoes.  Gracie was constantly asking us to hurry out of there!  On a positive note, Ian seemed to enjoy it.

We were there during Christmas in July, so Ian got to visit Santa.  Embarrassingly enough, he told him that he’d like “money for Christmas”.  Oh well.

There was a tent set up with Christmas trees decorated in various themes.  You could vote on your tree of choice.  Our retro-loving girl chose the peace-themed one, while I liked the Charlie Brown tree.

From there, we went to the Jumpin’ Jungle section of the park.  This section contained lots of opportunities for busy kids to climb, jump, etc.  It was actually a perfect place for our active little boy! 

Both Gracie and Ian decided to attempt climbing this rope thing:

Next on our agenda was to head to the main park, because I knew that Gracie was ready for some real rides.  With the exception of a pretty wimpy water flume ride, the first thing we came to was the Howler.  We all hopped on and actually really enjoyed this ride.  It was very warm that day and the motion of the ride, combined with the breeze, was very refreshing.

Next, the kids rode the Spider.  We met up with Ashley and her friend Sam who had scoured most of the park and come away disappointed.  It seems that Idlewild is more of a “kiddie park” – there aren’t too many thrill rides for older kids/teens.  And the one ride that they were interested in – the Wild Mouse – was closed the day of our visit.  I told them to try to make the most of it and sent Gracie off with them to explore the park some more. 

Meanwhile, Brian and I took Ian to get in the very long line to meet some of the Marvel Superheroes.  Ian was thrilled to meet Spiderman and Hulk.  And I was impressed with the great character interaction.  Since we are so used to the characters at Disney, I must say I didn’t have very high expectations for the character meet & greets at a smaller park like Idlewild.  But the characters spent time interacting with the kids and really paying attention to them.  It made the long wait in line seem not quite so bad!

We met back up with the girls after Ian and I took a spin on the merry-go-round.  We got a few more rides in – the Flying Aces and the Caterpillar – before the storm came.

Fortunately, we found a bit of an overhanging roof to stand under – so we didn’t get TOO wet. 

According the Idlewild website, I knew that – in addition to the Superheroes – Radio Disney would also be at the park on the afternoon of the 24th.  After the rain, we ventured back out into the park and found them:

It was fun to see that “little touch of Disney” right there in PA!  They were giving out Spiderman comic books and posters (so Ian was thrilled).  They were also taking song requests, so the girls had fun picking which songs they wanted to hear. 

I knew Ian wanted to go back and meet some more characters before leaving the park, but wanted the girls to have some fun too.  So, while they went and rode a few more rides, we went and stood in the line.

We ended up leaving the park much earlier than we had expected – things were wet and the kids were all tired, so we missed several sections of the park that I wanted to see (they have a whole section of the park devoted to Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, among other things).

However, I must say that it was worth the 3-hour trip just for Ian to meet the Super Heroes!  He loved it and the characters were just great!

While this probably isn’t a park that we’ll visit often – because of the distance – I’d definitely recommend it to people who live closer and who have younger kids.  If you’re not into the nursery rhymes, skip the Storybook Forest and head straight to the more carnival-like atmosphere of the main park. 

Strive for Perfection

Yesterday, we had our last musical event of “the school year” – the girls’ piano (Gracie) & voice (Ashley) recital.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous for them.  Every time I think of piano recitals, I am swiftly transported to one of mine – the year that I totally forgot the music in my mind and sat there on the bench, frozen for what seemed like an eternity, only to get up and run from the room in embarrassment. 

I know I had many successful piano recitals.  I played numerous duets with my friend Patty – and we always did great with them.  And there was the time I totally nailed “The Spinning Song” (all these years later, despite rarely sitting down at the piano, I can still play most of that song by memory).  So why is it that those bad moments are the ones that stick in our mind – why are they the ones that we allow to define us?

