We had a truly magical summer weekend.
On Friday night Dan and I had a date night. We got dinner at Eatly and then headed into Times Square to see
Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations.
The show was fabulous, like
Jersey Boys style with all the hit songs everyone knows by the Temptations mixed into the story of the group and its members. We loved it. I especially loved the choreography. We got tickets to the show before the Tony Awards thinking they'd win best new musical and we'd be priced out of seeing it. They didn't win best new musical which was a total shame since it was outstanding! Really glad we got a chance to see it.
On Saturday we planned to go to Storybook Land for the first time as a special treat to celebrate Kip's upcoming 2nd birthday. We decided not to do a birthday party again this year since I find it really hard to plan something elaborate for a kid so young and right now he doesn't have little friends that we see consistently enough for him to have a relationship with. I was feeling guilty about no party but then I decided that's okay. It works for us to just do something small and with family and when he is older and has little friends it will be more fun for him and well worth the effort of party planning.
Even though we decided not to do a party, we still wanted to do something special. We considered going to Sesame Place for this little adventure but Kip isn't into the Sesame characters and I've heard it is really crowded. So, a few weeks ago someone I follow on Instagram went to Storybook Land and it looked so charming and perfect for Kip's age so we decided to go there instead.
It was absolutely perfect. I truly loved everything about the day and I feel like it was the best day we've had with Kip so far. Storybook Land was absolutely adorable and aged perfectly for Kip and somehow the stars aligned with weather and traffic and moods and all of us, Dan, Mandy, Kip, and me had a fabulous time.
It was about a two hour drive to Storybook Land in New Jersey (near Atlantic City) so we headed out first thing in the morning and got there right after 11 AM when it opened. The amusement park was built in 1955 so it has a sort of old-school charm mixed with new modern rides. There are little houses all throughout the park that are themed to various nursery rhymes like Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, and Snow White, Cinderella, etc. The houses have animatronic characters inside that move around while audio tells the story. They are kind of super old and creepy but also ridiculously nostalgic and cute at the same time. There is no Disney theme at all so all the modern characters like Toy Story or Frozen are eliminated. It's just the classics! Plus there is Santa and his reindeer and you can even touch the North Pole (it was solid block of ice but still so magical).
Scattered among the houses are modern kiddie rides and a train that runs through the whole park. We were enchanted instantly. The park was so clean and not crowded and covered by a canopy of tall trees. It was shaded and beautiful. We even let Kip out of the stroller and took his leash backpack off and he was just so happy to be able to run around and explore and we didn't feel like he was about to hurt himself in a million different ways like run into a busy street or get lost in a crowd. We just followed him around and peeked inside the little houses and got on the rides.
We never waited more than 10 minutes in any line. We stopped and had our picnic lunch. We checked out the splash pad area and fed the billy goats and deer. Kip "drove" a car and rode on the carousel and we even dug for treasure and saw Captain Hook and Peter Pan.
There were no meltdowns. We weren't bombarded with toy stands or food carts demanding huge sums for garbage merchandising. The employees at the park were friendly and everything was immaculate. Maybe I had rose-colored glasses, but we truly had a blast.
We think Kip's favorite part was Santa's Workshop where there were electronic trains set-up and you could push the buttons to make them move around. We had to lure him away from that area after awhile.
We got Bavarian pretzels and Philadelphia Water Ice for a treat before hitting-up the gift shop for a Christmas tree ornament and a toy for Kip's birthday. The drive home had no traffic and Kip took a nap. The day was pure bliss and I can't wait to make the trip a tradition.
I'm sure we'll go to Sesame Place and definitely take Kip to Disneyland with Auntie Jessy at some point but I'm glad his first amusement park experience was at some place so simple and a day he seemed to really enjoy. Bonus, it cost us less than $100 for all of us for the day.
