splash pad!

I made the mistake of describing it as a "water playground" and then had to spend the entire 30 minute drive into downtown undoing that. "No, there aren't going to be any swings or slides. Only sprinklers." Gretchen was convinced there would be princess sprinklers. I flat out told her there would not be, but she wasn't hearing me. (she isn't really spraying Carl, although it looks like it)

The splash pad is adjacent to one of the city pools. The pad is open 8-8, but the pool isn't open to the public until 1:00pm. They are open earlier for school/day care groups and summer camps. So, as we walked up, there were about 30 day care kids waiting to head into the pool area and boy, was Carl jealous! he asked me several times in the first 10 minutes, "Can we go to the pool?" "Can we slide in the water?" Luckily, after about 10 minutes, he decided the splashing was fun and he enjoyed running around the water pad.

Gretchen hesitated quite a bit in the beginning. Then, as she started to venture out to the middle, the water picked up and reaffirmed her decision to sit on the sidelines. A few times, she did wander back out, watching the pattern of the spray and timing her steps carefully. But, pretty much, she sat next to me on the towel on the edge. She claimed it was too cold. "I thought it would be exciting and warm." I'm going to drag her there a few more times and hopefully she'll decide it is fun.

And, for the record, on the drive there at 9:30 it was 86* and when we were driving home at 11:30, it was 94*. It wasn't cold. I don't think the water was icy, either. I got sprayed a couple times and it didn't seem outrageous.

A couple times, he stopped his water play to do some exercises. At one point, I looked out and he was laying on his back doing sit ups with his legs up in the air while getting splashed! Gotta be toned if you are going to wear a bathing suit, I guess!

I asked Carl later in the afternoon, "What was your favorite part?" and he replied, "The drinking!" I tried several times to get him to not drink the water, but if you have ever met a 4 year old... and this one is related to not only his father, but his grandfather as well.... so, you can imagine how well he listened to that request.