In talking with my mom on Saturday morning over breakfast, she asked if the girls were nervous about their upcoming recital.  I reminded her how I was always very nervous, and how I wished that she wasn’t in the audience.  She said something like “Oh, I hope I wasn’t critical of you – I was always very proud of you and your playing.”  I’m sure this is true.  I don’t remember her ever criticizing my playing.  Yet, there was something within me that really wanted to make her proud by being perfect.  And, as I sat there, it struck me that I hope my kids don’t feel that way about me – I hope I don’t make them uncomfortable, and I hope they don’t feel like they have to be perfect in order for me to be proud of them. 

The kids and I ate lunch at Pizza Hut on Friday.  I looked out of the corner of my eye to see a very tall guy at the buffet.  His height was what originally drew my attention, but the phrase on the back of his t-shirt kept it.  It said “Strive for Perfection, Settle for Excellence”.  I didn’t even realize that it stuck with me, ‘til it popped back into my head this morning. 

I looked it up online to see if I could find where the phrase originated. I didn’t find who came up with the phrase, but I found several companies using it as their tagline or motto.  I did find this quote by Vince Lombardi, which very well could have been the basis for it – “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. . . I am not remotely interested in just being good.”

As Christians, we know that there was only ever one perfect person who walked this earth – Jesus Christ.  And we are told in the Scriptures that we are to look to Him as our example, and seek to live our lives like Him.  But, we also have to remember that as long as we are living in this fallen world, we can never be totally perfect.  We’re going to stumble along the way – whether it’s sitting on that piano bench or walking through life. 

Yesterday, there was a young lady at the recital who just could not play her song no matter how many times she started over.  My heart was breaking for her – because I remembered being in her shoes.  But, rather than getting up and running from the room (as I once did), she stood up, walked gracefully back to her seat, picked up her music from under her chair, went back to the piano, sat down, and played that piece beautifully.  I wish I would have told her afterwards how very proud I was of her.  I hope that, in the years to come, she remembers the positive, rather than the negative.

Don’t expect your children to be perfect – they can’t.  We can’t.  But, if we are doing it right, they can strive (and should be striving) for perfection.  The notch right below it is excellence – and excellence sure does make a parent proud!  

Fun with Flowers

We’ve been watching reruns of Clean House on Netflix.  It might be safe to say that Ashley and I are addicted to that show.  LOL  In any case, we love the big flamboyant flowers that Niecy Nash always wears in her hair – they’re always so colorful and fun. 

We want to be colorful and fun too!  But, have you priced these flower hairclips in the stores?  We had found one on a headband this past spring (on clearance at Target) – and it looked so cute in Ashley’s hair for conventions.  At Disney, we added a cute little Disney pin to it to spice it up a  bit.

We have a family wedding coming up next week, and both Ashley and I are wearing shades of black and gray (traditional funeral colors, right?!)  I thought it might be fun to brighten up with a flower for my hair, so we stopped in Claire’s at the mall last Sunday to look for some flowers.  I wanted red, but Ashley talked me into a black one (which really defeated the purpose anyway!)  It cost a whopping $6.50 for a fake flower on a hairclip!  That’s highway robbery, people!

I did buy it; but afterwards I got to thinking that we need to figure out how to make these things.  So, after a trip to the Dollar Tree and Wal-mart yesterday, we turned out 10 hairclips in about an hour.  And guess what?  It cost less to create all 10 of them than it did to buy one!  Seriously!

I spent $3 for 3 bunches of flowers at the Dollar Tree – a poinsettia bunch, a daisy bunch, and I’m not sure what the other ones are (but there were 2 purple, 2 gold, and 2 green flowers on the bunch).  Then, at Wal-mart, I found the hairclips – 6 in a pack for $1.47.  The only other supplies we used were felt (a whole sheet of felt is only 20 cents and we didn’t even use 1/2  the sheet for all these clips), scissors, and a hot glue gun.

