Field trip Friday: Burning off Our Energy at Zoinks Fun Factory

We woke to rain and the boys cheered.  They knew we'd be heading to Zoinks Fun Factory today and they couldn't wait.  Zoinks is an indoor, inflatable play house with two rooms of family fun.



They spent the morning playing Lego's, playing Magic Tree House games on the computer, and getting ready.  They were so motivated today that even Evan made his own breakfast!

We read a few books this morning in Evan's room.  I started reading A Little Book Of Sloth and all the boys enjoyed it very much.  It's about a sloth reservation and all the different sloths they care for there.  We also read How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight?  The younger two boys really liked it and when it was over kept yelling out how many kisses they wanted so I kept kissing them.  They were giggling and laughing and we were having a great time.

Ian had wandered away while I was reading our last book and started setting up the Scrambled States Game again and we played a round.  Alec and Ian tied each other for first place.  They thought it was a riot I lost and kept telling me I needed to practice.  Obviously, I hold back and let the boys answer first but I'm glad to know they don't just think I automatically just let them win.  I think kids stop trying as hard if you make it too easy.

After our game Ian started cleaning my kitchen floor with the wet mop; for no real reason that I could see.  I loved the extra help and the fact that he volunteered without even being asked.  I do have company coming over this weekend and I wanted to do a bit of cleaning today.  I had pulled everything out to clean with but hadn't really started any cleaning yet so this was extra helpful! 
  
We got ready to head out to Zoinks! (with many choruses of "finally!")  and along the way we played with our Brain Quest ?'s and answer books.  These fun flip books came in the older two boys Christmas Stockings and they took turns quizzing each other on all sorts of math, English, science, social studies, and other assorted questions.  We learned that bananas have seeds, that synonyms are words that have similar meanings, and much, much more.


What I learned by listening to them play is that Evan has really been paying attention to everything we're doing.

We have the grade 2 and 3 Brain Quests and he got many of the answers right (not so much the math but most of the science and social studies).  I was pretty impressed when Ian asked if dinosaurs live about a million years ago and Alec yelled "false!  In the Magic Tree House books Jack reads that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million year ago."  I guess they really learned a lot from listening to all those books and playing on the website.  I love that Mary Pope Osborne included quite a lot of facts in her books. 

We were joined by about 8-10 other kids at Zoinks, mostly toddlers and preschoolers, and I was a bit nervous.  Typically, unless we go during a school vacation, we pretty much have the place to ourselves.  I told the boys to be extra cautious and careful with all the little kids around and for the most part they did real well.

We jumped, climbed, played and laughed for over an hour.  We practiced catching a ball while jumping on the huge bounce pillows.  We played monkey in the middle, raced each other through the obstacle course, and used the light- up floor to challenge each other to some fun games of dodge ball, tennis and the wall.  We were sweaty, hungry and tired when we left.




It was a quiet, happy, rainy Friday and we all anxiously awaited a huge family dinner tonight at yet another new restaurant.   We are meeting up with my sisters, parents and an out of town cousin for a hibachi dinner at a local restaurant.  If it even goes half as well as our day has gone it will be wonderful! 

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