Park-a-palooza

I read about this idea in Family Fun magazine and decided to modify it for our family's last day of summer vacation last Sunday.

When the kids woke up, in the middle of the living room floor (where I knew they would be headed to watch cartoons), there was a note explaining that today was PARK-A-PALOOZA and we would be going to not one, not two, but THREE parks.

There was also an envelope that they had to open. Inside, four dollar bills and a note that they each got $2, because our first stop would be the gas station where they could each buy themselves an "11 o'clock treat" (that is, a treat to be eaten at 11 AM!).

Then as soon as we had eaten breakfast, we loaded into the minivan with a pile of bottled waters and headed to a local park that we don't often go to. I told the kids we had 20 minutes to spend at each park. We spent a little longer, but it was nice to have this time limit set from the start because there was no whining when it was time to leave.

We went to two more parks, same drill, and had the BEST time. The kids made friends everywhere we went, they ran around and got sweaty and exhausted, and generally had a blast.

We stopped at Fazoli's on the way home and treated ourselves to lunck with lemonade and all the garlicky breadsticks we could eat. We will definitely do it again next year. Even though it seemed a little ridiculous that August 2 was the "end" of summer...