My “Camp Mommy” went pretty well this week. I took the four kids who are home to Dutch Wonderland on Wednesday and survived. We could have used one more person over the age of 14 to be a “responsible rider” as the 12-year-old and 10-year-old were big enough to go on many things by themselves, but not big enough to officially accompany the 7-year-old. This was a problem, because then I had the 2-year-old, and could not easily be that chaperone (I trust the 12-year-old and 10-year-old to sit with the 2-year-old while I went on a short ride with the 7-year-old, but not if we had to wait in a line for a while). But the 7-year-old was only an inch or two off the height to go on many things solo, so next year this will no longer be an issue. They do grow up, literally.
On Thursday I managed to get a substitute babysitter (new, but my husband worked at home so available in an emergency) and so I took the 12-year-old and 10-year-old tubing on the Delaware River. This was one of my items on the Summer Fun List, and honestly, I was probably more looking forward to it than the kids, which is why I used a precious day-with-childcare to make the trip instead of working. We drove to Easton to meet up with the group from Twin Rivers Tubing.
If anyone is in eastern PA (or NJ) and reading this, I highly recommend them. The whole thing was seamless: park in the garage that’s in the same building (across from Crayola place!) check in, get your life jackets and tethers, they drive you a few miles upriver and give you your tubes, you float down, and the boat fishes you out once you pass the bridge into town. They drive you back in the “wet bus” and you’re done. They are all very nice, and even refunded my fourth ticket (the 7-year-old decided he was a little wary of open water and since he’s a new swimmer I decided not to push it, so he stayed home) without my asking them to. It was a nice day on the river, and my kids were good company, though one of my favorite parts of the day was an “In Memoriam” sign in the Twin Rivers Tubing main office. They tell you not to bring your phone. Or your keys. Or anything you wouldn’t want to lose. You might think you will be able to hold on to these things, but there are some rapids, and people fall out of their tubes getting in and out, and the water is murky. I checked my keys/phone/wallet but some folks don’t, and as a result, the In Memoriam wall is covered with post-it notes from people who thought they’d bring their phones…and then thought better of it a bit too late. Lots of laments from people who learned their lesson. A very effective bit of signage!
Anyway, the last day of Camp Mommy featured dentist appointments and waiting for our new furniture to arrive. I literally ordered this stuff last July. It was custom made (it turns out there are places that do this for about the cost of Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware furniture, so I’m happy to support smaller businesses) so it was always going to take 6 months or so. But a year is a long time. I could not even remember everything I ordered so it was kind of exciting.
The kids were not happy with that wait, but then I took them to Dave & Busters, a arcade place after this. I told them we could stay an hour, but we were out in less than that, because they managed to burn through $100 in 45 minutes. Yikes! We are now the proud owners of a lot more plastic toys, purchased with the tickets won with those $100 at the prize shop. Lovely.
Now I need to write and record five episodes of Before Breakfast and write a Medium column while my husband has the kids today (since I covered this week…). Wish me luck…
Photo: New barstools! I don’t have a photo of tubing down the Delaware for reasons described in the post 🙂
So happy you are having fun Camp Mommy days and love those bar stools featured in the pic!!
My kids love Dave & Busters and to be honest so do I…we try to go on Wednesdays as that is the half-price day so we can lose the money a bit more slowly…but the money is still lost lol!
@Molly – yep, my 12-year-old reminded me about half-price Wednesdays, but Wednesday we were doing other things. I wouldn’t mind D&B so much if I weren’t chasing a toddler, but since I am, I was perfectly happy to leave sooner rather than later 🙂
I have been wanting to go tubing on the Delaware for years! You’ve now motivated me to add that to my own Summer Fun List. We also got new furniture (ordered last September) for the living room. Seems like a small joy, but one of my favorite things is that our new armchairs swivel!
@BethC- you should go! They had a good operation going there and I think you will have a fun time.