What to do, What to do…

My mom’s birthday is Monday and I have no clue what to get her! I’m hosting a family get together for her and Dude (also a Feb. birthday) on Sunday. It will be an appetizer party with a yummy chocolate raspberry torte for dessert. But I’m stuck on what to get her for a present though. Such a bad daughter, I know! Any suggestions?

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Flutie

Apparently NFL quarterback Doug Flutie spent some portion of his life in Melbourne Beach, FL because there is an athletic complex named for him there.  (Does anyone else remember Flutie Flakes???  Because that’s all I can think of when I talk about this park…)  I had heard several mom friends talk about taking their kids to Flutie Park but I had no clue where it was.  After J and I picked up the boys from their Valentine’s slumber party at Nana’s we decided to do a tour of some local parks.  It was supposed to rain around lunch time on Sunday so we wanted to take advantage of the great park weather in the morning before the storms set in.

We pointed our SUV south in search of Flutie Park.  Luckily it was not that hard to find.  It’s right across the street from an elementary school.  The park did not disappoint.  It had some cool features that other parks around here don’t have.  Cool things like diggers…

…and a T-rex ride-on toy…

…and a wavy pipe thing.

We spent well over an hour at the park but had to cut our fun short when rain began pelting us.  The boys loved it!  J and I enjoyed playing like we were preschoolers too.

We’re definitely going to have make more trips down to Melbourne Beach.

Paws On

The boys and I politely backed out of a day trip to the Orlando Science Center yesterday in favor of a visit to our local zoo to check out the new Paws On exhibit. We love the OSC but I just did not feel up to making the trek over there.  It would have eaten up our entire day.  B and her two kids were going with another friend and her four children.  So, I didn’t feel bad about backing out.  B had another mom friend to pal around with.

Yesterday was President’s Day so I’m pretty sure that every child in Brevard County was at the zoo.  Luckily we have annual passes that grant us early admission.  We were able to check out all that we wanted to see before the crowds began pouring in through the gate.

We began the day by feeding the giraffes.  All six of them, including the baby, were out and about.  The giraffe observation deck is wonderful.  Wildman and Cutie Pie love feeding the giraffes “cookies”.

Afterwards we went to check out the new Paws On area!  It is amazing! The buildings are painted in a gorgeous array of Key West colors.  The area is themed around the Indian River Lagoon so there are plenty of manatees, turtles and fish.  The attention to detail makes this place perfect for adults and kids!

The two wading pools will be perfect when the weather gets unbearable this summer. There were plenty of buckets, watering cans and squirt toys to go around.

The boys loved the real boat that was set up for “hookless” fishing.  Hookless fishing is where fish food is stuck on the end of a fishing line.  The kids get to dip the food into the water to feed the fish.

Ahoy!  The boat was real and rocked pretty dramatically with all of the kids on board.  It was so fun!

We checked out the aquarium that contained sea life from the Indian River.  The top of the aquarium is open for use as a touch tank.  There weren’t very many animals in there yet though.  We managed to see one blue crab and that was it.  I think they’re still trying to regulate the water before they add the rest of the marine life.

Cutie Pie enjoyed digging with all of the sand toys at the Turtle Beach area.

The Brevard Zoo really stepped it up when they designed this new area.  We could easily have spent our entire visit right there.  The boys loved it.  We’re planning to go back with the boys’ swim trunks next time.