>Friday field trips

>I know, it’s not Friday (just wishful thinking), but I’ve been meaning to post this for a few weeks now.

A while back, I wrote about how I hate Fridays now that I stay at home full time. After writing that post, I decided to take my own advice that I used to give my students on a *very* regular basis: Solve the Problem.

One way to take back my good mood and enjoy the fact that I am with my son all the time is to take advantage of the opportunity to take him places. I get pretty tired of the same old haunts, so I came up with the idea of doing Friday Field Trips. Each week, I would take him somewhere that we didn’t usually go. These could be places that are a bit too far away to go regularly, or maybe cost a little more than I would want to pay every week. They might be somewhere that wouldn’t typically show up on a list of what to do with a toddler, but could be entertaining for both of us.

Our first Friday Field Trip was to the Children’s Museum in Seattle. I’d been there once before with my visiting cousins, but it was Sebastian’s first time. I would call it a minor success. He didn’t love it as much as I was hoping he would because he’s not quite into pretend play enough to really dig the mini-city they’ve got there. But he was still entertained for a long time, and just getting downtown and walking around Seattle Center was a wonderful break from our routine.

Rookie mistake: not bringing the stroller. I figured I could park close enough and Sebastian would enjoy walking around outside that day. True enough on the way into the museum… not so much on the way out after he’d been running around for 90 minutes. Oops.

Our second Friday Field Trip was to Kidzbounce in Preston, which turns out to be only about 15 minutes east of us. The description of it states that it’s for kids over 2, so I hadn’t really considered going until a few people in our parent/toddler class mentioned it the week before and how much fun their munchkins had. So off we went. There was one open space for bouncing that wasn’t an enclosed house or a big daunting climb up to a slide. We spent our entire time there. Sebastian can’t jump yet, but running and somersaulting were a big hit. See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

This place is going to be big time fun in another year or two!
Last week we went up to BC to celebrate our nephew’s birthday, so we did our field trip on Saturday instead of Friday. My sister and I took the two boys to a place called Go Bananas in Langley, B.C., which like many of these places is more designed for older kids than toddlers, so again it’s going to be a lot more fun in a few years. However, Sebastian and I did discover The Slides. We had to climb up a whole bunch of twisting steps to get to the top – he could do the bottom ones himself and then needed boosts for the upper ones – and it was a bit of a tight squeeze for my pregnant belly, but…
The Slides! So. Much. Fun.
I think we went down them about 15 times. Good workout for the mama, big smiles from the toddler. He even said, “whee!!!” as we flew down them. We were having such a good time that I didn’t take any pictures, but you can probably find photos of the place itself on its website.
So far we are 3/3 on Friday Field Trips, and I’m hating Fridays less and less.
This week we’re headed to the Tot Spot Cafe in Woodinville! More about that on Friday.
4 Responses to >Friday field trips
  1. Nell
    April 13, 2010 | 9:21 am

    >This sounds like such a great idea, I'm thinking it shouldn't be limited to toddlers and their mamas. Perhaps Boppas and Magdas should start a tradition…always get the best ideas from young whippersnappers 🙂

  2. MommyBrain
    April 15, 2010 | 3:08 pm

    >We've been to Kidz Bounce … but I've never seen the open play area – that's what NHV needs!Let me know about the Tot Spot – is it worth the drive?And we should check out Dizzy's Bus Stop in Bellevue next Friday 🙂

  3. Aunt Julie
    April 19, 2010 | 11:51 am

    >We have Kidz Bounce here! my kids love these places and have had birthday parties there in the past! They are really fun and it wears them out in a jiffy! I like your idea of Field Trip Fridays – I may have to incorporate your idea into my Monday's with Natalie!By the way – keep posting videos of Sebastian – Natalie is learning to say the names of the boys so it's great for her to put a face with their names!

  4. Giving myself a break | Team Rasler
    September 5, 2011 | 10:58 pm

    […] nod to my Friday disgust used to be Friday Field Trips and will be again now that Theo has given up his morning nap.  I miss the quiet time with […]