We made 2 “duds” before we really got the hang of it.  And, by the end, I was pulling flowers apart and combining colors, adding leaves, etc.  It was a fun project and yielded decent results.  Here’s what they look like in (my) hair:

Not sure why my hair looks so dark in that first picture.  But, anyway, you get the idea.  Cute, huh?  Both the daisy and the poinsettia are 2 flowers, combined/layered into one to make them fuller and to lay nicer.  The gold flower is exactly as it appeared on the bunch, but I added the leaves to it.  The purple/green flower is a combination of two flowers (we also made one of each color, as shown in the picture above). Now, Ashley wants to get some brighter-colored flowers and make some more! 

Which one is your favorite?

Baby, it’s cold outside!

What’s the weather like where you live?  Here in PA, it’s chilly! It definitely feels like fall – the air is crisp and cool, and it’s time to put our camper in storage for the winter (yes, the camper that we bought and never got to take out to a campground!)  Today I went out and bought pumpkin – time to start mixing up some yummy pumpkin creations and making the house smell like fall! 

And all this talk of fall makes me start thinking about Christmas cards again. Right after Thanksgiving, I like to get my Christmas tree set up and start working on addressing my cards. 

We have a large and varied Christmas card list; and, because of that, I like getting the photo Christmas cards.  My kids grow and change so much each year; and for those who live far away and don’t get to see them, I think the photo cards are the best. Last year, I ordered my cards from Shutterfly.com and we were just thrilled with them!

I know I’m kinda obsessive with planning things, and my Christmas cards are no exception.  For this year, I’m looking at this design (called Snowflakes Ribbon).  It comes in different colors – the red shown here, blue, brown, and black. ===>

I think we’ll go with the red and use black & white photos on it.  One of the whole family (from Walt Disney World!) on the bottom, and one of each of the kids across the top.  It’s hard to believe that this year we’ll have a senior picture of Ashley to add to our Christmas cards!

Oh and a cool feature about these cards --- you can even put another picture (or multiple pictures) on the back, along with a personal message.  Very cool, huh?  If you’re on my list, act surprised, ok?

So, what about you?  What’s your plan for Christmas cards this year?  I want to know!

If you’d like to order your holiday cards from Shutterfly, you’re in luck!  I’ve got 3 codes for 25 FREE CARDS to give away.  Please leave a comment on this post, telling me which card you’ll choose if you win. I’ll draw some random winners next Friday at noon (est).  Good luck!

NOTE: I received a code for 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly.com in exchange for writing this post. I only promote items that I use, enjoy, and appreciate. All thoughts herein are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Have you seen the Scruble Cube?

There’s a new word game on the market, and it’s called Scruble Cube.  That’s kinda fun to say, isn’t it?!

Members of  the Crew received the Scruble Cube to review.  When we received ours, and I opened the box, I was immediately excited.  See, I’m a sucker for a good word game, and this one is packaged so that the game is entirely visible from all sides – I couldn’t wait to get the box open and pull it out!  Thing is, though, I didn’t get a chance to play with it because Gracie snatched it from me and took off with it! 

Gracie’s 11, and words are not her thing – numbers are.  So, I was surprised when she took such an interest in a word game!  But, Scruble Cube isn’t just any word game.  It’s been said that it’s a cross between Scrabble (which I’ve personally never been a fan of) and a Rubiks Cube (remember the whole Rubiks craze of the 80’s?!) To Gracie, Scruble Cube appeared to be some sort of mind puzzle – and she’ll take that as a challenge any day!

Inside the packaging, in addition to the Scruble Cube itself, you’ll find a timer and instructions.  I didn’t feel that the packaging was really created for re-use, so I threw it away.  Hindsight would later tell me that was a mistake (but more on that later). 

So, how do you play Scruble Cube?  Well, as you can see by the picture to the left, you can turn the cube in various directions (think Rubiks).  Each lettered circle also contains a point value (think Scrabble).  And the really cool thing is that each circle is able to be rotated so that, when you find a word, you can turn all the letters so that they are facing the same direction.  Pretty cool, huh?  We think so!

