Last week Holly and I went to Fairyland in Oakland. We had driven by before about a hundred times but never been before. We were in for a surprise it was huge and much more then I expected, it was like a mini Disney for fairy tales and everything a 3 year old could desire right on Lake Merritt.
There were a few displays that had live animals which was pretty cool. All we had to do in order to get in for free was attend a 15 minute workshop about saving money for your child's college education.
The park was laid out with various little displays for all kinds of different fairy tales, many I haven;t even heard of before. With a magic key the kiddies could turn a lock and hear the fairy tale told to them. Some of the areas were gated off but others you could explore and go inside or play with.
There were lots of water and sand and tunnels and huge slides for kids to climb and explore. The thing is, Holly was still too small to enjoy most of this. For the most part she stayed in her stroller and we walked around exploring. There were a lot of trees and it was very shady, so it didn't get too hot.
There was an organic veggie garden growing near miss Muffet and the greens are used in the cafe which was pretty cool.
Everything was miniature sized with little houses and buildings.
There were about 20 mom's from my group in attendance, many I had not met before. a few with older kids three and four and they had a blast and were off and running. Here is a picture of Holly meeting Benny who is almost two, he is a sweetie and the son of the group organizer. She also has a 4 month old Mady. We hung out chatting for a while.
I wandered around looking at the various displays, and Holly was pretty content. She was late in taking her nap and in fact hadn't slept yet so she was pretty subdued.
There were cool boats and bridges to climb on. Another mom I hung out with was Dora and she had her daughter Skylar who was just over 2 years old. Skylar did play on a few of the items but the thing is, is that many of them had the no adults allowed sign, and Skylar was too little to want to go without Mommy even though she was big enough to actually climb or do the activity, so that was why I think 3 is about the perfect age.
We did ride on the train / trolley with Teresa, Benny and Maddy, but since it was only 4 per car and Mady counted we didn't get to sit together. Holly enjoyed this though because she got to get out of the stroller and climb around on the seat and hang out the window.
This is a little beach cabana with a water structure and sand area.
I thought this was a pretty cool tree house. It was very diverse with a hint of Asian influence in areas, a circus area, a tea party area. The tall tower leads to a steep slide.
This is the deck of cards from Alice in Wonderland, it was a maze that the little ones could get lost in. there was even a steep rabbit hole that they could climb down into and to to wonderland, we didn't go down though and decided to save that for another time.
This was a cool metallic tree that i just had to capture as it was so my style.
I think this one is little bo peep.
Holly was having a great time looking at all the colorful houses and the kids running around having a great time.
This was a pirate ship that was beached in the sand the little ones would dig int he sand and the older ones could climb the ropes to get to the look out high above, just the kind of thing I fear holly will be running and climbing in only a few months.
Towards the end I decided to let her out and she had fun hanging out with snow white, didn't you know that Holly was the missing 8th dwarf? She is smiley!
These were pretty cool dancing girls that Holly came up to and wanted to dance with.
There was a little church filled with stained glass windows, and a nice floor which was a good surface for Holly to crawl on, so i let her explore there too.
We stayed for about 2 hours and then she started getting sleepy. We went on a Friday morning and she had swimming in the afternoon so we headed out so that she still had time to take a nap. In theme with the metallic plants that I love so much (didn't you know I want to take a welding class) this was a picture of some extra large dandy lions outside. Its hard to see, but it is as if the giant just blew one of them and the seeds are flying in the wind.
Last week Holly and I went to Fairyland in Oakland. We had driven by before about a hundred times but never been before. We were in for a surprise it was huge and much more then I expected, it was like a mini Disney for fairy tales and everything a 3 year old could desire right on Lake Merritt.
There were a few displays that had live animals which was pretty cool. All we had to do in order to get in for free was attend a 15 minute workshop about saving money for your child's college education.
The park was laid out with various little displays for all kinds of different fairy tales, many I haven;t even heard of before. With a magic key the kiddies could turn a lock and hear the fairy tale told to them. Some of the areas were gated off but others you could explore and go inside or play with.
There were lots of water and sand and tunnels and huge slides for kids to climb and explore. The thing is, Holly was still too small to enjoy most of this. For the most part she stayed in her stroller and we walked around exploring. There were a lot of trees and it was very shady, so it didn't get too hot.
There was an organic veggie garden growing near miss Muffet and the greens are used in the cafe which was pretty cool.
Everything was miniature sized with little houses and buildings.
There were about 20 mom's from my group in attendance, many I had not met before. a few with older kids three and four and they had a blast and were off and running. Here is a picture of Holly meeting Benny who is almost two, he is a sweetie and the son of the group organizer. She also has a 4 month old Mady. We hung out chatting for a while.
I wandered around looking at the various displays, and Holly was pretty content. She was late in taking her nap and in fact hadn't slept yet so she was pretty subdued.
There were cool boats and bridges to climb on. Another mom I hung out with was Dora and she had her daughter Skylar who was just over 2 years old. Skylar did play on a few of the items but the thing is, is that many of them had the no adults allowed sign, and Skylar was too little to want to go without Mommy even though she was big enough to actually climb or do the activity, so that was why I think 3 is about the perfect age.
We did ride on the train / trolley with Teresa, Benny and Maddy, but since it was only 4 per car and Mady counted we didn't get to sit together. Holly enjoyed this though because she got to get out of the stroller and climb around on the seat and hang out the window.
This is a little beach cabana with a water structure and sand area.
I thought this was a pretty cool tree house. It was very diverse with a hint of Asian influence in areas, a circus area, a tea party area. The tall tower leads to a steep slide.
This is the deck of cards from Alice in Wonderland, it was a maze that the little ones could get lost in. there was even a steep rabbit hole that they could climb down into and to to wonderland, we didn't go down though and decided to save that for another time.
This was a cool metallic tree that i just had to capture as it was so my style.
I think this one is little bo peep.
Holly was having a great time looking at all the colorful houses and the kids running around having a great time.
This was a pirate ship that was beached in the sand the little ones would dig int he sand and the older ones could climb the ropes to get to the look out high above, just the kind of thing I fear holly will be running and climbing in only a few months.
Towards the end I decided to let her out and she had fun hanging out with snow white, didn't you know that Holly was the missing 8th dwarf? She is smiley!
These were pretty cool dancing girls that Holly came up to and wanted to dance with.
There was a little church filled with stained glass windows, and a nice floor which was a good surface for Holly to crawl on, so i let her explore there too.
We stayed for about 2 hours and then she started getting sleepy. We went on a Friday morning and she had swimming in the afternoon so we headed out so that she still had time to take a nap. In theme with the metallic plants that I love so much (didn't you know I want to take a welding class) this was a picture of some extra large dandy lions outside. Its hard to see, but it is as if the giant just blew one of them and the seeds are flying in the wind.
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1 comment:
Wow! The place sounded fun and awesome but now I've seen the pics I am even more blown away and impressed! I love it! What a cool place. Great pics, oh loving the metal plants very funky and when you've done your welding classes I'll commission some dandelions please :-)
Holly the missing dwarf Smiley is so funny, looks like she had loads of fun. The kind of place that would be a nightmare to take Sam to right now. He would want to do everything and probably hurt himself in the process.
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