In addition to the directions that are included in the packaging, Scruble Cube provided Crew members with some alternative directions and ideas for making game play extra educational.  Any game involving words is educational, but the extra ideas were fun and very welcome!  Do you think a word game could be beneficial for teaching math?  What about science?  That sounds somewhat ludicrous, right?  Well, think again.  You can see some of the great ideas for using Scruble Cube here.

I must share a personal story about the Scruble Cube and offer a shout-out to their exemplary customer service . . . We thought that, with the compact size of the Scruble Cube, it would make an ideal camping game for us (we recently purchased a camper and have been stocking it with good camping entertainment). Gracie came in the house one day – after having gone to the camper for something – just sobbing.  She had accidentally dropped our Scruble Cube and it broke into a million pieces (well, maybe just 96). Obviously, she adores the game!  After trying to console her, I e-mailed our contact  from Scruble Cube – Gracie was thrilled to hear that she would be putting a new cube in the mail to us.  And, let me tell you, we were not the easiest of customers – right after receiving our cube, I discovered that my 5-year-old son, Ian, had thrown the timer in the trash.  Scruble Cube had already replaced the timer – and now they were replacing the Cube as well. 

All that to say that the Cube is fragile.  Recommended age is 8+; but it should be explained that caution and care are needed.  Scruble Cube will stand behind their product though – which I find refreshing in today’s marketplace!

If you’re ready to purchase a Scruble Cube of your own, you may do so here.  The Scruble Cube sells for $24.95.

NOTE: I received a free Scruble Cube as part of the Homeschool Crew review program. I only share reviews of products that I have actually used in my home.

It’s been a busy week

This past week has been a long and busy week.  Brian and my dad left last Monday to go to Knoxville, Iowa for the week.  This has become a yearly tradition with the two of them.  While they’re  gone, we usually get our school year off to a good start with several field trips.  Plus, we had a few other things to add to our schedule this week – making it quite full . . .

Monday afternoon, the kids and I headed to Hershey.  We visited The Hershey Story Museum for the first time.  It was nice, but not something I’d probably go to over and over again like we do the Chocolate World (of course, I might if it were FREE).

We enjoyed learning more about the life of Milton Hershey.  I think that, if Ashley hadn’t already decided to do her senior project on Walt Disney, she might have decided to learn more about Mr. Hershey.  He did a lot of good not only for the community, but especially for underprivileged children. 

Afterwards, we headed to Chocolate World.  We were pleased to run into an old neighbor there (one that we hadn’t seen for many years) and we also ran into this guy:

On our way home (after a quick run through the Disney Outlet), we saw the Goodyear Blimp:

 

On Tuesday, we had tickets to see The Wizard of Oz at Dutch Apple Dinner Theater.  I didn’t get any pictures but the show was excellently done – one of the best we’ve seen there. 

Ashley went to work on Wednesday.  Gracie’s violin ensemble group performed in 2 local nursing homes  that afternoon, followed by treats at Dairy Queen.  (Those of you who are Facebook friends can see a video of one of their numbers on my FB wall.)

Wednesday evening, Ian had his very first soccer practice.  Mom and I took lawn chairs and sat and watched.  We laughed so hard that the tears were running.  Ian loved it and smiled the ENTIRE time.  I think it’ll be a fun season for all of us.

I was impressed with his coach who sat them all down after practice and said “did everyone have a good time?”

Thursday afternoon, we went swimming at my aunt’s pool.  It was a perfect day – not too hot and not too cold, and the water was wonderful.  Very refreshing!

My mom kept Ian and 2 of my nephews overnight on Thursday night.  Friday morning, we took the boys to Lake Tobias for the safari ride.  We took a picnic lunch too.

Yesterday, we just stayed home and relaxed – did some laundry, took some naps, made homemade pizza for supper, and watched Hardy Boys dvd’s. 

Long week – but good week – and we’re ready for Brian to be home!